Ethnographical Memoir on the Nations of Slavonian Race. 23 



Respecting the history of the southern Slavonic tribes, dififerent opinions 

 have been maintained ; but this has not arisen from the want of data, on 

 which a tolerably certain conclusiou might be established. Some writers 

 have imagined, that the Slavonian nations in the countries between the 

 Adriatic and the Euxine, were the primitive inhabitants of that region. 

 "Dolci, a native of Dalmatia, identified the Slavonians with the old Illy- 

 rians, and Katansich supposed the dialect of the Croats to be tlie old 

 Pannonian language, on no other grounds than some forced etymologies of 

 ancient Illyrian names from the Slavonic." The Veneti, on the Adriatic 

 Gulf, have been supposed from their names to have been Wends or Slavo- 

 nians ; and the Ragusan Count Sorgo even attempted to trace the names 

 of the Greek and Roman gods from the same language.* All these con- 

 jectures are founded, according to Dobrowsky, on ignorance of the historical 

 fact, that the Slavonian tribes now inhabiting the country near the Danube 

 and the Adriatic, first came into this region in the sixth century of our era. 



The migration of the Servians is recorded in an obscure passage of the 

 Emperor Constantine, in his work "De Administrando Imperio," which 

 has been cited and illustrated by Adelung. The following is a translation 

 of it :— 



" It must be understood that the Servians, (meaning the Servians of 

 Dalmatia and Illyricum) are descended from the pagan Servii, also called 

 White Servians, who inhabit the further parts of Turcia, (that is, Hungary) 

 in a place called by them Boici, on which Francia (viz. the empire of the 

 Franks, at that time including Bohemia) borders, as likewise does Great 

 Chrobatia or Croatia, still pagan, which is also called White Chrobatia. 

 In that country, therefore, was the original abode of these Servians." 



The White Servia, or rather the Great Servia, whence the Servians to 

 the southward of the Danube are here said to have migrated, is shewn by 

 Adelung to have been Little or Red Russia, on the Upper Vistula, and 

 the modern East Gallicia. The Magna Chrobatia, whence the Croats pro- 

 ceeded, was also to the northward of Hungary, near the Carputhian Chain. 

 The movements of the Slavonian tribes towards the south, appear to have 

 been gradual, and as circumstances opened to them a way. Pannonia, or 

 Hungary, was left vacant in the sixth century, in consequence of the mi- 

 gration of the Longobards into Italy. It fell into the possession of the 

 Avars ; and on this occasion, Slavonic tribes, who were their allies or 

 vassals, were settled in Carinthia, and Carniola, in the year 568.t Already, 

 in the age of Procopius, the northern bank of the Danube was in the pos- 

 session of Slavonians of the race of Antes. These barbarians, in their 

 annual expedition into the provinces subject to Justinian, wasted the 

 country of its former inhabitants, and the wilderness was peopled by 

 hordes of their own kindred. In the first half of the seventh century, 



• Dobrowsky, Gcschichte, p. 7, t Dobrow»ky, p. 1. 



