Daurentius, Dervan i nepoznati Arhont

[NickFreakyrgios]

7.VED
V

ed, the Sanskrit word for knowledge/wisdom, is perfectly preserved in Old and Modern Slavic words relating to consciousness, know- ledge, understanding, science. Ved, for example, is the root of the following
Czech words:ved a (science);ved ec (scientist, scholar);ved ed (know);vedom ost (con-
sciousness);vedom ost (knowledge).
VESCHT
Ved is also the root of Slavic words connoting sage, seer, wizard, sorcerer, oracle
(e.g. Russian,v e sc h t, Polishv ie z d a , Serb, vedar, vest, vestac), whileV edm a is a Slavic word
for witch. It is thus fitting that The Tale of the Host of Igor's prophetic minstrel is called
veschi (Tomu veschi Bojanei prvoye pripevku).
DEVAS, DIV
TheT ale' s omen-screeching bird calleddiv(Divkli cet vrhu dreva,veli tposlusati
zetnlineznaem)alsohas Indo-Iranian roots (I.J. Hanus, Deva, zlatovlasab ohy nepogansky c h Slovanuv,
1860).Ino p p o s i t i o n to theV edicdevas, who were divine spirits of thegood, theI r a n i a n
div stands in opposition to the gods, an evil and demonic force. In Serb, div(e . g . divlji,
divljina,a n d divovski)has sim ila r c o n n o t a t i o n s , nam ely a w ild, savage, a n d colossal f o r c e

or condition. In the pagan Slavic tradition thed iv takes several forms. One isd iv: in ominous moments, as in theT ale, thed iv often appears as an omen-screeching bird or bird-like creature. Another isdivoz ena: a forest-dwelling demonic, superhuman wild woman. In Germania some Slavic place names with the prefix div- and dev- probably have cultic origins (e.g. Devcin, later Dautzschen, near Prettin; Devin, later Dewin, near Halle; Devica, later Dewitz, near Taucha; Divici, later Diwiche on the Saale).
SIVA

In the Hindu tradition,S iva is the dark god of cosmic destruction and recreation. There is a single and certain reference to aSi v a cult in Germania. Helmold recordsSi v a as the god of the Elbe Slavs or Polabians:Si wa d ea Po labo rum . That the PolabianSi v a is derived from the HinduS iva is suggested by siva's dark connotations in Slavic lan- guages. In Serb, for example,s iv connotes grey, greyish, overcast, to turn grey, ashen( siv,
sivo sivkast, posivjett). The same is true of several other words for dark colors. The San-
skrittam os or dark is the Serb tarn, tamno; the Sanskritk r s n a or black is the Serbc rna.
YAM

More important circumstantial evidence of the religious connection between the HinduS iva and the PolabianSi v a is found in other linguistic connections relating to destruction and creation. For example, the Sanskrit notion ofYam , the underground world where the luminous soul of the dead continued to exist, andNiv r ti, escape from the rotating wheel of rebirth, are manifestly the sources of theS erb y am a, connoting pit, cavity, underground, andv r tit, connoting rotation, twirl. More than a few place names with the root yam- are recorded in Germania. Among others, he place names are Jama, Jamnica, Jamno (e.g. Jama, modern Jahmo, near Zahna; Jamnica, now Jamlitz, near Lieberose; Jamlica, modern Jamlitz, near Spremberg; Jamno, modern Jahmen, near
Weisswasser).

 

[NickFreakyrgios]

PAC,PAK
Similarly, the Sanskrit rootpac , connoting heat, fire, boiling, is the Serb root
pakas mpakao (hell, inferno),paklen( h e l l i s h ) ,pakost (malice, wickedness),/w (oven),
peci(b ak e), andpecen (burned). It is more likely than not that such Slavic place names as
Pak, Pakov, and Paklov recorded in Germania had religious connotations.
DUH.BHUH

In Hindu mythologyB huh is one of three original breaths by which Earth was created, andb hutani is the Sanskrit word for spirits. In Serb,dhu is the root of words connoting spirits, soul, blowing, breathing (dhu, dhuhovi, dhuvatf). Saxo's account of pagan Slav ceremonies at Arkona records a ritual reference to the notion of original and sacred breath in the following terms. In a temple dedicated toS var asS vantevit, Saxo
writes:He [the priest] took care not to breathe out inside the temple and each
time he had to take a breath or breathe out he ran outside so as not to defile the
idol with mortal breath. Numerous place names in Germania appear to be derived

from Slavic words for breath, spirit, soul (e.g. Duchov, Duchorov, Dusici, Dusin, Dusino, Duskov, Dusnica). Also Dusny, near Barby; Dusnica, nearjessen; Dusov, near Wittenberg; Dusov, near Schwerin.
BUD.BHUD
The same parallels are found in derivative words. For example, the Sanskrit root
bhud'asin bhudyati(aw ake, conscious, a l e r t ) , bhudyate(awakes, recogniz es, u n d e r s t a n d s ) ,

thus Buddha, the Enlightened, is the Serb rootb ud as in budan, budit, buditi, budnost. As in all lands of Slavic settlement, many place names in Germania are derived from the root bud: Bud, Budic, Budici, Budisko Grad, Budisovo Grad, Budlikov, Budoradz, Budzin and numerous Budims. Also Buda, near Grossenhain; Budchov, near Guben; Budigost, near Leipzig; Budisin, near Dresden; Budsin, near Lubben; Budsko, near
Bernburg.
JIV,ZIVLinguistic parallels are also found in words relating to mortality and life. Sanskrit
Jiv (one who lives in the body; a mortal being) is the pagan SlavZiv, which is the modern

SerbZ iv connoting living, alive, lively; SanskritJ ivati ('to live') is the SerbZ iviti ('to live');S anskrit J ivana( ' l i fe ' ) is the SerbZ ivot( ' l i fe ' )( I.J .H anus, O b ohy niZ ive,Casopis 6,1865).In one of the Iranian-based mystical Gnostic systems, Abathur, otherwise calledB ' hagZ iva,
is anUthra, or a divine being of the rank of angel. Born and living within the
World of Light, the Uthras ... are of varying ranks and of varying goodness and
badness.In this system,B ' hagZ iva is an Uthra of the first and highest rank. By contem-
plation of his own image, B'hag Ziva brought forth the divine being called Ptah-il-
Uthra. The image he contemplated was that of himself reflected off black water.
B'hag Ziva ordered his son to create a world in imitation of the heavenly world( R .
Carlyton, A Guide to the Gods, 1982).
MRITA, MRTVO
Likewise, at the other end of the spectrum, the SanskritM rita (dead) andM rity u
(death) is the SerbM rtvo (dead) andS m ert (death)

 

[NickFreakyrgios]

8. DENEN DER INDEN
F
rom the earliest times, the warrior, orrataestar (Sanskrit, he who stands
in a chariot) played an important role in Indo-Iranian society.The cultic

celebrations of the warrior class( rat hest a) were the most solemn and impressive and at the same time the most secular and political. There is evidence of similar cultic celebrations in Slavic Germania. To begin with, the Indo-Iranian rootra t is the Slavic word for war (e.g. the Serbra t, war;ra tn ik , warrior;ratob oran, militant;ra to v a ti, to wage war. Also, the militant personal namesR atib or, R atim ir, andR atio: the place names
Ratibor, Ratiborici, Ratimirici,a n d Ratenovic,
ROYAL CITY OF RATA
It is perhaps more than coincidence thatrat is the root of one of Germania's

leading Slavic nations-provinces,terra Ratari, and that the royal cityo fH ata (Rethra) was long the political-religious center of Slavic Germania, the site of the Slavic Delphi, the great temple dedicated toSv ar, of cultic celebrations featuring the war banners of Germania's Slavic nations. In the royal cityo fRat a great war councils were held. It was here that monks in disguise, spying on a concilium Paganorum, were caught and ex- ecuted in theyear 105 0( T .Witkowski, DerNam eder R edarier undi h r e sz entralen H eiligtum s, Z tS 13 ,19 6 8 . R .
Schmidt, Rethra. Das Heiligtum der Lutizen als Heiden-Metropole, FsTW. Schlesinger II, 1974. H. Kunstmann, Zweit
Beitrage zu Geschichte der Ostseeslaven. 1. Der Name der Abodriten. 2. Rethra, dier Redarier und Arkona, DwS26, 1981).
ASVAMEDHA

The rathesthaasvam edha, or horse sacrifice, was the king of rites and rite of kings. A symbol of the sun and the universe ('From the substance of the Sun, O Gods, you fashioned this steed'), the immolation and cremation of the sacred horse marked the investiture of a sovereign and endowed him with divine authority and power. Representing the sun, the heart of the universe, the all-seeing and far-seeing eye of the gods, the divine horse had a similar role in pagan Slav rituals and ceremonies.1
WHITE HORSE
The oracular horses kept in Slavic sanctuaries in Germania and Pomerania served
for divination by stepping over spears. At Arkona on Rügen, the oracular horse was white
(J.H errm ann, DiePf erde vonA rkona,B eitrage zur Ur- undF rü hgesc hic hte,1982).Wek n o wf r o m Saxo
Grammaticus certain basic facts about the horse and ceremony at Rügen.They f oretold
the future with the aid of this horse in the following way. When they had decided

to wage war on some land, the priests laid three rows of spears in front of the temple. In each row there were two spears in the shape of a cross, with the spear- heads buried in the ground, and the rows were equidistant from one another. In the course of preparations for the expedition, the priest offered up a solemn prayer,

then brought the horse from the antichamber of the temple, holding it by the halter, and if entering one of these rows, the horse put the right foot first, instead of his left, that was regarded as a good omen for war; if, on the other hand, al- though it might only happen once, he put his left foot first instead of the right,
they abandoned their plan to invade the foreign land.

 

[NickFreakyrgios]

SVANTEVIT
The divine horse also played an active and heroic role. At times, Saxo writes,
horse and god were one in defense of the faith: According to the beliefs of the Rani,
Svantevit went to war riding this horse against enemies of his faith, and this was
proved by the fact that although the horse was shut up all night in the stable, in
die morning it often appeared out of breath and spattered with mud, as if it had
a long way to travel on returning from some expedtion.
BLACK HORSE
At Stetin the oracular horse was black. The following details are from Ebbo's
biography of Otto, Apostle of Pomerania: Now the people possessed a horse of great
size which was plump and dark coloured and very spirited. It did no work
throughout the year and was regarded as being so holy that no one was worthy to
ride it. It had also as its attentive guardian one of the four priests who were at-
tached to the temples. Whenever the people contemplated setting out on any
expedition by land to attack their enemies, or in order to secure booty, they were
accustomed to forecast the result in this way. Nine spears were placed on the
ground and separated from one another by the space of a cubit. When the horse
had been made ready and was bridled, the priest, who was in charge of it, led the
horse three times backwards and forwards across the spears that were lying on
the ground. If the horse crossed without knocking its feet or disturbing the spears,
they regarded this as an omen of success and proceeded on their expedition with-
out anxiety, but if the result were otherwise they remained inactive.
VESCHII KON

The prophetic role of the horse in divination ceremonies of the Slavs is confirmed by a wide variety of sources, including Slavic mythology. In Russian mythology, for example, the prophetic horse is well-preserved as the veschii kon or prophetic horse( Z .
Rajewski, Kon w wierzwniach u Slowian dzcesnosredniowiecznych, WiA 29, 1975).
DER INDEM

According to the historical record, the funeral ceremonies of Germania Serb war- riors, orratnic i (the Serb/Slav word for war isr a t, for warrior, sing,ra tn ik , pi.ratnic i), attending the death of a king or prince, resonated with images from the Rig Veda and
Avesta. In Germania Serb ceremonies, lord and horses (sacrificed horses), were cremated

and buried together and, in the words of a Rig Veda prayer, dispatched to the abode supreme, to the place of their Father and Mother, to a warm welcome among the Gods. Observing the funeral customs of the pagan Serbs of Germania, intrepid horsemen, fierce warriors, feared by one and all, al-Mas'udi found them similar to the customs of the Hindus(T.Lewicki, d-Mas'udi, SsS3,1967).J. Marquart's German translation readserbereiets
gennanten Serben verbrennen sich selbst, wenn ihnen der Konig oder Häuptling
stirbt, sowie dessen Pferde. Sie befolgen dabei Gebrauch, ahnlich denen der Inden
(J. Marquart, Osteuropaische und Ostastische Streifzuge. Ethnographische und Historiographische- Topographische Studien
zur Geschichte des 9. und 10. Jh, 1903).
HORSE, HORSEMANSHIP
There is strong evidence that similar burial ceremonies were common through out Germania and neighboring Sarmatia. A late 9th century Scandinavian source, for ex-
ample, depicts the pagan Baltic Slavs as fierce horsemen who favored mare's milk and
prized swift horses, whose burial ceremonies featured both horse and horsemanship:The

dead man's treasures were divided into shares, according to their number and value. The richest portion was laid down on the ground about a mile from the dead man's home, and all the other portions at points between the first one and the home, each one nearer the house. All the men who owned the swiftest horses rode from a five or six miles distant in a race to pick up these treasures, and the prizes fell to those who reached them first. Finally the cremation of the dead man, clothed in his best and girded with weapons, was solemnly fulfilled.
WITH THEIR HORSES
Documentary evidence that in some remote areasasvam edha- \f ae ceremonies con-
tinued into the 13th century is found in a 1218 treaty with the Teutonic Knights:W hereby
several Slavic tribes agreed to abandon the pagan custom of cremating and bury-
ing the dead with their horses.
SVARGORIC
The role of fire in pagan Slav religious ceremonies also has strong Indo-Iranian
overtones.A n ancient workof uncertain originand date( U nknow n A dm irerofChrist) states that
the pagan Slavs also address prayers to Fire, calling him Svargoric( b u r n i n gS v a r ) ,
According to an important source of information on affairs in medieval Russia, the
HypatianC hronic le( Ipat' evskaiaL etopis),thesame w aslo n gt r u e forC h r i s t i a nSlavs. A sla te as
the 14th century, for example, we are told churchmen censured the common people for
praying to fire, calling itS varoz ic . InH udud al- alam , a work meant to contain all data
known until then on the countries and kingdoms ofthe world,all that could be learned
from books or from the words of learned men, except all the particulars of the
world may be known to none, save God,a Persian geographer writes that all Slavs
prayed to fire. In Chapter 43, 'Discourse on the Slav Country', one reads: All Slavs are
fireworshi pers (V.M inorsky ,H ududal- alam . TheR egions of theWorld. A Persian Geography 372A .D.T ranslated
and explained by V. Minorsky, 1980).
CREMATION
Diverse sources agree that the Slavs cremated their dead. The Primary Chronicle
offers a brief account of the funeral ceremony circa 850: Whenever a death occurred, a

feast was held over the corpse, and then a great pyre was constructed, on which the deceased was laid and burned. After the bones were collected, they were placed in a small urn and set upon a post by the roadside, even as the Vyatichians do to this day.H u d u d a l- A la madds several i m p o r t a n t f a c t s to th e m a t t e r : They [Slavs] burn the dead. When a man dies, his wife, if she loves him, kills herself.
SUTTEEA more informative and interesting step-by-step account, with the strongest Indie-
Hindu overtones, including suttee, was recorded in 922 by a well informed Arab traveler,
Ahmed Ibn Fadlan: When a Slav nobleman died, for ten days his body was laid
provisionally in a grave, where he was left until his shroud was prepared for him.
His property was divided into three parts: one third was given to the family,

 

[NickFreakyrgios]

another served to defray the funeral expenses, and the remainder was spent on
die intoxicating drinks that were served at the funeral banquet. On the day ap-
pointed for the final obsequies, a boat was taken out of the water, and round it
were placed pieces of wood shaped to the form of human beings. Then the corpse

was removed from the provisional grave and, being clad with a costly garment, was seated in a boat on a richly ornamented armchair, around which were ar- ranged weapons of the deceased, together with intoxicating beverages; not only
bread and fruit, but also flesh of killed animals ... were put into the boat. One of
his wives who had voluntarily agreed to be burned together with her dead hus-
band was led to the boat by an old woman calledthe Angel of Death, and was
stabbed at the side of the corpse; whereupon the wood piled upon it had been
consumed, the ashes were collected and scattered over the cairn; and a banquet,
lasting four days and nights without interruption, closed the ceremony.
ARAB-ISLAMIC WRITERS

One finds the same notion in the diverse works of other Arab-Islamic writers. A native of Marw, an ancient city that dominated the rich oasis region along the Murghab river on the northeastern fringes of Persia, al-Marwazi, a late 10th early 11th century geog- rapher and man of letters, writes:The Slavs burn their dead for they worship fire
(Taba'ial-hayawan).The Spanish-Arabic historian andgeographer Ibn Sa'id al-Maghribi(1213-
74) writes about the immense Slav lands where it is said that they still adhere to the
Madjusreligionandworshi pf ix e( K itab lal- M ughnb f ihula' 1- m aghnb ).Orig in a llyan a n c ie n t

Iranian priestly caste, in Islamic sources the termm adjus is primarily for Zoroastrians, and secondarily for all fire worshippers. In his scientific and geographic encyclopaedia, al- Watwat (1234-1318) states that the Slavs believe in the Madjus religion and burn
theirdead in fire( M ab ahidjal- ß karwa- m anahidjal- ib ar).
ROYALTOMBS

It is a matter of record that the tombs of Slav notables compare well with those of other ancient civilizations. Past and recent excavations of royal tombs confirm the pres- ence of horses. Accordingly, in a mid-10th century tomb uncovered by recent excavations, one finds members of a royal family, horses and weapons, placed in a timber mortuary house, equipped with everything believed to be necessary for the afterlife. With regards to the relative material-aesthetic merit, the foremost authority on ancient and prehistoric Europe, M. Gimbutas, writes:Slavic royal tombs are as eloquent as other Indo-
European royal tombs, be they Hittite, Phrygian, Thracian, Greek, or Germanic
(M. Gimbutas, The Slavs, 1971).
ENDNOTES
Comparative Indo-European mythological research indicates the unquestionably prime role of the horse
(particularly the white horse) as a sacred and sacrificial animal, the incarnation of divine power of the God of
the Shining Sky... Excavations of graves dating from 4400 - 4300 also uncover the custom of suttee or sacrifice
of thef emaleconsort orwi f e (M.G im b utas, TheL anguage of theGoddess,19 9 1}9. INDO-IRANIAN LINGUISTIC ROOTS
A
number of eminent archaeologists and linguists suspect that the steppe above,
along, and between the northern shores of the Black and Caspian seas, centered in
the area between the Volga, Don, and Ural Rivers, is thevagina gentium of the
Proto-Indo-Europeans.
PROTO-INDO-EUROPEAN
Proto-Indo-European probably evolved out of the languages spoken by
hunter-fishing communities in the Pontic-Caspian region, writes J.P. Mallory, in
terms that represent a general consensus of archaeological and linguistic consensus on the
subject.It is impossible to select which languages and what areas, though a lin-

guistic continuum from the Dnieper east to the Volga would be possible. Settle- ment would have been confined primarily to the major river valleys and their tributaries, and this may have resulted in considerable linguistic ramification. But the introduction of the stockbreeding, and the domestication of the horse, permitted the exploration of the open steppe ... During this period to 'which we notionally assign Proto-Indo-European (4500-2500), most of the Pontic-Caspian
served as a vastinteractionSphere( J .P.M allory ,InSearc hof theIndo- E uropeam ,198 9).
EXPANSION
According to Mallory, the archaeological evidence suggests a Proto-Indo-Euro-
pean expansion eastward across the steppe and forest-steppe of western Siberia beginning
in the late fourth millennium. The archaeological and linguistic evidence suggests that in
the third millennium B.C. Indo-Iranian languages evolved in an area between the Volga
and Kazakhstan. Mallory writes:Out of this staging area there was a gradual shift

southwards ... By the second millennium, Indo-Aryan was spoken by tribes south of the Caspian, and probably also in Afghanistan-north Pakistan from whence it ultimately pressed southwards into the Indus Valley. Concurrent with these de- velopments, Iranian was evolving on the steppe and was then subsequently car- ried south into present-day Iran and Afghanistan, while the steppe itself was largely left to Eastern Iranian-speaking tribes.
GENETIC EVIDENCE
The above theory appears to be consistent with the small body of genetic evi-

dence on the subject. But, in my view, writes an eminent geneticist, there is strong support given by the archaeological similarities and, presumably, ties between the western and eastern cultures north of the Caucasus which gave rise to the expansions of pastoral nomads, and the well-known ties between Indo-Iranian, and at least some European languages, could be most easily explained if they all descended from a single group of languages spoken around 5500-6000 years ago, in the Volga-Don area, and if such people spread their genes and languages both westwardto central Europeand to the southeast as far as Iranand India(L .L uca
Cavalli-Sforza, Genetic Evidence Supporting Marija Gimbutas Work on the Origin of the Indo-European People, From the
JfeaJm of Ancestors: An Anthology in ffonor ofAfarijtt Gimbutas, 1994)

 

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PROTO-SLAVS.PROTO-INDO-IRANIANS/ARYANS
According to Mallory, the 5th to the 10th centuries A.D. are regarded as both the
primary time of Slavic expansion and also the terminal period of Proto- or Common
Slavic—the collapse of Common Slavic and its fission into the different modern Slavic
languages. Linguistic evidence, Mallory believes, indicates that before the collapse of
Common Slavic, the Slavs had been subjected to strong linguistic influences from Ira-
nian-Sarmatian speaking peoples.
TRUBACEV
One of the foremost modern authorities on the ethnogenesis of the Proto-Slavs,
the eminent Russian linguist O.N. Trubacev, has different and interesting views on the
end of Common Slavic and the beginning of Slav-Iranian ties. Slavic-Iranian relations, he
writes,took place on the eastern periphery of Slavdom, where a symbiosis of Slavs

and Iranians began by the first centuries A.D. They also entailed a deep penetra- tion of Iranian tribes into the Slavic areas, which has ... demonstrated the exist- ence of Early Slavic dialects a long time before the period at which the Slavic philology of the 1950s and 1960s believed they existed ... Scythian raids into the area of the Lusatian culture have been known to archaeologists for a long time ... Slavic-Iranian relations probably began mainly about the middle of the first mil- lennium B.C. They have considerably affected Slavic anthroponymy which was in the developing stage at this time, separating itself from the appellative vocabu- lary; in any case, if there were inherited proto-Indo-European bi-component anthroponymic compounds in Slavic, their lexical (and grammatical) develop- mentwa s influencedby Iranianat that time( L inguistic sand E thnogenesisofthe S lavs:T heA nc ient
Slavs as Evidenced by Etymology and Onomastics, InD 13, 1985).
ABAEVPerhaps the most recent theory on the subject deserves the greatest consideration.
V. I. Abaev's pioneering reconstructions of ancient Scythian vocabulary give an entirely
different orientation and direction to the question of the origin and character of Slavic-
Iraniantie s(Osetinska iazyk ifalklor, 1949).A c c o rd in gtoA baev,S cy th ian had m a n yold com -
mon isoglosses with Balto-Slavic, Germanic, and Italo-Celtic not shared by other Iranian
languages, isoglosses that suggest that the Scythian branch of the Iranian languages was
autochthonous in Eastern Europe. Abaev writes:Everything falls into place once -we
admit that the Iranian element was present in southern Russia at least from the
beginning of the second millennium B.C. Then the process that brought about

the formation of Scythian-European isoglosses can be sketched in the following way. After the Iranian ethno-linguistic community in Southeastern Europe dis- solved, one part of the tribes that had formed it moved south and east, to Media, Parthia, Persia, and Central Asia. Another part, the ancestors of the future Scythian tribes, remained in Europe and in the course of many centuries developed in contact with the peoples of the Central and Eastern European area... It was in this period that the identity of Scythian within the Iranian language group was deter- mined and numerous Scythian-European isoglosses originated ...The special Scythian-Slavic isoglosses far exceed in number and weight the special ties of Scythian withany other European languageor language group(V.J. Abaev,S kif o- evropejskie
izoglossy Na styke vostoka i zapada, 1965). VIVID PARALLELS

The linguistic evidence is impressive. A casual comparison of the language of the ancient/modern Slavs with that of the ancient Indo-Iranians immediately reveals vivid parallels in letter, sound, and meaning. Such parallels are all the more extraordinary when one considers several important facts. The Indo-Iranian basis for comparison, the San- skrit of the Rig Veda and the Iranianof theA vesta, are less than ideal base lines. TheR ig
Veda, the oldest known Veda, and the Avesta, fragments of ancient sacred writings pre-
served by theZ artoshti or Zoroastrians, were transmitted orally for centuries before they
were written down, filtered, and modified by a thousand years or more of history. Though
theR igV eda' so r i g i n s aretraced to the15th century B.C. ande a rlie r, it was written down
in one of many Indie dialects no earlier than the 3rd century B.C., when two alphabets
appear in Asokan inscriptions. The oldest Iranian language, Avestan, the language of the
Avesta, was committed to writing at a much later date, the 4th century A.D., with a
spelling that tended to obscure the original form of the language.
LOST LANGUAGES, DIALECTS

Many ancient Indo-Iranian and related Indo-European languages are lost or un- known except for isolated fragments. This is the case with the bordering Indo-European languages of Anatolia, the northern Caucasus, and Near East. Some surviving words are intriguing (e.g. Hittite godP eru a s, Kassite sun godS urias, Hittite lord,Ish a n ). Surviving Indo-Iranian languages and dialects remain insufficiently investigated for links with old and modern Slav languages. There is reason to believe that there is linguistic gold in the more remote hills. In the high mountains and remote valleys of the Hindu Kush, for example,P arun is the Kafiri God of War; in Afghanistan, his Pushtu name isP erun.
9A. INDO-IRANIAN / SERB-SLAV GLOSSARY

Our primary Slav basis for comparison, modern Serb, is separated from the Indo- Iranian model, by several thousand years of history and development, by a great loss of vocabulary, especially in terms of basic social-religious institutions and values. With re- gard to the pace of linguistic change, it is important to note that by 200 B.C. or earlier, the common language of the migrating Aryans had evolved into two separate and differ- ent languages, Indo-Iranian and Indo-Aryan. In some important instances, the words have not only different but opposite meanings. For example, the Indie-Sanskrit word for god,deva, is now the Iranian-Avestan word for demon,daeva. Nonetheless, in letter, sound and meaning many Indo-Iranian words appear to share roots with old and modern Slav words. Nowhere are the parallels more numerous and profound, the sounds and rhythms more obvious, than in modern Serb. Even the most cursory reading of theR ig
Veda, Avesta,and later texts and commentaries suggest the following parallels, some

perhaps more apparent than real. In the following comparative series, unless otherwise indicated, the first word is a modern Serb equivalent of the Sanskrit word that follows, mainly Rig Veda Sanskrit. In some instances, the first or alternative word is an Old Rus- sian (OR), Old Slavic (OS), Russian (R), Czech (CZ) or Polish (PO) equivalent, the second word an Iranian (Iran.) equivalent,m ainly A vestan Iranian, or a related language as indicated (e.g. Ossetian, Alanic, Pashtu, Tajik).1

 

[NickFreakyrgios]

UNIVERSE
Magla—Megha (cloud)
Mesec—Masa (moon)
Nebo—Nabhas (sky)
Oblak—Abhra(cloud)
Sunca—Surya (sun)
Svet—Visva (world, universe)
Svet—Svita (wholeness)
Vetar—Vata (God of wind)
Zem, Zetnlya—Jma (earth)
COSMIC/PRIMARY TRUTH
Istina—Nahista (righteousness)
Istina—Asha Vahista (spirit of'Supreme
Righteousness')
COSMIC/PRIMARY LAW
Rota/OS—Rita (the original cosmic law)
Rota/OS—Vrata (vow, pledge)
COSMIC/PRIMARY JUSTICE
Pravda—Ir/Para-dhata (primary law)
SOUL, SPIRIT
Duh, Dusha—Bhuh ('one of three original
breaths by which earth was created').
Duhovi—Bhu-tani (spirits)
Duvati—Dham (to blow)
RELIGION
Bog—Bhaga (God)
Bogdan—Bhagadena (gift of God)
Bogopochitaniya/R—Bhagapujan (Worship of God)
Bogosluzenye—Bhagasusrusha (Service of God)
Blago—Bhalla (blessing)
Bogomater—Bhagamatri (Mother of God)
Boguhval—Ir/Bhagahvarna (Thanks)
Bozevstvo—Bhagatva (godliness)
Boze moi!—Bhaga me! (My God!)
Chist—So-chista (pure)
Diva, Divozena—Ir/Daeva (demonic force)
Hram—Asrama
Hram—Ir/Fsarema (temple, hermitage)
Pocitanije/R—Pujan (worship)
Sluh, Slush—Ir/Sraosh (Originally the genius of hear-
ing, later, Ahura Mazda's 'all-hearing ear which listens to
the cries of men wronged on earth by evil spirits')
Spasitelj,Spasti—Svasti (saviour)
Spasitelj, Spasti—Ir/Saoshyant (Savior. In Persian my-
thology the one who will come to renew all life at the
end of time)
Sreca—Sradah (faith)
Strava/OS—Svadah (food offered to dead)
Vera—Ir/Var (the choice between good and evil)
Zal—Ir/Zal (as in Zal, 'the infant left to die on a remote
mountain by a sorrowful father')
FATE, FORTUNE, FAME
Gadat—Gadati (to tell fortune)
Sudba—Sukha (fate)
Slava—Sravas (fame, glory)
Slava—Ir/Sravah (fame, glory)
Slava—Sloka (fame)
Sreca—Sreyas (good fortune)
LIFE, DEATH
Kut-ya—Kut (mysterious, invisible)
Mora/OS - Mara (dead)
Mrtvo—Mrita (dead)
Smert—Mrityu (death)
Ziv—Jiv (one who lives in the body; a mortal being)
Ziviti—Jivati (to live)
Zivot—Jivana (Life)
LIGHT, DARK
Crno—Krsna (black)
Crunu /OS - Krsna (blac)
Siv—Siva ('dark God of cosmic destruction')
Siv, Siva, Sivast—Syavas (dark)
Svet—Svita (brightness, wholeness)
Svetli—Sveta (white, bright)
Svetit—Svetate (to shine)
Tamno—Tamas (dark)
Tamno—Tamas (darkness)
Svetleti—Svetah (shine)
HEAVEN, UNDERWORLD
Rai—Rayi (paradise)
Pakao—Pac-at (heat, fire, cook)
Yama—Yam ('the underground world where the lumi-
nous soul of the dead continue to exist')
MAN, WOMAN, PEOPLE
Narod—Nar (male)
Narod—Narya (manly)

Narod—Ir/Mard (man)
Narod—Ir/Mardom (people)
Zena—Ir/Zen (woman)
BODY
Cherep/R—Karpara (skull)

Desnica—Daksina (right hand)
Griva—Griva (neck, mane)
Grlo—Gala (throat)
Jetra—Jakrt (liver)
Jezik—Jihva (tongue)
Kosti—Asthi (bone)
Krv—Krav-is (raw, bloody)
Krv—Kravya (blood)
Kvar—Khory (sick)

Mokra—Mutra (urine)
Nagoi—Nagna (nude)
Nokat—Nakha (nail)
Obrva—Bhru (eyebrow)
Peta—Pushtu/panta (heel)
Prsi—Ir/Paeraesi (chest, breast)
Srca—Ir/Zrd; Hrda (heart)
Telo—Tanu (body)
Telo—Ir/Tanus (body)
Usi—Ir/Usni (ears)
Usta—Osta (lips)
Usta—Ir/Aosta
Vlas—Valcas (hair)
Vlas—Ir/Varasu (hair)
Zdravlje—Sudrovy (health)
BRAIN
Mozak—Ir/Mazga (brain)
HEALTH, SICKNESS
Hrom—Srama (lame)
Jedro—Indra (mighty)
Kvar—Kharva (damaged, mutilated)
Khvor—Jvara (fever, illness)
Musko—Muska ('manly' as in 'Thousand testicled Indra
or Sahasramuska')
Rana—Vrana (wound)
Snaga—Snavan (sinew, muscle, strength)
Xira—Ir/Xara (wound)
Yad—Vyadi (illness, disease)
Zaraz—Ir/Maraz (disease, infection)
Zdrav—Druva, vazdvar (strong, firm)
Zdrav—Ir/Duruva (health)
RELATIONS
Brat—Bhrata (brother)
Brat—Ir/Brata
Ded—Hindi/Dad (great-grandfather)
Deta—Dhita (child)
Dever—Devar (husband's brother)
Dushti/OS—Duhitri (daughter)
Mati—Matri (mother)
Sestra—Svasri (sister)
Sin—Sunu (son)
Sirocad, OS/Siru—Syeta (orphan)
Sirocad—Ir/Sae (orphan)
Smerd—Ir/Merd (man)
Snaha—Snusa (daughter-in-law)
Svadba—Vah (marry)
Svadba—Vadhu (bride)
Svekar—Svasura (father-in-law)
Svekrva—Srasru (mother-in-law)
Udova—Vidava (widow)
Yetrva, Yetri/OS—Yatyar (sister-in-law)
Zena—Ir/Zen (woman)
Zeiia—Jani (wife)
Zeniti—Janiyati (to marry)
Zet—Jamatri (son-in-law)
FRIEND
Prijat—Prija (pleasant)
Prijat—Prijas (beloved, dear)

Prijat—Prijati (care for)
Prijat—Prijazni (goodness, kindness)
Prijat—Prinjati (pleases)
CONSCIOUSNESS
Budit—Budhyati (to be awake, conscious, alert)
Budan, Buditi—Bhudyate (awakes, recognizes, under-
stands)
Spavati—Svapiti (sleep)
TOBE
Bid—Bhavati (to be)
Sam—Samam (one self)
Svoj—Sva (one's own)
Svoj—Svajam (for oneself)
Svoj—Sva (one's own)
TO BE FREE, FREEDOM
Sloboda, Svoboda—Svadharma (according to one's own
values, self-rule, self-government)
TO KNOW
Mislit—Manute (to think)

Mnit/R—Manute (to think) Mudar—Medhir (wise, sage) Prichati—Prichati (to ask)
Pitati—Prichati (to ask)
Urn, Uman—Ir/Man (to think)
Vedat/R—Ved (to know)
Vedniye/R—Vedana (knowing)
Voprisit/R—Vipricchati (to question)
Zna—Jna (to know)
Zna—Janati (he knows)
Zna—Ir/Zana (he knows)
Znanje—Jnana (knowledge)
TO TALK, SPEAK, WRITE
Bolto-vnya/R—Bolta (talk)
Boltat/R—Bolati (to speak, chatter)
Govoriti—Gavate (to repeat)
Govor—Garo (songs of praise)
Govoriti—Ir/Gerente (praise, celebrate)
Napisati—Ir/Nipaistanaiy (to write)
Napisao sam—Ir/Niyapisam (I wrote down)
Pricati—Prchati (to ask, to converse)
Rec—Rac (compose)
Reciti—Radhyati (speaks)
Slovo—Sloka (call)

Slovo—Ir/Sravo (word)
Zoviti—Hvayati
Zoviti—Ir/Zbajati (calls)
SOCIAL-POLITICAL TERMS
Bolyar, Bolye, Bolij/OS—Balam (greater)
Drz, Drzava—Drh (to hold together, support, sustain)
Go—Gopa (shepherd, guardian)

Gospodar—Ir/Gospandar (he who owns a flock) Grad, Gard/OS, Gorod/R—Grha, Ghara (house) Grad—Grama (village)
Grad—Ngara (city)
Kesa—Kosa (treasury)

Mir—Mihr, Mithra (Some believe that mir is the Slavic equivalent of mihr, that the Mithra the Ruler is the root of old Slavic princely names ending in -mir (e.g. Vladimir,
Jaromir)
Mocan—Mahan (powerful, mighty)
Narod—Nar (male)
Narod—Narya (manly)
Narod—Ir/Mardom (people)
Posed—Sad (dwell, settle)
Pravda—Dharma (law, cosmic law, from root Drh, 'to
bind, to hold together')
Pravda—Ir/Prahlada (bearer of truth, who rules with
justice and wisdom)
Prvak—Purva (elder)
Prvomeshtanin—Parameshtin (who stands in first place)
Sabor—Saba (council)
Savez, Soyuz/R—Samyoga (union)
Slobodu, Svobodu/OS—Sva-dha (self-law, self-rule, self-
governing)
Smerd—Mrdhan (head)
Smerd—Ir/Mard (man)
Smerd—Ir/Mardom (people)
Socha/OS—Sakha (plow)
Stan—Stha (to stand)
Stan—Sthana (place, country, state)
Sud—Samdha (law, agreement)
Taty/OS—Tayu (thief)
Ves/OS—Vis (village, settlement)
Vijece—Ir/Vaeta (court)
Vlada—Vah (lead, govern)
Vlada—Ir/Prahlada (bearer of truth, who rules with jus-
tice and wisdom)
Vlast—Ir/Flaith (power, authority)
Vod, Ved/CZ—Vah (to lead)
Vrhovni, Vrhovnik—Vr (top, summit)
Vrstan, Vi-sni—Vrsan (strong)
Zivotari—Jivitara (resident)
Zupan—Gopa, Gopaya (shepherd, guardian)
Zupan—Sthapati (governor)
Zupan—Ir/Chupan (shepherd, guardian)
Zupan—Ir/Zan-pait (from Zan-tu, tribe, tribal chief)
Zupan—Ir/Vispaitis (chief, clan chief)
Zupan—Armenian/Isxan (prince)
Zupan—Hittite/Ishan (lord)
WAR
Bit—Bhid (to break)
Borba—Bhara (fight)
Grabiti—Grabhati (to seize, loot)

Harati—Harati (steal, plunder)
Hrabar—Ir/Kharadur (firm, resolute)
Hrabar—Ir/Kundavar (hero, brave, leader)
Osvojiti—Svajati (swells, increases)
Patriti/WS—Patray (guard)
Rana—Vrana (wound)
Rat, Ratnik—Ratha (warrior)
Rat, Ratnik—Ir/Rataestar (warrior, literally'he who
stands in a chariot')
Satriti/WS—Ir/Xsatraya (command)
Tuci—Tudati (strike, push)
Upad—Upabda (trampling on)
Udri—Yudh (to fight)
Udri—Ir/Indi (strike)
Yunak—Yuvan (young man)
Yunak—Yudma (fighter)
NATURE
Beryoz/R—Bhurya (birch)
Brez—Bhurya (birch), Tajik/Burz
Cara/WS—Cara (field)
Charna/WS—Ossetic/Xwar (grain, barley)
Dolina—Droni (valley)
Drvo—Daru (wood, tree)
Gora—Giri (mountain)
Gora—Ir/Gairis (mountain)
Gora—Afghan/Gor or Ghor (e.g. Ghor, mountain dis-

trict of northwestern Afghanistan; the ruling Ghazni Af- ghans of theS ur tribe of Ghor; Gorich, mountaineers commonly called Gorchani', a subdivision of the Lund tribe).

Hvost/WS—Ossetic/Xwasae (weed, hay)
Kamen—Asman (stone)
Okmen/OS—Asman (stone)
Pesak—Pansu (sand)
Pust,Pusta,Pustinja—Ir/Pust (highlands, barren moun-
tains)
Sneg—Snih (snow)
Tlo—Ossetian/Tillaeg (crop)
Trava—Trina (grass)
Ugalj—Angara (coal)
Zlat—Ir/Zaran (gold)
Zrna—Pushtu/Zania (grain)
WATER, FIRE
Oganj—Agni (fire)
Topao—Tapo (hot)
Topiti—Tapati (to heat

Topiota—Tapa (warmth, heat)
Vatra—Atra (fire)
Vbda—Uda (water)
Vodopad—Udapata (waterfall)
Ixt—Svar (heat, fire, sun, sky)
Zar—Ir/Azar (heat, fire, sun, sky)
Zara—Jvala (burning, heat)
Zi ma—Hima (snow)
Zi ma—Ir/Zima (cold weather)
TIME
Din/OS—Dina (day)
Dnevni—Dainiki (daily)
Jutro—Jutara (morning)
Noc—Nakta (night)
Mesec—Masa (month)
Sada—Sadyas (today)
Svetlost—Svetana (dawn)
Vreme—Vaya (time, duration)
SEASONS
Vesna/OS—Vasanta (spring)
Zi ma—Hima (winter)
ANIMALS
Az, Azdaja—Azi (three-headed dragon or snake)
Bik—Vrisha (bull)
Bobr—Babhra (beaver)
Gnezda—Nida (nest)
Go, Govedo—Go (cow)
Gunja—Ir/Gauna (hair)
Jelen—Harina (deer)
Koza—Aja (goat)
Medved—Madh-uvad (honey eater)
Mish—Mush (mouse)
Nosorog—Nasaringa (rhinoceros)
Ovce—Avi (sheep)
Pero—Parnam (feather)
Pero—Ir/Paran (feather)
Prasa—Sakian/Parsa (pig)
Rog—Sringa (horn)

 

[NickFreakyrgios]

Sokol—Sakuna (large bird, falcon) Stena—Ossetian/Staen (male dog) Veverica—Ir/ Varvarah (squirrel)
Vidra/R—Ir/Udra (otter)
Zivotina—Jivatnu (animal)
Vb—Go (cow, catde)
Vran—Varnas (black)
Vuk—Vrka (wolf)
Bojise Vuka—Bhayate Vrkat (he fears the wolf)
Vulna—Ossetian/Ulaen (wool)
Vulna—Ir/Varam (wool)
NUMERALS
Dva—Dvi (two)
Oba—Ubha (both)
Dvoika/R—Dvika (couple)
Dvoit/R—Dviyati (to double)
Tri—Tri (three)
Ceteri—Catura (four)
Pet—Panca (five)
Shest—Shash (six)
Deset—Dasa (ten)
Dvanaest—Dvadasa (twelve)
Trideset—Trinsat (thirty)
Sto—Satam (hundred)
Dvesta—Dvisatam (two hundred)
WHO, WHAT, WHEN, HOW
Kada—Kada (when)
Kako—Katham (how)
Ko—Ka (who)
Kuda—Kutra (where)

Vratiti—Vartati (return)
MISCELLANEOUS
Bogat—Bhagaka (rieh)
Bogastvo—Bhagatva (wealth)
Cupati—Chupti (to touch, feel by hand)
Dar—Dana (gift)
Derati—Daryati (to tear apart)
Dira/R—Dari (opening, hole)
Dojit—Duhati (to milk)
Drz—Drh (to hold)
Dubina—Gambana (depth)
Dugo—Dirgha (long)
Dugo—Ir/Dargan
Durnoi/R—Dur(b a d )
Girya/R—Guru (weight)
Glotat/R—Gilati (to swallow)
Gluboki/R—Gambhira (deep)
Hoteti—Ir/Hayta (intent)
Hvatiti—Ir/Xvay (swaying motion)
Idi—Eti (to go)
Igrati—Ejati (in vigorous motion)
Igrati—Divjati (play)
Kidat—Ir/Kandan (cut)
Kubok/R—Kumbhaka (goblet)
Krinati/OR—Krinati (buy)
Kroit/R—Krit( c u t )
Krn—Krnah (small)
Kucha/R—Guccha (heap)
Lepiti—Lipati (to stick)
Lizati—Lihati (lick)
Mera—Manam (measure)

Mesati—Misra (mix)
Mesati—Misrayati (to mix)
Mrdati—Mardati (to grind)

Naglo—Nagna (nude)
Nizak—Nica (low)
Nositi—Nayati (to carry)
Opak—Apaka (wicked)
Opasno—Pasyati (pay heed)
Ostri—Asri (sharp edge)
Paziti—Pasyati (pay heed)
Pena—Phena (foam)
Pered/R—Puras (before)
Pred—Puras (before)
Protiv—Prati (against)
Prsnuti—Prusnati (sprinkle)
Put—Pantha
Put—Ir/Panta (path)

Raditi—Radhyati (works) Rana—Avradanta (tender) Slatko—Svad (sweet)
Slusati—Srinoti (listen, hear)
Stati—Tisthati (stand up)
Stoj—Stha (stop)
Susi—Susati (dry up)
Sushit—Sushyati (to dry)
Svadjati—Vadvi (dispute)
Taty/OS—Tayu (thief)
Tesati—Taksati (to hew)
Tyanut/R—Tanoti (to stretch)
Unutar—Antara (within)
Ustati—Tisthati (rise)
Vezat—Vayati (to knit)
Vesti—Ir/Vazaiti (move)
Vbziti—Vahati (to transport)
Vratiti—Vartayati (to return)
Vrtit—Vartayati (to rotate, twirl)
Vrtit—Nivrti (to escape from the rotating wheel of re-
birth, to cease all activity)
Zevati—Jambhati (to yawn)
Zvati—Havate (calls)
Zvati—Ir/Zavaiti (call)
Zvoniti—Dhvanati (rings)
Zvonok/R—Dhvanaka (bell)
ENDNOTES
1J. Rozwadowski, Stosunki leksykalne miedzy jezykami slowianskiemi i iranskiemi, RoT 1, 1914-15. A. Kalmykov,

Iranians and Slavs in South Russia, Journal of the American Oriental Society XLV, 1925. A. Meillet, Le Vocabulaire Slave et Le Vocabulaire Indo-Iranien, ReVVI, 1926. H. Arntz, Sprachliche Beziehungen zwischen Arisch und Balto- slavisch, 1933. J. Harmatta, Studies in the Language of the Iranian Tribes in South Russia, 1952; J. Harmatta, Studies in the History and Language of the Sarmatians, 1970. E. Benveniste, Une correlation slavo-iranienne, FsT M. Wasmer, 1956; Les relations lexicales slavo-iranniennes, To Honor R. Jakobson, 1967. K. Treimer, Skythisch, Iranisch, Urslavisch, Ethnogenetische Erwägungen, WsJ 6, 1957-58; Skythisch-slavische Parallelen, WsJ 14, 1967- 68. V. Georgiev, Balto-slavjanski, germanski i indo-iranski, Slavjanskaja Filologija I, 1958; Praslavjanski i indoevropejski, Slavjanskaja Filologija III, 1963; Introduction to the history of the Indo-European Languages, 1981. A.A. Zalizniak, Problemy slaviano-iranskikh iazykovykh otnoshenii drevneishego perioda, VoP 6, 1962. V.V. Ivanov, Obschcheindoevropeiskaja, praslavanskaja i antoliiskaja jazykovye sistemy, 1965- O.N. Trubacev, Iz slavjano- iranskih leksiceskih otnosenij, Etimologija, 1965; Lingvisticeskaja periferija drevnejsego slavjanstva. Indoarijcy w Severnom Pricernomorje, VjZ 6, 1977. V. Pisani, Baltico, Slavo, Iranico, RiC 15, 1967.

 

[NickFreakyrgios]

10. ETHNONYM SERB:
ALTERNATI V E LI NGUI STI C THEORI ES
I
n a recent study, H. Popowska-Taborska (hereafter HPT) presents a singu-
larly informed, insightful, lucid, and comprehensive review of a number of
alternative theories relating to the origin and meaning of the Serb ethnonym pro-
posed by authoritative and leading Slavists on a strictly linguistic/etymological basis
(Wczesne Dzieje Slowian w swietle ich Jezyka—The Early History of the Slavs in Light of Their Language,
1993).
TWO SCHOOLS
HPT begins her review by identifying the two main schools of thought: On the
whole, scholars are divided into advocates of a native Slavic origin of the name,
and those who view its genesis on a wider, Indo-European language plane.
NATIVE SLAVIC ORIGIN
The Polishp a s i e r b is often a key name and starting point in native Slav origin
advocacies. HPT writes: The former most often point to the Polish name pasierb
(also widespread in Ukrainian, Belorussian, and Russian dialects). The root -sierb-
derived from this appellation denotes, according to some who associate the name
with the Ukrainian pryserbytyja, 'to join with, to side with someone—he who has
joined with the clan, the tribe, i.e. ally'; according to others, it is connected with
the root *srb-, *srb- contained in the Slavic verb *srbati, denoting the sucking or
drawing of fluids through the mouth—he who has sucked the same mother's milk,
i.e. a person of the same family or tribal community.
SOCI AL TERM
One finds the same idea well stated in slightly different terms by a noted Russian
linguist not included in HPT's review, namely G. Ilinskij, who explains that the ethnonym
Serb waso r i g i n a l l y aso cialr a t h e rt h a n ane t h n i cte r m : But the South Slavic people,

which is the primary bearer of this name, has preserved in its way of life the insti- tution of the zadruga which, as is well known, represents only one of the many types of family union in general. And if this is so, then it is natural to suggest that StrbL originally meant 'member of the zadruga,' 'zadrugar', collectively StrbLJa (compare Upper Lusatian, Serbja 'Serbs') -'the sum of people living in a zadruga way of life', and Pa-strbbja -'a person not fully legally entered into membership in thez ad ru g a.' Inth is way weco m e to the less than surprising conclusionthatS t r b f c was initially not so much a 'national' notion as a 'social' one. The ethnic meaning of this name came about afterward when, in the consciousness of its carriers, and also in the eyes of fellow tribe members, the zadruga way of life preserved by the first members became a distinctive characteristic of their nationality. In other words, this means that Serb is 'zadrugar, ' a 'zadruga member' (za drugar) 'par
excellence'( G.Ilinskij,K ety m ologiiim eniserb ,J uZ X II,19 3 3 ).
P ROTO- I ND O- EUROP EAN*k e r H
Next, HPT introduces a new etymology proposed by Z. Golab, an always inter-
esting and important contributor to the discussion.A new etymology -was proposed
by Z. Golab, who derived the Proto-Slavic appellative preserved in the Polish pasierb and in the Ukrainian pryserbytysja from the Proto-Indo-European *kerH 'to grow' with the suffix -bho and ascribes to it the primary meaning 'affiliate, member of
the clan.'
*SIRBU, *KER(H)-
In a1982a rtic le ,Golabstates hiscase ingreaterd etail(Aboutthe Connection Between
Kinship Termsand Some Ethnicain Slavic:T he Case of*Srbiand Slovene).Proto-Slavic sirbu 'member

of a kinship group (extended family or kin)' can be retrieved from *pa-sirbu 'step- son' attested by Polish pasierb, East Slavic paserb and by the Ukrainian denominal verb pryserbytysja 'to join somebody's company' (the primary meaning undoubt- edly was 'to be adopted'). The ethnikon Srbi 'Serbians' and Serbja 'Lusatian Serbs' is obviously identical with this social term ... These phonetic facts, somehow ne- glected in the previous etymologies of the ethnikon Srbi and of the noun -sirbu, are crucial for the reconstruction of the Indo-European source of our word: they clearly point out that we must start from an Indo-European root with laryngeal, something like *CerH-. A root which formally and semantically qualifies as the source of Proto-Slavic *sirbu is Indo-European *ker(h)- 'grow'... Thus, nothing seems to prohibit the derivation of PSL *siru from PIE *krH-bho- with the basic meaning 'adolescent, stripling ... In view of the above *sirbu (IE *krhbhos) would mean primarily 'one who has grown (in the kin), kinsman—'a natural, regular member of the kin' i.e. 'born wih the same parent as others', whereas *pa-sirbu, with its prefix of depreciation, would mean 'adopted, irregular member of a kin'— 'stepson' (c.f. the same formal and semantic relationship in Russ. Syn: pasynok).
Parenthetically,p a s to r a k is the Serbo-Croat word for stepson,p a s to r k a , stepdaughter,
pastorce,s t e p c h i l d , pastorcad,s t e p c h i l d r e n , pasanac,b ro th e r-in -la w .
W I DER I NDO- EUROPEAN PLANE
Turning to advocates of a wider Indo-European language plane, HPT writes:

O.N. Trubacev perceives the genesis of the name on a wider Indo-European plane, deriving the Slavic ethnonym from the Indo-European *servo- 'the whole, every.' Trubacev suggests a semantic analogue in the Germanic ethnonym Aleman 'all men.' K. Moszynski attributes the Slavic root *Srb- to the Indo-European *servo- 'to carefully protect'. S. Respond derives the name from the Proto-Indo-European base *serv- 'to flow' (*ser-bh-), noting that in the Indo-European, especially cen- tral Satem languages fluvial and tribal names were formed from this base.
F ORTUI TOUS CONCORDANCE
HPT continues her review with an important and key point: advocates of a
Slavic genesis believe that the name Serb in Asia and elsewhere is more often a matter of
coincidence than confirmation. HPT writes: Advocates of the Slavic genesis of the

name in the element Serb- and in similar elements appearing in the onomastics of different countries of the world of antiquity (i.e. the Serbs mentioned by Ptolemy among the tribes between the Caucasus and the Volga in Asiatic Sarmatia) see a fortuitous concordance.

 

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SEMANTIC PROBLEMS
HPT continues by noting certain semantic problems relating to a Slavic genesis.

HPT writes: The lack of accepted solutions on Slavic grounds is rooted primarily in the semantic sphere of the word. Assignment of the primary meaning 'ally' arises from the direct connection with the Ukrainian pryserbytsja, 'to join with, to side with someone'. However, there is evidence to suggest that the Ukrainian form is a secondary one on Slavic terrain, and that its present form arises from sound and semantic confusion of the root *srb- (*srb-) and *sebr-. For the meaning of the Ukrainian pryserbytsyja is the meaning of the earlier Slavic root *sebr-, widespread in the names of comrades and kinsmen. Confusion of the continuants *srb- (*srb) with this root does not seem impossible (especially the distinction in the clusters - rb and -br- could easily be missed).
*SEBRU
At this point mention should also be made of Golab's ideas on Proto-Slavic
*sebru. In the article cited above, Golab writes: There is, however, another Proto-

Slavic term which should be discussed in this connection: *sebru; it is attested by Old Russian sjabru 'neighbor, a member of the same community', Russian dialect sjaber, Gen. sjabra 'neighbor, companion; partner etc; Old Serbian sebri 'partici- pant, companion, partner'; Serbo-Croatian sebar, Gen. sebra 'farmer' (in Dubrovnik); Slovenian srebar, Gen. srebra 'peasant'; borrowed from the Slavic: Alb. (Tosk) sember 'partner, co-owner of cattle'; Modern Greek ... partner; Hun- garian cimbora 'companion, friend'; Romanian simbra f. 'society, community'. According to Trubacev, who derives this word from *sem-ro, i.e. from the basis of fsem-lja 'family', the primary meaning of*sebru was 'member of a "co-habitation" group'; thus this meaning would carry the oldest, primary Indo-European seman- tics of *koimo- = *semo- as 'lair, camp', earlier than the meaning 'extended family' attested for semlja. I do not think that such a distinction is necessary. If the etymology of *sebru as derived from *sem-ro (or rather from an earlier *soim-ro- or *sim-ro-) is correct, then we are dealing here with a really very old Indo-Euro- pean term, namely: "koim-ro" or *kim-ro-, representing two apophonic grades of
theroot(On thesub jec t ofS lavicseb ar andL ith u a n ia nseb ras: J .K alim a,S lav.*seb r' Nac hb ar, K a m era d ' u n db ait,
"sebras, ZsP 17, 1941).
YUGOSLAV SCHOLARSHIP

Two distinguished Yugoslav scholars, Petar Skok (1881-1956) and Milan Budimir (1891-1976), who individually and collaboratively added greatly to our knowledge of the early history and Slavic settlement of the Yugoslav lands, give the following infor- mation on serb/sebar/srebar. P. Skok offers a brief review of linguistic/etymological scholarship on theS u b j e c t(Etimologijski rjecnik hrvatskogaH is r p s k o g a .jez ika, I-IV,19 7 1- 7 3 ).1Sebar,

gen. -bra, Starosrbskise bf c r. . . (14. i 15. v.) =slov. seber= sreber, starocrkvenoslovenski sebrT> = sember "rusticus, kmet, u 14. i 15. v. stanovnici Srbije, stanovnici Srbije osim plemica i pripadnika klera", f (nepravilno) prema prezimenu u Dubrovniku. Bogusa kci Mathase Sebrica. Nalazi se jos u ruskom sjabrb "susjed". Prema Vuku govori se u Dubrovniku tezak ... Pridjev na -ov sebrov (Dusanov zakonik); na -ski sebarski. Apstrakt isto tako: sebrost = sebroca (Stulic) = sebarstvo (1520) "villainie, prostotat". Deminiutiv na -ic sebric. Na -
njak sebrnjak (ogulinski kotar) "drug u oranju kroz cijelo Iheto" jedina je potvrda iz danasnjeg narodnog govora. Varijanta s utnetnutim m Setnber tn (Vuk) "covjek iz Semberije (dio rvornicke nahije)", s pridjevom semberski. Upor. u brodskom kotaru brijeg Sember ... Ne postoji jedinstvena etimologija. U lit. i lot. posudeno iz ruskog jezika. Rus. sjabrB = sjaber, gen. sjabra kao i posudjenica arb. sember, rum. simbra, madz cimbora dokazuju da je e u sebar nastao iz palatlnog nazala e . . . Pretna Joklu potjece öd istocno-germ. *sem-bar "Jalbzinsmann", stp Budmani s pravom otklanja. Prema Sobolevskom, Vaillantu i Mladenovicu stoji u vezi s rus. sem'ja"obijelj", to. haims "village"... <Ind-European *koim-ro. Prema Uhlenbecku i Schulzu u srodstva je sä germ. Sippe < sibja, Sanskrit sabha "Versammlung der Dorrgemeinde" ... Prema J. M. Rozwadowskom identicna je s imenom naroda
Cimbriitd,apremaB udi mi rubi la bipelasti cka(M .B udim ir,Dvadrustvena term ina dub rwac ka.
1.L ada, II.S eb ar,A naliH istorijskoginstituta u Dubrovniku, IV-V, 1956).M.B u d im ir, thelead in g
Yugoslav authority on the ethnonym Serb, places the subject in its proper context when
he notes that most of the names of the Slavic nations remain without convincing ety-

mologies, that the interpretation of the names is questionable in most instances. Budimir's own words on the subject are by far the most informed and provocative in a positive sense. However, Budimir's immense contributions are set in the highly technical and
complex philological-linguistic terms that tend to place the subject beyond the reach
and critical judgment of all but professional linguists. Selective excerpts from one of
Budimirs keyarticles on thesubject( O starim pom enim asrpskogim ena,Glas,SA NCCX X X V I, 1959)
are the basis of an attempt to capture the thrust and direction of his stimulating thoughts
on the subject, with minimal references to high-powered linguistic-etymological dy-
namics, in a note (*M.B udi mi r) at the end of the chapter.2
H. BRUCKNER
Next, HPT calls our attention to an interesting and related hypothesis proposed

by the eminent Polish scholar, H. Bruckner: Worthy of a second look in this context is the hypothesis of Bruckner, who links the Polish pasierba and the Slavic ethnonyms with the root contained in the Slavic verbs designating the sucking or drawing of fluids through the mouth. The fact of the existence of the Slavic appellative *srbfc is confirmed by the Czech place name Mlekosrby, etymologically entirely transparent, in which the second member in Czech is homonymous with the ethnonym of interest to us. The name of the Slavic ethnonym Serbs is also connected almost certainly with its original meaning 'to suck, to lap'. Undoubt- edly this ethnonym originally referred to those who sucked the milk of the same mother, and thus became the term for family kinship, which was secondarily ex- panded to the tribal community. In accordance with this etymology the appellative preserved as a relic, *pa-srbt, would signify 'the one who did not suck the milk of the same mother, i.e. the child of another mother'. At what moment *srbb (*srbb) from the appellative denoting 'relative' or 'countryman' transformed itself into a personal name is of course difficult to ascertain. However, if we establish that it was, at the outset, an everyday Slavic name, far-reaching conclusions on the wan- derings and migrations of the representatives of this same tribal community can- not be drawn from the fact of its recurrence in different parts of Slavdom. This statement does not negate the possibility of the existence of a genetic connection between, for example, the Southern and Northern Serbs, yet from the mere conver-

 

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gence of ethnic names one should not draw conclusions about this connection.
For, if names with the element *srb- (*srb-) could once belong to the stock of Slavic
appellatives, the possibility arose of the independent emergence of these names in
different parts of Slavdom.
MLEKOSRBY
Mlekosrby's recorded history is profiled in Profous' register of Czech place

names: Mlekosrby, near Chlumce; Jan de Mlekosirb/1343; Sdenco Luawecz de Mlekosirb/1373; Siestak de Mlekosrb/1375; w Mlekosrbiech/1429; Vanek Rezek z Mlekosrb/1454; zamek Chlumecz ... Nepolysy, Wliko srby, Kosycze ... Mlykosrbech/ 1548; zpraviti zamkem a rnestem Chlumczem ... Nepolysy, Mlikosrby/1559; Mlikosrby ves/1654( A .P rof ous, J .S vob oda,M istnijm ena vCec hac h,1957).Two other place names withthe prefix mleko- are recorded in Proufbus' register.M lekojedy, near Brandys: in villa Mlekoged/1235; super villa Mlekoged/1390; z Mlekoje/1534; Mylkogedy/1654. Per- haps of greater interest is the prefix with an ethnic qualifier,Nemecke M lekojedy, near Litomerice: Mlekovicz/1369; in Mlecovid/1374; Mlekowid/1408; Mlekogedy/1623; Mlikogedi/1787; Mlikoged/1833.
SRKAT, STREBAT, SRB

Although there does not appear to be any supportive ethnographic or folkloric material, the same source derives-srby from the Czech wordssrkati and strebati , from Proto-Slav and Slavic roots srb (sipping, sucking) in purely etymological terms:J m.

Ml.= ves mlekosrbu, to jest lidi, kteri mleko srbi n. srbaji, v. srbiti, srbati (otud strebati, srovnej sorbeo) = srkaje piti, 'schlurfen', srbiti mleko, to jest jisti, Milch essen, Staroslovenski sr'bati 'sorbere'(F .M iklosic , Etymologisches Wörterbuchder slavischen Sprachen,
1886).S t a n d a r d Czech e ty m o lo g ic a l d i c t i o n a r i e s add the fo llo w in g i n f o r m a t i o n .Srkati:
slovensky srkat; osrkat vzllykati, vzdychati, zachvivati se, postv. osrkvzlyk; zasrkat zachveti
se, zavzdychati. Sem i slovenski cmrket, smerkat srkati. Polski sarkac, slovinsky
srbocharvatsky srkati, bulharsky sarkam. Zvukomalebne: vzeslo ze srs priponovym k.
Strebati:csl. srBbati, starocesky strebati z praslovansky *sBrb-, starorusky *serb-, v cesky

t vkl). Rusky serbat, Polski sarbac, Slovinsky srbati, Praslovansky *sbrb- dochov. v mist, jm. Mleko-srby. Srk, srkanje, srkati, srknuti are Serbo-Croat words for sipping, licking, lapping, drinking slowly; Sisasti, suck, suckle; Dojiti, nursing, feeding a baby; Lizati,
forlick , lap( J .H olub , E Kopecny, Etymologicky slovnikjaz y ka ceskeho, 1952; V . Machek, EtymologickySlovnik
Jazyka Ceskkeho a Slovenskeho, 1957).
H. SCHUSTER-SEWC
One of Germany's foremost linguists and authorities on Serb/Slavic languages
and dialects, H. Schuster-Sewc, finds substantial merit in Bruckner's theory.3 He writes:
The root *srb- which is found in the words Srb(in) and Serb we can agree is easy to
recognize in such onomatopoetic words such as the Slovenian srbati, Old Church

Slavic srbrati, Bulgarian srbam, Russian serbat, Ukrainian serbaty, White Russian serbac, Polish sarbac, serbac amd sierbac, siorbac 'srkati'. In other Slavic languages we also have the form with the apophonic root -er- (*serbati), compare with Slovenian srebati, Upper Luzica srebac, Lower Luzica srjebas, Old Russian serbati- Czech strebati and Slovak strebati. In opposition, Russian serbat: Polish sarbac at the same time tell us that the root *sib)r- can appear in two variants, one withs the
frontal palatal *rbr, the other, with the hack nonpalatal *rbr. Moreover, Schuster-
Sewc writes, Buckner's hypothesis is consistent with the historical-social record. The

notion that in the first instance Srb(in)/Serb connotes 'brother by mother's milk, brothers nursed by the same breasts' makes good sense in terms of the matriarchal order believed to prevail in early Indo-European society, on kinship and commu- nity based on maternal lineage.
SEREV, SEVERb
Next, HPT deals with a contending interpretation relating to the East Slavic

Sever. HPT writes: The attempts presented above to explain the names of the Slavs and Serbs directly upon Slavic linguistic grounds collide, however, with the inter- pretation accepted by some scholars of the East Slavic name Severb, having to do with the peoples situated at the basin of the Desna, Sejm and Sula rivers, and also with the interpretation of the terms Severi, Severci, appearing in the Balkans. In- deed, K. Moszynski sees in the East Slavic Severb, Severa, Severjane and earlier form *Serev - (< —*Serv), which was contaminated under the influence of the term severB 'north' and linked with the Slavic ethnonym Serb, yet is is difficult not to perceive the unmistakable connection between the East Slavic and South Slavic names, and thus a convincing interpretation must be based on premises that em- brace both these Slavic groups. Z. Golab proposes such an interpretation, viewing the etymology of the Slavic ethnonyms Slovene, Sbrbi // Sbrbi and Severb on Indo- European grounds. Deriving the Slavic Sev(-er) from the Proto-Indo-European koi«o-,*kei«o, the SlavicS v o b-en - (secondarilyS lo v en -) from the Proto-Indo-Eu- ropeansuo ho - and the Slavic Sbrb-, Skrb- from the Proto-Indo-European *ker-
bho, Golab ascribes the same original meaning 'kinsman, member of the clan' to

all of these Proto-Indo-European roots, a meaning further supported by numer- ous examples drawn from other Indo-European languages. In his opinion, this meaning lay at the foundation of the Proto-Indo-European system of ethnic names at a time when the mobility of individual ethnic units didn't allow for self-identifi- cation by reference to concrete territories.
Continuing the course of reasoning of Z. Golab, HPT writes: We ought to

consider that all these names serving as appellatives with the meaning 'relative, member of the clan' on Proto-Indo-European grounds were already functioning on Slavic grounds as ethnonyms without perception of this original meaning by its speakers. In this formulation, the fact of the recurrence of the Slavic names formed from the roots *Sever- *Sloven, *Sbrb-, Sbrb- in North- and South- Slavdom must have for the scholar another significance: Since they were already concrete names, and not appellatives, from their recurrence in different spheres of Slavdom one can draw conclusions about the wanderings and migrations of the Slavic tribes—and these very suggestions are contained in the further deliberations of Z. Golab. So, once again it has been shown how strongly the methods adopted by scholars for determining the etymology of particular ethnonyms bear upon extra-linguistic conclusions.
KIMRO, KIMBRO, SEBRB, SBRBI
In a recent article on the subject, Golab states his case in the following terms:

 

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But in connection with the proposed etymology of Seven», etc., one cannot avoid quoting a striking parallel with a similar derivative in -ro- from a stem mentioned already as a close cognate of the underlying PIE *keiuo-: I mean here Slav. *sebr 'companion' (primarily 'a member of the same community') ... Trubacev ... has already derived *sebrB correctly from the same basic stem as semBJa (PIE *koim- ija); he hesistated, however, about whether one should reconstruct as underlying PIE *koim-ro or *kimro-. I think that the latter possibility is better justified... But the parallelism with Sever (i.e. PIE *koiuero-) does not stop here. My contention is that the Germanic ethnikon Kimroi (Ptolemy), Cimbri (Pliny), continued as Old Danish Himber-, New Danish Himmer-land, and die ancient North Pontic ethnikon Kimeroi, Kimeriot belong here too. They represent PIE *kimBro- (=PSL *sebrb) besides kimero-, and the primary meaning was members (mates) of *koimo- i.e. of extended-family dwelling (camp)... The above etymology of Sever- reconstructing as the primary meaning of this ethnikon the concept of 'kinsmen' finds its well substantiated position within PSL ethnonymy together with two other ethnica namely: Sbrbi, meaning also 'kinsmen' (more specifically 'natural descendants of a clan', cf. North.Slav. *pa-strbb 'stepson'), and Slovene through "folketymology" from *Slovene//*Svobene, meaning 'affines' ... It seems not accidental that these diree ethnica belong to the oldest layer of Slav, ethnonymy and can be traced in the Slavic North as well as in the Slavic South. And it is also quite interesting that we observe them first of all on the outskirts of the Slavic world: the Danubian Slovene of the 6th century, the Novgorod Slovene of the 9th century, the historical Slovenci, Slovaci and the Pomeranian Slowincy; then the Lusatian Serbja (plur.) and die Balkan Srbi, and ultimately the Danubian Severi//*Sever and the Old Kievan
Sever,etc(Z.Golab , Old Bulgarian Severb and Old Russian Severjane,WsJ 30,19 8 4).
I ND O- I RANI AN
In the next and final step, HPT deals with theories that relate the ethnonyms
Serb andC ro a t to onea n o t h e r and toI n d o - I r a n i a nla n g u a g eroots.Theories also exist

diat genetically identify the ethnonyms of the Serbs and Croats with one another. So, for example, J. Nalepa sees a Celticized form of the name Sorb (Serb) in the name of the Croats, while K. Moszynski considers the form *xarv- a Scythian ana- logue of *serv (<*serb-). Likewise, Trubacev perceives a convergence of the roots in both these names, linking the Iranian form *xarv- with its non-Iranian form *servo- and attributing the latter to the Old Indo-European sarva 'the whole, every' (i.e. die semantic analogy with die Germanic edinonym Alemanen—literally: 'all people.'
K. MOSZYNSKI
In Pierwotny zasiag jezyka praslowianskiego (1957), Moszynski affirms the Ira-

nian origin ofS varog. There is one more connection joining the religious-ritual vocabulary of the Aryans and the Slavs. In diis case, however, we are already deal- ing with a clear borrowing by the Slavs from the Aryans. I mean here the only theonym (except for die name of Perun), which can with great probability be con- sidered Proto-Slavic, namely *Svarog. If one trusts theH y patian chronicle com- pletely, then one can assume that die Slavs (at least the Northern Slavs) worshiped under the name of Svarog a fire deity or a solar deity, who in the course of time
embodied in himself both the deified great "celestial fire" (i.e., the sun) and the usual terrestial fire. The word *Svarog was formed by means of the suffix -ogo-, which as we will soon see is of foreign, Scythian origin. But the root svar- also has correspondences in Aryan: Sogdian sparoy- 'shine, gleam,' Avestan hvara 'sun, light, sky,' Old Indian suvar, svar idem, Svarita. As the etymology of these Aryan words indicates, the phoneme r continues here the Indo-European 1, which is regularly preserved by the Slavs in their original •words; hence the correct conclusion is that the name *Svarog is rather of Iranian, specifically Scythian origin...The root vocal- ism of the the word...can easily be explained, for example, by the influence of the words *svariti (se), *svarb, *svara, which is very common among the Slavs (espe- cially in the area of beliefs; I myself recorded from a Polesie fisherman on Lake Kniaz: 'Boh svarycsa,' pronounced about thunder; similarly the Polish peasants used to say 'Bog sie swarzy*).
Z. GOLAB
Golab believes Moszynski's etymology is in error. He writes: From a primary

Indo-European *su- we must regularly have hv- in Iranian (xv- in Sogdian). So there is insufficient ground to derived Proto-Slavic Svarog from Iranian. If we accept a hypothetical Aryan *svar-arka- 'sunny, shining' (?), i.e., Iranian *hvaraka- or Middle Iranian *hvaraga-, then we would expect Proto-Slavic *xvorog-, but the form we actually have, Svarog, cannot be in any way connected with the posited Iranian model. The whole Iranian etymology of this theonym is void of any lin- guistic (historical-comparative) background and should be rejected.
SVARBThe old Slavic etymology deriving Svarog from svarb( e.g . Old C hurch S lav i c
svar'fi g ht'),G olabwri tes,whose basic meaningin most Slavic languages seemsto
be 'quarrel,' does not satisfy us either from the semantic standpoint: Svarog is not
a war-god.
SVARAInstead, G olab proposes another etymology: I would derive this theonym by

means of the Slavic suffix rog from the Iranian *svara- 'strong-, powerful — hero, lord.' The Iranian word is posited on the basis of copious Indo-European mate- rial: Old Indian savira 'stark, machtig,' sura- kraftig, usually 'Held,' svatra- gedeihlich, kraftig'; Avestan sura- stark, gewaltig.
AT PRESENT

In her summary, HPT writes: At present were are not in position to deter- mine unequivocally the location of early Slav homelands either in the light of hydronyms, or through the analysis of Slavic ethnonyms or botanical and zoologi- cal terminology, or on the basis of contemporary lexical divisions. We do know that the real Slavs . . . appear on the historical stage in the 6th century A.D., where the reconstruction of the early Slavic phonetic and morphological system points to the extreme uniformity of the Proto-Slavic language. On the basis of various data, one can thus maintain that the phonetic differentiation of the Slavic language oc- curred in the second half of the first millenium A.D., when the Slavs suddenly began to expand . . . Pre-and post-war researches have proposed whole range of

 

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solutions to the difficult problem of Slavic ethnogenesis. The author of this work
refrains from providing more detailed conclusions because she claims, on one hand,
none of the existing theories is convincing, and, on the other, she is of the opinion
that on the basis of the linguistic facts it is impossible to carry out a full recon-
struction on the prehistory of the Slavs.
*M. BUDIMIR

Fasmer je protiv veze izmedju grupe serb paserb i grupe seber sebru: die Versuch pas-sirbu weiter mit sebru "freier Bauer" zu verbinden, überzeugen nicht." Ali ukrstavanje ovih leksickih grupa, koje svakako nisu istog porelda, sasvim je razumljiv s prostog razloga sto se radi o bliskim drustvenim terminima sä gotovo istovetnim znacenjem.

Vaznija je okolnost sto se lit. sebras "sused" ne moze naprosto smatrati pozajmljenim slov. sjabr seber, koje je svakako sekundarnog postanja ... I geografija ovog sekundarnog seber ... ne govori u prilog identifikacije lit. sebras sä ruskim dubletima sjab(e)r i seber. Najzad i finsko seura "drustvo" i eston. sober "prijatelj" ... nedvosmisleno pokazuju da je lit. sebras stara idioglotska pojava. Ostaje prema tome da za sve ove slov. sinonime sirbu pasirbu priserbiti sja sjarbru, prisjabriti sja, pored prisebriti sja i seber, all odvojeno öd lit. sebras, treba traziti zajednicko poreklo.

Taj zajednicki arhetip ovog vaznog drustveno-politickog termina morao je glasiti u protoslovenskoj epose simbra sä kojim se ne moze preko proste metateze likvidskog formativa upostaviti veza s ne manje starim terminom sirba "saveznik, saplemenik, rodjak"... Drugim recima, protoslov. simbra moze se povezati sä sirba na taj nacin sto cemo poci öd leksemkog minmuma simb- sä nazalnik infiksom i njegovog derivata pomocu sufiksalnog —go ... Na
osnovu tih koradikalnih derivata, cija je semanticka jezgra moze odretiti izrazima "stegnuti, zdruziti, spojiti"...

mogu se kao varijante leksemskog minimuma odretiti oblici saip- simb-. Tako bi se moglo uspesno odbraniti prepostavljeno zajednickog zancenje za simbra i sirba "verbündeter", kako kaze Fasmer, ili "suveznik", kako kaze Vuk za zemljoradnike koji zajednicki obradjuju njivu.

Zna se da kimerski Indoevropljani krecu prema jugoistok pocetkom 8. v. st. e. iz oblasti tripolske civilizacije i da su u tu oblast smesta Rostocev protoslovenska plemena. Aristofana zan jos nesto za odelo tih plemena severno öd donjeg dunava, kako to pokazuje izraz kaunaka (kuna), pa nije bez osnova prepostavka da u imenu kimbero imamo trakizirano slov. sim-(e)go, jer ti starobalkanski Indoevropljani inicijalni sibilant razvijaju u pravcu guturala.

Tako bismo morali zaldjuciti da su u protoslovenskom postojala dva koradikalna oblika, simba i simbra. Ovaj drugi se sacuvao nepromenjen, a prvi je putem diferencijacije dao sirba, tj. u kontaktu s labijalnom nasal je disimilovan u likvidu -g-... Sve ovo znaci da sä fonetske strane ne moze biti ozbiljnijeg prigovora povezivanju grupa simbra sirba paserb priserbiti sebra prisjabriti i prisebriti, dok semanticka strana, koja pro pravilu u pogledu ftinkcije preteze, pruza dovoljno jak razlog za takvo vezivanje.

Prema izlozenome Plinijevi Serbi ... i Ptolomejevi Serboi javljaju se upravo u onim oblastima koje su istocno öd kimeriskog Bospora, a u te oblasti stigla su kimeriska plemena iz prostora tripoljske civilizacije u kojoj Porfirogenitovi obavestaci znaju za srpske Slovene. Taj podatak potvrdjuje i geomorfoloski termin präg za dnjeparskse katarakte. To be znacilo da se srpsko ime pominje znatno ranije no sto je to slucaj sä imenima ostalih slovenskih plemena, pa i sä samim imenon Sloveninu. Njegovo prvobitno znacenje "suveznik, drug" sacuvano je i dan danas u novogrc. sempros i arb. sember, odakle po svoj prilici police i naziv Semberije.

To znaci ime Sigina, ili zapravo Sibina, i po njima pozvanog oruzja, glasilo je u kolektivu si(m) bu- i simb- en/r-. Za pve heterokliticne osnove pokazao je davno J. Smit u svojoj cuvenoj raspravi o obrazovanju plurala kod indoevropskih imenica srednjeg roda da pripadaju najstarijem sloju nominalnih obrazovanja ... Ali nas u ovaj mäh vise interesuje morfoloski i semanticki arhetip tih termina kao sto su sibones sibyna simbune i sigunna odnosno sigunos, jer se iza tih termina krije drustveno-politickih termin simbra "sebar" i simbu "zajednica."... Stoga se moze s dovoljno razloga ostati pri shvatanju J. Rozvadovskog i zdruziti imena Abioi Gabioi Sapai Kaprontai Sabini Sabelli Samnites s imenom karpatsko-podunavskih Kimbera, Sibina, cija je metalurgija, isto kao i tracka i kimeriska, bila u vezi s mocnom anadolskom obradom metala.
Ludo bi bilo s nase strane da sva navedena balkanska i italska imena plemena naprosto identifikujemo sä sebrima i Sibinima ... Ovde se radi sam o tobe da se pronadju i objasne klasicni tragovi i stariji pomeni srpskog imena, koliko je to moguce na osnovnu antickih podataka i istoriske fonetike. Kako je znacenje tog imena siroko "saveznik, srodnik", sasvim je prirodno da se ono javlja i van najstarijeg teritorija karpatsko-podunavskih Kimbera i Kimerijaca.

Kod starijih oblika imena Simbra i Sirba, da se posluzimo protoslovenskim rekonstrukcijama, situacija je nesto kompikovanija ... Ali ime boga Hermesa kod indoevropskih Pelasta glasi Imbros. Kako je ... ovo bozanstvo pre svega vodilo brigu oko sitne stoke koju je trebalo pratiti na pasi i cuvati da se ne rastura, prirodno je da takva funkcija ucini od njega ne samo putnika i posrednika, nego u prvom redu sabiraca. Stocarstvo primitivnih indoevropskih plemena dugo je sacuvalo prvobitnih karakter takvih bozanstva u Podunavlju i u prostoru izmedju Karpata i Ponta ... Ako je Herodot pouzdano obavesten o trackoj gospodi i sustinskoj prirodi boga Hermesa, postaju razumljivi pomenuti track! etnici Sapai, Abioi, Gabioi i Kaprontai, a pre svega osnovni element u Hesihijevu derivatu zibunthides m koji je u pogledu vokalizma najblizi slovenskom terminu sebar i imenima Sibina i Sigina.

Kako se Hermovo kultsko ime Imbros ... i prema njegovim funkcijama i prema propisima istoriske fonetike ocigledno poklapa i sa protoslov. simbra i Aristofanovim kimbero-, povezivanje tih imena ne nailazi na nikakve teskoce, pa se stoga i sa realne i sa formalne strane prosto namece.
ANATOLIA

According to Budimir, possible evidence in favor of an Anatolian connection is found in the fact that the Slav words for gold( z lato) and silver( sreb ro) are not related to either German or Baltic forms. The two deviations, he believes, suggest an early and independent Slav connection with Anatolian metallurgy, a contact hinted at by other linguistic terms: e.g. the Slav( tulm ac u) and Mitanni( talam i) words for interpreter.
ENDNOTES
R Skok, Nasapomorskairibarskaterminologijanajadaranu, 1935; DolazakSlovenanaMediteran, 1935; Slavenstvo
1 romanstvo na jadranskim otocima, 1950. With M. Budimir, Balkanska sudbina, 1936; Balkan i Balkanci, 1937.
2 Budimir's article includes a brief Latin summary: DE NOMINIS SERBICI VESTIGIIS CLASSICIS

(Argumentum): Nomen Serbicum Sirbu eiusque compositum paserb "cosanguineus" una cum appellatione sebar (ex antiquiore simbro), "consociatus", cum Mercuri Pelastici ephitheto Imbros et cum Sigynnis Danuvianis coniungitur. Propter forman sibuna, quae idem valet atque siguna, nomen Sigynnarum ex antiquiore i sibyna, collatis lithuanicis dubnas ex dugnas, deducitur. Nomen collectivum si(m)bu "affines, necessarii" praeter numerum collectivun heteroclyticum sibmen/ros, qui in slav. simbra sirba paserb extat, derivato Hesychiano zibu-nth-ides... confirmatur. Eiusdem stirpis saip-/simb- "unio, consocio", lat. prosapia, illyr, Sabus, Sabelli Sabini Samnium, thrac. Sapai Abioi Gabioi, et fortasse Kaprontai, esse videntur.

H. Schuster-Sewc, Jazyk luzickih Serbov i jego mesto v sem'je slavjanskich jazykov, VoP2 , 1976. Postoje Li Jezike Veze Izmedju Srpskohrvatskog i Srprskoluzickih Jezika, VuK 6,1976. Dva Zapazanja O Srpskohrvatskoj Etimologiji (Srbin, Jug, Jugovich), VuK 13, 1983. Razmisljanja O Etimologiji Juznoslovenskog Narodnog Imena "Hrvat",
VuK 17,1987

 

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PART11
1. BETWEEN THE VOLGA, THE CAUCASUS,
AND THESEAOFAZOV
O
ne finds interesting and substantial support in ancient sources and
modern scholarship for an Indo-Iranian origin of the Serbs. More
specifically, for a general theory that traces the Proto-Serbs to the 'Scythian-
Sarmatian' lands bordering on the Caucasus mountains, the Sea of Azov, and the Caspian
Sea.
URHEIMAT

In the mid-19th century, L. Quandt, one of Germany's foremost authorities on Germania's Slavs, especially the Baltic Slavs, was also interested in the time and place of their origin, in the primeval, original homeland of Germania's Slavs. His views on the matter can be best summed up in the following words: The northern Caucasus is the
Urheimat of the ancient Slavs, that is, the Serbs who are Sarmatians who are Slavs
who areSerbs whowereknown bymanydifferentnames(L .Quandt,DieL iutiz en und
Obodriten, BaL 22, 1868).
PLINY'S SERBI
The first encylopaedia, Pliny the Elder's Historia Naturalis, compiled in the first
century A.D., locates the Serbs orS erbi near the Cimmerio: A Cimmerio accolunt
Maeotici, Volt, Serbi, Serrei, Gnissi.
CIMMERIO

Cimmerio takes its name from the Cimmerians, an ancient people living north of the Caucasus and the Sea of Azov, who were driven by the Scythians out of southern Russia into Asia Minor, the Balkans, and the CaucasusScythia still retains traces of
the Cimmerians,Herodotus writes, there are Cimmerian castles, and a tract called
Cimmeria and a Cimmerian Bosphorus. It appears likewise that the Cimmerians,
when they fled into Asia to escape the Scyths, made a settlement in the peninsula
wherethe GreekcityofSi nope was afterwardsbui lt(V.V. Ivanov,O b sc hindoevropeiskaja
praslavanskaja i anatoliiskajajazykovye sistemy, 1965. J.R. Mellart, Prehistory of Anatolia and its Relations with the Balkans,
L'ethnogenese des peuples balkaniques, 1971. M.LArtamanov, Kimmeriicy i skify, 1974. A.I. Terenozhkin, Kimmeriicy,
1976).
CIMMERIAN SERBI ?

There are several other apparent and intriguing references toS erbi in a Cimmeria/ Crimea/Asia Minor context in Pliny and other sources. Opposite Sinope, near where the Don River enters the Black Sea, Pliny locates Cimmerium, formerly known as
Serberion:Ultiomoquein ostio Cimmerium, quod antea Serberion vocabantur.N ear

Chersonesus in the Crimea (Chersonesus Taurica), Pliny locatesSarbacon.1 Other sources attest to the fact that northwestern Anatolia,Sirbis was another name for the river Ksanthos (also Skamandros, Scamander) that emptied into the Hellespont near Troy. The exact location ofS erbo n i s L act t s or Serbonian Lake is uncertain. The best opinion places it
southeast of TrojanSirbis and due south of Cimmerion Serberion andCrimean Sarbacon somewhere between the Isthmus of Suez, the Mediterranean, and the Nile
Delta.
QUAESTIO DE NEURIS CIMMERISQUE

As was noted in Chapter 10, the linguistic-etymological, archaeological, and tex- tual evidence relating to the origin and character of Serb/Balkan ethnic, ethnonymic, and linguistic ties with Cimmeria and Cimmerians, is the specific subject of two pioneering
and groundbreaking articles by thee m i n e n tY ugoslav lin g u ist M.B u d i m i r( Protoslovenii
Staroanadolski Indoevropljani, 1952; Quaestio De Neuris Cimmerisque, 1952).
MARYA, MARIANI

One of the more interesting and significant connections relates to a Proto-Indo- European term with Anatolian-Caucasian roots—man, mariani, maryani, an Indo-Eu- ropean military aristocracy that dominated the Mittani, an essentially non-Indo-Euro- pean people centered in an area between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers. In fact, of course, the term can be traced to the Vedicm ary a or warrior. Budimir and others note that 9th century Byzantine sources refer to the ruler of the Serb principality of Neretvania/Pagania asDux Marianorum. Furthermore, they note, that in the same area, in the Neretva River hinterland, one finds a singular number of places( trz na) where knightly skills were once practiced and tournaments were held. Budimir writesa su i kod iiajstarijih
Slovena postojali ratnici kao posebna klasa, vidi se po terminu -trzan—trzni, trzna
— trzne i trzno — trzna "odredjeni prostor za ratnicke igre i sastanke" ... V.
Skaric kaze izricno da je trzan "seosko igriste, sredselo". On pri torn istice da se

upravo u srednjoj Bosni, gde je narocito dokumentovano i postojanje i znacenje ovog termina, najvise muslimansko stanovnistvo interesovalo za sportske i viteske utamice. Stoga nije nikakvo cudo sto se neretljanski Sloveni, tako reel odmah po
svomdolasku,posveti li ratovanjui osvajanjuna Jadranu(M .B udim ir,M ariani,O n]5 ,
1975).
URHEIMAT, MIGRATIONS
Further evidence of Cimmerio/Cimmerian links to a Serb/SlavU rheim at and
migrations is found in one of the more interesting and pioneering works in recent years
(G. Holzer, Entlehungen aus einer bischer unbekannten indeogermanischen Sprache im Urslavischen und Urbahischen,
1989).Accordingto Holzer, thoughthe surviving linguistic evidenceis scarce, it is none-

theless sufficient to suggest that the largely unknown language of the Cimmerians is a link in the Indo-European chain generally and a vital link in the proto-Slavic and proto- Baltic language chain specifically. In an informed, insightful and interesting review of Holzer, A. Loma writes:Sve u svemu, moj sud je da ni jedna Holcerova etimologija
sama za sebe, niti pak odredjen broj njih u svom zbiru ne pruzaju dokaz o
postojanju tematskog sloja pozajmljenica u praslovenskom i prabaltskom. No i
nedokazana tematska hipoteza moze se pokazati korisnom ako naucnim
pregaocima, uklucujuci i svoga tvorca, da podsticaj za dalja istrazivanja neresenih
problema iz proslosti Praslovena i drugih indoevropskih naroda na istoku Evrope.
Od Georga Holcera slavistika i indoevropska komparativna lingvistika mogu i u
buducnostioceki vatiznacajnedopri nosei ideje(A .L om a,Poz ajm ljem c eizNepoz natogjez ika u
Praslovenskom, JuZ XLVI, 1990)

 

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CAUCASUS, SEA OF AZOV

N. Zupanic's analysis of Pliny's text in the light of other classical sources leads him to to place theS erbi between the northwestern edge of the Caucasus range and the Sea ofA zov( M aeotislac us).Kao rezultat naseg proucavanjaP linijevih Srba inji hovi h
suseda mozemo postaviti konstataciju, da su u I stolecu posle Hr. ill mozda i pre
Serbi i Serrei ziveli izmedju severozapadnog grebena Kavkaza(C orax) i Azovskog
mora,u susedstvu Ziga (Zinha) Konapsena, Tatai Vala( N. Zupanic, SrbiPU nijai Ptolem eja.
Pitanje prve pojave Srba na svetskoj pozornici sä historijskoggeograßkog i etnologsko stanovista, Zbornik Radova Posvecen
Jovanu Cvijicu, 1924; Izvor Srbov, Ljubjanski zvon X LX , 1925; Prvi nosioci etnickih imen Serb, Hrvat, Ceh i Ant,
EtnologH, 1928; Srbi, porijekla i ime, Narodna Enciklopedia SHSIV, 1929).
VOLGA, DON, KUBAN
More specifically, Zupanic's places the Serbs not along the Cimmerium coast

(Ora ipsa Bospori utrimque ex Asia atque Europae curvatur in Maeotim, oppida in aditu Hermonasa, dein Cepoe Milesiorum, max Stratoclia et Phanagoria ac paene desertum Apaturos ultumoque in ostio Cimmerium, quod antea Chimerion vocabatur), but in the
interior, occupying a large area between the Volga, Don, and Kuban rivers, the Sea of
Azov, and the northwest edge of the Caucasus:2 Pre mozemo kazati, da su Meocani
sedli na celoj spomenutoj obali, do su se ostala plemena u njihovoj pozadini vrstala
prema unutrasnjosti uz liniju Kubana, do njegove gornjeg toka, gde stno
konstatovali Zige (Zinhe, Zihe). Posto na Vale dolazi donji tok Kubana, treba
Srbe i Sereje traziti na srednjem Kubanu.
SERS, CERS, SYRS, SERRS

It should also be noted that Pliny's text places theSeraci/Sers immediately after theCercetae Sers, that Mela's text places theSyraces/Sers near and after theSerri/Sers. In this general area Strabo (63 B.C.-A.D. 21) places theSibins, to be readSrbin, accord-
ing to W.K etryz insk i( DieL y gier,1868) ando th ers.
SERRI-SERS, SERBI
Zupanic's analysis of Pliny( A c haei, M ardi, Cerc etae, post eos S erac i, Cephalotom i,
in intimo eo tractu Pityus oppidum opulentissimum ab Heniochi direptum esi)a n d o t h e r
classical texts, mainly Pomponius Mela, leads him to place theS erri/S ers ( M alanc hlaeni,
Serri, Syraces, Colici, Coraxi, Phthirophagi, Heniochi, Achaei Cercetici, et iam in confinio
Maeotidis Sindones) next to theS erbi along the middle course of the Kuban River.
SIRACHI, SERACI, SIRACENI
According to Zupanic, the key to identifying nations in the Caucasus is the root
and not the various prefixes and suffixes, especially plural suffixes. We see, writes Zupanic,
that nominal plural suffixes (especialy bi- and ni- have been used by the Cauca-
sian peoples ... and therefore various name forms have been used for each people.
This rule applied to the Serbs gives us the forms Ser + bi = Serbi and Ser + ni =
Serni. Without exception the root is Ser. The form Ser + i = Seri might have been
given them by their Indo-European neighbors and even earlier by certain Cauca-
siantribeswhi chalso formedtheplural byadding the suffix-i(R .Novakovic ,O nthe
hithertounused information on the originoft h e Serbs,B aPIV ,198 9).Zu p a n ic ,th e r e fo r e , has nod o u b tt h a t
the Serri and others, namely the Sirachi, Seraci,and Siraceni, are also Serbs.3 PTOLEMY'S SERBOI

A century later, Ptolemy'sGeogm phia also locates the Serbs orSerbo i m Sarmatia. Ptolemy identifies theS erbo t as one of thirteen tribes between the Ceraunian Mountains (the northeastern foothills of the Caucasus) and the river Ra (Volga):Inter Ceraunios
autem mantes et Rha Fluvium Orinei et Vali et Serboi. According to Zupanic and

others, Ptolemy's text places the Orinei, Vali andSerboi in Asian Sarmatia, in a broad area between the Don and Volga rivers, between the Black and Caspian seas south of the northern edge of the Caucasus range:Srbi bi dakle prema Ptolemejevoj podeli Eurazije,
moral! sa svojim susedima Orinejima i Valitna sedeti u Azijskoj Sartnatiji, koja se
u glavnotn prostirala iztnedju Dona i Volga, izmedju Crnog i Kaspijskog tnora sve
do grebena Kavkaskih planina na jugu ... Orinejce na jugu, u blizini istocnog
Kavkaza, Srbe na Volgi, i to na njenom donjem toku a Vale u sredini.
MIGRATION

On a more tenuous note, Zupanic speculates there is evidence in Ptolemy and other texts that in the post-Pliny period some Kuban Serbs migrated south to a strategic area in the central Caucasus, one that placed them in control of vital military and com- mercial roadways:Verovatno su Srbi dosli iz oblasti Kubana na jug starim vojnickim
i trgovackim drumom koji vodi od Kimerijskos Bospora preko Surube, Koruzje,

Ebriape, Serake i dalje preko prelaza Darjal (istocno od Kasbeka) i Kavkaskih vrata(portae Caucasicae) u Iberiju (Gruziju). Tu se se kod juznog izlaza kavkaskog bedema zaustavili, imajuci u ruci najvazni strategijski kljuc. This area, namely north-
ern Iberia/Georgia, Zupanic believes, is a source of later Serb migrations and settlments
in Europe:TrebaSrbe traziti severno odVala, otprilike u oblasti centralnog Kavkaza,
tako da su oni uglavnom imali svoju postojbinu u severnoj Iberij ... Sliv reke
Argave, koja utice kod grada Mzehet u Kuru, valjda je bio u glavnom domovina
Iberski Srba.4Zupanic locates the Vali on the Ljasva River, which, he notes, is also the
name of a river in Bosnia.
MELA'S SERACHI / SERBS

With regard to the location of the Serbs, Zupanic notes an obvious and certain consistency in classical sources. In his three-volume geographical survey of the inhabited world( DeC h o ro g ra p h ia ),fo r example, Mela locates theS erac hi/S ers in the Kuban River region, between the Sea of Azov and the Don River—in essentially the same area as Pliny's Serbs and Ptolemy'sS eraki /S erbs. Pliny, like Mela, locates them south of the Jaksamati. On this point Zupanic writes:Bez sumnje su Sirakeni istovetni saMelinim
Sirachima, jer ih Ptolemej postavlja nize Jaksamata.In his authoritative and com-

prehensive study, R. Novakovic notes that in Mela's discussion of Scythia, he records the Serbs asS ers in the same general area as Pliny's and Ptolemy's Serbs and, centuries later, Jordan'sS erenlS erb sa n d S palilS erb s(Ime Srbi KrozVremeiP r o s to r , 1994).
SARBACUM
Zupanic and other scholars find traces of the Serb ethnikon in Pliny's text in such
place names as:Sarbacum(Sarmatiae Europae Situs); Sarbanissa (Locus Ponti
Polemoniaci);Sorba (Hircaniae Situs);Suruba (Sarmatiae Asiaticae Situs).A n o t e d Rus-
sian authority on ancient Sarmatia, V. Borisov, locatesSuruba on a lower bend of the
Kuban River alongside an ancient road that ran from the Cimmerian Bosphorus to Iberia

 

[NickFreakyrgios]

(KartaSarmartia, 1910).
VOLGA, CAUCASUS, SEA OF AZOV
In his brilliant study, Constantine Porphyrogenitus and his World, (\ 973), A. Toynbee
concurs with ancient sources, namely Pliny and Ptolemy, which locate the ancient Serbs
between the Volga, the Caucasus, and the Sea of Azov.In this area, Toynbee specu-
lates:The name 'Serb' may perhaps also be detected in the name 'Shirman,' by
which Arab geographers called the north-eastern country known to Hellenic ge-
ographers as 'Albania.'
ARCHON-PRINCE OF THE SARBAN
E Dvornik sees possible evidence of a Serb-Caucasian connection in other times
and circumstances, in Constantine VTI Porphyrogenituss mid-10th century Book of Cer-
emonies.He writes:In describing how the princes of the Caucasian region should
be addressed in Byzantine diplomatic correspondence ... he mentions the Ar-
chon-Prince of the Sarban, who are located between between Alania and Tsanaria
(Early Slavic Civilization, 1954).If, Dvornik continues, w e could identify theS arbanw ith the
Serbs, then we could assume that some of the Serbs were driven by the Huns toward the
Caucasus, where they continued to live under their own princes recognizing a
kind of Byzantine protectorate.
THE 'LAB' CONNECTION

In his study,O Porijeklu Ilira (1992), G. Vukcevic presents broad and deep inter- disciplinary evidence in support of the thesis that Illyria proper( Illy riproprie dic ti) was settled by tribes originating in the Caucasus region. He believes the evidence is especially strong in the case of the 'Dinaric type' centered in the Dinaric highlands opposite the Adriatic Sea. In the case of the IllyrianL abs orL abeat i , a large and prominent tribe occupying the shores ofL ac us L abeat es, modern Lake Skadar, he finds evidence that also relates theL absto theS erbs to the C auc asus. Noting the history of Serb association with waterways namedL ab in Caucasia, Germania, and Illyria, Vukcevic states the con- nection in appropriately cautious termsleme Labeati je zivjelo oko Skadarskog
jezera (Lacus Labeates) ... Osnova tog imena je 'lab' sto asocira na ime vise rijeka.
Lab imamo na sjevernom Kavkazu, to je lijeva pritoka Kubanja, zatim u Saksoniji
slovenska Laba, njemacka Elbe i Lab u Srbiji . . . Interesantno je napomenuti da se
svuda gdje se pojavljuje r. Lab javljaju kroz istoriju Srbi (Serbi). Na sjevernom
Kavkazu, po Pliniju Starijem . . . Serbi u dolini Laba. Izmedju Sale i Labe u ranom
srednijem vijeku visekratno se u franackim izvorima pominu Srbi, pod raznim
imena.
SAKALIBA
It is interesting that in the Persian-Islamic historical tradition one finds vague
references to an early Slav presence in the Caucasus. One source mentions a passof the
Khazars and Slavs( S akalib a) in connection with the activities of a Persian dynast that

ruled in the last years of the 5th century. In the first years of the 8th century, an Islamic man of letters, al-Akhtal, refers to acommunity of reddish Slavs( S akalib a) in one of his poems. Various sources indicate that the Slavs played an important role in Khazar affairs. According to one Arab historian, Ibn Fadlan, some of the Slav nations werein obedience to the king of the Khazars. Another Arab historian, al-Bakri identifies the

Khazars asone of the northern peoples who speaks Slavic. Some evidence of their number and status is found in the fact that Slavic was one of the languages spoken at the Khazar court and in the army. In fact, the Khazars adoptedz akon, a Slavic word connot- ing law, law code, andvoidvoda, a Slavic word connoting military command, key ad- ministrative-legal and political-military terms. Describing the Khazar inauguration of Magyarvoivoda Almos, Byzantine Emperor Constantine writes,that it followed the
customs andz ako n o n of the Khazars.Following a victorious campaign against the

Khazars in 737, Caliph Marwan is reported to have settled some 20,000 Slav prisoners in the Khaketia region of Georgia, and established Slav colonies along the border with Byzantium in Cilicia, northern Syria, and the Upper Euprhates.

In the mid-9th century, Georgian mountaineers appeal to an unnamed ruler of the Slavs for aid against caliphal forces. According to Ibn al-Fakih, an early 10th century author of a geography, the Caucasus is connected to the land of the Slavs( S akalib a) and
in itthere isalso atribe of theSakaliba(Kitab al-Buldan).Intriguing evidenceofs i gni fi -

cant numbers of Slavs north and east of the Caucasus in found in Gardizi's account of Kirghiz origins. According to Gardizi, a mid-11th century Perian historian, the leader of the Kirghiz was from the Slav lands. Having killed a Byzantine envoy, he was forced to flee to the Khazar/Khirgiz lands, where other Slavs later joined him. This is why, Gardizi
writes,the features and traits of the Slavs are found among the Khighiz, such as
reddishness of hair and whiteness of skin.
ENDNOTES
Chersonesus is an ancient city in the Crimea founded by Milesians. Chersonesus Taurica is the Crimean peninsula
between the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov.

The Kuban River rises in the Greater Caucasus, on the western slope of Mt. Elbruz, flows north in a wide arc. One arm, the Kuban proper, enters the Seza of Azov in a swampy, lagoon-filled delta mouth at Temryuk. The Old Kuban arm, a slow meandering steppe stream in its lower reaches, drains the Kuban Steppe, enters the Black Sea at Kiziltash.

Zupanic notes that the Sirachi occupied an area between the Don and Kuban rivers, that the king of the Sirachi was called Zorsines, who enters the historical record in association with Mithridates the Great (120-63 B.C.), King of Pontus.

Iberia is an ancient name for the eastern half of Georgia (a triangular region on the east coast of Black Sea surrounded by the Caucasus range) and Albania (an ancient and medieval state in southeastern Caucasia, located between the Caucasus Mountains on the north, the Kura River on the south, the Caspian Sea on the east. Zupanic locates the Vali on the Ljasva River, which, he notes, is also the name of a river in Bosnia.

 

[NickFreakyrgios]

2. IN ANCIENT TIMES
ALL SLAVS WERE CALLED SERBS?
I
n his mid-16th century history of the Goths, Jordanes locates the Spals (Spalt) in an
area between the Black, Azov, and Caspian seas:This part of the G oths, whi ch i s
said to have crossed the river and entered with Filimir into the country of Oium,
came into possession of the desired land, and there they soon came upon the race
of the Spali, joined battle with them and won thevi ctory( DeO rigineA c tib usq ueG etarum ).
In the same general area Jordanes' Byzantine contemporary, Procopius of Caesarea
places theSpo rs( S pori), a large and powerful Slav nation:Sklawenowie i Antowie
kiedys mieli nawet jedna nazwe—zwano ich Sporami—jak sadze dlatego, ze
zamieszkujaw rozproszeniu, oddaleniöd siebie( DeB ellis).C e n t u r i e searlier,P lin y
locates theSpals i n this same area (Tanaian vero transisse Satharcheo Herticleos, Spondolicos,
Synthietas, Anasos, Issos, Cataeetas, Tagoras, Caronos, Neripos Agandaeos, Mendaraeos,
Satharcheos, Spalaeos). He also mentions the Pals (IbiNapaei interisse dicuntura aPalaeis),
which may be another name for theSpal s. In this same general area, Mela locates the
SpalsrecordedasS palei (A.A. Shamatov, Spoil, Spoli-iskonyie sosedi slavjan, ZhivajaS ta rin a20, 1911.G.
Vernadsky, The Spali ofjordanis and the Spori, Byzantion 13, 1938).
SPORS ARE SERBS
Important historians, including Josip Dobrovsky (1753-1829), the father of sci-
entific Slavistics, renowned for his objectivity and his insistence on the bare unvar-
nished truth whether or not it was in accord with national myths,are certain that
the Spalt, Spaleia n d Sporiare Serbs: Porovname-li vypovedi, dvou

nejhodnovernejsich svekuv o Slovanech 6ho veku, Jornanda a Prokopia, shledame jistotne, za Vindi a Spori (Srbi), jsou hlavni jmena jednoho a tehoz kmene. Vinidove Jornandovi jsou Sporove (Srbove) Prokopiovia naopak(J . Dobrovsky, Ü berden Urspmnd
des Namens Tschech, Tschechen, Geschichte der Böhmen, 1782).
ALL SLAVS WERE CALLED SPORI
Compelling evidence that theSpo rsand Spalei are foreign cognates of the na-
tive Serb name is found in Procopius's words that:In ancient times all Slavs were
called Spori.A c c o r d in g to t h e e x h a u stiv e research o f 19th a n d e a rly 2 0th c e n t u r y h i s t o -
rians, Procopius's words—in ancient times all Slavs were called Spori—are a clear
reference to the Serbs and only Serbs.
VLASTNE STARE JMENO
On this point Safarik writes: Dame-li tak smysine a pruvodne domnence,

zeby v pokazene form Spori u Prokopia vlastne stare jmeno kmene slovanskeho Srbi tkvelo, za pravdu, jakoz pak za dulezitymi pricinami jinak uciniti nemuzeme, tof jiz tim samym nova, prostrana a bezpecnas cesta k vyskooumani pojiti Slovanuv a starobylych sidel jejich nam se otevre. Mamet zajiste dvoji pranarodu tohoto jmeno pred rukama cizozemske, t. Vinidi cilic Vendi, a domaci, t. Srbi: procez potrebi jest jen vsecka svedectvi hodnovernych spisovateluv davnovekosti o narodech dvojim timto jmenem vyznacenych pilne pohledavati, shledana rozsudne oceniti, ocenena pak oustrojne sporadati, a tim samym prvotni sidla Slovanuv a stare dejiny jejich z mraku nepameti a nevedomosti na jasne svetlo historicke
nazornosti pred ocima nasima vystoupi. Outnysl nas a obrany k dosazeni jeho
zpusob toho ovsem vymaha, abyehom prede vsim vsecho to, cokoli v nejstarsich
pramenech a pamatkach dejeslovi evropejskeho o techto, od nas za neprostredne
predky dnesnich Slovanuv uznanych, Vindech a Srbich roztrousene sa nachazi, co
nejpilneji do hromady sebrali, a ocidene z prachu vetchosti i die vnitrniho zavazi
ocenene v souhlasny celek spojili, jisti jsouce, za tudyz nabudeme zakladu pevneho
pro soustavu starozitnosti slovanskych.
PROKOPIOSA ZAWIERA
H. Popowska-Taborska sums up the view of such eminent Slavists as Dobrovsky,
Anton and Safarik in the following terms:Z etnonimen Serbowie laczyc sie zwyklo
zanotowana przez Prokopia z Cezarei w De bello Gothico nazwe Spori, ktora
jednakze Prokopio eytmologizowal odtniennie, wykorzystujac gre slow Spori i
grecki Sporatni: Takze i iniie mieli z dawien dawno jedno Sklawinowie i Antowie;
jednych i drugich bowiem zwano dawniej Sporatni, sadze, za diatego, poniewaz

rozproszeni, z dala od siebie zamieszkuja swoj kraj. J. Dobrowski, K. G. Anton, P. Szafarzyk przyjmowali juz, ze relajca Prokopiosa zawiera znieksztalcona nazwe Serbow(Wczesne Dzieje Slowian, 1993).
GREATEST SCRIBBLERS

They are also certain that the names Spalt, Spaleiund Sport are consistent with the problems inherent in Greek-Latin transliterations of the Srb/Serb name, especially names with three successive consonants. Greek historians and commentators, Safarik and others note, routinely treated native names in a cavalier manner. In fact, in their accounts of 'barbarian' nations, especially distant ones, the Greeks were thegreatest
scribblers, writes Strabo (63 B.C.-A.D.42), one of the first scientific geographers. In his

17-volume studyGeographic a, Strabo writes, the same or worse was often true of Ro- man imitators who were seldom able or inclined to correct the accounts of their Greek mentors.
SPORS ARE SRBS ARE SPORS

In support of the thesis thatSpals/Spo rs areS rbs, the following points were made by leading late 18th, 19th, and early 20th century German, Austrian, French, Czech, Slovak, Polish, Hungarian, Romanian, and Croatian historians and Slavists: 1) Procopius' Spors is an obvious corruption of Srbs, the ancient and native name of all the Slavs; 2) Once mentioned, the so-called Spals and Spors disappear from the historical record; 3) If one compares the two most authoritative account of the Slavs in the 6th century, namely Jordan and Procopius, it is both clear and certain that the names Wends and Spors-Srbs are two common names for the one and same people; 4) We can state with certainty that the names Wends and Spors-Srbs are two names for one people. Jordan's Winds are Procopius's Spors/Srbs are Jordan's Winds. Thus the two names for an an- cient people, one foreign, Winds or Wends, one native—Srb.
ORIGINAL, PRIMEVAL, NATIVE AND COMMON NAME
As the following brief statements indicate, all the above are absolutely certain
that the ancient Slavs—the Wends, Antes, and Sklavini—were first known as Serbs: 1)

 

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Serb was the original, primeval, native and common name of all Slavs; 2) Early Greek- Roman historians know nothing of the name Slav, they speak only of the Wends or Serbs; 3) In the beginning the Slavs called themselves by their native name, Serbs, while foreigners, especially Germans, called them Wends, or Winds; 4) According to the research of the greatest scholars on the subject, in ancient times all Slavs were called Serbs; 5) Serb was the name of all the Slav nations long before the name Slav or Ante appeared; 6) Serb was once the name of all the Slavs, who were also called Wends, Winds and Veneds by their western neighbors; 7) Over time the original name Serb was lost, the name Ante vanished in the 6th century B.C., and from the 6th century forward the name Slavi, Slavini appears in chronicles. When the modern Slavs were a single nation they were called Sarbaci, Sorabi, Sorbi, Srbi. It is still not clear when the ancient Serbs broke into different Slavic peoples; 8) Judging by the fact that the ancient Serbs occupied an immense area, that there were a number of separate Serb states, united only by language, the breakup of the Serbs may have started several thousand years before the birth of Christ; 9) This name [Serb] has the deepest historical roots. We come across it in its original, true, native form in Pliny (79 A.D.) and Ptolemy (175 A.D.) where one finds the name between the Volga, Maeotis, and Don rivers. This information alone gives us some idea how widely distributed the name Serb was even at that time. It absolutely confirms the words of later historians and commentators; 10) As a historical people the Slavs enter the historical record under two different names; one, a native name, Srb, appears in some sources, the other, Veneti, in more sources. Before too long the native name as a collective name, as a name for an immense na- tional entity, will be replaced, as will Veneti, by Slav; 11) In ancient times all Slavs were called Wends or Serbs. I cannot say whether one name preceded the other, or whether both appeared at the same time. More likely than not, at the same time, one name, Serb, was used by the natives (Domaci starobylich Slovanuv jmeno Srbove), the other, Wend, by foreigners.
ELBE SERBS, DANUBE SERBS

It is safe to say that all the above agree that it not a coincidence that the Serbs of Germania and Illyria share a common name: 1) The common Serb name of the Illyrian Serbs and the Lusatian Serbs originated in ancient times when all the modern Slav nations were called Serbs, when they spoke a common language, which, step by step, over great space and time, devolved into twelve distinct languages; 2) The identical name of the Luzica [Lusatia] Serbs and the Balkan Serbs is not coincidental. They originate in ancient times when all Slavs were known as Serbs; 3) Though the national name Serb was once widely distributed, today it is carried by only two Slavic nations: Serbs on the Elbe and Serbs on the Danube; 4) Serb, the name which once was the common name of all Slavs, is today carried only by the natives of the two Luzicas and the Jugoslav Serbs. The Serbs of the two Luzicas are called Sorbs so as to distinguish them from the southern Serbs. J. Dobrovsky perhaps best sums up the consensus on the subject in the following termsie Aehnilichkeit der Namens der lausitzer Sorben
oder Serben und der illyrischen Serben ist nicht zufallig, sondern stammt aus uralten
Zeiten her. Unter diesem Namen waren beide Ordnungen der slawischen Volker,
ehe noch der ellgemeine Name Slawen aufgekommen, ehedem begriffen 3. IN LESS ANCIENT TIMES:
VENEDI, ANTES, SKLAVINI
I
n less ancient times, of course, the Serbs/Slavs were known by other
names—Venedi, Antes,a n d Sklavini.1 The nameE n e to i, possibly a

Greek form ofVen ed i , has deep roots in ancient Greek sources. An 8th century B.C. source, HomersIlia d , places theE netoi in Paflagonia (Asia Minor). Herodotus (484- 425B.C.) locates theE netoi on the Adriatic: Enetoi kaden toAdria. In one of his works, the Greek dramatist Euripiides (480-406 B.C.) refers toE neta, a settlement in either Epirus or Asia Minor. Century's later, Strabo (63 B.C.-A.D. 21) mentions anE netoi on the Adriatic.
VENETIThe nameVen et i also has an impressive historical record. The Roman statesman,
soldier and writer, Cato (234-149 B.C.) mentions theVen et i . In the early 1st century
A.D., Pliny locates theVen ed i on the Vistula:It is said that Pomerania is inhabited
as far as the Vistula River by the Sarmatian Venedi, Sciri, Hirri.
At roughly the same time, Mela locates the Indi (Vindi/Vendf) alongside theS er
Serbs in Scythia. In early 2nd century A.D., Tacitus places the Venedieast o f th e Ge rm a n s
(''their plundering forays take them over all the wooded and mountainous highlands be-
tween the Peucini [Carpathians] and the Fenni' [eastern Russia]). Ptolemy (A.D. 100-
178) places theVen ed ae among the Sarmatian tribes on the Baltic Sea: Large nations
inhabit Sarmatia:the Venedae along the whole Venedae Bay. In theT ab ular
Peutigneriana, a 3rd century A.D. source, in a list of peoples dwelling beyond the bound-
aries of the Roman Empire, one finds several references to theVen ed i :the Ven ad i S arm at ae
and theL ug i o n es Sarm at ae north of Dacia, theVen ad i near the Danube delta.2
IMMENSASPATIA, NATIO POPULOSA

In Jordanes' mid-o* century condensed version of a work of the same title writ- ten in the first half of the 6th century by Magnus Aurelius Cassidorius, a learned Roman, the numerousVen et hi , centered on the Vistula, occupy a boundless area:ab o rt u Vi st ut ae
fluminisper immensa spatia Winidarum natiopopulosa consedit.3
ANTES

Pliny placesthe A ntes between the Sea of Azov and the Caspian. Ptolemy places them in the Crimea and at the mouth of the Don. Other sources placethe A ntes at the head of a powerful Slav confederation centered in the area of the Don, Donets, and middle Dnieper.4 Jordanes locates the mightyAn t es,the bravest of these peoples, on
the curve of the sea of Pontus, spread from the Danaster to the Danaper, rivers
that are many days journey apart.
BOZH, KING OF THE ANTES

According to Jordanes, theA ntes were defeated by the Goths in the Dnieper region in 375, after whichB oz h, king ofthe A ntes, his son, and seventy chieftains were executed:Vinitharius in Antorumfines movietprocinctum, eosque dum adgreditur
prima congressione superatus, deindefortiter egit regemque eorum Boz nomine cum

 

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filiis suit et LXX primatibus in exemplum terroris adfixit, ut dediticiis metum
cadaveras pendentium germinarent.
ANTABI.ANTHABI
An 8th century account ofthe A ntes affairs in the year 400 records themasAn t abi ,
Anthabi and refers to wars with Langobards crossing their lands: Egressi... L a.ngoba.rdi
de Mauringa, applicueruntin Golanda, ubialiquanto tempore commorati, dicuntur
post haec Anthaib et Banthaib, pari modo et Vurgundhabi, per annos aliquod

possidisse; Et moverunt se exbinde L angobardi, et venerunt in Golaidam, etpostea possiderunt aldonus Anthaib etBainaib seu et Burgundaib; Langobardiporcedurnt inprovinciamAnthap,eti n d eint errai n B at hai b( F ault Diaconia, HistoriaLangobardum, c.786).
ANTES, INFINITI

Impressed with their great number, Procopius j4»tey zrepopuliAntarum inßniti. Following a defeat at the hands of the Lombards, Procopius writes, the Germanic Heruls were given free passage through Slavs lands,m dudingA ntes lands in Danubia-Carpathia, in the early 6th century.
BYZANTINE HISTORIANS
The Antes in action and war in the Balkans, Carpathia, Danubia, and lands fur-

ther east are often mentioned in 5th and 6th century Byzantine historians and official sources: Agathias'On the Reign of Justinian covers the period 552-558; Theophylactus Simocattes' eight-volume history of the Emperor Maurice (582-602); the Strategion of
Maurice, an early 7th century Byzantine military handbook, particularly the section titled

'On the habits and tactics of each of the foreign peoples'; Paschal s Chronicle, a work covering the period up to 629, especially the reigns of emperors Phokas and Heraclius. During the rule of Imperator Caesar Christi Justinian I (527-565) theAn tes hold a prominent place in the list of barbarian adversaries/auxiliaries: Alamanicus, Gotthicus,
Francicus, Germanicus,An t i cus, Alanicus, Vandalicus, etc. In the year 530, Byzantine
authorities appoint Chilbudius, anAn tes chieftain and ally, Supreme Commander on
the Danube. Fifteen yearslater Justinian offers the Antes a considerable sum of money,
lands on the northern bank of the lower Danube, and the status of imperial
foederati,onconditionthattheyguard the riveragainsttheB ulgars(D.O b okm ky ,
The Byzantine Commonwealth, 1971).
ANTES, AVARS

In the rapidly changing frontier world of friend and foe, less than two decades later,An t es invaders come into conflict with Avars serving as imperialf oederati on the Danube. According to 7th century historian Theophylaktos Simocatta, in 602the A ntes allied themselves with Emperor Maurice against the Avars. In response, the Avarkhagan dispatched an army under the command of Aspich to exterminatethe A ntes. However, the fearful Avars deserted before battle could take place. A nation of uncertain origin, the Avars were not always Avars. According to Byzantine sources, in some instancesthey
were Slavscalled Avars( F .B arisic ," M onem vasijskaH ronika" odoeseljavanjuA varo- S lovenanaP eloponez 5 8 7
godine, Godisnjak Centra zabalkanoloskaispitivanja 1,1965-66. A.Avenarius,DieAwareninEuropa, 1974. Z. Cilinska,
SlovaniaaAvarskikaganat, 1992. J. Kovacevic, Avarski kaganat, 1977. W. Pohl, DieAwarenkriege Karls des Grossen, 788-
803,1988. B.Zasterova, LesAvares et les Slaves dans la Tactique de Muarice, 1971. O.Pritsak, The Slavs and the Avars
Settimane di Studio del Centra Italiano di Studii $ulAlto Medievo 30, 1982. LA. Tyskiewicz, Problem zaleznosci slowian
odawarow u VT-VTIwieku, BaPIV, 1989).
FROM THE IONIAN GULF
Regarding the Justinian and post-Justinian period, Procopius writes:Illyricum
and all of Thrace, that is, from the Ionian Gulf to the suburbs of Constantinople,
including Greece and the Chersonese were overrun by the Huns, Sclavini and
Antes, almost every year, from the time when Justinian took over the Roman
Empire; and intolerable things they did to the inhabitants. So proud of occasional
victories overthe A ntes, Justinian's successor, Justin II (562-578), assumed the title.4«-
ticus.
AS LONG AS THEREARE SWORDSAND WARS
Often noted for their martial spirit, in the 6th century, the BessarabianAn tes
responded to an Avar demand for tribute in the following terms: No one can challenge
our power. We are the ones who take the lands of others ... And so it will be as
long as there are swords and wars in the world. Unmistakably Slavic names ofAn tes
kings and chieftains, including several with the suffix -gost, are recorded in diverse sources:
Ardagost, Bozh, Chilbud, Dobrogost, Kelagost, Mezimir, Prigost,By the mid-?* cen-
tury the name.<4»*KS loses its place in written sources in favor of the genericS klaveni.
ANTI, ENTI, INDI, VINDI

It is obvious to some scholars that theVen ed iand A ntes are one and the same; the so-called Anti, Enti, Indi, Vindi, Vendi are different names for Slavs, the differences more a matter of time, place and language than anything else.
SKLAVINI

In a list of nomadic Scythian tribes between the Volga and Ural mountains, Ptolemy locates theSo uben o i . In a list of sedentary tribes between the Baltic Sea and the Black Sea, Ptolemy locates theSto .v o .n i . If K. Moszynski is right, ifSo uben o i is actually a corruption ofSlo v en i lSlo v en o i , then it is the first time the nameSlo v en i appears in the historical record. Safarik and others, however, readSo uben o i not asSlo v en o i , but as
Svoibenoi, as 'the free, independent Slavs,' and Stovonias Stani, connoting a Slav na-
tion, land, settlement.5
WILD, FREE, WITHOUT RULERS
The Slavs asSklav i n i definitely enter the historical record as DanubianS klavini
in the Dialogues of Pseudo-Caesar, a 5th century compilation based partly on 4th century
sources:The Sklavenoi ... are wild, free, and without rulers ... They hail one an-
other by howling like wolves. According to the author, theS klavenoi are in every way
the exact opposiite of a neighboring non-Slavic nation:The Fisonians who avoid con-
flict and readily submit to all in their path.
WOLVES

Though he fails to mention the Danubians who howl like wolves, O.N. Trubacev finds a Serb-Wolf connection by other means. Namely, by connecting Herodotus' ac- count of the Neuroi (' The Scythians and the Hellenes inhabiting Scythia tell us that once

 

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in a year each of the Neuroi becomes a wolf for some days and again becomes what he was)
with the Serb/Balkan belief invukodlaks (werewolves) with the fact that the vlk, 'wolf',
completely absent from the anthroponymy of most of the Slavic languages, is
often found in the personal names of South Slavs: Vukobrat, Vukoman, Vukomil,
Vukomir, Vukosav, Vukovoj,B jelovuk,D obrovuk,M i lovuk( O .N.T rub ac ev, L inguistic sand
Ethnogenesis of the Slavs: The Ancient Slavs as Evidenced by Etymology and Onomastics, InD 13, 1985).
VUKSA, VUCIC, VUKOTA, VUKIC

In fact, of course, in the some Serb lands, in Montenegro, for example,V uk often seems to be an element of every other personal or family name. A late 15th century register of adult males in several clans settled in the heBan jan i andPi v a counties of northwestern Montenegro, for example, reveals a high percentage of names derived from the rootvuk- . In the following series, the son's name is followed by the father's name: Vuksa, Radic; Vucic, Radosal; Radic, Vukota; Vukic, Grubac; Vukca, Baldun; Radic, Vukic; Knez Vukcic, Bratum; Vukosav, Vrbic; Vukic, Vladko; Vuksa, Vitoja; Vukman, Vulin; Ratko, Vukasin; Vukosav, Milan; Vukosav, Obrad; Radosav, Vukrnan; Vukasin, Vuk; Vukac, Obrad; Vukac, Milosh; Vukota, Stanimil; Vukac, Pribislav; Vukota, Dabiziv; Radosav, Vukan; Kovac, Vukota; Vukosav, Vukic; Radivoj, Vuksa; Ivan, Vuksa; Radica, Vukic; Vukas, Bratul; Vukosav, Radac; Vucin, Stoje; Vukas, Radasin.
ABODE OF THE SLAVENI
In the next century, Procopius locates theSklav en o i on the lower Danube. Ac-
cording to Jordanes,the abode of the Sclaveni extends from the city of Noviodunum
and the lake called Mursianus to the Danster, and northward as far as the Vistula.
Never one to flatter enemies of the Goths, Jordanes claims that they have swamps and
forests for their cities.
SCLAVINI OR ANTES
Though divided into many tribes with different names( Quo rum n o m i n a li ecet
nunce per varias familias et loco, mutentur), Jordanes writes, theV eneti mainly call
themselvesSclavinior Antes: principaliter Sclavini et Antes nominator.
ONE IN BLOOD AND LANGUAGE
Differences in name and place notwithstanding, Jordanes writes:All, Veneti, Antes
and Sclavi, are one in blood and language.
DO NOT DIFFER IN APPEARANCE

Familiar with bothAn tesand Sklav i n i who served as mercenaries in Byzantine armies, Procopius, an adviser to the great Byzantine commander Belisarius, is unable to distinguish one from the other:The Sklavini and Antes do not differ in appearance.
All of them are tall and strong, their skin and hair neither very light or dark, but
all are ruddy of face. 4. SCYTHS, SARMATS
S
cythia is one of the more fluid and elusive terms in the works of ancient geogra-
phers. At different times it refers to lesser and greater regions stretching from south-

eastern Europe in the west to Central Asia in the east. In Europe the geographical term Scythia is associated with two regions, namely the Black Sea Steppe, where the principal Scythic kingdom developed, and, later,S c y thia M inor, a Roman province com- prising the lands immediately south of the mouths of the Danube.
THE SCYTHIAN LOOK

Contemporaneous Greek artisans depict the Scythians as a nation of usually bearded men, who wear their hair long, flowing, swept back from the forehead, with perhaps rather Slavic faces, characterized by heavy browbridges, deep-set eyes, and pronounced noses. Recent excavations of Scythian grave sites offers interesting physical anthropologi- cal information. It indicates that, Renate Rollet writes:in European Scythia, includ-
ing the Caucasus regions, the Scythians were Europids without any Mongol char-
acteristics( DieW e ltder Sky then,19 8 0 ).The excavations also indicate that instatu re thean cien t
Scythians resemble the highland Serbs, centered in Montenegro. Rolle writes:The

Scythians were relatively tall. The tallness is particularly noticeable in warrior burials and those of men of the upper social stratum ... They are often over 6 ft (1.80m) in height, sometimes over 6 ft 3 in (1.90m), and have occasionally been been known to exceed 6 ft 6 in. (2 m.)... This phenomenon can be observed all the way to the eastern extremity of the Scythian world.
TALLEST PEOPLE IN EUROPE
It is perhaps significant that the same is true and truer of the Montenegrin Serbs.
The dean of American physical anthropologists, Harvard' s Carleton S. Coon, writes:
The Montenegrins who are the tallest people in Europe, live on a barren lime-
stone mountain upland ... They are probably the heaviest as well as the tallest

people in Europe ... Although their legs are long, their trunks are correspond- ingly high ... The Montenegrins' mean shoulder breath is 39cm., and their chests are correspondingly large. The relative span of 101 is extremely low, indicating
that their arms are short in proportion to either leg or trunk length. The hands
and feet are, as is to be expected, usually of great size. These huge mountaineers
are not as a rule slender, leptosome people; they are often thickset, and are large
all over.
AN ALMOST PERFECT EMBODIMENT
One finds the same observations in the accounts of English and other European
observers. In one typical instance, a seasoned English traveler writes:I have never, in all

my wanderings throughout the world, met a better fellow than the Montenegrin ... The men of the Tsernagora are justly famous for their good looks and splendid physiques. They are a race of giants, and a man of average height in England
would be regarded here as something akin to a dwarf. But notwithsthanding his
formidable frame and stature the Montenegrin is graceful in all his movements
(H.DeWindt,T hrough S avage E urope,1913 ).Another English observer,ano ffi c e r of the Consular
Service, states the case in more succinct terms:The Montenegrin race presents an

 

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almost perfect embodimentof all thatis admirablein physique(A.G. Hulme-Beaman,
Twenty Years in the Near East, 1898).
SCYTHARUM, PATRIASCLAVINORUM
The belief that the Slavs originated in Scythia finds clear expression in a number
of early medieval works, including a 7th century cosmography known as theR avennatis
Anonymil Cosmographia:Scythia(Scy t harum ) is the ancestral land (Scytharum est
patria)of the Slavs (Sclavinooum exorta estprosapia).
SCYTHSSimilarly, medieval and post-medieval annals, chronicles, and histories will some-
times refer to Slavs not as Slavs, but as Scythsor Scythians. One of the more interesting
and specific variations on the Scythian theme is found in a 17th century inquiry into the
originsofH u n g a r yw h e re in thea u t h o rcites theS c y thianB ud i n s (Origines Hungaricae Seu,
Liber,QuiV era Nationis HungaricaeO rigoet Amiquistas, 1692).Tracingtheorigin ofH u n g a ry 'sSlavs, E
Otrokosci writes that:Some are f r om Old Scythia, some are Veneds f r om the B alti c,
but most are Budins, from the Budins who originated in the Don region of Scythia.
OLD SCYTHIA
Herodotus gives the borders of Scythia and Old Scythia in the following terms:

Before you come to Scythia, on the seacoast lies Thrace. The land here makes a sweep, and then Scythia begins, the Ister falling into the sea at this point with its mouth facing the east. Starting from the Ister I shall now describe the measure- ments of the seashore of Scythia. Immediately after the Ister is crossed, Old Scythia begins, and continues as far as the city called Carcinitis.
BUDINIHerodotus locates theB ud i n i , a large and powerful nation; they all have blue
eyes and red hair, north of the Sauromatae. TheBudi n i , he writes: are the original

people of the country, and are nomads. Their country is thickly planted with trees of all manners and kinds. In the very woodiest part is a broad deep lake, surrounded by marshy ground with reeds growing on it.
PROTO-SLAVS
A number of eminent scholars have little doubt that theBudi n s are a Proto-Slav
people (e.g. Safarik, Niederle, Lehr-Splawinski, Moszynski, Golab).1 In most instances,
then a m eB udin istraced to theSlavicro o tb ud- andthelarge andpow erf ulnation is
centered in the Middle Desna and Sejm basins, which belong to the forest zone. L.
Niederle writes:I do not hesitate to locate the seats of the Herodotian Budini in

the west, in the vicinity of the Neuroi, and to put them in central Kievan Russia between the Dnieper and Don, approximately on Desna and Sejm ... and on the basis of the explicit statement by Herodotus that the Budini are a people differ- ent from the Scythians ... and on the basis of their physical type and ultimately because of the meaning and form of their ethnic name I do not hesitate to pro- nounce them to be a big Slavic tribe belonging to the eastern branch, thus a part of the later Great Russian (velkorusky) stock which obviously already in a very old period occupied the Desna basin having given the river its Slavic name, and which naturally at the Herodotian time could penetrate along the Sejm as far as
UpperD on( L .Niederle,S lovanskestaroz itnosti, I,19 0 2 ).
NEURI
They also believe that theBud i n 's neighbors, theNe u r i, are a related Proto-Slav
people. Regarding their location, Herodotus writes: As for the inland boundaries of
Scythia, if we start from the Ister, we find it enclosed by the following tribes, first
the Agathyrsi, next the Neuri.
VOLYNIA

Golab's interpretation of Herodotus places theNe u r i in historical Volynia, ex- tending east to the Middle Dnieper and west to the Upper Dniester. According to Herodotus, serpents forced theNeuri , whose customs are like the Scythians, to leave their original home and take refuge with theBudi n i . Evidence in favor of a Proto-Slavic identification is found in several areas, including the name's Slavic root (from the Proto- Slavic rootn e r - connoting live, force) and related hydronyms and toponyms (Nur, Nurec, Nuzec and ziemia Nuska on the border of Poland and the Ukraine). Indeed, Golab's examination of the textual, linguistic, and onomastic evidence allows him to make the following statement:So we would consider Neuroi (late PSL *Nervi)to be the old-
est attested endogenous Slavic ethnicon used by a large Proto-Slavic tribe con-
centrated in the 6th-7th centuries B.C. along the northwestern frontier of Scythia,
whichcorrepondsroughly to thehi stori cal EastSlavi cprovi nceofVolyni a(Z .Golab ,
The Oldest Ethnica Referring to the Slavs: Neuroi and Budini in Herodotus's Description of Scythia, OnO 19, 1974).
GREAT SERB NATION
A 10th century Byzantine source locates one part of the Serb nation, theB lac k
Serbs,inS c y t h i a :ThegreatSerbnati on,whi ch i sdi vi dedi nto t woparts, t heW hi te
Serbs or independent Serbs, and the Black Serbs or dependent Serbs.
SERBS: SCYTHARUS GENTES
Medieval German sources sometimes refer to Germania's Serbs as: Scythae or
Scytharusgentes.T heWends andT h eir M ig ra tio n f romS c y thia toGerman Lands is the
title of a chapter in a mid-16th century German chronicle compiled by E. Brotuff. The
chronicle records the settlement of the salt mines near Halle by Wends called Serbs
whomigrated toG ermaniaf romScythi a( Chronic a von den S alz - B ornenundE rb auung derS tadt
Hull an der Sala in Sachsen gelegen, 1554).
SARMATIA
As theS arm ats overwhelmed their fraternal rivals (Porro Scytharum,
Sarmatarumque gens una eteadensab origine) around the middle of the 2nd century
B.C.,S arm atia succeededS c y thia as a more popular name for the 'barbarian' lands be-
yond Roman-Byzantine Europe's eastern frontier.
WHEN ONE CROSSES THE TANAIS
Regarding the original homeland of theS arm atians, Herodotus writes,when
one crosses the Tanais, one is no longer in Scythia; the first region on crossing is
that of the Sauromatae, who, beginning at the upper end of the Palus Maeotis

 

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[Sea of Azov], stretch northward a distance of fifteen days journey.Polybius locates
Sarmafia in thePonto-C aspiansteppe( H istona). Ptolemy'sS arm atia is animmensearea

bounded by the Vistulaand Volga rivers and the Balticand Black seas( GeographikeH y phegesis). Pomponius Mela givesS arm atia a European orientation, namely the lands east of the Elbeand northof the Danube( DeS ituO rb is).
SARMATS
Similarly,S arm at orS arm atae (also Sarabatiae, Sauromatae, Syrmatae, and
Sermende among others) succeeds Scythor Scythae more often than not as a learned

archaism for the Slavs (e.g.Sarmatae Sclavi). Pliny, Tacitus and Ptolemy refer to the Slavs on the Vendic/Baltic Sea and the Vistula River as Sarmats. Ptolemy, for example, writes:H abi t an t Sarm at i am g en t es m ax i m ae Ven ed aepro pt ert o t um Ven ed i cum si n um ;
Minores autem gentes Sarmatiam incolunt iuxta Visutalam infra Venedas Gythanes.
Mela locatesS arm atia east of Germania:G erm an i ad Sarm at as po rri g un t ur. Precisely
whereGerm ania ends andS arm atia begins, however, was a matter of some confusion. In
De Origine et Situ Germanorum (A.D. 98), a somewhat garbled description of the vari-
ous tribes west of the Rhine and north of the Danube, believed to be based largely on
out-of-date material, Tacitus is not sure whether some nations wereGerm ans orS arm ats.
Here Suebia ends. I am not sure whether the tribes of the Peucini, Veneti should
be assigned to the Teutons or to the Sarmatians ... The Venedi have adopted many
Sarmatian habits; for their plundering takes them over all the wooded and moun-
tainous highlands that lie between the Peucini and the Fenni. Nevertheless, they
are one the whole to be classed as Germans; for they have settled homes, carry
shields, and are fond of traveling—and travelling as—on foot, differing in all
these respects from the Sarmatians.
SUEBI
It is important to note that theS uebi , who occupy Germania's heartland, are also
a problem of sorts for Tacitus. TheS uebi , Tacitus writes,do not constitute a single
nation. They occupy more than half Germany, and are divided into a number of
separate tribes under different names, though all are called by the generic name
Suebi.In the early 1820s, D. Popp was one of the first German historians to identify
Tacitus'S uebi with the Slavs.
NOT ALL SARMATIANS
At the same time it was clear to ancient and modern historians thatS arm at and
Sarmatia4 referred to an immense area inhabited by numerous and different nations,
Slavs and others. In the succinct words of one scholar: All Slavs are Sarmatians, but all
Sarmatians are not Slavs.
SCLAVI SARMATI
Accordingly, medieval German sources often refer to Slavic Germania as
Sarmatarum and the native Slavs as Sa.rma.tesor Sclavi Sarmati. In the 16th century one
often findsS arm atia in the titles of Polish Kings: Invictissimum dominum

Sigismundeum, regent Polonie, magnum ducem L ituanie, Russie, Prussie, Sarmatieque Europee dominum et et heredum; Regnum Sarmatiae; Rex Sarmatiae Europee invictissimus; Sarmacie Totius Rex; Sarmatiae Poloniaeque Rex; Sarmatiae Regis; Sarmaticaresp ubl i c a, Sarmatae populus( KPotkowski,Sarm atissm us ahpolitisc heideologic der
jagelionischen Dynasties, Zeitschrift fur Ostmitteleuropae Forschung 44, 1995).
SLOVO APUD SARMATAS

ThatS arm ats wereS lavs wereS arm ats was the premise of numerous medieval and later commentaries on the history and language of the Slavs. In a mid-16th century history of Bohemia, the learned Bishop of Olomouc, John Skala of Dubravka( J ohannes
Dubravius), derives the nameSlo v en (Slav) from the Sarmat wordSlo v o which, he ex-
plains, has the same meaning asV erb u m in Latin:I d en i m S t o wo ap ud S arm at as, q uo d

verbum apudL ationospersonat. Quoniam igitur otnnes Sarmatarum nationes late jam tune, longeque per Regna et Provincia sparsae unum nomen eumdemque sermonem, atque eadem propemodum verba sonarant, se uno etiam cognomine
Slovanos appellabant. Ab ipsapraeterea gloria, quae apud ilos Slava dicitur, Slavitni
dicti( H istoriaeR egniB oiem iae,15 5 2 ).
SLAWISCHEN VOLKSTAMM
On the basis of historical documents and textual analysis, in the 19th century
most historians and Slavists of note readS arm at asS lav. Quandt, for example, writes
thatS a rm a t is another name forS la v : Der Name bezeichnet den Slawischen
Volkstamm.
OLDEST RETRIEVABLE HABITAT
In the second half of the 20th century linguistic analysis tends to generally confirm
the prehistoric 'Sarmat' roots of Slavdom. The following words, for example, follow Z.
Golab's examination of a number of Slavic words with the initial x-: First of all, the

problem of the prehistorical ethno-linguistic contacts between the Slavs (Proto- Slavs) and the Pontic Iranians (Scythians and Sarmatians) reappears as an impor- tant problem. Such a number of loanwords concerning such different semantic spheres cannot be accidental: it must be interpreted as a result of a prolonged period of very close inter-ethnic relations, especially because among the words discussed there are such for which we should a phonemic 'Iranization' rather than simple borrowing. Briefly, we should 'rehabilitate' the idea of close relations between the Proto-Slav and the Scythians or Scytho-Sarmatians ... Another con- clusion which can be drawn from the above lexical facts concerns the location of the oldest 'retrievable' habitat of the Slavs in the period of their close contacts
witht hePonticIranians( Z .Golab ,T helnitialX - inCom m onS lavic : AContrib ution toP rehistoric alS lavic -
Iranian Contacts, American Contributions to the VIIInternational Congress of Slavists, 1973).

 

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Sarmaticaresp ubl i c a, Sarmatae populus( KPotkowski,Sarm atissm us ahpolitisc heideologic der
jagelionischen Dynasties, Zeitschrift fur Ostmitteleuropae Forschung 44, 1995).
SLOVO APUD SARMATAS

ThatS arm ats wereS lavs wereS arm ats was the premise of numerous medieval and later commentaries on the history and language of the Slavs. In a mid-16th century history of Bohemia, the learned Bishop of Olomouc, John Skala of Dubravka( J ohannes
Dubravius), derives the nameSlo v en (Slav) from the Sarmat wordSlo v o which, he ex-
plains, has the same meaning asV erb u m in Latin:I d en i m S t o wo ap ud S arm at as, q uo d

verbum apudL ationospersonat. Quoniam igitur otnnes Sarmatarum nationes late jam tune, longeque per Regna et Provincia sparsae unum nomen eumdemque sermonem, atque eadem propemodum verba sonarant, se uno etiam cognomine
Slovanos appellabant. Ab ipsapraeterea gloria, quae apud ilos Slava dicitur, Slavitni
dicti( H istoriaeR egniB oiem iae,15 5 2 ).
SLAWISCHEN VOLKSTAMM
On the basis of historical documents and textual analysis, in the 19th century
most historians and Slavists of note readS arm at asS lav. Quandt, for example, writes
thatS a rm a t is another name forS la v : Der Name bezeichnet den Slawischen
Volkstamm.
OLDEST RETRIEVABLE HABITAT
In the second half of the 20th century linguistic analysis tends to generally confirm
the prehistoric 'Sarmat' roots of Slavdom. The following words, for example, follow Z.
Golab's examination of a number of Slavic words with the initial x-: First of all, the

problem of the prehistorical ethno-linguistic contacts between the Slavs (Proto- Slavs) and the Pontic Iranians (Scythians and Sarmatians) reappears as an impor- tant problem. Such a number of loanwords concerning such different semantic spheres cannot be accidental: it must be interpreted as a result of a prolonged period of very close inter-ethnic relations, especially because among the words discussed there are such for which we should a phonemic 'Iranization' rather than simple borrowing. Briefly, we should 'rehabilitate' the idea of close relations between the Proto-Slav and the Scythians or Scytho-Sarmatians ... Another con- clusion which can be drawn from the above lexical facts concerns the location of the oldest 'retrievable' habitat of the Slavs in the period of their close contacts
witht hePonticIranians( Z .Golab ,T helnitialX - inCom m onS lavic : AContrib ution toP rehistoric alS lavic -
Iranian Contacts, American Contributions to the VIIInternational Congress of Slavists, 1973).
ENDNOTES
In Sebrany Spisy, I (1862), sub-section Slovanske narody u Herdota, Safarik discusses the linguistic, onomastic and
textual evidence in favor of a Proto-Slav interpretation of the Budini and the 'Neuri cili Nuri." M.I. Artmanov,
Venedi, Neuri i Budini v slavjanskom etnogeneze, Vestnik Leningradskogo Universiteta 2, 1946. M. Plezie,
Neurowie w swietle hisotriografii starozytnej, PdZ 8,1952. K. Tymniecki, Neurowie—Weneci, PaM 5,1957. O.N.
Trubacev, Staraja Skifija Gerodota i slavjane, AzY6, 1977. B.A. Rybakov, Gerodotova Skifija, 1979

5. SLAVS ARE SARMATS ARE SERBS?
T
he notion that theS arm at s wereS lavs was originally based in large
part on the premise that theSarm at s wereS erbs, that the names
Sarmat and Serb share a common root. Thus medieval texts sometimes identify
Sarmatiaas Sarabatije, as land of the Serbs/Sorabsi'Sarahs: Sarabatiepropiecurrentes
velsibi viventes Zirbi.
SARMATAESIRBI
Bishop Salomon's early 10th century dictionary-encyclopedia,M ater V erb orum in-
forms readers that theSarmats were once called Serbs: Sarmatae... Sirbitum dictia
serendo id estquasi sirbintiu. Vecerad, an early 12th century commentator on the Czech
edition of Mater Verborum equates theS arm at sand S erbs in the following terms:
Sarmatae populi Zirbi,110 2
ANTIQUISSIMUM NOMEN SARMATIS

An early 16th century chronicle, Chronicon Carionis, originally compiled by J. Carion (1499-1537), a noted German mathematician, astronomer, and historian, first printed in 1532, relates theS arm at i an s to theS erbs in the following ways:The name
Serb is derived from the names Sorab and Sarmat(a Sorabos et Sarmatis trahere);
Sorab is the oldest form of SarmatEx nomine exitimo factum esse nomen Sorabi,
paucis literis mutatis; Soraborum antiquissimum nomen a Sarmatis retinuerunt).
The same source asserts thatS arm at i s the original name of allS erbs, of northern and
southernS erbs: S art n at arum ap p el at i o n em , c um q uae eo d em est S o rabo rum B o real i bus,
qui supra Pontum etMaeotidem habitarunt.
SRBLI ILLYRIORUM
In his mid- 16th century study Chalcondyles notes the historical and linguistic
factors that demonstrate beyond doubt that theS erbs/S rbl i ofIlly r ia / Illy r io r u m originate
inSarm at i a: From the Danubian lands on the the edge of Europe, from Sarmatia.
SARMATARUM, SORABI, SERBLI
In the 18th and 19th centuries some scholars remained certain that the nameS erb
is derived fromS arm at , that over time the nameS arm at evolved and survived asS o rab
and Serb: Obscurantum tamepaulatim et Sartnatarum nomen invenimus ita quidem
ut soli Sorabi et Serbli id conservasse existimentur. In his discussion of the original
name of the Slavs ('Prvotnajmenu Slovanu) inS eb ra n y S p isy II (1863), P. Safarik makes
it clear that: (1)Wendend Sarmat• ax e.other and later names forS erb (Vindove aSarmati
= Srbove);(2) thatS arm at i s another name forS erb (O Sarmatech = Srbech).
SERBISCHER ABKUNFT
Other scholars, noting that early geographers and commentators routinely abused
and misused the nameS arm at , are certain that it was often used as a name for theS erbs:
Den alten und vielfach missgebrauchten Namen der Sarmaten ... für alle Zweige
serbischer Abkunft. JAZYGES
In the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries some scholars were certain that the
Sarmats-are-Serbs thesis was especially strong in the case of theSarmattan Jazyges.

According to Karl Anton von Gottlob, an 18th century German historian, philologist, and author of an encyclopedic history of the Serbs, the early history of the Serbs is obscured by a generic name for the nations of European and AsianSarm at i a, the so- calledS arm atians, a fictitious name for many very different nations including the Serbs, the so-calledSarm at i an s, who, according to Herodotus, spoke a corruptScy t hi an lan- guage( E rsteL inienE ines V ersuc hesü b erderA lten SlawenU rsprung,17 8 3 - 8 9 ).Ins u p p o rt of theJ ftZ g y e thesis, Gottlob and others make the following basic points: 1. In ancient timesS erb was the original, native and common name of all the Slavs; 2. Later, theS erb s were known by two names:Serband Jaz y g e, recorded asSarmattan Jazyge (e.g. Strabon'sJaz i g es
Sarmatae); 3. In the pre-Christian period elements ofthe J az y ges left the Serb-Jazyge

homeland in the Volga basin, migrated westward, occupied parts of Russia, Podolia, Moldavia, and Dacia and challenged the Romans in Danubia-Pannonia; 4. In the 1st century A.D., perhaps earlier, perhaps under pressure from the Huns, theS erbs left
Sarmatia and began settling in Europe; 5. InGerm ania the Serbs are called Wends,in
Danubiat h eS erbs are called Jazyges; 6.B e g i n n i n g w ith the 6th c e n t u r yt he Jaz y g e Serbs
ofDanub ia are calledSlo v en s by the Greeks and others; 7. Both names,Jaz y g eand
Sloven; Jazygehom jaz y k, Slovenf r o m Slovo, are derived from Old Slavic words con-
noting letter, word, speech, language; 8. All Slavs can be traced to theSerb or Jazyge
branches of the greatS erb trunk. According to Gottlob, vital evidence in favor of the
Jazyge Serb thesis is found in the historical record, in the numerous recorded Slavic

hydronyms, toponyms, and towns (e.g. Ptolemy'sSerbi t i um inP annonia Inf erior) sug- gesting an earlyS erb presence in Danubia 'coincidental' in time and place with that of the so-calledSarm a ti an Jaz y g e.
BABA, BUKA

Mid-5th century sources identifytwo J az y ge rulers with Slavic sounding names, namelyB aba andB uka at the head of theSarmatian Jazyges on the Danube near modern Belgrade:Quorum exitio Suavorum... freti auxilio Sarmatarum, qui cum

Beuca etBabai regibussuis auxiliari ei advenissent( 46 9 ); Theodoricus ex sattelitibus etexpopulopatris elegitsibipene sex milia viroum, cum quibuspatre inscio, permenso Danubio, Sarmatarum regem incurrit, equmque interemit,familiamqueac censum depredans, adgenitorem suum cum victoria redit. Singindunum dehinc civitatem, quam idem Sarmataepossidebant, invadens, non Romanis sedsuae subdidit ditioni
(470);T heo d eri cusad o l escen san n o rum1 8 , t ran si t oDan ubi o , super Sarm at as i rrui t ,
et regem eorum Babazperim.it, et cum bellicis manubiis victor atpatrem redit( 47 0 ).
SLAVS CALLED JAZYGES
InCom m entario H istoric a de V erib us Inc ois H ungariae Cis- Danuab ianae a M orav
Amneat Tibiscum (1767), J. Severini, an early authority on the history of Hungary and

Danubia, writes thatS lavs from the Oder, first calledSarm at s, thenWends, thenS lavs, andS lavs c alled J az y ges, with whom they shared a common language and institutions, settled the lands along and between the Tisa and Danube rivers. Zupanic does not iden-
tifyt heJaz y g esasSlav s. However, Zupanic suspectsth a t insomeinstances thenam e
Jazygesincludes Slavs calledS erbs. In the case of thejazgyeswho settled in the plains

 

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between the Danube and Tisa shortly after Christ's birth, for example, Zupanic believes
thatS erbs are included.
SERBS, BULGARS, JASYGES
It is interesting that a 16th century source recordst hejasy g es as one of the nations
that made up Hungary's peasantry: Saxons, Germans, Bohemians, Slavs, Wallachs,
Ruthenes, Serbs, Bulgars, Jasyges, Cumans

6. SERS, SCIRS, SRBUL
G

iven Toynbee's and other theories of Slav settlement in southeastern Europe, one thousand years before the birth of Christ, it is not sur- prising that diverse historical sources present evidence of possible Serb settlement
in Danubia and Pannonia in the first centuries of the Christian era.
SERETE, SERBINUM

According to Zupanic, evidence thatS erb s f rom Sarmatia orDacia settled along the Drava and Sava rivers in Panonnia in the first century of the Christian era or earlier is found in both Pliny and Ptolemy. Namely, Pliny'sS eret e, a nation located on the Drava River, and Ptolemy'sS erbi t i um , a town on the Sava River inP a n n o n ia In f e rio r.
MONIES SERRORUM
In his multi-volume Rerum gestarum libri, Ammianus Marcellanus (A.D. 330-
395), Rome's last major historian, refers to a section of the Transylvanian Alps asm an tes
Serrorumo r th eS e rr/S e rb M o u n ta in s. ' Zu p a n i c believes t h a t t h e mantes Serrorum can be
traced to early Serb settlements in Dacia:Since we have shown that Serri is the same
as Serb, the monies Serrorum mentioned by Marcellinus confirms the presence of
Serbs in the southern Carpathians, one of their stations on their move to the heart
of Europe ... Of course, It is quite possible that the Serbs were in the southern
Carpathians before Marcellinus's time. It is possible that Serb elements, together
with Jazyges, moved in as early as the first century B.C.2
EMPEROR LICINIUS

A later mid-12th century work, Joannes Zonaras'H istoric al E pitom e, believed to based on earlier sources, notably the complete text of Dio Cassius'R om aika and several lost Byzantine historians, relates themantes Serrorum to Emperor Valerius Licinianus Licinius (308-324), Roman co-ruler from 308-324, and brother-in-law—married to half- sister Constantia in 313—of Emperor Constantine the Great (307-337). After 313 Licinius was as supreme in the East as Constantine in the West. A deterioration in relations be- tween the two emperors led to open warfare in the Balkans in 614, where Licinius sought the support of pagans. Following defeat by Constantine's forces in 324, Licinius sought support in theS err M ountains. In the same year he was captured and exiled to Thessalonica, where he was executed the following year.
LIKINIJ SRBINY BITI RODOM
An intriguing and as yet unaccountable early 4th century Serb connection is found
in medieval Serb church manuscripts that, on the basis of 'authentic sources'( istinih
spisatelja)r e fe rtoL icinius'sS erb ancestry:Glagoljutistini spisatelji jako Likinij Srbiny
biti rodom ... Sija videv sin jego Bela Uros uze ot sestri carevi Konstatije;
Tsarstvujusci Likinijy... severnim i zapadnim stranama Srbin jest. Sze glagocistivij
Konstantin prisvajajet k sehe Likinija i vdaet jem sestry svojy Konstantijy v zenu;
Likinije sze Srbin be; I carstvuje v njem imase bolarina nekojego Srbina, imenom
Likinije; Sze Likinije bese dlamatinski gospodin rodom Srbin; bese si Likinije
Dal matins Id gospodin rodom Srbin. Rodi od Konstantije sina ot negoze
pokolenommimnozii zi dose, daze i doB eloga Urosa(R . Novakovic, Karpatskii Likijski Srbi,

 

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1997).
DAGON, DAGONIA
An even more intriguing early Serb connection with early Danubia/Dacia is found
in one of them a n u sc rip ts, theK arlovac kiR odoslov( K arlwacG enealogy ).A ccording tothis

source, at the time of Emperor Licinius: All Serbs worshiped Dagon. From Dagon the Dagonians and Dacians received their names; from Ser, all the Serbs. It goes on to say that: Among many others, he [Licinius] persecuted the saints and martyrs Jermil and Stratonik, who were in Dagonia, near the Istar [Danube].
ASIA MINOR, MIDDLE EAST
Some scholars believe that the reference toDag o n , a great Semitic god, suggests an
early and substantial Balkan-Danubian connection with Asia Minor and the Middle East
(RNovakovic ,J os oporeklu S erb a— Isva S rb ska idolu sluz ase Dagonu,19 9 2 ).Thee m i n e n tG e r m a nSlavist
H. Kunstmann believes that the Dagon cult in Danubia can be traced to Roman Emperor
Trajan (98-117 A.D.), to the forced resettlement of subject peoples originating in Asia
Minor in Dacia. Later, he believes, in the Christian era,Dag o n was a generic term for
pagans, for pagan Slavs in Dacia, for pagan Serbs who later settled in Poland, where
Kunstmann finds traces of Dagon (Dagome-iudex-Regeste) in late 10th century Polish
sources, including the name and titles of the house of Piast's Mieszko I, Poland's first ruler
(H.K unstm ann,Ü berde Herkunftder Polenvon Balkan, DwS,29, 1984)*W ithregard to theSerb-Polish
Dagon Connection, Kunstmann writes:Freilich, im Laufe der Jahrhunderte hat sich

die Bedeutung Dagons ganz erheblich geändert, nämlich ins diametrale Gegenteil, was besagt, dass der Name Dagon zum nomen dei falsi, zur Bezeichnung heidnischer Kulte, der Heiden schlechthin wurde. Dass die Verwendung des Namens Dagon zur Bezeichnung von Heiden sogar nch 1503 unter Balkanslaven üblich gewesen zu sein scheint, lasst sich belegen und beweisen. Eine Urhunde aus Karlovac, in der kurz über die Geschichte der serbischen "Zaren" berichtet wird, sagt folgendes: I vsa Srbska idolu sluzase Dagonu, otsud i Dagoni i Daky imenujut se. Damit wird nun nicht nur erstmals der Landername Srpska belegt, sondern auch, was im gegebenen Zusammenhang wichtiger ist, dass es zum Namen Dagon offenbar ebenfalls den Plural Dagoni gegeben hat, und zwar im Sinne von
Heiden.

Doch werden in der betreffenden Urkunde unter diesen heidnischen Dagoni ganz konkret die Daci oder Dacier verstanden. Gegen Ende heisst es in der Urkunde ausserdem este si v Dagaoni bliz Istra, was sogar erkennen lasst, dass die ehemalige romische Provinz Dacia, das Land Dacien, im Slavischen einmal Dagon geheissen und wohl die Bedeutung von Heidenland gehabt zu haben scheint. Wenn die Urkunde von 1503 unter diesen heidnischen Dagoni "dacische" Serben versteht, dann spiegelt sich darin auch ein Stuck Siedlungsgeschichte von den Daciern zu den Slaven wider. Die nich zu verkennende lautliche Übereinstimmung der ersten Silben Dag -oni//Dac -i had die volksetymologische Synonymic fraglos gefordert. Die in den drei Hanschriften der Dagome-iudex-Regest benutzte Form Dagone, also mit -e im Auslaut, ist eindeutig ein Reflex des Slavischen, das nämlich Dagon mit Halbvokal verwendet. Parenthetically, the fish, L. M. Graham writes, is a universal savior symbol...
The Hindus represented the first Avatar of Vishnu as half fish, half man—Pisces-
Aquarius; and our Christ is called by the the Piscean Avatar. In the Talmud the
Messiah is called Dag, the fish. The Phoenician and Philistian Dagon, the
Chaldean Cannes, and the Greek Phoibos were all fish men. The Greek word for
fish ichthus is made up of the initials of the five Greek words lesous (Ch)ristos,
(Th)eou Uios Soter—Jesus Christ the son of God, Savior.
DANUBIA. PANNONIA

As mentioned earlier, in theD ia lo g u e s of P s e u d o - C a e s a r , an early 5th century compi- lation based partly on 4th century sources, the Danubian Slavs are recorded asS k la v e n o i. A better known and often cited source on mid-5th century Danubia is Priscus of Priam, a Byzantine official and historian. A member of an embassy sent to Attila's camp in Pannonia by the Eastern emperor Theodosius II, Priscus is a perceptive, reliable and rare source of information on this tumultous period. In his account, Priscus mentions several nations that appear to have Slavic sounding names. In 434, Priscus writes: They [Huns] has-

tened to Scythia ... Soon they crossed they huge [Maeotic] swamp and ... over- whelmed the Alipurzi, the Alcidzuri, the Itimari, the Tuncassi, and the Boisci who bordered on the shore of Scythia.
BOISKI SERBS?
In 432 or 433, Priscus writes:a Hunnish ruler ... intending to go to war with
die Amilzouri, Itimari, Tonosours, Boiski and other races dwelling on the Danube
and who had taken refuge in a Roman alliance.Some scholars suspect that some of

the nations so-named are Slavs, perhaps Serbs, namelytheA l- m iz uri,Milcani Serbs; the Tono-sursi, Surs-Serbs; the Iti-mari,M oravi Serbs; the Boiski,B oi ski Serbs, Emperor Constantine VII'sB oi ki Serbs.
STRAVAPriscus' account of his visit to Attila's camp in Pannonia also reveals strongs Slavic
traces in the personal names, food, drink, and customs of the Huns and their Scythian
allies: millet//>rar0; honey/medos; funeralf east/strava). Especially striking is the Slavic fu-
neral ceremony orS tra v a following Attila's death in 454: After he had been mourned
with such lamentations they celebrated a 'Strava' as they call it, over his tomb with
great revelry, coupling opposite extremes of feeling in turn among themselves.
A SLAVIC TRIBE
C.D. Gordon's authoritative translation and commentary on 5th century Greek
historians gives important information on the Sciri or Scyri, a Slavic tribe, once part
of dieHunnishempi re( T heA geof A ttila,i960).We learn that: 1) TheSciri, who had
settled in Lower Moesia on the Danube, were a power in Pannonia where they were
in more or less constant conflict with the Goths; 2) the Sciri played an important role
in the Western armies commanded by Ricimer [appointed commander of imperial
armies by emperor Avitus] and his successors; 3) the Sciri formed an important
part of Odovacar's army in his final conquest of Italy; 4) Odovacar, the first barbar-
ian king of Italy, either sprang from the race of Thuringi on his father's side and the
Sciri on his mother's side,according to one account, or he was of the nation of the