The Antes, or Antae ( gr, Ἄνται), were an
early East Slavic tribal polity of the 6th century CE. They lived on the lower
Danube
The Danube ( ; ) is a river that was once a long-standing frontier of the Roman Empire and today connects 10 European countries, running through their territories or being a border. Originating in Germany, the Danube flows southeast for , pa ...
River, in the northwestern
Black Sea
The Black Sea is a marginal mediterranean sea of the Atlantic Ocean lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, Rom ...
region (present-day
Moldova
Moldova ( , ; ), officially the Republic of Moldova ( ro, Republica Moldova), is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Romania to the west and Ukraine to the north, east, and south. The unrecognised state of Transnistri ...
and central
Ukraine
Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inva ...
), and in the regions around the
Don River (in
Middle and
Southern Russia
Southern Russia or the South of Russia (russian: Юг России, ''Yug Rossii'') is a colloquial term for the southernmost geographic portion of European Russia generally covering the Southern Federal District and the North Caucasian Feder ...
). Scholars commonly associate the Antes with the archaeological
Penkovka culture.
First mentioned in the historical record in 518, the Antes invaded the
Diocese of Thrace sometime between the years of 533 and 545. Thereafter, they became
Byzantine
The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...
''
foederati'' and received gold payments and a fort (named "Turris" - the Latin word ''turris'' means 'tower') somewhere north of the Danube at a strategically important location to prevent hostile barbarians from invading
Roman
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
* Rome, the capital city of Italy
* Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
*Roman people, the people of ancient Rome
*''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lett ...
lands. Thus from 545 to the 580s, Antean soldiers fought in various Byzantine campaigns. The
Pannonian Avars
The Pannonian Avars () were an alliance of several groups of Eurasian nomads of various origins. The peoples were also known as the Obri in chronicles of Rus, the Abaroi or Varchonitai ( el, Βαρχονίτες, Varchonítes), or Pseudo-Avars ...
attacked the Antes at the beginning of the 7th century, when the Antes disappeared as a group and became ancestors of both the
East Slavs
The East Slavs are the most populous subgroup of the Slavs. They speak the East Slavic languages, and formed the majority of the population of the medieval state Kievan Rus', which they claim as their cultural ancestor.John Channon & Robert ...
and
South Slavs
South Slavs are Slavic peoples who speak South Slavic languages and inhabit a contiguous region of Southeast Europe comprising the eastern Alps and the Balkan Peninsula. Geographically separated from the West Slavs and East Slavs by Austri ...
.
Customs
The Antes had similar if not identical customs and culture as the Sclaveni. They were carefully described by chroniclers such as
Procopius and
Maurice (emperor)
Maurice ( la, Mauricius or ''Mauritius''; ; 539 – 27 November 602) was Eastern Roman emperor from 582 to 602 and the last member of the Justinian dynasty. A successful general, Maurice was chosen as heir and son-in-law by his predecessor T ...
, whose works contribute greatly to our understanding of these two early Slavic peoples.
Maurice writes that the Slavs were very hospitable people, tribes that mistreated guests were attacked for their dishonor. Prisoners were not kept forever and after a certain period of time, captives were allowed to be let loosed or to join the community. Settlements were built in hard to reach forests, lakes and marshes as they were hard to attack, with exits in many directions for escape. They farmed many crops, especially millet, but also had much livestock. Maurice praises their toleration of discomfort when necessary, and the loyalty of married women to their husbands. The Antes and Sclaveni were independent, refusing to be governed or enslaved. They lived under democracy, with all matters being referred to the people.
The religion of the Antes, like other Slavic tribes and peoples was
Slavic paganism.
The Antes and Sclaveni were skilled warriors, especially in guerrilla warfare, taking advantage of terrain. They preferred to fight in dense woodland instead of pitch battle, although field battles and sieges were also recorded. Their weapons were javelins, spears, bows nocked with poison tipped arrows and sturdy wooden shields, but body armour was rare.
Historiography
Scholars have studied the Antes since the late 18th century. Based on the literary evidence provided by
Procopius (c. 500–560 CE) and
Jordanes
Jordanes (), also written as Jordanis or Jornandes, was a 6th-century Eastern Roman bureaucrat widely believed to be of Gothic descent who became a historian later in life. Late in life he wrote two works, one on Roman history ('' Romana'') an ...
(fl. c. 551), the Antes, along with the
Sclaveni
The ' (in Latin) or ' (various forms in Greek, see below) were early Slavic tribes that raided, invaded and settled the Balkans in the Early Middle Ages and eventually became the progenitors of modern South Slavs. They were mentioned by early ...
and the
Venethi, have long been viewed as the constituent
proto-Slavic peoples ancestral to both medieval Slavic ethnicities and modern Slavic nations. At times, debate over the origins and the descendants of the Antes has been heated. The tribe has been variously regarded as the ancestors of, specifically, the
Vyatichi or the
Rus (from a medieval perspective), and, in terms of extant populations, of the
Ukrainians
Ukrainians ( uk, Українці, Ukraintsi, ) are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Ukraine. They are the seventh-largest nation in Europe. The native language of the Ukrainians is Ukrainian. The majority of Ukrainians are Eastern Ort ...
versus other East Slavs. Additionally, South Slavic historians have regarded the Antes as the ancestors of the eastern
South Slavs
South Slavs are Slavic peoples who speak South Slavic languages and inhabit a contiguous region of Southeast Europe comprising the eastern Alps and the Balkan Peninsula. Geographically separated from the West Slavs and East Slavs by Austri ...
.
Ethnolinguistic affinities
Although the Antes are regarded as a predominantly Slavic tribal union, numerous other theories of their ethnic components have arisen. The origins of their core ruling class have drawn particular attention, including theories that this ruling
nobility
Nobility is a social class found in many societies that have an aristocracy. It is normally ranked immediately below royalty. Nobility has often been an estate of the realm with many exclusive functions and characteristics. The character ...
was ethnically
Iranic,
Gothic
Gothic or Gothics may refer to:
People and languages
*Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes
**Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths
**Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...
, Slavic, or some mixture thereof. Much of this dispute has arisen from the scantness of the literary evidence: little is known of the Antes apart from the tribal name itself and a handful of
anthroponyms. The name ''Antes'' itself does not appear to be Slavic, and is often held to be an
Iranian
Iranian may refer to:
* Iran, a sovereign state
* Iranian peoples, the speakers of the Iranian languages. The term Iranic peoples is also used for this term to distinguish the pan ethnic term from Iranian, used for the people of Iran
* Iranian lan ...
word.
Omeljan Pritsak, citing
Max Vasmer, argues that because ''anta-'' means "frontier, end" in
Sanskrit
Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural diffusion ...
, ''*ant-ya'' could mean "frontiersman" or "that which is at the end"; and in
Ossetian ''att'iya'' means "the last, behind". F.P. Filin and
Oleg Trubachyov
Oleg Nikolayevich Trubachyov (also transliterated as Trubachev or Trubačev, russian: Оле́г Никола́евич Трубачёв; 23 October 1930, in Stalingrad – 9 March 2002, in Moscow) was a Soviet and Russian linguist. A re ...
shared this opinion. In contrast, Bohdan Struminskyj considered the etymology of ''Antes'' unproven and "irrelevant". Struminskyj analyzed the personal names of Antean chiefs and offered
Germanic etymological alternatives to the commonly accepted Slavic etymologies that had first been proposed by
Stanisław Rospond.
Although the first unequivocal attestation of the Antes tribe is from the 6th century CE, scholars (e.g. Vernadsky) have tried to connect the Antes with a tribe rendered as ''
Yancai'' 奄蔡 (<
LHC *''ʔɨam
A''-''sɑ
C'' <
OC (125 BCE) *''ʔɨam-sɑs''; compare
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...
''Abzoae'', identified with the
Aorsi (
Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic pe ...
''Αορσιοι'')) in the
Records of the Grand Historian
''Records of the Grand Historian'', also known by its Chinese name ''Shiji'', is a monumental history of China that is the first of China's 24 dynastic histories. The ''Records'' was written in the early 1st century by the ancient Chinese his ...
, a 2nd-century-BCE Chinese source.
Pliny the Elder
Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23/2479), called Pliny the Elder (), was a Roman author, naturalist and natural philosopher, and naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of the emperor Vespasian. He wrote the encyclopedic ' ...
mentions some ''Anti'' living near the shores of the
Azov Sea, and inscriptions from the
Kerch peninsula
The Kerch Peninsula is a major and prominent geographic peninsula located at the eastern end of the Crimean Peninsula, Ukraine.
This peninsula stretches eastward toward the Taman peninsula between the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea. Most of t ...
dating to the 3rd century CE bear the word ''antas''. Based on documentation of "
Sarmatian" tribes inhabiting the north
Pontic region during the early centuries of the Common Era, presumed Iranic loanwords in Slavic languages, and Sarmatian "cultural borrowings" into the
Penkovka culture, scholars such as
Paul Robert Magocsi
Paul Robert Magocsi (born January 26, 1945 in Englewood, New Jersey) is an American professor of history, political science, and Chair of Ukrainian Studies at the University of Toronto. He has been with the university since 1980, and became ...
,
Valentin Sedov, and
John V.A. Fine, Jr. maintain earlier proposals by Soviet-era scholars such as
Boris Rybakov
Boris Alexandrovich Rybakov (Russian: Бори́с Алекса́ндрович Рыбако́в, 3 June 1908, Moscow – 27 December 2001) was a Soviet and Russian historian who personified the anti-Normanist vision of Russian history. He is th ...
, that the Antes were originally a Sarmatian–
Alan frontier tribe that become Slavicized but preserved their name.
Sedov argues that the
ethnonym referred to the Slavic–Scythian–Sarmatian population living between the Dniester and Dnieper Rivers, and later to the related Slavic tribes who
emerged from this Slavic–Iranian symbiosis.
However, more-recent perspectives view the tribal entities named by Graeco-Roman sources as fluctuant political formations that were, above all,
etic categorizations based on ethnographic stereotypes rather than on first-hand, accurate knowledge of the barbarian language or "culture." Bartłomiej Szymon Szmoniewski argues that the Antes were not a "discrete, ethnically homogeneous entity" but rather "a highly complex political reality".
Linguistically, contemporary evidence suggests that
Proto-Slavic was the
common language
A lingua franca (; ; for plurals see ), also known as a bridge language, common language, trade language, auxiliary language, vehicular language, or link language, is a language systematically used to make communication possible between groups ...
of an area that extended from the eastern Alps to the Black Sea and was spoken by peoples of varying ethnic backgrounds, including Slavs, provincial Romans, Germanic tribes (such as the
Gepids
The Gepids, ( la, Gepidae, Gipedae, grc, Γήπαιδες) were an East Germanic tribe who lived in the area of modern Romania, Hungary and Serbia, roughly between the Tisza, Sava and Carpathian Mountains. They were said to share the relig ...
and
Lombards
The Lombards () or Langobards ( la, Langobardi) were a Germanic people who ruled most of the Italian Peninsula from 568 to 774.
The medieval Lombard historian Paul the Deacon wrote in the ''History of the Lombards'' (written between 787 an ...
), and
Turkic peoples (such as the
Avars and
Bulgars
The Bulgars (also Bulghars, Bulgari, Bolgars, Bolghars, Bolgari, Proto-Bulgarians) were Turkic semi-nomadic warrior tribes that flourished in the Pontic–Caspian steppe and the Volga region during the 7th century. They became known as noma ...
). It has further been proposed that the ''
Sklaveni'' were not distinguished from others on the basis of language or culture but on that of military organization. Compared with the Avars, or 6th-century
Goths
The Goths ( got, 𐌲𐌿𐍄𐌸𐌹𐌿𐌳𐌰, translit=''Gutþiuda''; la, Gothi, grc-gre, Γότθοι, Gótthoi) were a Germanic people who played a major role in the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the emergence of medieval Euro ...
, the Sklaveni were composed of numerous, smaller disunited groups, one of which – the Antai – became ''foederati'' constituted by a treaty.
History
Early history
According to historians who argue for a connection between the Antes and the Sarmatians, the Antes were a subgroup of the
Alans, who dominated the Black Sea and
North Caucasus
The North Caucasus, ( ady, Темыр Къафкъас, Temır Qafqas; kbd, Ишхъэрэ Къаукъаз, İṩxhərə Qauqaz; ce, Къилбаседа Кавказ, Q̇ilbaseda Kavkaz; , os, Цӕгат Кавказ, Cægat Kavkaz, inh, ...
region during the
Late Sarmatian Period. The Antes were based between the
Bug and lower
Dnieper
}
The Dnieper () or Dnipro (); , ; . is one of the major transboundary rivers of Europe, rising in the Valdai Hills near Smolensk, Russia, before flowing through Belarus and Ukraine to the Black Sea. It is the longest river of Ukraine an ...
in the 1st–2nd centuries CE. In the 4th century, their center of power shifted northward toward the
southern Bug. In the 5th and 6th centuries, they settled in
Volhynia and subsequently in the middle
Dnieper
}
The Dnieper () or Dnipro (); , ; . is one of the major transboundary rivers of Europe, rising in the Valdai Hills near Smolensk, Russia, before flowing through Belarus and Ukraine to the Black Sea. It is the longest river of Ukraine an ...
region near the present-day city of
Kyiv
Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the seventh-most populous city in Europe.
Ky ...
.
As they moved north from the open
steppe
In physical geography, a steppe () is an ecoregion characterized by grassland plains without trees apart from those near rivers and lakes.
Steppe biomes may include:
* the montane grasslands and shrublands biome
* the temperate gras ...
to the forest steppe, they organized the Slavic tribes, and the name ''Antes'' came to be used for the mixed Slavo–Alanic polity.
[Today Alans are better known as ]Ossetians
The Ossetians or Ossetes (, ; os, ир, ирæттæ / дигорӕ, дигорӕнттӕ, translit= ir, irættæ / digoræ, digorænttæ, label=Ossetic) are an Iranian ethnic group who are indigenous to Ossetia, a region situated across the no ...
.
Whatever the exact origins of the tribe,
Jordanes
Jordanes (), also written as Jordanis or Jornandes, was a 6th-century Eastern Roman bureaucrat widely believed to be of Gothic descent who became a historian later in life. Late in life he wrote two works, one on Roman history ('' Romana'') an ...
and
Procopius both appear to suggest that the Antes were Slavic by the 5th century. In describing the lands of ''
Scythia
Scythia ( Scythian: ; Old Persian: ; Ancient Greek: ; Latin: ) or Scythica (Ancient Greek: ; Latin: ), also known as Pontic Scythia, was a kingdom created by the Scythians during the 6th to 3rd centuries BC in the Pontic–Caspian steppe.
...
'', Jordanes states that "the populous race of the
Venethi occupy a great expanse of land. Though their names are now dispersed amid various clans and places, yet they are chiefly called Sklaveni and Antes." Later, in describing the deeds of
Ermanaric, the mythical
Ostrogothic king, Jordanes writes that the Venethi "have now three names: Venethi, Antes, and Sklaveni". Finally, he describes a battle between the Antean king
Boz and Ermanaric's successor
Vinitharius after the latter's subjugation by the Huns. After initially defeating the Goths, the Antes lost the second battle, and Boz and 70 of his leading nobles were
crucified (''Get. 247''). Scholars have traditionally taken the accounts of Jordanes as face-value evidence that the Sklaveni and (the bulk of the) Antes descended from the
Venedi
The Vistula Veneti (also called Baltic Veneti) were an Indo-European people that inhabited the region of central Europe east of the Vistula River and the areas around the Bay of Gdańsk. The name first appeared in the 1st century AD in the writin ...
, a tribe known to historians such as
Tacitus,
Ptolemy
Claudius Ptolemy (; grc-gre, Πτολεμαῖος, ; la, Claudius Ptolemaeus; AD) was a mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist, who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were of importanc ...
, and
Pliny the Elder
Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23/2479), called Pliny the Elder (), was a Roman author, naturalist and natural philosopher, and naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of the emperor Vespasian. He wrote the encyclopedic ' ...
since the 2nd century CE.
However, the utility of ''Getica'' as an accurate work of
ethnography
Ethnography (from Greek ''ethnos'' "folk, people, nation" and ''grapho'' "I write") is a branch of anthropology and the systematic study of individual cultures. Ethnography explores cultural phenomena from the point of view of the subject ...
has been questioned.
Walter Goffart, for example, argues that ''Getica'' created an entirely ''mythical'' story of Gothic and other peoples' origins.
[The very purpose of Jordanes' narrative, especially with regard to the alleged Scandinavian origin of the Goths, was to show that there was no place for the Goths in Roman territory. Together with his enumeration of other barbarian tribes in Scythia and around Dacia, Jordanes was stating that Scythia is overpopulated with barbarians, and the Goths should belong to the frozen wastelands of the North. Jordanes only feigned his own Gothic roots, and his work is designed to celebrate the destruction of the Gothic kingdom by the Byzantines. (Goffart, 2006)] Florin Curta further argues that Jordanes had no real ethnographic knowledge of "Scythia," despite claims that he himself was a Goth and was born in Thrace. He borrowed heavily from earlier historians and only artificially linked the 6th-century Sklaveni and Antes with the earlier Venethi, who had otherwise long disappeared by that century. This
anachronism was paired with a "modernizing narrative strategy" whereby Jordanes retold older events – the war between the
Ostrogothic Vithimiris and the Alans – as a war between Vinitharius and the contemporary Antes. In any case, no 4th-century source mentions the Antes, and the "
Ostrogoths
The Ostrogoths ( la, Ostrogothi, Austrogothi) were a Roman-era Germanic people. In the 5th century, they followed the Visigoths in creating one of the two great Gothic kingdoms within the Roman Empire, based upon the large Gothic populations who ...
" did not form until the 5th century – inside the Balkans.
Apart from the influence of older historians, Jordanes' narrative style was shaped by his polemical debate with his contemporary Procopius. While Jordanes linked the Sclaveni and Antes with the ancient
Venedi
The Vistula Veneti (also called Baltic Veneti) were an Indo-European people that inhabited the region of central Europe east of the Vistula River and the areas around the Bay of Gdańsk. The name first appeared in the 1st century AD in the writin ...
, Procopius states that they were both once called ''
Sporoi''.
[The term Spori is a ]hapax
In corpus linguistics, a ''hapax legomenon'' ( also or ; ''hapax legomena''; sometimes abbreviated to ''hapax'', plural ''hapaxes'') is a word or an expression that occurs only once within a context: either in the written record of an entire ...
, but might have been inspired by the tribe "Spali" (curta, 1999. FN 36)
Location in 6th century
Jordanes and Procopius have been seen as invaluable sources in locating the Antes with greater precision. Jordanes (''Get. 25'') states that they dwelt "along the curve of the Black Sea" from the Dniester to the Dnieper. Paul M. Barford questions whether this implies they occupied the steppe or the regions further north, although most scholars generally place the Antes in the forest steppe zone of
right-bank Ukraine
Right-bank Ukraine ( uk , Правобережна Україна, ''Pravoberezhna Ukrayina''; russian: Правобережная Украина, ''Pravoberezhnaya Ukraina''; pl, Prawobrzeżna Ukraina, sk, Pravobrežná Ukrajina, hu, Jobb p ...
. In contrast, Procopius locates them just beyond the northern banks of the Danube (''Wars V 27.1–2'') (i.e.,
Wallachia). The lack of consistency in geography demonstrates that the Antes stretched well across Sarmatian Scythia, rather than being a small and distant polity.
[Eg Jordanes states Scythia extends as far as the "Tyras" and "Danaster", although they are two names for the same river (Dniester). Procopius thought the Caucasus mountains extended as far as Illyricum. (Curta, 199, p. 327-8)]
6th and 7th centuries
The first contact between the
Eastern Romans and the Antes was in 518 CE. Recorded by Procopius, the Antean raid appeared to coincide with the
Vitalian
Pope Vitalian ( la, Vitalianus; died 27 January 672) was the bishop of Rome from 30 July 657 to his death. His pontificate was marked by the dispute between the papacy and the imperial government in Constantinople over Monothelitism, which Rome ...
' revolt, but was intercepted and defeated by the ''magister militum per Thraciam''
Germanus. Germanus was replaced by
Chilbudius in the early 530s, who was killed three years later during an expedition against the various Sklavenoi. With the death of Chilbudius,
Justinian
Justinian I (; la, Iustinianus, ; grc-gre, Ἰουστινιανός ; 48214 November 565), also known as Justinian the Great, was the Byzantine emperor from 527 to 565.
His reign is marked by the ambitious but only partly realized '' renova ...
appears to have changed his policy against Slavic barbarians from offense to defense, exemplified by his grand program of refortifying garrisons along the Danube.
[Curta, 2001. p. 78.]
Procopius notes that in 539–40, the Sklavenes and Antes "became hostile to one another and engaged in battle," probably encouraged by the Romans' traditional tactic of "divide and conquer."
At the same time, the Romans recruited
mounted mercenaries from both groups to aid their war against the Ostrogoths.
Nevertheless, both Procopius and Jordanes report numerous raids by "
Huns
The Huns were a nomadic people who lived in Central Asia, the Caucasus, and Eastern Europe between the 4th and 6th century AD. According to European tradition, they were first reported living east of the Volga River, in an area that was part ...
," Slavs, Bulgars, and Antes in the years 539–40 CE, reporting that some 32 forts and 120,000 Roman prisoners were captured. Sometime between 533 and 545, the Antes invaded the Diocese of Thrace, enslaving many Romans and taking them north of the Danube to the Antean homelands. Indeed, numerous raids were conducted during this turbulent decade by numerous barbarian groups, including the Antes.
Shortly afterward, the Antes became Roman allies (after approaching the Romans) and were given gold payments and a fort named "Turris" somewhere north of the Danube at a strategically important location, in order to prevent hostile barbarians invading Roman lands. This was part of a larger set of alliances, including the
Lombards
The Lombards () or Langobards ( la, Langobardi) were a Germanic people who ruled most of the Italian Peninsula from 568 to 774.
The medieval Lombard historian Paul the Deacon wrote in the ''History of the Lombards'' (written between 787 an ...
, lifting pressure off the lower Danube and enabling forces to be diverted to Italy. Thus, in 545, Antean soldiers were fighting in
Lucania against Ostrogoths, and in the 580s they attacked the settlements of the Sklavenes at the behest of the Romans. In 555 and 556,
Dabragezas (of Antean origin) led the Roman fleet in
Crimea
Crimea, crh, Къырым, Qırım, grc, Κιμμερία / Ταυρική, translit=Kimmería / Taurikḗ ( ) is a peninsula in Ukraine, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, that has been occupied by Russia since 2014. It has a p ...
against
Persian positions.
The Antes remained Roman allies until their demise in the first decade of the 7th century. They were often involved in conflicts with the Avars, such as the war recorded by
Menander the Guardsman
Menander Protector (Menander the Guardsman, Menander the Byzantian; el, Μένανδρος Προτήκτωρ or Προτέκτωρ), Byzantine historian, was born in Constantinople in the middle of the 6th century AD. The little that is known of ...
(''50, frg 5.3.17–21'') in the 560s. In 602, in retaliation for a Roman attack on their Sklavene allies, the Avars sent their general
Apsich Apsich or Aspik () was a Hun military leader in the Byzantine Empire.
Apsich was a professional soldier who gained high command in the Byzantine Empire. He fought in the Byzantine–Sasanian War of 572–591. When Philippicus
Philippicus ( la, ...
to "destroy the nation of the Antes."
Despite numerous defections to the Romans during the campaign, the Avar attack appears to have ended the Antean polity. They never again appear in sources, apart from the epithet ''Anticus'' in the imperial
titulature in 612. Curta argues that the 602 attack on the Antes destroyed their political independence. However, based on the aforementioned attestation of ''Anticus'', Georgios Kardaras rather argues that the disappearance of the Antes stemmed from the general collapse of the Scythian/lower Danubian ''limes'' they defended, ending their hegemony on the lower Danube. Others have seen a remote connection between the demise of the Antes and the oppression of the
Dulebes
The Dulebes, Dulebs, Dudlebi or Dulibyh ( uk, Дуліби) were one of the tribal unions of Early Slavs between the 6th and the 10th centuries. According to medieval sources they lived in Western Volhynia, as well as southern parts of the Duch ...
by the Avars mentioned in the ''
Primary Chronicle'', and/or the tradition recorded by
Al-Masudi
Al-Mas'udi ( ar, أَبُو ٱلْحَسَن عَلِيّ ٱبْن ٱلْحُسَيْن ٱبْن عَلِيّ ٱلْمَسْعُودِيّ, '; –956) was an Arab historian, geographer and traveler. He is sometimes referred to as the " Herodotu ...
and
Abraham ben Jacob that in ancient times the ''Walitābā'' (which some read as ''Walīnānā'' and identified with the
Volhynians) were "the original, pure-blooded
Saqaliba, the most highly honoured" and dominated the rest of the Slavic tribes, but due to "dissent" their "original organization was destroyed" and "the people divided into factions, each of them ruled by their own king", implying existence of a Slavic federation which perished after the attack of the Avars.
Whatever the case, shortly after the collapse of the Danubian ''limes'' (more specifically, the tactical Roman withdrawal), the first evidence of Slavic settlement in northeastern Bulgaria begin to appear.
The
Pereshchepina hoard, dating to the early 7th century, may be considered part of an Antean chieftain's treasury,
although most researchers consider it to be the treasure of Khan
Kubrat, the first ruler of
Old Great Bulgaria.
Aftermath
Out of the old Antes federation, the following tribes evolved:
*
White Croats, who were scattered across Eastern
Prykarpattia,
Silesia
Silesia (, also , ) is a historical region of Central Europe that lies mostly within Poland, with small parts in the Czech Silesia, Czech Republic and Germany. Its area is approximately , and the population is estimated at around 8,000,000. S ...
and the upper
Vistula river, Eastern
Bohemia,
Saale
The Saale (), also known as the Saxon Saale (german: Sächsische Saale) and Thuringian Saale (german: Thüringische Saale), is a river in Germany and a left-bank tributary of the Elbe. It is not to be confused with the smaller Franconian Saal ...
, and
Dalmatia
Dalmatia (; hr, Dalmacija ; it, Dalmazia; see names in other languages) is one of the four historical regions of Croatia, alongside Croatia proper, Slavonia, and Istria. Dalmatia is a narrow belt of the east shore of the Adriatic Sea, str ...
*
Drevlyans, between the
Pripet
Pripyat ( ; russian: При́пять), also known as Prypiat ( uk, При́пʼять, , ), is an abandoned city in northern Ukraine, located near the border with Belarus. Named after the nearby river, Pripyat, it was founded on 4 February ...
and
Horyn
The Horyn or Haryn ( uk, Горинь ; be, Гарынь ; russian: Горы́нь; pl, Horyń) is a tributary of the Pripyat, which flows through Ukraine and Belarus. The Horyn is long, and has a drainage basin of .[Dulebes
The Dulebes, Dulebs, Dudlebi or Dulibyh ( uk, Дуліби) were one of the tribal unions of Early Slavs between the 6th and the 10th centuries. According to medieval sources they lived in Western Volhynia, as well as southern parts of the Duch ...]
, in
Volhynia between the
Vistula,
Buh, and
Styr Rivers
[
* Polans, between ]Kyiv
Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the seventh-most populous city in Europe.
Ky ...
and Roden[
* Severians, along the Desna and upper Seim and Sula Rivers][
*]Tiverians
The Tivertsi ( uk, Тиверці; ro, Tiverți or ), were a tribe of early East Slavs which lived in the lands near the Dniester, and probably the lower Danube, that is in modern-day western Ukraine and Republic of Moldova and possibly in easte ...
, along the Dniester
The Dniester, ; rus, Дне́стр, links=1, Dnéstr, ˈdⁿʲestr; ro, Nistru; grc, Τύρᾱς, Tyrās, ; la, Tyrās, la, Danaster, label=none, ) ( ,) is a transboundary river in Eastern Europe. It runs first through Ukraine and t ...
River
*Ulichians
The Uliches or Ugliches ( ro, Ulici or ; russian: Уличи or , or ; uk, Уличі , or ) were a tribe of Early East Slavs who, between the eighth and the tenth centuries, inhabited (along with the Tivertsi) Bessarabia, and the territories ...
, between Dniester and Dnieper
}
The Dnieper () or Dnipro (); , ; . is one of the major transboundary rivers of Europe, rising in the Valdai Hills near Smolensk, Russia, before flowing through Belarus and Ukraine to the Black Sea. It is the longest river of Ukraine an ...
in the forest-steppe zone
Rulers
* Boz (fl. 376–80), king of Antae and first known Slavic ruler
* (fl. 555–56), led Roman fleet in Crimea against Persian positions
*Idariz, or Idarisius (fl. 562), father of Mezamir
* Mezamir (fl. 562), powerful Antae archon
*Kelagast (fl. 562), brother of Mezamir
* Musokios, or Mužok (fl. 592), Antes monarch
*Ardagast
Ardagast or Radogost[Sclaveni
The ' (in Latin) or ' (various forms in Greek, see below) were early Slavic tribes that raided, invaded and settled the Balkans in the Early Middle Ages and eventually became the progenitors of modern South Slavs. They were mentioned by early ...]
*List of ancient Slavic peoples
This is a list of Slavic peoples and Slavic tribes reported in Late Antiquity and in the Middle Ages, that is, before the year AD 1500.
Ancestors
* Proto-Indo-Europeans ( Proto-Indo-European speakers)
** Proto-Balto-Slavs (common ancestors of ...
* Martynivka Treasure
Notes
Citations
Sources
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* 415 pages
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Further reading
* Kardaras, Georgios.
Sclaveni and Antes. Some Notes on the Peculiarities Between Them
. In:
Slavia Orientalis
' Vol. LXVII, n. 3 (2018): 377-393.
{{Barbarian kingdoms
Medieval Ukraine
Sarmatian tribes
History of Moldavia
6th century in Romania
7th century in Romania
Early Slavs
East Slavic tribes
Barbarian kingdoms
Ancient Slavs