Editing Slavs (section)

====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>}}