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55-647: The Byzantine Emperor Constantine VII ( r.  913–959 ) in De Administrando Imperio of the mid-10th century recounts in Chapter 31: "These same Croats arrived as refugees to the emperor of the Romaioi [Emperor Heraclius , r.  610–641 ] before the Serbs came as refugees to the same Emperor Heraclius"; and mainly in Chapter 32: "It should be known that the Serbs are descended from

110-578: A Servia egressa in Pannoniam)". Tibor Živković suggests that this likely refers to Boïki (Bohemia). Theories on the location of the so-called "Boiki" and "White" Serbs have been disputed, but it is generally established to have been around the region of Bohemia and Saxony . Since the 19th century, two most prominent theories were of Bohemia, and the land of the Boykos in Eastern Galicia in

165-616: A compilation of agronomic works from earlier Greek and Punic texts that are otherwise lost; De Ceremoniis ("On Ceremonies", in Greek, Περὶ τῆς βασιλείου τάξεως), describing the kinds of court ceremonies (also described later in a more negative light by Liutprand of Cremona ); De Administrando Imperio ("On the Administration of the Empire", bearing in Greek the heading Πρὸς τὸν ἴδιον ὑιὸν Ρωμανόν), giving advice on running

220-526: A godfather to marry his goddaughter. Constantine VII died at Constantinople on 9 November 959 and was succeeded by his son Romanos II . It was rumored that he had been poisoned by his son or his daughter-in-law Theophano . Constantine VII was recognized as a writer and scholar, surrounding himself with educated people of the Imperial Court. He wrote, or had commissioned, the works Geoponika ("On Agriculture", in Greek Τὰ γεωπονικά),

275-441: A man of his class, he seems to have been an excellent painter. He was the most generous of patrons—to writers and scholars, artists and craftsmen. Finally, he was an excellent Emperor: a competent, conscientious and hard-working administrator and an inspired picker of men, whose appointments to military, naval, ecclesiastical, civil and academic posts were both imaginative and successful. He did much to develop higher education and took

330-530: A root "Serb-" and "Sarb-" and defined them as both a trace and remnant population of the so-called White Serbs in DAI . Since the 13th and 15th centuries were recorded also personal names and surnames which possibly derive from the ethnonym. However, according to Hanna Popowska-Taborska , the method didn't take into account the unambiguous etymological interpretation of the Serbian ethnonym because of which most probably

385-585: A small part of Lusatia east of the Oder–Neisse line was incorporated into Poland , Żary has been touted as the capital of Polish Lusatia. The area of Lower Lusatia roughly corresponds with the eastern March of Lusatia or Saxon Eastern March between the Saale and Bóbr rivers, which about 965 was severed from the vast Marca Geronis , conquered by the Saxon count Gero in the course of his campaigns against

440-646: A special interest in the administration of justice. By his wife Helena Lekapene , the daughter of Emperor Romanos I , Constantine VII had several children: Constantine VII is still remembered in the Eastern Orthodox liturgy when the transfer of the Holy Mandylion is celebrated on 16 August in the Julian calendar which corresponds to 31 August in the Gregorian calendar . This feast

495-579: A useful summary of the commission by Porphyrogenitus of the Constantine Excerpts: He felt that the historical studies were being seriously neglected, mainly because of the bulk of the histories. He therefore decided that a selection under fifty-three titles should be made from all the important historians extant in Constantinople; thus he hoped to assemble in a more manageable compass the most valuable parts of each author. ... Of

550-460: Is best known for the Geoponika (τά γεοπονικά), an important agronomic treatise compiled during his reign, and three, perhaps four, books; De Administrando Imperio (bearing in Greek the heading Πρὸς τὸν ἴδιον υἱὸν Ῥωμανόν), De Ceremoniis (Περὶ τῆς Βασιλείου Τάξεως), De Thematibus (Περὶ θεμάτων Άνατολῆς καὶ Δύσεως), and Vita Basilii (Βίος Βασιλείου), though his authorship of

605-596: Is in fact a morainic ridge), the eastern continuation of the Fläming Heath . In the Middle Ages this area had dense forests, so it represented a major obstacle to civilian and military traffic. Today it is roughly congruent of the border between Brandenburg and the state of Saxony . In the course of much of the 19th and the entire 20th century, Lower Lusatia was shaped by the lignite (brown coal) industry and extensive open-pit mining , by which more than 100 of

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660-656: Is part of the Nut Feast of the Saviour for Slavs . Lower Lusatia Lower Lusatia ( German : Niederlausitz ; Lower Sorbian : Dolna Łužyca [ˈdɔlna ˈwuʒɨtsa] ; Upper Sorbian : Delnja Łužica [ˈdɛlnʲa ˈwuʒitsa] ; Polish : Łużyce Dolne ; Czech : Dolní Lužice ) is a historical region in Central Europe , stretching from the southeast of the German state of Brandenburg to

715-787: The Carpathians . The latter was mostly argued by 19th-century scholars, like Pavel Jozef Šafárik (1795–1865) and Henry Hoyle Howorth (1842–1923), who also included the White Serbs among the Polabian Slavs . Rather than relating Boiki and Bohemia, which in turn derived from ethnonym of the Celtic tribe Boii , they related the toponym to the much younger ethnonym of the Rusyns sub-ethnic group Boykos. Béni Kállay (1839–1903) noted that many historians assumed that Serbian territory

770-785: The Dukes of Saxe-Wittenberg . In 1324, the northern part passed to the House of Wittelsbach . From 1364, entire Lower Lusatia was ruled by the Duchy of Jawor-Świdnica, and after the death of Duke Bolko II the Small it passed to the Kingdom of Bohemia (Czechia). In 1367 Elector Otto V sold it to Emperor Charles IV of Luxembourg who incorporated Lower Lusatia into the Bohemian Crown . Charles' father King John of Bohemia had already acquired

825-572: The Gross-Rosen concentration camp , the prisoners of which included Jewish women and Polish, French, Soviet, Croatian and Czech men. During the war, the Poles postulated that after the defeat of Germany, the Sorbs should be allowed free national development either within the borders of Poland or Czechoslovakia , or as an independent Sorbian state in alliance with Poland. With the implementation of

880-469: The Kievan Rus' . The reasons for this voyage have never been clarified; but she was baptised a Christian with the name Helena, and sought Christian missionaries to encourage her people to adopt Christianity . According to legends, Constantine VII fell in love with Olga, but she found a way to refuse him by tricking him into becoming her godfather . When she was baptized, she said it was inappropriate for

935-602: The Oder–Neisse line by the 1945 Potsdam Conference , the lands east of the Neisse river became again part of Poland, and the remaining German population was expelled by the Soviet-installed Communist authorities in accordance with the Potsdam Agreement , whereas the western part became part of also Communist East Germany . The Lower Lusatian bull is first documented in 1363. In 1378, upon

990-491: The Polabian Slavs from 939 onwards. Odo I became the first margrave ; his successor Gero II from 1002 onwards had to face several attacks by Polish duke Bolesław I Chrobry , which did not end until the 1018 Treaty of Bautzen , which ceded large parts of eastern Lusatia to Poland. Emperor Conrad II reconquered the territories in 1031. In 1136 Conrad the Great of the House of Wettin , margrave of Meissen , also received

1045-564: The Vita Basilii is not certain. The epithet porphyrogenitus alludes to the Purple chamber of the imperial palace, decorated with porphyry , where legitimate children of reigning emperors were normally born. Constantine was also born in this room, although his mother Zoe had not been married to Leo at that time. Nevertheless, the epithet allowed him to underline his position as the legitimate son, as opposed to all others, who claimed

1100-609: The 18th century and Kings Augustus II the Strong and Augustus III of Poland often traveled the route. Numerous Polish dignitaries also traveled through Lower Lusatia on several occasions, and some Polish nobles owned estates in Lusatia. A distinct remnant of the region's ties to Poland are the 18th-century mileposts decorated with the coat of arms of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth located in various towns in

1155-539: The 33rd chapter Constantine writes, "(It should be known) that the clan of the anthypatos and patrikios Michael , son of Visevitz, archon of the Zachlumians , came from the unbaptized inhabitants on the Visla River, called Litziki , and they settled on the river called Zachluma". A Latin document from the early-10th century states that the "Hungarians moved to Pannonia from Serbia (Ungarorum gens

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1210-613: The Empire internally and on fighting external enemies; a history of the Empire covering events following the death of the chronographer Theophanes the Confessor in 817; and Excerpta Historica ("Excerpts from the Histories"), a collection of excerpts from ancient historians (many of whose works are now lost) in four volumes (1. De legationibus. 2. De virtutibus et vitiis. 3. De insidiis. 4. De sententiis). In The Manuscript Tradition of Polybius , John Michael Moore (CUP, 1965) provides

1265-656: The Germans established and operated the Stalag III-B, Oflag III-C and Oflag 8 and prisoner-of-war camps for Polish, French , Belgian, Serbian, British, Australian, New Zealander, Soviet, American, Dutch and Italian POWs with several forced labour subcamps in the region, several Nazi prisons with multiple forced labour subcamps, including in Luckau and a prison solely for women in Cottbus , and several subcamps of

1320-662: The March of Lusatia. In the early 13th century, Lower Lusatia was either entirely or partly, reintegrated with Poland under Henry the Bearded . Later on, it was once again lost to the Wettin dynasty, who ruled it until in 1303 it was acquired by the Ascanian margraves of Brandenburg . For centuries, from as early as the Middle Ages, trade flourished, and several important trade routes ran through Lower Lusatia, connecting German states in

1375-621: The West in the area between the Elbe and Saale rivers, roughly between Bohemia and East Germany (Polabia). According to Mykhailo Hrushevsky (1898), Gerard Labuda (1949), Francis Dvornik (1962), Jaroslav Rudnyckyj (1962–1972) and Henryk Łowmiański (1964) unlike Croats, there is no proof that Serbs ever lived within Bohemia or in Eastern Galicia, only that they lived near Bohemia, and

1430-576: The adjacent territory to the south around Bautzen and Görlitz , which became known as Upper Lusatia . The former Lordship of Cottbus was acquired by Brandenburg in 1455 and remained an exclave within the Bohemian kingdom. Both Lusatias formed separate Bohemian crown lands under the rule of the Luxembourg , Jagiellon and—from 1526— Habsburg dynasties. In the course of the Reformation

1485-523: The analogy with Great Croatia , which by other historians also did not exist. According to Tibor Živković , the structure and content of the subchapter about the family of Michael of Zahumlje indicates that this account was likely told by Michael himself. He is not noted as being of Serbian origin. Živković thought Michael's family may have preserved the memory of their tribal origin. Tadeusz Lewicki in his toponomastic research of Polish lands found many toponyms documented between 12th and 14th century with

1540-524: The area comprises the Brandenburg districts of Oberspreewald-Lausitz and Spree-Neiße with the unitary authority of Cottbus , as well as parts of Elbe-Elster , Dahme-Spreewald , and Oder-Spree . Important towns beside Cottbus and the historic capitals Lübben and Luckau include Calau , Doberlug-Kirchhain , Finsterwalde , Forst , Guben / Gubin , Lauchhammer , Lübbenau , Senftenberg , Spremberg , Vetschau , and Żary . Since 1945, when

1595-541: The connection between Boiki and Boykos is considered to be scholarly improbable, outdated and rejected. According to archaeologist V. V. Sedov (1995), the 32nd chapter of De Administrando Imperio indicates that it was located in the Lower Lusatia territory where the Sorbs were located, but the 33rd chapter about Zachlumia caused confusion which resulted with several hypotheses. The first group of scholars argued

1650-473: The death of Emperor Charles IV, it appeared in gules on a field argent (red on silver), similar to the coat of arms of Luckau, in which the bull has gold horns and hooves, and turns his head to look at the viewer. After over 600 years it is still used today as Lower Lusatia's coat of arms. Main museums dedicated to the history of the region include the Sorbian museum in Cottbus ( Serbski muzej Chóśebuz ) and

1705-514: The east, the Bóbr River from Łagoda via Krzystkowice down to the historic town of Żary forms the border with the lands of Lower Silesia . In the west the course of the upper Dahme River down to Golßen separates it from the former Electoral Saxon lands of Saxe-Wittenberg . Between Lower and Upper Lusatia is a hill region called the Grenzwall (literally "border dike", although it

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1760-689: The emperor of the Romaioi gave them a region in the Thessalonica to settle in, namely Serblia , which from that time has acquired this denomination... Then, after some time these same Serbs decided to depart to their own homes, and the emperor sent them off. And so, when they had crossed the Danube River, they changed their minds and sent a request to the Emperor Heraclius... the emperor settled these same Serbs in these countries". In

1815-509: The fifty-three titles into which the excerpts were divided, only six have survived: de Virtutibus et Vitiis; de Sententiis; de Insidiis; de Strategematis; de Legationibus Gentium ad Romanos; de Legationibus Romanorum ad Gentes . The titles of only about half the remaining forty-seven sections are known. Also amongst his historical works is a history eulogizing the reign and achievements of his grandfather, Basil I ( Vita Basilii , Βίος Βασιλείου). These books are insightful and of interest to

1870-401: The general John Tzimiskes , who one year later captured Samosata , in northern Mesopotamia . An Arab fleet was also destroyed by Greek fire in 957. Constantine had active diplomatic relationships with foreign courts, including those of the caliph of Cordoba Abd ar-Rahman III and of Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor . In the autumn of 957 Constantine was visited by Olga of Kiev , regent of

1925-520: The historian, sociologist, and anthropologist as a source of information about nations neighbouring the Empire. They also offer a fine insight into the Emperor himself. In his book, A Short History of Byzantium , John Julius Norwich refers to Constantine VII as "The Scholar Emperor". Norwich describes Constantine: He was, we are told, a passionate collector—not only of books and manuscripts but works of art of every kind; more remarkable still for

1980-472: The homeland existed between rivers Elbe and Saale, the second in the upper course of rivers Vistula and Oder , and the third from Elbe and Saale to the upper course of Vistula. However, Sedov concluded that the archaeological data does not confirm any of these hypotheses, and most plausible is the consideration by Lubor Niederle that there's no evidence that White Serbia ever existed and Constantine VII most probably made up Northern Great Serbia only according to

2035-563: The immediate restitution of all peasant lands, without compensation; by the end of his reign, the condition of the landed peasantry, which formed the foundation of the whole economic and military strength of the Empire, was better off than it had been for a century. In 949, Constantine launched a new fleet of 100 ships (20 dromons , 64 chelandia , and 10 galleys) against the Arab corsairs hiding in Crete , but like his father's attempt to retake

2090-666: The island in 911, this attempt also failed. On the Eastern frontier things went better, even if with alternate success. In the same year, the Byzantines conquered Germanicea , repeatedly defeated the enemy armies, and in 952 they crossed the upper Euphrates . But in 953, the Hamdanid amir Sayf al-Dawla retook Germanicea and entered the imperial territory. The land in the east was eventually recovered by Nikephoros Phokas , who conquered Adata , in northern Syria , in 958, and by

2145-835: The main escape routes for insurgents of the unsuccessful Polish November Uprising from partitioned Poland to the Great Emigration led through Lübben and Luckau . In the interbellum, the Poles and Sorbs in Germany closely cooperated as part of the Association of National Minorities in Germany , established at the initiative of the Union of Poles in Germany in 1924. There were still notable Polish communities in Lower Lusatia, such as Klettwitz (Upper Sorbian: Klěśišća , Polish: Kletwice ). During World War II ,

2200-832: The majority of the toponyms don't derive from the ethnonym itself. Also, both Łowmiański and Popowska-Taborska found them and their abundance unusual which cannot reflect the early medieval great migration of the Slavs, and it rather describes the Sorbian population living on the Polish territory which was brought there from the Elbe river as captives by the Piast dynasty . Constantine VII Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus ( ‹See Tfd› Greek : Κωνσταντῖνος Πορφυρογέννητος , Kōnstantinos Porphyrogennētos ; 17 May 905 – 9 November 959)

2255-438: The new and shaky regime survived the attempted usurpation of Constantine Doukas , and Patriarch Nicholas Mystikos quickly assumed a dominant position among the regents. Patriarch Nicholas was presently forced to make peace with Tsar Simeon of Bulgaria , whom he reluctantly recognized as Bulgarian emperor. Because of this unpopular concession, Patriarch Nicholas was driven out of the regency by Constantine's mother Zoe . She

White Serbia - Misplaced Pages Continue

2310-759: The north it is confined by the middle Spree River with Lake Schwielochsee and its eastern continuation across the Oder at Fürstenberg to Chlebowo . In the glacial valley between Lübben and Cottbus , the Spree River branches out into the Spreewald ("Spree Woods") riparian forest . Other rivers include the Berste and Oelse tributaries as well as the Schlaube and the Oder–Spree Canal opened in 1891. In

2365-457: The region's villages—many of them within the Sorbian settlement area—were damaged or destroyed, especially by order of East German authorities. While this process is still going on, most notably around Jänschwalde Power Station , run by EPH , some now exhausted open-pit mines are being converted into artificial lakes, in the hope of attracting tourism, and the area is now referred to as the Lusatian Lake District ( Lausitzer Seenland ). Today

2420-409: The region. Polish-Sorbian contacts increased in that period. With the Age of Enlightenment , the Sorbian national revival began and resistance to Germanization emerged. As the Kingdom of Saxony had sided with Napoleon it had to cede Lower Lusatia to Prussia in the 1815 Congress of Vienna , whereafter the territory became part of the Province of Brandenburg and the Province of Saxony . One of

2475-402: The southwest of Lubusz Voivodeship in Poland . Like adjacent Upper Lusatia in the south, Lower Lusatia is a settlement area of the West Slavic Sorbs whose endangered Lower Sorbian language is related to Upper Sorbian and Polish . This sparsely inhabited area within the North European Plain ( Northern Lowland ) is characterised by extended pine forests, heathlands and meadows. In

2530-436: The throne during his lifetime. Sons born to a reigning Emperor held precedence in the Eastern Roman line of succession over elder sons not born "in the purple" . Constantine was born in Constantinople on 17/18 May 905, an illegitimate son of Leo VI before an uncanonical fourth marriage. To help legitimize him, his mother gave birth to him in the Purple Room of the imperial palace, hence his nickname Porphyrogennetos . He

2585-420: The unbaptized Serbs, also called ‘white’, who live beyond Hungary , in a region called by them Boïki, where their neighbor is Francia , as is also Megali Croatia , the unbaptized, also called ‘white’. In this place, then, these Serbs also dwelt from the beginning... Now, after the two brothers succeeded their father in the rule of Serbia, one of them, taking one half of the folk, came as the refugee to Heraclius,

2640-409: The vast majority of the population turned Protestant . The Bohemian era came to an end when Emperor Ferdinand II of Habsburg ceded the Lusatias to Elector John George I of Saxony under the 1635 Peace of Prague in return for his support in the Thirty Years' War ; thus the lands returned to the House of Wettin. One of the two main routes connecting Warsaw and Dresden ran through the region in

2695-429: The west, Poland in the east and Bohemia in the south. In 1319, the southern portion of Lower Lusatia with the towns of Żary and Komorów Zły (now German: Senftenberg , Lower Sorbian: Zły Komorow ) became part of the Duchy of Jawor , the southwesternmost duchy of fragmented Piast -ruled Poland. In the northern part, in 1319, Gubin was unsuccessfully besieged by King John of Bohemia , and eventually fell to

2750-484: Was elevated to the throne as a two-year-old child by his father and uncle on 15 May 908 ( Whitsunday ). In early 913, as his uncle Alexander lay dying, he appointed a seven-man regency council for Constantine. It was headed by the Patriarch Nicholas Mystikos , the two magistroi John Eladas and Stephen , the rhaiktor John Lazanes , the otherwise obscure Euthymius and Alexander's henchmen Basilitzes and Gabrielopoulos. Following Alexander's death (6 June),

2805-750: Was deposed by his sons, the co-emperors Stephen and Constantine . Romanos spent the last years of his life in exile on the Island of Prote as a monk and died on 15 June 948. With the help of his wife, Constantine VII succeeded in removing his brothers-in-law, and on 27 January 945, Constantine VII became sole emperor at the age of 39, after a life spent in the shadow. Several months later, on 6 April ( Easter ), Constantine VII crowned his own son Romanos II co-emperor. Having never exercised executive authority, Constantine remained primarily devoted to his scholarly pursuits and delegated his authority to bureaucrats and generals, as well as to his energetic wife Helena Lekapene. In 947, Constantine VII ordered

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2860-477: Was eclipsed by a senior emperor. Constantine's youth had been a sad one due to his unpleasant appearance, his taciturn nature, and his relegation to the third level of succession, behind Christopher Lekapenos , the eldest son of Romanos I Lekapenos. Nevertheless, he was a very intelligent young man with a large range of interests, and he dedicated those years to studying the court's ceremony. Romanos kept and maintained power until 16/20 December 944, when he

2915-411: Was identical to the Czech lands (Bohemia) based on DAI's account and the name Bojka , but he also supported Šafárik's thesis. Other scholars who had a similar opinion were Vladimir Ćorović (1885–1941), and Ljubivoje Cerović (b. 1936). However, most scholars like Borivoje Drobnjaković (1890–1961), Andreas Stratos (1905–1981), Sima Ćirković (1929–2009), and Relja Novaković (1911–2003) located them to

2970-488: Was no more successful with the Bulgarians, who defeated her main supporter, the general Leo Phokas , in 917. In March 919, she was replaced as regent by the admiral Romanos Lekapenos , who married his daughter Helena Lekapene to Constantine. Romanos used his position to advance to the ranks of basileopatōr in April 919, to kaisar ( Caesar ) on 24 September 920, and finally to co-emperor on 17 December 920. Thus, just short of reaching nominal majority , Constantine

3025-476: Was the fourth Byzantine emperor of the Macedonian dynasty , reigning from 6 June 913 to 9 November 959. He was the son of Emperor Leo VI and his fourth wife, Zoe Karbonopsina , and the nephew of his predecessor Alexander . Most of his reign was dominated by co-regents: from 913 until 919 he was under the regency of his mother, while from 920 until 945 he shared the throne with Romanos Lekapenos , whose daughter Helena he married, and his sons. Constantine VII

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