This master’s thesis analyses the perception of the Slavs and the discourse of the Slavic ethnonym in Greek and Latin narrative sources up to 626. It asks what late antique and early medieval writers imagined under the term “Slavs.” Who were these people? Did the content of the ethnonym change over time? If so, what did it describe, and how did it come about? We found that the label did change its meaning and was conditioned by the specific context of each
author. In the narrative sources of the sixth and early seventh centuries, the ethnonym “Slav” primarily referred to (1) culturally similar communities that inhabited the Wallachian Plain and (2) non-equestrian and “non-Avar” communities living under the Avar rule. The first meaning, which had a cultural dimension, was mainly acquired in the Justinianic era and can already be found in the works of Procopius of Caesarea. The second, which had a political connotation, was introduced with the arrival of the Avars in the Pannonian Plain, which led to a perceptual homogenisation on the part of outside observers. In both cases, the ethnonym had a pragmatic function: it helped deal with political contingency and made it easier for outside observers to make sense of the complex ethnic geography of areas beyond Roman influence. Because of rapid ethnopolitical changes, it quickly became to be used in a similar manner as the generic term “Huns” used in Greek sources to refer to steppe peoples, and as such, spread to the Latin West at the turn of the sixth to seventh centuries. Some individuals along the lower Danube definitely identified themselves with the ethnonym “Slavs,” however, it remains an open question as to what extent.
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