Editing Slavs (section)

===Origins===
====First mentions====
{{Main|Early Slavs}}
{{See also|Vistula Veneti|Spori|Antes (people){{!}}Antes|Sclaveni|Wends|Fatyanovo–Balanovo culture|Middle Dnieper culture|Milograd culture|Zarubintsy culture|Kyiv culture|Prague-Korchak culture|Penkovka culture|Kolochin culture|Ipotești–Cândești culture}}
[[File:Bolgari_sclavi_teracota_Vinitza_FYROM.jpg|thumb|Terracotta tile from the 6th–7th century AD found in [[Vinica, North Macedonia|Vinica]], [[North Macedonia]], depicting a battle scene between the [[Bulgars]] and Slavs, with the Latin inscription BOLGAR and SCLAVIGI<ref>{{cite book |last1= Balabanov |first1= Kosta |title= Vinica Fortress: mythology, religion and history written with clay |date=2011 |publisher=Matica |location=Skopje |pages=273–309}}</ref>]]

[[Ancient Rome | Ancient Roman]] sources refer to the [[Early Slavs|Early Slavic]] peoples as [[Vistula Veneti| "Veneti"]], who dwelt in a region of central Europe east of the [[Germanic Peoples|Germanic]] tribe of [[Suebi]] and west of the Iranian [[Sarmatians]] in the 1st and 2nd centuries AD,<ref>Coon, Carleton S. (1939) ''The Peoples of Europe''. Chapter VI, Sec. 7 New York: Macmillan Publishers.</ref><ref>Tacitus. ''Germania'', page 46.</ref> between the upper [[Vistula]] and [[Dnieper]] rivers. Slavs - called ''[[Antes (people)|Antes]]'' and ''[[Sclaveni]]'' - first appear in [[Byzantine Empire|Byzantine]] records in the early 6th century AD. Byzantine historiographers of the era of the emperor [[Justinian I]] ({{reign | 527 | 565}}), such as [[Procopius of Caesarea]], [[Jordanes]] and [[Theophylact Simocatta]], describe tribes of these names emerging from the area of the [[Carpathian Mountains]], the lower [[Danube]] and the [[Black Sea]] to invade the Danubian provinces of the [[Eastern Empire]].{{Citation needed|date=April 2022}}

Jordanes, in his work ''[[Getica]]'' (written in 551 AD),<ref>Curta 2001: 38. Dzino 2010: 95.</ref> describes the Veneti as a "populous nation" whose dwellings begin at the sources of the Vistula and occupy "a great expanse of land". He also describes the Veneti as the ancestors of Antes and Slaveni, two early Slavic tribes, who appeared on the Byzantine frontier in the early-6th century.

Procopius wrote in 545 that "the Sclaveni and the Antae actually had a single name in the remote past; for they were both called ''[[Sporoi]]'' in olden times". The name ''Sporoi'' derives from [[Ancient Greek|Greek]] σπείρω ("to [[sowing|sow]]"). He described them as barbarians, who lived under [[democracy]] and believed in one god, "the maker of lightning" ([[Perun]]), to whom they made sacrifice. They lived in scattered housing and constantly changed settlement. In war, they were mainly [[infantry | foot soldier]]s with shields, spears, bows, and little armour, which was reserved mainly for [[Tribal chief | chief]]s and their inner circle of warriors.<ref>{{cite book |last= Barford |first= Paul M |year= 2001 |publisher= Cornell University Press |title = The Early Slavs: Culture and Society in Early Medieval Eastern Europe | isbn = 978-0-8014-3977-3 }}</ref> Their language is "barbarous" (that is, not Greek), and the two tribes are alike in appearance, being tall and robust, "while their bodies and hair are neither very fair or blond, nor indeed do they incline entirely to the dark type, but they are all slightly ruddy in color. And they live a hard life, giving no heed to bodily comforts..."<ref name="ufl" />

Jordanes describes the Sclaveni as having swamps and forests for their cities.<ref name="jordanes1" /> Another 6th-century source refers to them living among nearly-impenetrable forests, rivers, lakes, and marshes.<ref name="strategikon" />

[[Menander Protector]] mentions [[Daurentius]] ({{reign | c. 577 | 579}}) who slew an [[Avars (Carpathians)|Avar]] envoy of Khagan [[Bayan I]] for asking the Slavs to accept the suzerainty of the Avars; Daurentius declined and is reported as saying: "Others do not conquer our land, we conquer theirs – so it shall always be for us as long as there are wars and weapons".{{sfn|Curta|2001|pp=91–92, 315}}

====Migrations====
{{Further|Slavic migrations to Southeastern Europe}}
[[File:Slavic tribes in the 7th to 9th century.jpg|thumb|Slavic tribes from the 7th to 9th centuries AD in Europe]]
According to eastern<!-- eastern or western?? --> homeland theory,{{cn|date=August 2024}} prior to becoming known to the [[Ancient Rome|Roman]] world, [[Slavic language|Slavic]]-speaking tribes formed part of successive multi-ethnic confederacies of [[Eurasia]] – such as the Sarmatian, [[Hun Empire | Hun]] and [[Goths | Gothic]] empires. The Slavs emerged from obscurity when the westward movement of Germanic tribes in the 5th and 6th centuries AD (thought{{cn|date=August 2024}} to be in conjunction with the movement of peoples from Siberia and Eastern Europe: [[Huns]], and later [[Avars (Carpathians)|Avars]] and [[Bulgars]]) started the [[migration period|great migration]] of the Slavs, who settled the lands abandoned by Germanic tribes who had fled from the Huns and their allies. Slavs, according to this account, moved westward into the country between the [[Oder]] and the [[Elbe]]-[[Saale]] line; southward into [[Bohemia]], [[Moravia]], much of present-day [[Austria]], the [[Pannonian plain]] and the [[Balkans]]; and northward along the upper [[Dnieper]] river. It has also been suggested that some Slavs migrated with the [[Vandals]] to the [[Iberian Peninsula]] and even to [[North Africa]].<ref name="encyclopedia"/>

Around the 6th century, Slavs appeared on [[Byzantine Empire|Byzantine]] borders in large numbers.<ref>{{cite book|author= Cyril A. Mango|title= Byzantium, the empire of New Rome|url= https://archive.org/details/byzantium00cyri_0|url-access= registration |page= [https://archive.org/details/byzantium00cyri_0/page/26 26]|year= 1980|publisher= Scribner|isbn= 978-0-684-16768-8}}</ref> Byzantine records note that Slav numbers were so great, that grass would not regrow where the Slavs had marched through{{citation needed|date=November 2021}}. Military movements resulted in even the [[Peloponnese]] and [[Asia Minor]] being reported to have Slavic settlements.<ref>Tachiaos, Anthony-Emil N. 2001. ''Cyril and Methodius of Thessalonica: The Acculturation of the Slavs''. Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir's Seminary Press.</ref> This southern movement has traditionally been seen as an invasive expansion.<ref name="hri"/> By the end of the 6th century, Slavs had [[Slavic settlement of the Eastern Alps|settled the Eastern Alps regions]].<ref>{{cite book|last= Štih|first= Peter|title= The Middle Ages Between the Eastern Alps and the Northern Adriatic: Select Papers on Slovene Historiography and Medieval History|date= 2010|section= V. Wiped Out By The Slavic Settlement? The Issue Of Continuity Between Antiquity And The Early Middle Ages In The Slovene Area|section-url= https://brill.com/view/book/9789004187702/Bej.9789004185913.i-463_007.xml|isbn= 978-9-004-18770-2|publisher= [[Brill Publishers|Brill]]|pages= 85–99|doi= 10.1163/ej.9789004185913.i-463.18|series= East Central and Eastern Europe in the Middle Ages|volume=2}}</ref>

[[Pope Gregory I]] in 600 AD wrote to Maximus, the bishop of [[Salona]] (in [[Dalmatia]]), expressing concern about the arrival of the Slavs,

{{blockquote|'''Latin:''' ''Et quidem de Sclavorum gente, quae vobis valde imminet, et affligor vehementer et conturbor. Affligor in his quae jam in vobis patior; conturbor, quia per Istriae aditum jam ad Italiam intrare coeperunt.''}}

{{Blockquote|'''English:''' I am both distressed and disturbed about the Slavs, who are pressing hard on you. I am distressed because I sympathize with you; I am disturbed because they have already begun to arrive in [[Italy]] through the entry-point of [[Istria]].<ref>Željko Rapanić; (2013) O početcima i nastajanju Dubrovnika (The origin and formation of Dubrovnik. additional considerations) p. 94; Starohrvatska prosvjeta, Vol. III No. 40, [https://hrcak.srce.hr/index.php?show=clanak&id_clanak_jezik=241899]</ref>}}