Sclaveni
The Sclaveni or were early Slavic tribes that raided, invaded and settled in the Balkans in the Early Middle Ages and eventually became one of the progenitors of modern South Slavs. They were mentioned by early Byzantine chroniclers as barbarians having appeared at the Byzantine borders along with the Antes, another Slavic group. The Sclaveni were differentiated from the Antes and Wends ; however, they were described as kin. Eventually, most South Slavic tribes accepted Byzantine or Frankish suzerainty, and came under their cultural influences and Chalcedonian Christianity. The term was widely used as a general catch-all term until the emergence of separate tribal names by the 10th century.
Customs
The Sclaveni had similar if not identical customs and culture to the Antes. They were carefully described by chroniclers such as Procopius and Maurice, whose works contribute greatly to our understanding of these two Early Slavic peoples.Maurice writes that the Slavs were very hospitable people. Tribes that mistreated guests were attacked for their dishonour. Prisoners were not kept forever and after a certain period of time, captives were allowed to be let loose or to join the community. Settlements were built in hard to reach forests, lakes and marshes as they were hard to attack, with exits in many directions for escape. They farmed many crops, especially millet, but also had livestock of many sorts. Maurice praises their toleration of discomfort when necessary, and the loyalty of married women to their husbands. The Strategikon noted that the Antes and Sclaveni were independent, refusing to be governed or enslaved. They lived under democracy, with all matters being referred to the people.
The religion of the Sclaveni, like other Slavic tribes and peoples was Slavic paganism.
The Antes and Sclaveni were skilled warriors, especially in guerrilla warfare, taking advantage of terrain. They preferred to fight in dense woodland instead of pitch battle, although field battles and sieges were also recorded. Their weapons were javelins, spears, bows nocked with poison tipped arrows and sturdy wooden shields, but body armour was rare.
Terminology
The Byzantines broadly grouped the numerous Slav tribes living in proximity with the Eastern Roman Empire into two groups: the Sklavenoi and the Antes. The Sclaveni were called as such by Procopius, and as Sclavi by Jordanes and Pseudo-Maurice, Σκλαυηνοί, or Σκλάβινοι. The derived Greek term was used for Slav tribes in Byzantine Macedonia and the Peloponnese; these Slavic territories were initially outside of Byzantine control. By 800, however, the term also referred specifically to Slavic mobile military colonists who settled as allies within the territories of the Byzantine Empire. Slavic military settlements appeared in the Peloponnese, Asia Minor, and Apulia.Byzantine historiography
gives the most detail about the Sclaveni and Antes. The Sclaveni are also mentioned by Jordanes, Pseudo-Caesarius, Menander Protector, the Strategikon, etc.History
6th century
Scholar Michel Kazanski identified the 6th-century Prague culture and Sukow-Dziedzice group as Sclaveni archaeological cultures, and the Penkovka culture was identified as Antes. The first Slavic raid south of the Danube was recorded by Procopius, who mentions an attack of the Antes, "who dwell close to the Sclaveni", probably in 518. In the 530s, Emperor Justinian seems to have used divide and conquer policies, and the Sclaveni and Antes are mentioned as fighting each other.Sclaveni are mentioned in the context of the military policy on the Danube frontier of Byzantine Emperor Justinian I. In 537, Justinian shipped 1,600 cavalry, made up of mostly Sclaveni and Antes, to Italy to rescue Belisarius. Sometime between 533–34 and 545, there was a conflict between the Antes and Sclaveni in Eastern Europe. Procopius noted that the two "became hostile to one another and engaged in battle" until a Sclavene victory resulted. The conflict was likely aided or initiated by the Byzantines. The Romans also recruited mounted mercenaries from both tribes to fight against the Ostrogoths. The two tribes were at peace by 545. The Antes are last mentioned as anti-Byzantine belligerents in 545, and the Sclaveni continued to raid the Balkans. Between 545 and 549, the Sclaveni raided deep into Roman territory. In the summer of 550, the Sclaveni came close to Naissus, and were seen as a great threat, however, their intent of capturing Thessaloniki and the surroundings was thwarted by Germanus. After this, for a year, the Sclaveni spent their time in Dalmatia "as if in their own land". The Sclaveni then raided Illyricum and returned home with booty. In 558 the Avars arrived on the Black Sea steppe, and defeated the Antes between the Dnieper and Dniester. The Avars subsequently allied themselves with the Sclaveni.
Daurentius, the first Slavic chieftain recorded by name, was sent an Avar embassy requesting his Slavs to accept Avar suzerainty and pay tribute, because the Avars knew that the Slavs had amassed great wealth after repeatedly plundering the Balkans. Daurentius reportedly retorted that "Others do not conquer our land, we conquer theirs so it shall always be for us", and had the envoys slain. The Avar khagan Bayan then campaigned against Daurentius' people, with aid from the Byzantines, and set fire to many of their settlements, although this did not stop the Slavic raids deep into the Byzantine Empire. In 578, a large army of Sclaveni devastated Thrace and other areas. In the 580s, the Romans bribed the Antes to attack Sclaveni settlements.
By the 580s, as the Slav communities on the Danube became larger and more organised, and as the Avars exerted their influence, "barbarian" raids into the Byzantine Empire became larger and resulted in permanent settlement. John of Ephesus noted in 581: "the accursed people of the Slavs set out and plundered all of Greece, the regions surrounding Thessalonica, and Thrace, taking many towns and castles, laying waste, burning, pillaging, and seizing the whole country." According to Florin Curta, John exaggerated the intensity of the Slavic incursions since he was influenced by his confinement in Constantinople from 571 up until 579, moreover, he perceived the Slavs as God's instrument for punishing the persecutors of the Monophysites.
By 586, Slavs managed to raid the western Peloponnese, Attica, Epirus, leaving only the east part of Peloponnese, which was mountainous and inaccessible. In 586 AD, as many as 100,000 Slav warriors raided Thessaloniki. The final attempt to restore the Romans' northern border occurred between 591 and 605, when the end of conflicts with Persia allowed Emperor Maurice to transfer units to the north. However he was deposed after a military revolt in 602, and the Danubian frontier collapsed one and a half decades later. In this period are mentioned Sclaveni rex Musokios and chieftains Ardagast and Peiragastus.
7th century
In 602, the Avars attacked the Antes; this is the last mention of Antes in historical sources. In 615, during the reign of Heraclius, the whole Balkans was regarded as Sklavinia – inhabited or controlled by Slavs. Chatzon led the Slavic attack on Thessaloniki that year. The Slavs asked the Avars for aid, resulting in an unsuccessful siege. In 626, Sassanids, Avars and Slavs joined forces and unsuccessfully besieged Constantinople. During the same year of the siege, the Slavs used their monoxyla in order to transport the 3,000 troops of the allied Sassanids across the Bosphorus which the latter had promised the khagan of the Avars. Based on the De Administrando Imperio, it is also theorized that the migration of White Croats and Serbs could have been part of a second Slavic wave during Heraclius' reign.File:Pontic steppe region around 650 AD.png|left|thumb|The Pontic steppe, c. 650, showing the early territories of the Khazars, Bulgars, and Avars
Constans II conquered Sklavinia in 657–658, "capturing many and subduing", and settled captured Slavs in Asia Minor; in 664–65, 5,000 of these joined Abdulreman ibn Khalid. Perbundos, the chieftain of the Rhynchinoi, a powerful tribe near Thessaloniki, planned a siege on Thessaloniki but was imprisoned and eventually executed after escaping prison; the Rhynchinoi, Strymonitai, Sagoudatai and Drougoubitai made common cause, rose up and laid the Siege to Thessaloniki for two years.
The First Bulgarian Empire was the first state that the empire recognised in the Balkans and the first time it legally surrendered claims to part of its Balkan dominions. In 680 the Byzantine Emperor Constantine IV, having recently defeated the Arabs, led an expedition at the head of a huge army and fleet to drive off the Bulgars but suffered a disastrous defeat at the hands of Asparuh at Onglos, a swampy region in or around the Danube Delta where the Bulgars had set a fortified camp. The Bulgars advanced south, crossed the Balkan Mountains and invaded Thrace. In 681, the Byzantines were compelled to sign a humiliating peace treaty, forcing them to acknowledge Bulgaria as an independent state, to cede the territories to the north of the Balkan Mountains and to pay an annual tribute. The relations between the Bulgars and the local Slavs is a matter of debate depending on the interpretation of the Byzantine sources. Vasil Zlatarski asserts that they concluded a treaty, but most historians agree that they were subjugated. The Bulgars were superior organisationally and militarily and came to dominate politically the new state, but there was cooperation between them and the Slavs for the protection of the country. The Slavs were allowed to retain their chiefs, to abide to their customs and in return they were to pay tribute in kind and to provide foot soldiers for the army. The Seven Slavic tribes were relocated to the west to protect the frontier with the Avar Khaganate, while the Severi were resettled in the eastern Balkan Mountains to guard the passes to the Byzantine Empire. The number of Asparuh's Bulgars is difficult to estimate. Vasil Zlatarski and John Van Antwerp Fine Jr. suggest that they were not particularly numerous, numbering some 10,000, while Steven Runciman considers that the tribe must have been of considerable dimensions.
Justinian II settled as many as 30,000 Slavs from Thrace in Asia Minor, in an attempt to boost military strength. Most of them however, with their leader Neboulos, deserted to the Arabs at the Battle of Sebastopolis in 692.