Sporoi () or Spori was according to Eastern Roman scholar

Procopius Procopius of Caesarea (; ''Prokópios ho Kaisareús''; ; – 565) was a prominent Late antiquity, late antique Byzantine Greeks, Greek scholar and historian from Caesarea Maritima. Accompanying the Roman general Belisarius in Justinian I, Empe ...

(500–560) the old name of the Antes and

Sclaveni The ' (in Latin language, Latin) or ' (Sclaveni#Terminology, various forms in Greek language, Greek) were Early Slavs, early Slavic tribes that raided, invaded and settled in the Balkans in the Early Middle Ages and eventually became one of the p ...

, two

Early Slav The early Slavs were speakers of Indo-European dialects who lived during the Migration Period and the Early Middle Ages (approximately from the 5th to the 10th centuries AD) in Central, Eastern and Southeast Europe and established the foundati ...

ic branches. Procopius stated that the Sclaveni and Antes spoke the same language, but he did not trace their common origin back to the Veneti (as per Jordanes) but to a people he called "Sporoi". He derived the name from Greek (" to sow"), because "they populated the land with scattered settlements".

Studies

Ukrainian historian

Mykhailo Hrushevskyi Mykhailo Serhiiovych Hrushevsky (; – 24 November 1934) was a Ukrainian academician, politician, historian and statesman who was one of the most important figures of the Ukrainian national revival of the early 20th century. Hrushevsky is ...

(1866–1934) noted the scholarly view on the matter: Procopius' etymology was rejected as mistaken, and many scholars linked the term with the

Serbs The Serbs ( sr-Cyr, Срби, Srbi, ) are a South Slavs, South Slavic ethnic group native to Southeastern Europe who share a common Serbian Cultural heritage, ancestry, Culture of Serbia, culture, History of Serbia, history, and Serbian lan ...

; some sought a connection to

Ptolemy Claudius Ptolemy (; , ; ; – 160s/170s AD) was a Greco-Roman mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were important to later Byzantine science, Byzant ...

's Serboi, but "these Serboi lived far to the east, in the

Volga The Volga (, ) is the longest river in Europe and the longest endorheic basin river in the world. Situated in Russia, it flows through Central Russia to Southern Russia and into the Caspian Sea. The Volga has a length of , and a catchment ...

region". He noted that the Slavic Serbs appear in historical records in the 9th century, and ''Serbs'' may have had a broader sense as suggested by two completely distinct

Slavic peoples The Slavs or Slavic people are groups of people who speak Slavic languages. Slavs are geographically distributed throughout the northern parts of Eurasia; they predominantly inhabit Central Europe, Eastern Europe, Southeast Europe, Southeast ...

(Balkan

and Lusatian Sorbs), however, according to him, identical names occurred frequently among the

Slavs The Slavs or Slavic people are groups of people who speak Slavic languages. Slavs are geographically distributed throughout the northern parts of Eurasia; they predominantly inhabit Central Europe, Eastern Europe, Southeastern Europe, and ...

and the "

arly The Arly () is a 32.1 km long river in the departments of Savoie and Haute-Savoie, France. It is a tributary of the Isère, which it joins at Albertville. Towns crossed by the river * Megève * Praz-sur-Arly * Flumet * Saint-Nicolas-la-C ...

Slavs may not even have had their own common name to designate nationality. Such names often emerged only with time.". According to Czech historian

Francis Dvornik Francis Dvornik (; 14 August 1893 – 4 November 1975) was a Czech academic medievalist, byzantinist, slavist and Catholic priest. He was one of the leading 20th century authorities on Slavic and Byzantine history and matters related to the church ...

(1893–1975), the Sporoi were probably the ''

Spali The Spali () was an ancient tribe mentioned in classical geography that inhabited the south of today's Ukraine. Pliny ( 77–79) enumerated a group of tribes through which the Don River (''Tanais'') crossed, in which the Spalaei are last mentioned ...

'' mentioned by

Jordanes Jordanes (; Greek language, Greek: Ιορδάνης), also written as Jordanis or Jornandes, was a 6th-century Eastern Roman bureaucrat, claimed to be of Goths, Gothic descent, who became a historian later in life. He wrote two works, one on R ...

( 551) and ''Spalei'' mentioned by

Pliny the Elder Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23/24 79), known in English as Pliny the Elder ( ), was a Roman Empire, Roman author, Natural history, naturalist, and naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of the Roman emperor, emperor Vesp ...

( 77–79). According to the

North American Society for Serbian Studies North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography. Etymology The word ''north'' is ...

, rather than connecting the ethnonym to the poorly known ''Spali'', it was more likely, as per the old view, a Greek rendering of the name ''Sorpoi'' or ''Sorboi'', connected to the Serbs. According to British archaeologis
Paul M. Barford
writing in 2001, it most likely derived from the

Proto-Slavic Proto-Slavic (abbreviated PSl., PS.; also called Common Slavic or Common Slavonic) is the unattested, reconstructed proto-language of all Slavic languages. It represents Slavic speech approximately from the 2nd millennium BC through the 6th ...

word for "multitude" ('' sporъ'', whence Polish ''sporo'', etc.). A connection has also been made with the ''

Zeriuani The Zeriuani or Zeruiani was an unknown Slavic tribe mentioned by the 9th-century Bavarian Geographer (). It states that the Zeruiani "which is so great a realm that from it, as their tradition relates, all the tribes of the Slavs are sprung and tr ...

'' mentioned by the 9th-century

Bavarian Geographer The epithet "Bavarian Geographer" () is the conventional name for the anonymous author of a short Latin medieval text containing a list of the tribes in Central and Eastern Europe, headed . The name "Bavarian Geographer" was first bestowed (in its ...

. It states that the Zeriuani "which is so great a realm that from it, as their tradition relates, all the tribes of the Slavs are sprung and trace their origin" (Zeriuani tantum est regnum, ut ex eo cunctae gentes Sclavorum exortae sint, et originem, sicut affirmant, ducant).

Other ancient views on the Slavs

In contrast to Procopius, the Roman bureaucrat

wrote about the Slavs in his work ''

Getica ''De origine actibusque Getarum'' (''The Origin and Deeds of the Getae''), commonly abbreviated ''Getica'' (), written in Late Latin by Jordanes in or shortly after 551 AD, claims to be a summary of a voluminous account by Cassiodorus of the ori ...

'' (551): "although they derive from one nation, now they are known under three names, the Veneti, Antes and Sclaveni" (); that is, the West Slavs, East Slavs, and South Slavs. He stated that the Veneti were the ancestors of the Sclaveni and the Antes, the two having used to be called ''Veneti'' but are now "chiefly" called Sclaveni and Antes.Jordanes, ''Getica'' 5.

Studies

Other ancient views on the Slavs

See also

References

Further reading