S E R V I A, 



AND HER RELATIONS WITH 



AUSTRIA, TURKEY, AND RUSSIA. 



HER EARLY HISTORY. 



Servia has a very ancient history under the nomenclature of Moesia, 

 with a record as remote as 277, B.C. when it was peopled by Thra- 

 cians and Gauls, and 200 years subsequently, 75 B.C., it was sub- 

 jugated by the Romans. 



In, the middle of the seventh century the Servians,* a Sclavonic 

 tribe that for centuries occupied a territory co-extensive with Prussia 

 of the present day, being attacked by the Goths and Visigoths, 

 migrated to the Roman territory south of the Danube, which was 

 ceded to them by the Byzantine Emperor Heraclius, and established 

 themselves in Mcesia, Thrace, Macedonia, Thessally, and Epirus, 

 and giving their own name to the country, founded the kingdom of 

 Servia ; the northern portion of the territory was occupied by the 

 Serbs, and the southern portion by the Croats, but they were one 

 nation. They were a Christian people, and the only distinction 

 between the Croats and Servians was, that the former acknowledged 

 the ritual and supremacy of Rome, whilst the latter adopted the faith 

 of the Eastern Church ; but they had one language, and possessed a 

 vernacular, a mixture of various races, which still survives, and is 

 considered to be the most harmonious of the Sclavonic dialects, and 

 according to Niebiihr, it is the most perfect in grammatical structure 

 of any of the modern languages of Europe. 



* Serb is a Sclavonian word derived from Serp, a sickle, and Serbians implies an 

 agriculLural people. 



