SLAVS
43
SLAVS
svoba (freedom). The most probable explanation is
that deriving the name from slovo (word); this is sup-
ported by the Slavonic name for the Germans Ncmci
(tlic dumb). The .Slav.s called themselves Slovani,
that is, "the speaking ones", those who know words,
while they called their neighbours the Germans, "the
dumb", that is, those who do not know words.
During the long period of war between the Germans and Slavs, which lasted until the tenth century, the
only a single tribe. Ptolemy called the Slavs as a
whole the Venedai and says they are "the great-
est nation" (iieyicroi' eSmt). The "Byzantines of the
sixth centurj' thought only of the southern Slavs and
incidentally also of the Russians, who lived on the
boundaries of the Eastern Empire. With them the ex-
pression Slavs meant only the southern Slavs; they
called the Russians .4 (iio-, and distinguished sharply
between the two groups of tribes. In one place (Get.,
Slavonic territories in the north and south-cast fur-
nished the Germans large numbers of slaves. The
Venetian and other Italian cities on the coast took
numerous Slavonic captives from the opposite side
of the Adriat ic whom they resold to other places. The
Slavs frequently shared in the seizure and export of
their countrj-men as slaves. The Xaretani, a pirati-
cal Slavonic tribe living in the present district of
Southern Dalmatia, were especially notorious for their
slave-trade. Russian princes exported large numbers
of slaves from their country. The result is that the
name Slav has given the word slave to the peoples of
Western Europe.
The question si ill remains to be answered whether the expression Slurs indicated originally all Slavonic tribes or only one or a few of them. The reference to them in Ptolemy shows that the word then meant
34, .35) Jordanis divides all Slavs into three groups:
Veneii, Slavs, and Antce; this would correspond to the
present division of western, southern, and eastern
Slavs. However, this mention appears to be an ar-
bitrary combination. In another i)!issage he desig-
nates the eastern Slavs by the name Vtrwli. Prob-
ably he had found the expression \'rri(ti in old writers
and had learned personally the names Slav/: and Antcc;
in this way arose his triple division. All the seventh-
century authorities call .all Slavonic tribes, both
southern Slavs and western Slavs, that belonged to
the kingdom of Prince Samo, simply Slavs; Samo ia
called the "ruler of the Slavs", but his peoi)les arc
called "the Slavs named Vindi" {Sclavi cognomento
Wina/li). In the eighth and ninth centuries the
Czechs and Slavs of the Elbe were generally called
Slavs, but also at times Wends, by the German and
