Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The Slavs Arrive
In around the early 6th century a new group, the Slavs, began moving south from the
broad plains north of the Danube. It is thought that they moved in the wake of a nomadic
Central Asian people, the Avars, who were noted for their ferocity. The Avars tangled with
the Byzantines, razing Doclea while roaring through the Balkans. They had too much mo-
mentum, however, rolling on and besieging the mighty Byzantine capital at Con-
stantinople in 626. The Byzantines duly crushed them and the Avars faded into history.
Controversy remains as to the role the Slavs played in the demise of the Avars. Some
claim that Byzantium called on the Slavs to help stave off the Avar onslaught, while others
think that the Slavs merely filled the void left when the Avars disappeared. Whatever the
case, the Slavs spread rapidly through the Balkans, reaching the Adriatic by the early 7th
century.
Two closely related Slavic groups settled along the Adriatic coast and its hinterland, the
Croats and the Serbs. Byzantine culture lingered on in the towns of the interior, thus fos-
tering the spread of Christianity amongst the Slavs.
It seems that the Byzantines' first impressions of the Slavs weren't entirely positive. The Byzantine histor-
ian John of Ephesus remarked that they were 'rude savages'.
