The Real Ethnic Composition of Modern Greece

[tchaiku]

(20) For descriptions of these places see Epirus, pp. 268 and 90.

(21) This work, sometimes called The Chronicle of Epirus, is published in the CSHB.

(22) For these places and their strategic importance see Epirus, p. 194 (Vela); p 186 (Vrousina); pp. 197 f. and 695 (Dhespotikon); with maps 7 and 18.

(23) C. N. Sathas, Documents inedits relatifs a l'histoire grecque au Moyen Age 2, p. 79 (no. 298) .

(24) Ducas 23, 8 (CSHB) called them "a race beyond number."

(25) E Kirsten (loc. cit , note 18) is of this opinion, n. 110, "die Geschichte der albanischen Landnahme in Aetolien, Akarnanien, dann bei Korinth . . . zeigt, dass die Bewegung auf der Westseite Griechenlands verlief und Mittel-griechenland von SW her erreichte."

(26) Another indication is provided by the distribution of Slavonic place-names. These were (before the rule of Metaxas) frequent in the canton of loannina, rare in that of Arta, and rarer still in that of Preveza, being displaced predominantly by Albanian place-names such as Toskesi and Ljapokhori. See Epirus. p. 27, n. 2.

(27) See Epirus, p 195.

(28) For these places see Epirus, p. 20, map 1, and p. 31, where I suggested that Zagorie included at one time the valley of the middle Aous from Permet to Konitsa and so linked up with Zagori. This may have been so in 1399.

(29) The document is cited in Sp. Lambros, Palaiologeia kai Peloponesiaka 3, p. 195.

(30) C. N. Sathas (op, cit., note 23) 9, p. 144.

(31) So described in a letter of Luc Notaras in Sp. Lambros, Onomatologia tes Attikes, p. 13.

(32) Joseph Campbell, Myths to Live by (New York, 1972) p. 176.

(33) Sathas (op, cit,, note 23) 9, p. 144; Ducas 45.12 (CSHB).

(34) Sathas (op. cit., note 23) 2, p. 79, qui cum equis volent venire; and Ljubic, Listine 10 no. 467, p 445, ut equitent et stent in castris apud te ad obedentiam tuam.

(35) So B. Randolph, an early traveller, cited by F W. Hasluck in "Albanian Settlements in the Aegean Islands,' BSA 15 (1908-9). I am indebted to this article in what follows.

[Carlin]

"So interwoven were the identities of Greek and Koutsovlach that in countries outside Greece their neighbours hardly knew to which of the two peoples the foreign immigrants belonged. Even their descendants often did not know whether their forefathers had been Greek or Koutsovlach."

http://vlahofonoi.blogspot.ca/2014/02/the-emigration-of-macedonians-to-lands.html?m=1

[Carlin]

"Thus in 826 invaders from Africa seized the island of Aegina, so close to Athens, and killed the husband of S. Athanasia, whose parents had forced her into marriage only sixteen days before. News of the proximity of the Moslems must have caused consternation in Athens, for their raid had been sufficient to leave Aegina "deserted and forgotten." In the year 826-7, when Crete and Sicily fell to the Moslems, they also invaded Aetolia and landed in force on the island of Lesbos, where their sinister memory long persisted."

[tchaiku]

- Thessaly used to be called 'Great Vlachia' or 'Megali Vlachia', with the capital Larissa.
- The Chronicle of Epirus refers to 'Great Vlachia' as 'Greco-Vlachia'.
- 'Great Vlachia' was a strong state during the decades of its ruler "Jovan I" (as written in Serbian), which was between 1258 and 1296.
- This Vlach state was under frequent attacks from Serbian rulers, as even the archbishop Danilo* noted - how king Milutin went with his army in order to conquer and plunder "drzhavu zemlye Vlahiotske".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Vlachia

[tchaiku]

SLAVS IN MIDDLE AGES


Isidore of Seville.

1) A little before 650 AD, Isidore of Seville wrote that during the first years of emperor Herakleios's reign (ca. 614 AD) "Sclavi Graeciam Romanis tulerunt" ("The Slavs have taken Greece from the Romans").

2) The writer of the "Miracles of Saint Demetrius" described 7th century Thessaloniki as "a Roman island in a slavic sea".

3) Willibald wrotein his biography that when he was going to Jerusalem from Sicily in 723 AD his ship stopped "ad urbem Manafasiam in Sclavenia terra" ("in the city of Monemvasia in the land of Sclavenia").

4) Byzantine anonymous epitomizer of Strabo wrote:

«Καὶ νῦν δὲ πᾶσαν Ἤπειρον καὶ Ἑλλάδα σχεδὸν καὶ Πελοπόννησον καὶ Μακεδονίαν Σκύθαι Σκλάβοι νέμονται»

"And now most of Epirus and Hellas and Peloponnesus and Macedonia are inhabited by 'Scythian' (=uncivilized) Slavs"

Vgl. Müller, Geographi Graeci Minores II S. 574.

And for Western Peloponnese in particular:

«Νῦν δὲ οὐδὲ ὄνομά ἐστι Πισατῶν καὶ Καυκώνων καὶ Πυλίων· ἅπαντα γὰρ ταῦτα Σκύθαι νέμονται»


s. Müller, Geogr. Graeci Minores II S. 583.

"And now not even the names of the Pisatans, the Caucones or the Pylians survive. All these regions are inhabited by 'Scythians'"


5) The Emperor Contantine VI Porphyrogennetos in the «Περί Θεμάτων» wrote about the Peloponnese that:

«Ἐσθλαβώθη δὲ πᾶσα ἡ χώρα καὶ γέγονε βάρβαρος, ὅτε ὁ λοιμικὸς θάνατος πᾶσαν ἐβόσκετο τὴν οἰκουμένην, ὁπηνίκα Κωνσταντῖνος ὁ τῆς κοπρίας ἐπώνυμος σκῆπτρα τῆς τῶν Ῥωμαίων διεῖπεν ἀρχῆς.

De thematibus II (ed. Bonn. 53, 18)

"The entire country [of Peloponnese] has been colonized by Slavs and became barbarian, when the deadly plague had stroke the empire, that is when Contantine V the "Copronymos" was emperor of the Romans".


Right after he had wrote that he remembered the Peloponnesian patrician Niketas Rendakios whom the people of Constantinople had described as a "cunning Slavic face" («γαρασδοειδής όψις εσθλαβωμένη»). The term «γαρασδοειδής» is an impromptu utilization of the slavic word gorazd = "valiant, clever", which here is used with the derogatory sense of "cunning, foxy". The Slavist Phaidon Malingoudis has explained the surname Rendakios also as a slavic nickname for "administrator" (he derives it from the proto-slavic verb ręditi (ę = a proto-slavic nasalised vowel pronounced as /en/ that survives in Polish) which means to "determine, administer, set".

6) In the late 11th century, the Patriarch Nicholas Grammatikos describes the Slavic colonization of the Peloponnese in a letter to emperor Alexios Komnenos with the words:

«Έπί διακοσίοις δεκαοκτώ χρόνοις όλοις κατεσχόντων την Πελοπόννησον, και της Ρωμαϊκής αρχής αποτεμομένων, ως μηδέ πόδα βαλείν όλως δύνασθαι εν αυτή Ρωμαίον άνδρα»

"For 218 years that the Slavs have held Peloponnesus cut off from the Roman empire so that no Roman could set his foot in the region"

7) When Emperor Michael Palaiologos decided to launch the reconquista of the Peloponnese from the Franks (late 13th century), when he arrived in Mistras, the first to welcome him were the Slavs of Taygetos and the Tsakones of Parnon. The Frankish rulers of Peloponnese in the french version of the "chronicle of Morea" describe these Slavs as "un gent de voulentè et n'obeissent a nul seignor" (Livre de la Conqueste de la Princèe de l'Amorèe) "a people with guts who don't obey in no master". Plus, they write that they had conquered all of Peloponnese except the Slavs of Taygetus. We are later told that the same Slavs of Taygetus had liberated the city of Kalamata from the Franks and restored it to the Byzantine control.

a) Mazaris wrote:

«Εν Πελοποννήσω, ως και αυτός οίδας, ξείνε, οικεί αναμίξ γένη πολιτευόμενα πάμπολλα, ων τον χωρισμόν ευρείν νυν ούτε ράδιον, ούτε κατεπείγον. α δε ταις ακοαίς περιηχείται, ως πάσι δήλα και κορυφαία, τυχγάνει ταύτα. Λακεδαίμονες, Ιταλοί, Πελοποννήσιοι, Σθλαβίνοι, Ιλλυριοί, Αιγύπτιοι και Ιουδαίοι (ουκ ολίγοι δε μέσον τούτων και υποβολιμαίοι), ομού τα τοιαύτα επαριθμούμενα επτά» [Μάζαρις 1831, 174 και Μάζαρις 1860, 239].

"In Peloponnese, as you can see stranger, dwell various mixed ethne mixed among themselves, who's separation is neither easy nor necessary ... "Laconians" (Tzakones), "Italians" ( various western neolatin speakers as Italian, French, Spaniards etc),"Peloponnesians" (non Tsakonian Greek speakers), "Slavenes" (Slavs) "Illyrians" (Albanians), "Egyptians" (gypsies) and "Judaeans" (Jews).


b) The Navigator Laskaris-Kananos made the circumnavigation of western Europe (Gibraltar, England, Northern Sea, Baltic Sea). When he reached the city of Lübeck/Ljubice which back then was the frontier between Germanic and Slavic speech he wrote:

Schließlich ist noch als Zeugnis aus dem 15. Jahrhundert für das Fortleben der Slaven am Taygetos eine Stelle aus der Schilderung einer Reise des Laskaris Kananos nach Deutschland und den nordischen Ländern zu erwähnen, deren Entstehung von Vasiljev (Buzeskul-Festschrift S. 397 ff) in die Jahre 1412—1418 gesetzt wird. Der Grieche schildert dort auch die Umgegend von Lübeck und nennt jenes Land Σθλαβουνία. Er fügt dann eine Bemerkung über die Verwandtschaft der lübeckischen Slaven mit den Zygioten im Peloponnes hinzu: Ἀπ᾽ αὐτῆς τῆς ἐπαρχίας ὑπάρχουν οἱ Ζυγιῶται οἱ ἐν Πελοποννήσῳ· ἐπεὶ ἐκεῖσε ὑπάρχουν πλεῖστα χωρία, ἅτινα διαλέγονται τὴν γλῶσσαν τῶν Ζυγιωτῶν. Vgl Vasiljev a. a. 399. Zu dem Namen Ζυγιῶται verweist der russische Historiker auf den Namen Sigo de la Chacoigne für den Taygetos in der französischen Fassung der Chronik vor Morea, welchen er mit griech. Ζυγός = Taygetos gleichseht. Vgl. auch

"From here starts 'Slavunia' (the land of the Slavs), the 'Zygiotes' (inhabitants of Zygòs = Taygetos) must have come from here, because there many villages here that speak the same language with the Zygiotes".

Leo VI the wise in his Tactica, how his father Basil I 'byzantinized' the Slavs of his empire:

[18.95] «Tαῦτα [τὰ Σκλαβικά ἔθνη] δὲ ὁ ἡμέτερος ἐν θείᾳ τῇ λήξει γενόμενος πατὴρ καὶ Ῥωμαίων αὐτοκράτωρ Βασίλειος τῶν ἀρχαίων ἐθῶν ἔπεισε μεταστῆναι καὶ, γρακῶσας, καὶ ἄρχουσι κατὰ τὸν Ῥωμαϊκό τύπον ὑποτάξας, καὶ βαπτίσματι τιμήσας, τῆς τε δουλείας ἡλευθέρωσε τῶν ἑαυτῶν ἀρχόντων, καὶ στρατεύεσθαι κατὰ τῶν Ῥωμαίοις πολεμούντων ἐθνῶν ἐξεπαίδευσεν, οὕτω πως ἑπιμελῶς περὶ τὰ τοιαύτα διακείμενος, διό καὶ ἀμερίμνους Ῥωμαίους ἐκ τῆς πολλάκις ἀπὸ Σκλάβων γενομένης ἀνταρσίας ἐποίησεν, πολλὰς ὑπ΄ἐκείνων ὀχλήσεις καὶ πολέμους τοῖς πάλαι χρόνοις ὑπομείναντας».

English Translation by George T. Dennis's "Tactica" (page 471):

"Our father, Emperor of the Romans, Basil, now in the divine dwelling, persuaded these peoples [the Slavic tribes] to abandon their ancient ways and, having tought them the greek language,, subjected them to rulers (archontes) according to the Roman model, and having graced them with baptism, he liberated them from slavery to their own rulers and trained them to take part in warfare against those nations warring against the Romans. By these means he very carefully arranged matters for those peoples. As a result, he enabled the Romans to feel relaxed after the frequent uprisings by the Slavs in the past and the many disturbances and wars they had suffered from them in ancient times".

[tchaiku]

Leo VI the wise in his Tactica, how his father Basil I 'byzantinized' the Slavs of his empire:



[18.95] «Tαῦτα [τὰ Σκλαβικά ἔθνη] δὲ ὁ ἡμέτερος ἐν θείᾳ τῇ λήξει γενόμενος πατὴρ καὶ Ῥωμαίων αὐτοκράτωρ Βασίλειος τῶν ἀρχαίων ἐθῶν ἔπεισε μεταστῆναι καὶ, γρακῶσας, καὶ ἄρχουσι κατὰ τὸν Ῥωμαϊκό τύπον ὑποτάξας, καὶ βαπτίσματι τιμήσας, τῆς τε δουλείας ἡλευθέρωσε τῶν ἑαυτῶν ἀρχόντων, καὶ στρατεύεσθαι κατὰ τῶν Ῥωμαίοις πολεμούντων ἐθνῶν ἐξεπαίδευσεν, οὕτω πως ἑπιμελῶς περὶ τὰ τοιαύτα διακείμενος, διό καὶ ἀμερίμνους Ῥωμαίους ἐκ τῆς πολλάκις ἀπὸ Σκλάβων γενομένης ἀνταρσίας ἐποίησεν, πολλὰς ὑπ΄ἐκείνων ὀχλήσεις καὶ πολέμους τοῖς πάλαι χρόνοις ὑπομείναντας».

English Translation by George T. Dennis's "Tactica" (page 471):

"Our father, Emperor of the Romans, Basil, now in the divine dwelling, persuaded these peoples [the Slavic tribes] to abandon their ancient ways and, having tought them the greek language,, subjected them to rulers (archontes) according to the Roman model, and having graced them with baptism, he liberated them from slavery to their own rulers and trained them to take part in warfare against those nations warring against the Romans. By these means he very carefully arranged matters for those peoples. As a result, he enabled the Romans to feel relaxed after the frequent uprisings by the Slavs in the past and the many disturbances and wars they had suffered from them in ancient times".

[tchaiku]

I wonder why is R1a so low in Balkans?

[Carlin]

Leo VI the wise in his Tactica, how his father Basil I 'byzantinized' the Slavs of his empire:



[18.95] «Tαῦτα [τὰ Σκλαβικά ἔθνη] δὲ ὁ ἡμέτερος ἐν θείᾳ τῇ λήξει γενόμενος πατὴρ καὶ Ῥωμαίων αὐτοκράτωρ Βασίλειος τῶν ἀρχαίων ἐθῶν ἔπεισε μεταστῆναι καὶ, γρακῶσας, καὶ ἄρχουσι κατὰ τὸν Ῥωμαϊκό τύπον ὑποτάξας, καὶ βαπτίσματι τιμήσας, τῆς τε δουλείας ἡλευθέρωσε τῶν ἑαυτῶν ἀρχόντων, καὶ στρατεύεσθαι κατὰ τῶν Ῥωμαίοις πολεμούντων ἐθνῶν ἐξεπαίδευσεν, οὕτω πως ἑπιμελῶς περὶ τὰ τοιαύτα διακείμενος, διό καὶ ἀμερίμνους Ῥωμαίους ἐκ τῆς πολλάκις ἀπὸ Σκλάβων γενομένης ἀνταρσίας ἐποίησεν, πολλὰς ὑπ΄ἐκείνων ὀχλήσεις καὶ πολέμους τοῖς πάλαι χρόνοις ὑπομείναντας».

English Translation by George T. Dennis's "Tactica" (page 471):

"Our father, Emperor of the Romans, Basil, now in the divine dwelling, persuaded these peoples [the Slavic tribes] to abandon their ancient ways and, having tought them the greek language,, subjected them to rulers (archontes) according to the Roman model, and having graced them with baptism, he liberated them from slavery to their own rulers and trained them to take part in warfare against those nations warring against the Romans. By these means he very carefully arranged matters for those peoples. As a result, he enabled the Romans to feel relaxed after the frequent uprisings by the Slavs in the past and the many disturbances and wars they had suffered from them in ancient times".

-- Cyril Mango, verbatim from Byzantium: The Empire of New Rome:

Was Hellenization, for example, a conscious aim of the imperial government, and if so, how was it implemented and with what success? And if it succeeded in the Middle Ages, why had it not done so in Antiquity under conditions of a more settled life and a higher civilization?

When we look at our scanty sources, we realize that the formulation of the above questions does not correspond to the Byzantine way of thinking. First of all, the very designation 'Greek', which we use so freely today to describe those Byzantines who did not belong to any alien group, is entirely absent from the literature of the period. An inhabitant of Greece south of Thessaly would have referred to himself as a Helladikos (a name already current in the sixth century AD), but he could have been a Slav as well as a 'Greek'. The same holds true of other regions whose dwellers called themselves by the names of their respective provinces, for example Paphlagonians or Thrakesians (after the Thrakesian 'theme' in western Asia Minor). Since, therefore, there was no notion of 'Greekness', it is hard to see how there could have been one of 'hellenization'.

The only passage, to my knowledge, that may imply something of the kind says that the Emperor Basil I converted the Slavonic tribes from their old religion and, 'having grecized them (graikosas), subjected them to governors according to Roman custom, honoured them with baptism, and delivered them from the oppression of their own rulers'. It has long been, however, a matter of dispute what the term 'grecized' may mean in the present context. What we do hear about, again and again, is the conversion of various peoples to Orthodox Christianity, be they Slavs or Muslim Cretans, and the setting up of an ecclesiastical organization. Here is how the Chronicle of Monembasia describes the activity of the Emperor Nicephorus I in the Peloponnese:

'He built de novo the town of Lacedaemon and settled in it a mixed population, namely Kafirs, Thrakesians, Armenians and others, gathered from different places and towns, and made it into a bishopric.'

Surely, neither the Kafirs (possibly a generic term for converts from Islam) nor the Armenians would have contributed to the hellenization of Laconia. The emperor's purpose was simply to implant a Christian population and set up a bishopric.

Equally telling is the case of the Slavs in Bithynia. We have seen that these were transplanted in very considerable numbers at the end of the seventh century and towards the middle of the eighth. Some two hundred years later, the Byzantine armament assembled in an effort to conquer Crete in 949 included a contingent of 'Slavonians who are established in Opsikion' (this being the administrative name of a part of Bithynia) placed under their own commanders. Clearly, these Slavonians still formed a distinct group. In the next century Anna Comnena refers to a village in Bithynia 'locally called Sagoudaous', presumably after the tribe of the Sagoudatai, attested in Macedonia in the seventh century. A little later the Slavonic element in Bithynia was augmented by the Emperor John II Comnenus who settled near Nicomedia a throng of Serbian captives. Serbian villages are still mentioned in those parts in the thirteenth century.

In other words, it is quite possible that the Slavs in Bithynia, or at any rate part of them, were assimilated by the Ottoman Turks, without having even become 'Greek'.



PS:
-- The Edinburgh History of the Greeks, c. 500 to 1500, by Florin Curta --> Page 288 and Page 289 quotes/summaries:

i) 'Kapheroi, Thrakesians, Armenians, and others from different places and cities' settled in Peloponnesos in the early ninth century, while Armenians 'and other rabble' came to Crete in the aftermath of the island's conquest in 961.
ii) The Kapheroi may well have been converted Arabs from the eastern frontier of the Empire.

[tchaiku]

SLAVS IN MIDDLE AGES


1) A little before 650 AD, Isidore of Seville wrote that during the first years of emperor Herakleios's reign (ca. 614 AD) "Sclavi Graeciam Romanis tulerunt" ("The Slavs have taken Greece from the Romans").

2) The writer of the "Miracles of Saint Demetrius" described 7th century Thessaloniki as "a Roman island in a slavic sea".

3) Willibald wrotein his biography that when he was going to Jerusalem from Sicily in 723 AD his ship stopped "ad urbem Manafasiam in Sclavenia terra" ("in the city of Monemvasia in the land of Sclavenia").

4) The 10th century Byzantine anonymous epitomizer of Strabo wrote:

«Καὶ νῦν δὲ πᾶσαν Ἤπειρον καὶ Ἑλλάδα σχεδὸν καὶ Πελοπόννησον καὶ Μακεδονίαν Σκύθαι Σκλάβοι νέμονται»

"And now most of Epirus and Hellas and Peloponnesus and Macedonia are inhabited by 'Scythian' (=uncivilized) Slavs"

Vgl. Müller, Geographi Graeci Minores II S. 574.

And for Western Peloponnese in particular:

«Νῦν δὲ οὐδὲ ὄνομά ἐστι Πισατῶν καὶ Καυκώνων καὶ Πυλίων· ἅπαντα γὰρ ταῦτα Σκύθαι νέμονται»


s. Müller, Geogr. Graeci Minores II S. 583.

"And now not even the names of the Pisatans, the Caucones or the Pylians survive. All these regions are inhabited by 'Scythians'"


5) The Emperor Contantine VI Porphyrogennetos in the «Περί Θεμάτων» wrote about the Peloponnese that:

«Ἐσθλαβώθη δὲ πᾶσα ἡ χώρα καὶ γέγονε βάρβαρος, ὅτε ὁ λοιμικὸς θάνατος πᾶσαν ἐβόσκετο τὴν οἰκουμένην, ὁπηνίκα Κωνσταντῖνος ὁ τῆς κοπρίας ἐπώνυμος σκῆπτρα τῆς τῶν Ῥωμαίων διεῖπεν ἀρχῆς.

De thematibus II (ed. Bonn. 53, 18)

"The entire country [of Peloponnese] has been colonized by Slavs and became barbarian, when the deadly plague had stroke the empire, that is when Contantine V the "Copronymos" was emperor of the Romans".


Right after he had wrote that he remembered the Peloponnesian patrician Niketas Rendakios whom the people of Constantinople had described as a "cunning Slavic face" («γαρασδοειδής όψις εσθλαβωμένη»). The term «γαρασδοειδής» is an impromptu utilization of the slavic word gorazd = "valiant, clever", which here is used with the derogatory sense of "cunning, foxy". The Slavist Phaidon Malingoudis has explained the surname Rendakios also as a slavic nickname for "administrator" (he derives it from the proto-slavic verb ręditi (ę = a proto-slavic nasalised vowel pronounced as /en/ that survives in Polish) which means to "determine, administer, set".

6) In the late 11th century, the Patriarch Nicholas Grammatikos describes the Slavic colonization of the Peloponnese in a letter to emperor Alexios Komnenos with the words:

«Έπί διακοσίοις δεκαοκτώ χρόνοις όλοις κατεσχόντων την Πελοπόννησον, και της Ρωμαϊκής αρχής αποτεμομένων, ως μηδέ πόδα βαλείν όλως δύνασθαι εν αυτή Ρωμαίον άνδρα»

"For 218 years that the Slavs have held Peloponnesus cut off from the Roman empire so that no Roman could set his foot in the region"

7) When Emperor Michael Palaiologos decided to launch the reconquista of the Peloponnese from the Franks (late 13th century), when he arrived in Mistras, the first to welcome him were the Slavs of Taygetos and the Tsakones of Parnon. The Frankish rulers of Peloponnese in the french version of the "chronicle of Morea" describe these Slavs as "un gent de voulentè et n'obeissent a nul seignor" (Livre de la Conqueste de la Princèe de l'Amorèe) "a people with guts who don't obey in no master". Plus, they write that they had conquered all of Peloponnese except the Slavs of Taygetus. We are later told that the same Slavs of Taygetus had liberated the city of Kalamata from the Franks and restored it to the Byzantine control.

a) Mazaris wrote:

«Εν Πελοποννήσω, ως και αυτός οίδας, ξείνε, οικεί αναμίξ γένη πολιτευόμενα πάμπολλα, ων τον χωρισμόν ευρείν νυν ούτε ράδιον, ούτε κατεπείγον. α δε ταις ακοαίς περιηχείται, ως πάσι δήλα και κορυφαία, τυχγάνει ταύτα. Λακεδαίμονες, Ιταλοί, Πελοποννήσιοι, Σθλαβίνοι, Ιλλυριοί, Αιγύπτιοι και Ιουδαίοι (ουκ ολίγοι δε μέσον τούτων και υποβολιμαίοι), ομού τα τοιαύτα επαριθμούμενα επτά» [Μάζαρις 1831, 174 και Μάζαρις 1860, 239].

"In Peloponnese, as you can see stranger, dwell various mixed ethne mixed among themselves, who's separation is neither easy nor necessary ... "Laconians" (Tzakones), "Italians" ( various western neolatin speakers as Italian, French, Spaniards etc),"Peloponnesians" (non Tsakonian Greek speakers), "Slavenes" (Slavs) "Illyrians" (Albanians), "Egyptians" (gypsies) and "Judaeans" (Jews).


b) The Navigator Laskaris-Kananos made the circumnavigation of western Europe (Gibraltar, England, Northern Sea, Baltic Sea). When he reached the city of Lübeck/Ljubice which back then was the frontier between Germanic and Slavic speech he wrote:

Schließlich ist noch als Zeugnis aus dem 15. Jahrhundert für das Fortleben der Slaven am Taygetos eine Stelle aus der Schilderung einer Reise des Laskaris Kananos nach Deutschland und den nordischen Ländern zu erwähnen, deren Entstehung von Vasiljev (Buzeskul-Festschrift S. 397 ff) in die Jahre 1412—1418 gesetzt wird. Der Grieche schildert dort auch die Umgegend von Lübeck und nennt jenes Land Σθλαβουνία. Er fügt dann eine Bemerkung über die Verwandtschaft der lübeckischen Slaven mit den Zygioten im Peloponnes hinzu: Ἀπ᾽ αὐτῆς τῆς ἐπαρχίας ὑπάρχουν οἱ Ζυγιῶται οἱ ἐν Πελοποννήσῳ· ἐπεὶ ἐκεῖσε ὑπάρχουν πλεῖστα χωρία, ἅτινα διαλέγονται τὴν γλῶσσαν τῶν Ζυγιωτῶν. Vgl Vasiljev a. a. 399. Zu dem Namen Ζυγιῶται verweist der russische Historiker auf den Namen Sigo de la Chacoigne für den Taygetos in der französischen Fassung der Chronik vor Morea, welchen er mit griech. Ζυγός = Taygetos gleichseht. Vgl. auch

"From here starts 'Slavunia' (the land of the Slavs), the 'Zygiotes' (inhabitants of Zygòs = Taygetos) must have come from here, because there many villages here that speak the same language with the Zygiotes".

^This page is more interesting so I thought coping and pasting it here, so for those quotes to not go down to toilet.

[Carlin]

Aromanians another category ( Vlachs) are those who are known today as "Greek minority" in Albania. It is historical fact that the ancestors of the "minorities" of today were farmers coming from the Pindos mountains, to work on southern areas. Zones of them have come to the Middle Ages and during the time that the new name was different "Wallachia" (For more you can read the "History of the Balkans" by Georges Castellan) So arrivals as farmers in areas Vurgu, Delvina, Dropullit etc. were Greek-Vlach. Given the influence of the church and especially in the Greek policies, we can understand very well why the so-called "Greek minority" is called such way. So "Greek minority" is not a Greek minority.

The grammar errors are from Google Translate I did not bother reconstructioning the paragraph entirely.

1) That many Vlachs living in neighbouring countries view nowadays Greece as their Metropolis is perhaps best illustrated in the paradigm of the Vlachophone population residing today in Albania.

2) Without credible demographics or even 'opinion polls' it is impossible to assess the percentages of each constituency although historically, the evidence of an Albanian Vlach orientation toward a Greek identity is indeed staggering.

3) From a Greek viewpoint, the affiliation of Albanian Vlachs is central to the question of Northern Epirus in light of the fact that the Vlachs constitute the predominant element of the Greek minority in present-day Albania. Rejection of a Greek identity by the Vlachs [doubtless, a wishful thinking by many] will further shrivel the critical mass of the Greek minority in southern Albania. Thus, the 'ethnic' separation of the Vlachs from Greeks is a high stake of Albanian nationalism ? the break of the Vlachs from Greek camp will effectively silence Greek 'claims' or grievances as regards to their 'perceived' sizeable minority in Albania.

Taken from URL:

http://vlahofonoi.blogspot.ca/2017/04/the-political-side-of-kutzovlach-affair.html

[tchaiku]

1) That many Vlachs living in neighbouring countries view nowadays Greece as their Metropolis is perhaps best illustrated in the paradigm of the Vlachophone population residing today in Albania.

2) Without credible demographics or even 'opinion polls' it is impossible to assess the percentages of each constituency although historically, the evidence of an Albanian Vlach orientation toward a Greek identity is indeed staggering.

3) From a Greek viewpoint, the affiliation of Albanian Vlachs is central to the question of Northern Epirus in light of the fact that the Vlachs constitute the predominant element of the Greek minority in present-day Albania. Rejection of a Greek identity by the Vlachs [doubtless, a wishful thinking by many] will further shrivel the critical mass of the Greek minority in southern Albania. Thus, the 'ethnic' separation of the Vlachs from Greeks is a high stake of Albanian nationalism ? the break of the Vlachs from Greek camp will effectively silence Greek 'claims' or grievances as regards to their 'perceived' sizeable minority in Albania.

Taken from URL:
http://vlahofonoi.blogspot.ca/2017/0...ch-affair.html

There are also Vlachs who are assimilated as Albanians. Many of those Greeks in Albania who are Vlachs identify themselves Greek by the wish. There are also Arvanites who are aware of their Albanian origin but they don't identify for main reasons such as: for the sake of Greek government, they feel assimilated plus Albanians are mainly Islamized and backwards and don't want to associate themselves with us.

I know two who are Vlachs. One of them lives in Germany and brags about this ''Greekness''. He is a writer. This is what he actually says:
''Do you have a library there near close you? Take a book and read who are the Greeks ... '' etc etc etc.

It seemed suspicious that they are of Wallachian origin ... like how can someone brag this way about something that is not even his? Then I found out the he has already admitted being a Vlach who feels Greek. He still brags though ...

[tchaiku]

After the fall of the Byzantine Empire, the Ottomans considered the Greeks and Vlachs one nation (milet) until 1905, although some early references differentiate among them. The villages of Pindus date from the 17th century *51 and were possibly founded for safety from persecutions. From that time there is some evidence regarding the relations between Greeks *52 and Vlachs. During the 18th century, Greeks and Vlachs coexisted abroad; documents and references of associations in Hungary, Vienna, or Romania do not differentiate between the two. But there were disputes in 1790-1810 in Hungary regarding the language in church. The negative reaction to the request that the mass be chanted in Vlach as well as in Greek split the community of Pesti (Hungary) in 1809. *53 In 1905, when disputes in Macedonia increased, the Ottoman Empire declared the Vlachs a separate nation, partly to divide the Christians. *54

51 Winnifrith 2002.

52 Aristotle mentions the term ‘Grekos’ in his Meteorologica, and so did other ancient writers, as an older name for Hellenas. The Romans used it extensively (Christou, p. 105).

53 Siokis 2002a.

54 P. Rizal (Joseph Nehama, 1914, p. 185 Greek translation) « Greeks and Serbs unite against the Turks.. Hilmi Pasha strengthens an old adversary, the Koutsovlachs, who protected by the Sultan and strengthened by the Bucharest government stop calling themselves Greek and fight ferociously against the Greek influence.»

http://www.farsarotul.org/nl26_1.htm

[Carlin]

Interesting that there is a massif called Anavlochos located in Crete.

Anavlochos=Anovlochos=Upper Vlach / Vloch.

The Anavlochos massif is located in Crete, in the region of Mirambello, a hinge area between central Crete and eastern Crete. It consists of a long North-West / South-East ridge of dolomitic limestone that overlooks the village of Vrachasi, established on its southern slope.

Some links -

http://www.efa.gr/index.php/fr/recherche/sites-de-fouilles/crete/l-anavlochos

http://www.cretanbeaches.com/en/history-of-crete/archaeological-sites-in-crete/the-dark-age-dorians-and-eteocretans/ancient-anavlochos

Anovlochos:

https://books.google.ca/books?id=GCj09AmtvvwC&pg=PA261&dq=anovlochos&hl=fr&sa=X&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=anovlochos&f=false

Similar (same) toponyms can be found in Thessaly, Aetolia/Acarnania.

https://www.google.ca/webhp?hl=fr&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiWwIaLhKnTAhXH3YMKHS46BHYQPAgD#hl=fr&q=%CE%B1%CE%BD%CF%89+%CE%B2%CE%BB%CE%BF%CF%87%CE%BF%CF%82

https://www.google.ca/search?hl=fr&biw=1295&bih=614&site=webhp&q=%CE%B2%CE%BB%CE%BF%CF%87%CE%BF%CF%82+%CE%BA%CE%B1%CF%81%CE%B4%CE%B9%CF%84%CF%83%CE%B1%CF%82&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiF1d2xhKnTAhWT0YMKHfYLA_MQ1QIIfygA

https://www.google.ca/search?hl=fr&biw=1295&bih=614&site=webhp&q=%CE%B2%CE%BB%CE%BF%CF%87%CE%BF%CF%82+%CE%B1%CE%B9%CF%84%CF%89%CE%BB%CE%BF%CE%B1%CE%BA%CE%B1%CF%81%CE%BD%CE%B1%CE%BD%CE%B9%CE%B1%CF%82&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiF1d2xhKnTAhWT0YMKHfYLA_MQ1QIIgAEoAQ

Dolopia, now called Anovlachia, was properly reckoned part of Epirus.

http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0137%3Abook%3D4%3Achapter%3D3

--> The name of Vlochs was given by the Slavs to the Celtic and Pelasgic peoples.

Page 7:

https://books.google.ca/books?id=NMsGAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA7&lpg=PA7&dq=Vlochs&source=bl&ots=7NwJnHlAC_&sig=Qp5oRnsw8MLFnIkYcZRfRrwGkp4&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjKif-JoKLTAhUU8mMKHRv_DIYQ6AEIPDAF#v=onepage&q=Vlochs&f=false

[Carlin]

K. Sathas discovered in the archives of the Venetian republic documents and decrees that talk about Arvanite migrations. Accordingly, on 30.04.1541, it was decided by the Venetian senate to settle Arvanites in Crete, Zakynthos, Kefalonia and Corfu.

[Carlin]

Erotokritos

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erotokritos

https://books.google.ca/books?id=Q-lr20SuvfIC&pg=PA132&dq=Erotokritos+Vlachs&hl=fr&sa=X&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=Erotokritos%20Vlachs&f=false

Erotokritos (Greek: Ἐρωτόκριτος) is a romance composed by Vikentios (Vitsentzos, "Vincenzo", Vincent) Kornaros in early 17th century Crete. It consists of 10,012 fifteen-syllable rhymed verses, the last twelve of which refer to the poet himself.

The play takes place in ancient Athens, but the world displayed is a complex construct which does not correspond to any particular historical period. Alongside references to classical Greece there are anachronisms and many elements peculiar to Western Europe, such as the jousting competition. The work is divided in the following five parts.

The poet narrates the trials and tribulations suffered by two young lovers, Erotokritos and Aretousa, daughter of Heracles, King of Athens.

After several years of marriage, a daughter (Aretousa) is born to the King of Athens (Heracles) and his wife. The son of the faithful adviser to the king (Erotokritos) falls in love with the princess.

Aretousa refuses to consider any marriage proposals and is imprisoned by the king alongside her faithful nanny. After three years, when the Vlachs besiege Athens, Erotokritos reappears, his true identity concealed through magic. In a battle he saves the life of the king and gets wounded in the process.


Thus, an echo of the Vlachs is inherent in "Erotokritos", and in the short songs (Του Μικρού Βλαχόπουλου), in the "Chronicle of Morea" (Χρονικό του Μωρέως).