Daurentius ( gr, Δαυρέντιος), Dauritas ( gr, Δαυρίτας), or Dobreta ( sr, Добрета) was a South Slavic (''
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 Byz ...
'') chieftain. He seems to have been the supreme chief, having lesser ones subordinated to him. His realm was situated in the basin of the
Zala river
The Zala is a river in south-western Hungary. Its source is in the hills northwest of Szalafő near the borders with Austria and Slovenia. Its length is and drains water from . Several smaller rivers feed into it, including the Felső-Válic ...
, roughly in the territory of the old
Roman province
The Roman provinces (Latin: ''provincia'', pl. ''provinciae'') were the administrative regions of Ancient Rome outside Roman Italy that were controlled by the Romans under the Roman Republic and later the Roman Empire. Each province was rule ...
of
Pannonia Prima
Pannonia Prima was an ancient Roman province. It was formed in the year 296, during the reign of Emperor Diocletian. Previously, it was a part of the province of Pannonia Superior, which, along with Pannonia Inferior, was gradually divided into ...
, in present-day
Hungary
Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croat ...
.
Daurentius is the first Slavic chieftain to be recorded by name, by the
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 ...
historian
Menander Protector
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 ...
, who reported that the
Avar khagan
Khagan or Qaghan (Mongolian:; or ''Khagan''; otk, 𐰴𐰍𐰣 ), or , tr, Kağan or ; ug, قاغان, Qaghan, Mongolian Script: ; or ; fa, خاقان ''Khāqān'', alternatively spelled Kağan, Kagan, Khaghan, Kaghan, Khakan, Khakhan ...
Bayan I
Bayan I reigned as the first khagan of the Avar Khaganate between 562 and 602.
As the Göktürk Empire expanded westwards on the Eurasian Steppe during the 6th century, peoples such as the Avars (also known as the ''Pseudo-Avars'', ''Obri'', ' ...
sent an embassy, asking Daurentius and his Slavs to accept Avar suzerainty and pay tribute, because the Avars knew that the Slavs had amassed great wealth after repeatedly plundering the Byzantine Balkan provinces. Daurentius reportedly retorted that "Others do not conquer our land, we conquer theirs
..so it shall always be for us", and had the envoys slain. Bayan then campaigned (in 578) against Daurentius' people, with aid from the Byzantines, and set fire to many of their settlements, although this did not stop the Slavic raids deep into the Byzantine Empire.
Legacy
K. Nikolaevič (1862) mentioned Daurentius, "the then king or grand prince of the Slavs", with the name ''Dobreta'', which he rendered via the Greek pronunciation of β=ν.
References
Sources
*
*
bibliography entry
* {{Cite book, last=Živković, first=Tibor, author-link=Tibor Živković, title=Forging unity: The South Slavs between East and West 550-1150, url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JlIsAQAAIAAJ, year=2008, location=Belgrade, publisher=The Institute of History, Čigoja štampa, isbn=9788675585732
South Slavic history
6th-century Slavs
6th-century rulers in Europe
6th century in Hungary
Slavic warriors