Slavs, Slavi [Slavs], the former peoples of Sarmatia, who, with the Vistula Veneti, settled in Germania, between the Elbe and Vistula rivers, the original peoples of these regions being unable to resist them because they were exhausted by the extensive migrations that had taken place.

We do not know exactly when the Slavs seized the lands of the Germanic peoples. Jornandes and Procopius are the first authors to mention the Slavs . We read in the first author that the invasion of the Vistula Veneti took place at the end of the fifth century, and we learn from Paul the Deacon that at the end of the sixth century, the Slavs had penetrated deep into Germania. From the time of Dagobert I, king of the Franks, [1] the Slavs emerged in Thuringia and in Transrhenane France, where they burned everything and killed all. It appears that they then lived in Lusatia and in the lands of the upper and lower Elbe.

We have the names of some of the peoples who composed the nation of the Slavs . Among them are the Antes, the Slavi Behemani (Bohemians), the Maharenses [Moravians] (the duchy of the Bohemians) and the Sorbian Slavs , who lived between the Elbe and the Saale rivers, on the borders of the Thuringians and the Saxons. Finally, the annals of the emperor Louis the Pious teach us that at the Imperial Diet in Frankfurt, this prince received the ambassadors and the gifts that the East Slavs sent him—namely, the Obotrites, the Sorbians, the Veleti, the Bohemians, the Marnani , [2] the Proedenecenteni , [3] and the Avars of Pannonia. The Slavs also include the Lutici/Lusatians, [4] the Redarians, the Silesians, the Poles, the Hevellians, the Pomeranians, the Cassubians, the Wagrians, and the Rani.

The Antes and the Slavs, says Procopius of Caesarea ( De Bello Gothico , book III, chapter xiv), are not ruled by a king but have lived under a popular government since long ago and publicly deliberate all that concerns their interests. These two people observe the same customs; they recognize only one God who created the world and who hurls thunder, and they sacrifice cows and other offerings to him. Far from having man’s life depend on destiny, they not only admit there is a destiny, but when they find themselves in danger, whether by violence of disease or by fortunes of war, they promise to immolate a victim when they escape, and do not fail to fulfill their promise; in this way they believe that they save their own life through the victim’s death. They also honor rivers, nymphs, and other divinities, and offer them sacrifices, from which they draw omens of the future. They live in miserable cottages, far from each other, and regularly move among them; they make war on foot, holding small shields and small spears; they wear no breastplate, some do not even wear a shirt or a coat, but they wear breeches when they march against the enemy. They all speak the same language and are of similar height and appearance. They are tall and strong; the color of their face is not very white, neither is that of their hair very blonde: it is not darkish but rather reddish. Their way of life is miserable like that of the Massagetae, always in the grime. Their spirit takes after the simplicity of the Huns, as well as the rest of their customs—such is the story from Procopius—but he is mistaken if he believed that all Slavs lived under a popular government, since the Marnani , the Bohemians, the Veleti, and the Obotrites were ruled by kings or chiefs.

The Slavs crossed the Danube under Justinian’s empire and flooded Illyria, where they took forts that until then had been considered impregnable. For a while they confined themselves to passing raids but at last established a more stable home in Illyria than in their own land. Among other things they gave their name to this part of Pannonia, which is between the Sava and the Drava rivers and which was therefore called Slavic Pannonia and is now still called Slavonia .

1. The original is “des François”, and since “Franc” is found in Dictionaire critique de la langue française (1787), this could instead be translated as “of the French”.

2. No English translation is known for this Latin term.

3. No English translation is known for this Latin term.

4. These are two likely translations of the French “Luciziens”.