Great Moravia Samos empire

• The two theories about the original homeland of the Slavs are:

  1. The autochthonous theory - suggests the original homeland of the Slavs was in Central Europe, but this is archeologically contradicted due to the theory that Magyars were in the region before the Slavs.

  2. The migration theory - proposes that the original homeland of the Slavs is between the Oder and Vistula rivers, south of the Pripet marshes and west of the Dniester River
• The oldest mentions of the Slavs under the names Antes, Sclaveni, or Veneti appear in Byzantine records from Procopios and Jordanes in the early 6th century
• The Great migration of the Slavs began at the end of the 5th century and lasted until the 8th century
• Classification of the Slavs:

  • West Slavs: Poles, Czechs, Slovaks
  • East Slavs: Russians, Belarussians, Ukrainians
  • South Slavs: Serbs, Croats, Bosnians, Slovenes, Montenegrins
• From archaeological digs, we know that Slavs occupied both low-lying land and mountain valleys

  • Slavs worked as farmers, herders, and miners of ore for metal artefacts
  • Slavs constructed homes of logs or thatch, plastered with clay, sometimes fired
  • Slavs dug rounded pits for use as granaries
  • Slavs cremated their dead and placed the remains in urns or shallow pits, covered over with earth to form burial mounds
  • Slavs raised cattle, sheep, goats, and processed animal skins and furs for various uses
  • Early Slavic society was a decentralized tribal society, organized into local chiefdoms
• • Early Slavic religion was animistic and inspired by nature, originally polytheistic with beliefs in forest spirits and demons
• Samo's Empire:

  • First recorded political union of Slavic tribes
  • Lasted from 623 to 658
  • Tribal union
  • Precise borders unknown, stretched from Silesia to present-day Slovenia
• Chronicle of Fredegar:

  • Only contemporary source about Samo's Empire
  • Written in the 7th century by an unknown author referred to as "Fredegar"
  • Refers to Slavs living next to Germanic settlements as "Wends"
  • Mentions Slavs and their struggle with nearby settled Avars who used them as "befulci"
• Avars:

  • Alliance of several groups of Eurasian nomads
  • Led by a khagan
  • Established the Avar Khaganate in the Pannonian Basin in Central and Eastern Europe
  • Used Slavic tribes strategically to protect their western borders to the Frankish Empire
• Samo:

  • Frankish merchant
  • Unified several Slavic tribes against robber raids and violence by nearby settled Avars
  • Showed bravery and command skills in battle, elected as their leader
  • Married at least 12 women, fathered 22 sons and fifteen daughters
  • Ruled successfully for 31 years
• Battle of Wogastisburg:

  • Took place in 631
  • Samo's victory over the Frankish royal army led by Dagobert I
  • Dagobert sent an ambassador to Samo for compensation for Frankish merchants who were robbed
  • Dagobert's military invasion to punish the Slavs
  • Three armies led by Dagobert, with the main fighting force defeated in a 3-day battle near Wogastisburg
• The Avars were defeated by an unknown force at the end of the 8th century
• Two principalities were established at the beginning of the 9th century: the Moravian Principality along the river Moravia and the Principality of Nitra with the center in Nitra
• The first known Christian church in Central Europe was built and consecrated in Nitra during the reign of Prince Pribina by Adalram, the bishop of Salzburg
• In 833, the Moravian Prince Mojmír conquered the Principality of Nitra, expelled Pribina, and created Great Moravia
• The term "Great Moravia" was first used by the Byzantine Emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitos around 950 in his work De administrando Imperio as "megale Moravia"
• Feudalism was introduced in Great Moravia, with noble men and magnates being vassals to the prince and living in castles fortified with wooden palisades and stone walls
• The capital of Great Moravia was probably unknown
• Pribina fled to the Franks, was baptized, and was granted the Balaton Principality with Blatnograd as his seat as a fief by Frankish king Louis the German
• Svätopluk, after betraying Rastislav, allied with the Franks, captured Rastislav, and delivered him to the Franks
• Under Svätopluk's rule, Great Moravia defended itself against Frankish attacks and gained territory like Lower Austria, Bohemia, and Silesia
• Svätopluk was called "king" and his reign marked Great Moravia as a strong and respected empire
• After Svätopluk's death in 894, his sons Mojmír II and Svätopluk II succeeded him, but they probably died in battles with the Magyars around 906
• The Byzantine mission Saints Constantine and Methodius are called "Apostles to the Slavs" and "Patrons of Europe"
• Constantine and Methodius arrived in Great Moravia in an unknown year, founded an academy to teach students, and translated part of the Bible into Old Church Slavonic
• After Methodius died in 885, his followers were expelled from Great Moravia and fled to Bulgaria, where the Glagolitic script was modified into Cyrillic, becoming the standard alphabet in Eastern Orthodox Slavic countries
• Texts translated or written by Constantine and Methodius are considered the oldest literature in a Slavic language
• Methodius wrote the first Slavic legal code Zakon Sudnyj Ljudem
• The Life of St. Cyril and The Life of St. Methodius, written by their students and successors, are important biographies and sources of information about Great Moravia under Rastislav and Svätopluk