Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 6 (1897).djvu/566

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544 APPENDIX Sclavonia. The only question to be determined is, how were these strangers distributed, and what parts of the Peloponnesus were Slavized? For answering these questions, the names of places are oiu- chief evidence. Here, as m the Slavonic districts which became part of Germany, the Slavs ultimatel3- gave up their owm language and exerted hardly any sensible influence on the language which they adopted ; but they introduced new local names which surxived. It was just the reverse, as has been well remarked by PhilipMon, in the case of the Albanese settlers, who in the fourteenth century brought^uew ethnical element into the Peloponnesus. The Albanians preserved their own language, but the old local names were not altered. Now we find Slavonic names scattered about in all parts of the Peloponnesus ; but they are comparatively few on tlie Eastern side, in Argolis and Eastern Laconia. They are numerous in Arcadia and Achaia, in Elis, Messenia and "Western Laconia. But the existence of Slavonic settlements does not prove that the old Hellenic inhabitants were abolished in these districts. In fact we can only say that a large part of Elis, the slopes of Taygetus, and a district in the south of Laconia, were exclusively given over to the Slavs. Between Megalopolis and Sparta there was an important town, which has completely disappeared, called Veligosti ; and this region was probably a centre of Slavonic settlers. See the impartial investigation of Dr. A. Philippson, Zur Ethnographie dea Peloponnes in Petermann's Mittheiluugen, vol. 30, p. 1 sqq. and 33 sqq., 1890. The conversion and Hellenization of the Slavs went on together from the ninth centiuy, and, with the exception of the settlements in Taygetus and the Arcadian mountains, were completed by the twelfth century. At the time of the conquest of the Peloponnesus Vj}- Yillehardouin, four ethnical elements are distinguished by Philippson : (1) Remains of the old Hellenes, mixed with Slavs, in Maina and Tzakonia, (2) Byzantine Greeks {i.e., Bjzantinized Hellenes, and settlers from other parts of the Empire) in the towns. (3) Greek-speaking Slavo-Groeks (sprung from unions of Slavs and Greeks). (4) Almost pure Slavs in Arcadia and Taygetus. The 2nd and 3rd classes tend to coalesce and ulti- mately become indistinguishable (except in physiognomy). The old Greek element lived on purest perhaps in the district between Mt. Parnon and the Sea — eastern Laconia. The inhabitants came to be called Tzakones and the district Tzakonia ; and they developed a remarkable dialect of their own. They were long supposed to be Slavs. See A. Thumb, Die ethno- graphische Stellung der Zakonen (Indogerm, Forschungen, iv. 195 sgq., 1894). Fallmerayer, in harmony with his Slavonic theory, proposed to derive the name Morca from the Slavonic more, sea. This etymology defied the linguistic laws of Slavonic word-formation. Other unacceptable derivations have been suggested, but we have at last got back to the old mulberry, but in a new sense. (5 Mope'aj is formed from /j-opea, " mulberrv tree," with the meaning "planta- tion or region of mulberry trees " ( = /uopeojy). "SVe find the name first applied to Elis, whence it spread to the whole Peloponnesus ; and it is a memorial of the extensive cultivation of mulberries for the manufacture of silk. This explanation is due to the learned and scientific Greek philologist, M. G. N. Hatzidakes (Bj-z. Zeitsch. vol. 2, p. 283 sqq. and voL 5, p. 341, sqq.). 8. EARLY HISTORY OF THE BULGARIANS— (P. 130 iqq.) Bulgaria and Russia are Slavonic countries, Bulgarian and Russian are Slavonic languages ; but it is an important historical fact that the true Bulgarians and the true Russians, who created these Slavonic states, were not Slavs them- selves and did not speak Slavonic tongues. The Russian invader was a Teuton ; he belonged, at all events, to the same Indo-European family as the Slavs whom he conquered. But the Bulgarian invader was a Tartar, of wholly differ- ent ethnic affinities from the people whom he subdued. In both cases the conqueror was assimilated, gradually forgot his own tongue, and learned the