Editing Serbs (section)

===Arrival of the Slavs===
{{main article|White Serbs|White Serbia}}
[[Early Slavs]], especially [[Sclaveni]] and [[Antae]], including the [[White Serbs]], invaded and settled [[Southeastern Europe]] in the 6th and 7th century.{{sfn|Fine|1991|pp=26–41}} Up until the late 560s, their activity was raiding, crossing from the Danube, though with limited Slavic settlement mainly through Byzantine ''[[foederati]]'' colonies.{{sfn|Fine|1991|p=29}} The [[Danube]] and [[Sava]] frontier was overwhelmed by large-scale Slavic settlement in the late 6th and early 7th century.{{sfn|Fine|1991|p=33}} What is today [[central Serbia]] was an important geo-strategical province, through which the ''[[Via Militaris]]'' crossed.{{sfn|Živković|2002|p=187}} This area was frequently intruded by [[Barbarians in the Byzantine Empire|barbarians]] in the 5th and 6th centuries.{{sfn|Živković|2002|p=187}} The numerous Slavs mixed with and assimilated the descendants of the indigenous population (Illyrians, Thracians, Dacians, Romans, Celts).<ref>{{harvnb|Fine|1991|pp=38, 41}}; {{harvnb|Ćorović|2001|loc="Балканска култура у доба сеобе Словена"}}</ref> White Serbs from [[White Serbia]] came to [[Servia, Greece|an area near Thessaloniki]] and then they settled area between Dinaric Alps and Adriatic coast.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Ćirković |first1=Sima M. |title=Srbi među europskim narodima (excerpt) |url=http://www.mo-vrebac-pavlovac.hr/attachments/article/451/Sima%20%C4%86irkovi%C4%87%20SRBI%20ME%C4%90U%20EVROPSKIM%20NARODIMA.pdf |website=www.mo-vrebac-pavlovac.hr |publisher=Golden Marketing-Tehnička Knjiga |pages=26–27 |date=2008 |access-date=5 December 2019 |archive-date=8 January 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200108093618/http://www.mo-vrebac-pavlovac.hr/attachments/article/451/Sima%20%C4%86irkovi%C4%87%20SRBI%20ME%C4%90U%20EVROPSKIM%20NARODIMA.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> The region of "Rascia" ([[Raška (region)|Raška]]) was the center of Serb settlement and Serb tribes also occupied parts of modern-day [[Herzegovina]] and [[Montenegro]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Kardaras |first1=Georgios |title=Byzantium and the Avars, 6th–9th Century AD: Political, Diplomatic and Cultural Relations |date=2018 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=978-9-00438-226-8 |page=96 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1IN1DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA96 |access-date=13 December 2021 |archive-date=27 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230327094702/https://books.google.com/books?id=1IN1DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA96 |url-status=live }}</ref> Prior to their arrival to the Balkans, early Slavs were predominantly involved in agriculture, which is why they settled in areas which were cultivated even during Roman times.{{Sfn|Blagojević|1989|p=19}}