Unknown Archon

In the first half of the 7th century, there was a ruler of the Serbs who led half of the Serbs from their homeland (White Serbia) to settle in the Balkans during the reign of Byzantine Emperor Heraclius (610–641), as mentioned in Emperor Constantine VII's work ''De Administrando Imperio'' (10th century). The work does not record his name, but states that he was the progenitor of the first Serbian dynasty, known in historiography as the Vlastimirović dynasty.

Historians have variously referenced this person as 'unknown archon' or 'unnamed Serbian archon' ( sr-Cyrl-Latn, Непознати архонт / неименовани српски архонт, Nepoznati arhont / neimenovani srpski arhont), with the title of archon usually translated as a ruler or prince or knez.

According to ''De Administrando Imperio'', this ruler died before the arrival of the Bulgars on the Balkans (680), succeeded by his line of descendants.

''De Administrando Imperio''

Studies

According to the accounts in DAI the first Christianization of the Serbs should be dated to 632–638; this could be interpreted at first glance as Porphyrogenitus' invention, or might have actually taken place, encompassing a limited group of chiefs and then very poorly received by the wider layers of the tribe. In early historical assessment like that of German historian Ludwig Albrecht Gebhardi (1735–1802), the Serb archon was a son of Dervan, who was the Duke (''dux'') of the ''Surbi'', east of the Saale. Francis Dvornik (1962) and Relja Novaković (1977) argued the possibility that they were brothers or other relatives.

In contemporary historiography and archaeology, the narratives of ''De Administrando Imperio'' have been reassessed as they contain anachronisms and factual mistakes. The account in ''DAI'' about the Serbs mentions that they requested from the Byzantine commander of present-day Belgrade to settle in the theme of Thessalonica, which was formed ca. 150 years after the reign of Heraclius which was in the 7th century. For the purposes of its narrative, the DAI formulates a mistaken etymology of the Serbian ethnonym which it derives from Latin ''servi'' (serfs).

As the Byzantine Empire sought to establish its hegemony towards the Serbs, the narrative of the ''DAI'' sought to establish a historical hegemony over the Serbs by claiming that their arrival, settlement and conversion to Christianity was the direct result of the Byzantine interference in the centuries which preceded the writing of ''DAI''. D. Dzino (2010) considers that the story of the migration from White Serbia after the invitation of Heraclius as a means of explanation of the settlement of the Serbs is a form of rationalization of the social and cultural change which the Balkans had undergone via the misinterpretation of historical events placed in late antiquity.

See also

* List of Serbian monarchs
* Anonym

Notes

References

Sources

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{{Serbian monarchs

7th-century Serbian monarchs
7th-century monarchs in Europe
7th-century Slavs
Vlastimirović dynasty
Medieval history of Serbia
History of the Serbs
Legendary monarchs
Founding monarchs in Europe
Year of birth unknown
Unidentified people