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The Chronicle of Monemvasia and the Question of the Slavonic Settlements in Greece Author(S): Peter Charanis Source: Dumbarton Oaks Papers, Vol

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The Chronicle of Monemvasia and the Question of the Slavonic Settlements in Greece Author(S): Peter Charanis Source: Dumbarton Oaks Papers, Vol The Chronicle of Monemvasia and the Question of the Slavonic Settlements in Greece Author(s): Peter Charanis Source: Dumbarton Oaks Papers, Vol. 5 (1950), pp. 139-166 Published by: Dumbarton Oaks, Trustees for Harvard University Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1291076 Accessed: 16/10/2008 07:57 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. 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Dumbarton Oaks, Trustees for Harvard University is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Dumbarton Oaks Papers. http://www.jstor.org THE CHRONICLE OF MONEMVASIA AND THE QUESTION OF THE SLAVONIC SE'~TTLIEMENTS IN GREECE PETER CHARANIS MONG the short Byzantinechronicles, that concerningthe Founda- \ tion of Monemvasia is perhaps the most curious and interesting. The most curious because, despite the importance of its contents, neither its author nor the date of its composition is known; the most interesting be- cause of the notices which it contains concerning the establishment of Slavonic settlements in Greece, especially in the Peloponnesus, during the Middle Ages. Those who have dealt with the problem of these settlements have used it, either discounting its importance or emphasizing it unduly, their attitude depending upon their view concerning the magnitude, chro- nology, and significance of these settlements.' Notwithstanding its brevity, it has been the subject of two rather lengthy monographs wherein the attempt was made to determine its sources, the trustworthiness of its information, its author, and the date of its composition,2but the results have not been entirely conclusive. It is the object of this paper to reexamine the question of the trustworthiness and the date of the composition of this chronicle. The chronicle was first published in 1749 by Joseph Pasinus and his collaborators in their catalogue of the manuscripts of the royal library of Turin, from a manuscript written in the sixteenth century.3Pasinus' edition was the only edition available until 1884 when S. P. Lampros reissued it, to- gether with two other versions which he found in two manuscripts, the one belonging to the monastery of Koutloumousion, the other to that of the Iberikon, both monasteries of Mount Athos.4 According to Lampros, the manuscript of the Iberikon was written in the sixteenth century, that of Koutloumousion probably in the sixteenth, although there are some indica- tions which point to the seventeenth.5 In 1909 these three versions were re- t Fallmerayer was the first to call attention to this chronicle and used it to bolster his fantastic that the theory ancient Greek race disappeared completely. Jacob Ph. Fallmerayer, aus Fragmente den Orient, 2nd edition by Georg M. Thomas (Stuttgart, 1877), p. 508, note 2. Opponents of the theory of Fallmerayertried to discount the importanceof this chronicle. See, for instance, K. Hopf, "Geschichte Griechenlandsvom Beginn des Mittelalters bis auf unsere Zeit," in Ersch and Gruber,Allgemeine Encyclopidie der Wissenschaftenund Kunste, 85 and K. (Leipzig, 1867), 106ff.; Paparrhegopoulo, SXaviKat ev ratZ 'EXXAVLKa(ZXJpaLt iEroLtKcoEl, in 'IaroptKatIIpayLaTeLat (Athens, 1858), p. 247, note 25. Others have looked at it more See A. A. impartially. Vasiliev, "The Slavs in Greece" (in Russian), Vizantiiskij 5 Vremennik, (St. Petersburg, 1898), 411, 655ff. Vasiliev's work, although written fifty- two years ago, is still fundamental on the question of the Slavs in Greece. I read it with the aid of Mrs. Nathalie Scheffer. S. P. To Lampros, 7repi KTrlewu MovefJfacutas XpovtKov,in his 'ITroptKa' MEXAfTia7a (Athens, 1884), 97-128. N. A. To pp. Bees, "lrept r7T KTCoJ(TErs MovE/C3alas" XpOVLOV, in Bvtavrts, 1 (Athens, 1909), 37-105. Codices bibliothecae Taurinensis 1 ' manuscripti regii Athenaei, (Turin, 1749), 417f. Lampros, op. cit., pp. 98-109. Lambros 6 (Lampros), Catalogue of the Greek Manuscriptson Mount Athos (Cambridge, 1895-1900), 1:301; 2:86. 142 PETER CHARANIS printed by N. A. Bees with some corrections,6and three years later a fourth version, found in a manuscript belonging to the Collegio Greco in Rome, was published by Lampros. Among these various versions there are substantial differences. The Iberikon deals primarily with the Avar and Slavic invasions of the Balkan peninsula, including Greece, in the sixth century; the settlement of the Slavs in the Peloponnesus, and their subjugation to the authority of the emperor during the reign of Nicephorus I. There is no mention of any event beyond the reign of Nicephorus I. The Koutloumousion and Turin versions on the other hand include, besides the main contents of the Iberikon, a num- ber of other notices which deal primarily with events and persons connected with the metropolitan sees of Monemvasia and Lacedaemon, especially the latter. Chronologically these later notices cover the period from 1083 to about the middle of the fourteenth century, but most of them refer to the second half of the thirteenth century and the first half of the fourteenth. The Roman version consists of these later notices and includes none of the contents of the Iberikon. Between the Iberikon version on the one hand and the Koutloumousion and Turin versions on the other there are a number of other differences, but these are of minor significance. The difference in contents between the Iberikon on the one hand and the Turin and Koutloumousion versions on the other was the principal argu- ment used by Lampros in support of his opinion that these versions repre- sent two different traditions of which the Iberikon was the original and the earliest, while the other, represented by the Turin and Koutloumousion manuscripts, was a reproduction of the Iberikon version with additional notices added by a later scribe. And, since the Iberikon version ends with the subjugation of the Slavs in the region of Patras during the reign of Ni- cephorus I when Tarasius, who died in 806, was still patriarch, while of the later notices found in the Turin and the Koutloumousion versions and miss- ing in that of the Iberikon the earliest refers to the raising of the see of Lacedaemon to the status of a metropolis in 1083, Lampros came to the - - conclusion that the original version the Iberikon must have been written sometime between 806 and 1083.8 As for the Turin and Koutloumousion versions, Lampros thought that they must have been written toward the end of the thirteenth century.9 The conclusions of Lampros were rejected by N. A. Bees, who re- 6 Bees, op. cit., pp. 61-73. 7 Lampros, Neos KO&d roV XpOVtKOVMoveyaatlaa, in Necq 'EXXAvotYvi'1ow,9 (Athens, 1912), 245 ff. 8 118. Lampros, To 7rEpt KTt'oeos Movexpaatras XpovtLKov,p. "Ibid., pp. 119, 128. THE CHRONICLE OF MONEMVASIA 143 examinedthe problemin detail. Bees rightly observedthat it is impossible to accept the view of Lamprosthat the originalversion was written before 1083 simply because the additionsfound in the other versionsbegin with that year.10Nor is Lampros'view that these additionswere appendedto the originaltoward the end of the thirteenthcentury any more acceptable,for among them there are chronologicalnotices that refer to the fourteenth century."Indeed, Bees rejects the notion that the Iberikonis the original and earliestversion, thinks that it is a simplevariation of the othertwo, and considersthe differencesamong them as accidental. He believes that the whole chroniclewas composedsometime between 1340 and the sixteenth century,because one of the notices refersto the year 1340 while the manu- scripts in which the chronicle has been found belong to the sixteenth century.'2 When Bees publishedhis study, the Romanversion was not yet known. The peculiarityof this versionis that it includesnone of the contentsof the Iberikon.In other words, it containsonly the later notices which are found only in the Turin and Koutloumousionversions - notices which, according to Lampros,had been appendedto the originalchronicle later. In publishing the Roman version, Lamprosremarked that its peculiarity confirmedhis earlierview that the later noticesof the Turinand Koutloumousionversions form a section independentof the part which constitutesthe Iberikonver- sion.l3Indeed, the existence of two manuscripts- the one containingthe part with the earliernotices, the other, that with the later notices- lends supportto the argumentof Lamprosthat these two parts were originally independentand that later someoneput them together,producing thus the versionrepresented by the Turinand the Koutloumousionmanuscripts. And since the Iberikonis much more precise and complete in its notices, it is quite probable that it representsthe original redaction of the chronicle, while the Turin and Koutloumousionversions are imperfect copies of it with the later noticesadded. On determiningthe date of the compositionof the original chronicle, that is, the Iberikonversion, Lampros failed to notice one importantdetail. In his account of the subjugationof the Slavs near Patrasduring the reign of NicephorusI, the authorof the chroniclerefers to that emperoras "the 14 Old,who had Staurakiosas son." This detail is of chronologicalimportance 0 Bees, op.
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