Imaginea vlahilor în scrierile străinilor între secolele XI-XIII
The Vlachs in foreign chronicles
The paper represents an analysis upon the chronicles written by foreign medieval authors that are making references to the Vlachs’ population. Their interest regarding the Vlachs has been derived from the contact noted between both sides, namely between the Byzantine Empire and the Vlachs on the one hand, and between the Hungarian Kingdom and the Vlachs on the other hand. The information that surfaced out of these chronicles is of political, economic and social nature.
The paper will present the Byzantine chronicle of Kekaumenos, that of Ioan Kinnamos and the one written by Nichita Choniates. All of them, however ambiguous, or incomplete they may have been, are still portraying a more coherent and truthful image than any other of their contemporary, Eastern – European or oriental, chronicles. The time period that these three medieval authors approached was the period extending between the years 1066 – 1204. This period overlapped the Vlachs and the Bulgarians’ revolt in the town of Larissa and the fall of the great city of Constantinople during the fourth crusade. The area populated by the Vlachs mentioned in these writings was a wide one, which included most of the Balkan Peninsula. The Byzantine authors are wavering between a stereotype vision regarding the Vlachs, but a more complex one, thus creating a complex portrait regarding this particular population. The authors were directly influenced by the events developing during their efforts to write their chronicles and mostly by the relation between the Vlachs and the Byzantine Empire at that point in time.
The chronicle of the Hungarian notary Anonymus represents also a pillar for this research. He is the one presenting the Vlachs’ population living between the Pannonian plains and Transylvania. This writing tells all about the political – military events of the time but, more importantly, mentions the Vlachs living inside the Carpathian arch. The truthfulness of the events presented by Anonymus is proven also by a series of archaeological discoveries.
Keywords: chronicles, medieval authors, Vlachs, the Hungarian Kingdom, the Byzantine Empire.
- Maria Georgescu, Istoria Bizanțului / The History of the Byzantine Empire, Ed. Cetatea de Scaun, Târgoviște, 2007
- Jacque le Goff, Imaginarul medieval / The medieval imagination, Ed. Meridiane, București, 1991.
- Alexandru Madgearu, The Romanians in the Anonymus Gesta Hungarorum, Truth and Fiction, Centrul de Studii Transilvane, Cluj-Napoca 2005.
- Dimitri Obolensky, Un commnwelth medieval: Bizanţul / The Byzantine Commonwealth, Ed. Corint, București, 2002
- Ioan-Aurel Pop, Românii și maghiarii în secolele IX-XIV. Geneza statului medieval în Transilvania / The Romanians and Hungarians between the IXth and XIVth centuries. The birth of the medieval state in Transylvania, Centrul de Studii Transilvane, Cluj-Napoca 1996.
- G. Popa-Lisseanu, Fontes Historiae Daco-Romanorum Anonymi Bele Regis Notarii Gesta Hungarorum. Ed. Seaculum I.O., Bucureşti 2010. vol. I.
- Tudor Sălăgean, Țara lui Gelou, Contibuții la istoria Transilvaniei de Nord în secolele IX-XI, Ed. Argonaut / The Land of Gelou, Contributions to the history of northern Transylvania between IXth and XIth centuries, Cluj-Napoca 2006.
- Ioan-Marian Țiplic, Necropolele medieval timpurii din Transilvania (sfârșitul sec. IX – prima jumătate a sec. XII) / Early medieval burial places in Transylvania (the late IXth century and the first half of the XIIth century), în Relații Interetnice în Transilvaia (secolele VI-XIII) / Interethnical Relations in Transylvania, București, 2005
- Zeno Karl Pinter, Ioan Marian Țiplic, Aurel Dragotă, Piese de podoabă și vestimentație la grupurile etnice din Transilvania (sec. VII-XII) / Pieces of jewellery and of clothing within ethnic groups in Transylvania (VIIth – XIIth centuries), Alba Iulia, 2006.
- Alexandru Elian, Nicolae-Şerban Tanaşoca, Fontes Istorica Daco Romanae, Scriptores Byzantini saec. XI-XIV, vol III, Ed. Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, Bucureşti, 1975.
