Vlachs
Nation | Active
388 CE to 2057 CE
Vlach is a blanket term covering several modern Latin peoples descending from the Latinized population in Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe.
English variations on the name include: Wallachians, Walla, Wlachs, Wallachs, Vlahs, Olahs or Ulahs.
Groups that have historically been called Vlachs include: modern-day Romanians or Daco-Romanians, Aromanians or Macedo-Romanians, Morlachs, Megleno-Romanians and Istro-Romanians.
Since the creation of the Romanian state, the term in English has mostly been used for those living outside Romania.The Vlachs, which would develop into the modern Romanian ethnicity, do not become tangible before the High Middle Ages in Kedrenos (11th century), and their prehistory during the Migration period is a matter of scholarly speculation[ but according to the linguists and to many scholars, the existence of the present Eastern Romance languages prove the survival of the Thraco-Romans in the low-Danube basin during the Migration period and the Vlachs are all being well considered descendants of Romanized peoples of the area (incl.
Thracians, Dacians and Illyrians).
The term Vlach is originally an exonym.
All the Vlach groups used various words derived from romanus to refer to themselves: Români, Rumâni, Rumâri, Aromâni, Arumâni etc.
(Note: the Megleno-Romanians nowadays call themselves "Vlaşi"; the Istro-Romanians also have adopted the names Vlaşi, but still use Rumâni and Rumâri to refer to themselves).The Vlach languages, also called the Eastern Romance languages, have a common origin from the Proto-Romanian language.
Over the centuries, the Vlachs split into various Vlach groups and mix with neighboring populations: South Slavs, Greeks, Albanians, Bulgars, and others.Almost all modern nations in Central and Southeastern Europe have native Vlach minorities: Hungary, Ukraine, Serbia, Croatia, Macedonia, Albania, Greece and Bulgaria.
In other countries, the native Vlach population have been completely assimilated by the Slavic population and therefore ceased to exist: Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Bosnia and Montenegro.
Only in Romania and the Republic of Moldova does the Vlach (Daco-Romanian or Romanian proper) population comprise an ethnic majority today.
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The Danube Bulgars, a Turkic tribe, had conquered the Slavs immediately south of the Danube, absorbing a large portion of ancient Dacia in 676.
The Bulgars, who will soon be permeated by Vlach and, even more thoroughly, by Slavic elements, will unite with the Slavs to oppose Imperial control.
At the same time, their conquests will carry them deeper into the ambit of Constantinopolitan Christianity.
The Bulgarian khan Asparukh, eluding Constantine IV's attempts to defeat him, has by 681 forced the emperor to recognize the first Bulgarian state, which, with its capital at Pliska (near modern Shumen), combines a Bulgarian political structure with Slavic linguistic and cultural institutions.
Occupying lands south of the Danube into the Thracian plain—much to the humiliation of Constantinople—the Bulgars have thus deprived the empire of control in the north and central Balkans.
The position of the Slavs and Daco-Romanians in the region of present Romania is enhanced when the rulers of the first Bulgarian empire extend their control over Dacia following Charles's crushing defeat of the Avars between 791 and 796.
The many tribes—Danes, Obotrites, Slovenes, Bretons, Basques—that inhabit the frontier lands at the start of the reign of Louis the German over Eastern Francia had remained in awe at the power of the Frankish emperor and dared not stir up any trouble.
The Sorbs in 818 had rebelled, however, and had been quickly followed by Slavomir, chief of the Obotrites, who had been captured and abandoned by his own people, being replaced in 818 by Ceadrag.
Soon, Ceadrag too had turned against the Franks and allied with the Danes, who will shortly become the greatest menace of the Franks.
A greater Slavic menace is gathering on the southeast, where, Ljudevit Posavski, the Croat Prince of Savia from about 810, is harassing the border at the Drava and Sava rivers.
As the ruler of the Pannonian Croats, his successful resistance of Frankish domination is an important precursor to the eventual unification of Croatian duchies in Dalmatia and Pannonia into the Kingdom of Croatia.
The margrave of Friuli, Cadolah, had been sent out against him, but he had died on campaign and in 820 his margarvate had been invaded by Slovenes.
An alliance had been made in 821 with Borna, duke of Dalmatia, and in 822 Ljudevit is brought to heel.
After being forced to flee, Ljudevit becomes a ruler over the Serbs, maintaining close ties with the Carantanians and Timokians (the Slavs, or Vlachs, in the Timok River valley).
Dacia's Christians had adopted the Slavonic rite, subject to the Bulgarian metropolitan at Ohrid, soon after the conversion of the Bulgars to Christianity. (It will be maintained until the seventeenth century, when Romanian becomes the liturgical language).
The ethnogenesis of the Romanian people is probably complete by the beginning of the tenth century.
The first stage—the Romanization of the Geto-Dacians—has now been followed by the second—the assimilation of the Slavs by the Daco-Romans.
A third group of Magyars crosses into Carpathian Rus’ in 896.
Conquering the sparsely settled Carpathian Basin, they subjugate the resident Slavs and Vlachs there.
A revolt against Constantinople, led by the four sons of Macedonian governor Nicholas, had spread to become a war of liberation.
Samuel is the fourth and youngest son of count (comita) Nikola, a Bulgarian noble, who might have been the Count of Sredets (Sofia), although other sources suggest that he was a regional count somewhere in the region of today Macedonia.
His mother was Ripsimia of Armenia.
The actual name of the dynasty is not known.
“Cometopuli” is the nickname which is used by Byzantine historians to address rulers from the dynasty as its founder.
Samuel and the Cometopuli had risen to power out of the disorder that had occurred in the Bulgarian Empire from 966 to 971.
After Emperor John I Tzimiskes dies on January 11, 976, the Cometopuli launch an assault along the whole border with the Empire.
Within a few weeks, however, David is killed by Vlach vagrants and Moses is fatally injured by a stone during the siege of Serres.
The brothers' actions to the south detain many imperial troops and ease Samuel's liberation of northeastern Bulgaria; the imperial commander is defeated and retreated to Crimea.
Any Bulgarian nobles and officials who had not opposed Constantinople’s conquest of the region are executed, and the war continues north of the Danube until the enemy is scattered and Bulgarian rule is restored.
After suffering these defeats in the Balkans, the Empire descends into civil war.
The commander of the Asian army, Bardas Skleros, rebels in Asia Minor and sends troops under his son Romanus in Thrace to besiege Constantinople.
The new Emperor Basil II does not have enough manpower to fight both the Bulgarians and the rebels and resorts to treason, conspiracy and complicated diplomatic plots.
Basil II makes many promises to the Bulgarians and Scleros to divert them from allying against him.
Aaron, the eldest living Cometopulus, is tempted by an alliance with Constantinople and the opportunity to seize power in Bulgaria for himself.
He holds land in Thrace, a region potentially subject to the imperial threat.
Basil reaches an agreement with Aaron, who asks to marry Basil's sister to seal it.
Basil instead sends the wife of one of his officials with the bishop of Sebaste.
However, the deceit is uncovered and the bishop is killed.
Nonetheless, negotiations proceed and conclude in a peace agreement.
Samuel learns of the conspiracy and the clash between the two brothers is inevitable.
The quarrel breaks out in the vicinity of Dupnitsa on June 14, 976, and ends with the annihilation of Aaron's family.
Only his son, Ivan Vladislav, survives because Samuel's son Gavril Radomir pleads on his behalf.
From this moment on, practically all power and authority in the state is held by Samuel and the danger of an internal conflict has been all but eliminated.
However, another theory suggests that Aaron participated in the battle of the Gates of Trajan which will take place ten years later.
According to that theory, Aaron was killed on June 14, 987 or 988.
Roman is the second surviving son of Emperor Peter I of Bulgaria by his marriage with Maria (renamed Eirene) Lekapene, the granddaughter of the Emperor Romanos I Lekapenos.
It is possible that he had the double name Roman-Simeon, but this may be due to confusion with another man in the sources.
He was born around 930, and had probably visited Constantinople with his mother and older brothers soon after 931.
We know nothing about Roman's life until 968, when he joined his older brother Boris in Constantinople to negotiate a peace agreement between Bulgaria and the Empire, during which they apparently served as honorary hostages at the imperial court.
On their father's abdication in 969, Boris and Roman had returned to Bulgaria, where Boris II had succeeded as emperor.
Roman may have been proclaimed co-emperor in accordance with imperial Greek usage, but the evidence for that is vague.
In Bulgaria, Roman probably had shared his brother's destiny, becoming first a pawn in the hands of Prince Sviatoslav I of Kiev and then in those of the Emperor John I Tzimiskes.
After the latter's victory in 971, Roman had been taken to Constantinople together with his brother's family.
To ensure that the Bulgarian royal dynasty will die out (Boris II apparently has only daughters), the emperor has Roman castrated.
Boris and Roman had remained in honorary captivity at the imperial palace until after the death of the emperor in 976.
At this point the raids of the Kometopouloi into Constantinople’s possessions in Macedonia lead to an imperial stratagem intended to divide the leadership of the still-unconquered Bulgarian lands in the west.
After the Empire’s plan to use Aaron to cause instability in Bulgaria fails, they try to encourage the rightful heirs to the throne, Boris II and Roman, to oppose Samuel.
Basil II hopes that they will win the support of the nobles and isolate Samuel or perhaps even start a Bulgarian civil war.
Temporarily jailed, Boris and Roman are allowed to escape in 977.
During their attempt to cross the Bulgarian border, Boris II is taken for an enemy and killed by a guard who had been misled by Basil’s clothing.
Roman, who is walking some distance behind, manages to identify himself to the Bulgarian patrols, and is taken to Vidin, where he is proclaimed Emperor of Bulgaria.
Samuel becomes his first lieutenant and general and together they gather an army to fight the Empire.
Samuel is certain to eventually succeed Roman.
The new emperor entrusts Samuel with the state administration and becomes occupied with church and religious affairs.
The Hungarians consolidate their rule in western and central Transylvania.
Nomadic tribes break into Transylvania and plunder the region during 1068, but King Solomon of Hungary and his ducal cousins rout them at Kerlés (Chiraleş, Romania).
The identification of the marauders is uncertain: the Annales Posonienses and Simon of Kéza write of Pechenegs, the fourteenth-century Hungarian chronicles refer to Cumans, and a Russian chronicle mentions the Cumans and the Vlachs.