Οι πρώιμοι Σλάβοι στις βυζαντινές πηγές του 6ου αιώνα. Τα προβλήματα των πρώτων αναφορών

The early Slavs in Byzantine Sources of the 6th Century.The Problems of the First Reports Regarding the Early Slavs, the paper tackles the testimonies of three Byzantine authors of the 6th century, Jordanes, Procopius and Pseudo-Caesarius, focusing on their credibility and the problems they arised from their examination. The critical approach of Jordanes’ testimonies, leaves no room for the historical connection of the Venethi (known from Plinius the Elder, Tacitus and Ptolemaios) with the Early Slavs (Sclaveni and Antes). Such a connection is rejected, taking into account, apart from Jordanes’ purposes, the plausible placement of the Venethi close to Vistula River and the ethnogenesis of the Slavs in Eastern Europe. On Procopius’ ethnographic account, the impression given is that it seems ‘‘isolated’’ from the rest of the Wars, it is more a kind of ‘‘general guide for the northern barbarians’’ than a pure excursus for the Slavs, with information often contradicting other fragments of the Wars. In Procopius’ description we can also distinguish elements of oral tradition. Although we could not attribute to Procopius an intentional misrepresentation of the reality, we draw the conclusion that, despite having direct contact with the early Slavs, he followed the literary tradition with many common places in order to present another northern barbarian, mixing information about the nomads and the Germanic peoples. In our opinion, Procopius’ account does not offer a credible image on the Early Slavs and should be used with reservations. Considering the credibility of Pseudo-Caesarius, namely his testimony on some primitive rituals of the Slavs we note that Pseudo-Caesarius discerned to Sclaveni another Scythian nation and in our view his testimony neither consists a description of original Slavic customs nor offers any particular – and additional – information for the Early Slavs. On the other hand, the identification of the name Physonitai/Danubians with the Antes, as some scholars suggested, is rejected in favour of a hypothesis for the native Christian populations on the southern bank of the Lower Danube