{zaglavlje}
Pseudo-Maurice
Strategikon
Beginning of the VII century
The first campaign of Emperor Manuel against the Serbs
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The tribes of the Slavs and the Antes live in the same way, have the same customs and are free, without letting be enslaved or governed, especially in their own country. They are populous are durable, and easy to endure both the drought and the cold, heat and rain, the nakedness of the body and the scarcity of food.
Amiable to those who come to them as strangers, and prone to escort them friendly from place to place, wherever the guest may request. And if it so happens that by carelessness of a host a stranger gets hurt, a war is launched against that person (the host) by the one that had confided a stranger to him, because revenge of a stranger is considered to be a holy affair. Their prisoners they do not keep in bondage for unlimited time as other peoples do, but, after an exact certain period they may choose, against an amount of ransom, to return to their country or remain there as free men and friends.
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{zaglavlje}
Pseudo-Maurice
Strategikon
Beginning of the VII century
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Living without rule and in mutual hatred, they know not of any order of battle, nor do they try wage a well-composed battle, nor do they appear at bare and flat areas. Αnd if it happens that they dare to engage in a real battle, they set out a little ahead in many a shout and if they frighten their opponents with their commotion, they attack fiercely, and if not, they immediately retreat in the same direction, not rushing to try out their own hands against the power of their enemies. They flee to the woods, which are a great aid to them, as they skilfully know how to fight in the straits. Even the quarry they haul with them, due to even a minor emergency, they leave behind and flee into the woods, and when they the passers-by begin to beat about the quarry left around, they attack them and kill them easily. Τhis they perform gladly and in various modes all with the aim of tantalizing their opponents.
They are completely infidel and disjointed when it comes to honouring agreements, yielding to fear more likely than to bribery. Because among them, as a matter of fact, various opinions exist, they either do not agree to anything, or, if they do agree, their decision is soon trampled by others, since they all think different and no-one is willing to budge for another...
Otherwise, campaigns against them should be run sooner in the winter time, because then they cannot easily hide since the trees are bare, and the snow reveals the tracks of fugitives; their families, living in dearth, are then almost on the brink, and finally, it is easy to cross frozen rivers in winter.
Since about them is many a chieftain, and since they keep disagreeing one with another, it is not inappropriate to recruit some of them either by words or by a gift, especially those closer to the border, while attacking others, lest the hostility against all of them should create unity in them or throw power to the hands of only one of them.
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{zaglavlje}
Niketas Choniates
History
1149
The First Campaign of Emperor Manuel against the Serbs
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Abandoning the intent of personally crossing over to Sicily as an enterprise that would lead to no good, the Emperor set off from Aulonae with the available forces, and by coming to Pelagonia and ordaining things to what seemed to be useful to his cause, he decides to direct his warring ardour against the Serbs. Because these, as long as the autocrat was peaceful in power, kept a good faith face and were very sweet-talking to him, concealing completely opposite feelings in their heart of hearts. Α when that which the story briefly presented at the ground and at the sea, they ventured more than they should have and took advantage to take up arms against the Byzantine Romans treated poorly their neighbouring countries that were under the Byzantines. Having separated the heavily armed detachment of the army and having adjoined it to the lightly armed troops, the Emperor marched into Serbia. Yet, the Satrap of this country found this attack against not hidden from him, even though the Emperor attempted and hoped to surprise him. Not knowing what to do and seeing that he is not a fit opponent to Byzantine forces, he left the valley and raised his eyes to the mountains, wherefrom he expected that he would receive. While a multitude of his subjects, as herds of livestock, which browse on the young saplings, he left to attackers to be dispersed and destroyed, leaving everyone to run to seek salvation and find redemption of their life in their legs, after the model of Satrap himself.
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{zaglavlje}
Niketas Choniates
History
1165.
The Rascian Župan Desa Subdues to Emperor Manuel
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Intending to punish Desa who with his atrocities had become worse than himself, the Emperor prepared to strike into Serbia. Following from a distance what was happening and especially because he was truly afraid that if the Emperor entered his country, he himself might have found lot of trouble and adversity, Desa sent a mission to the Emperor, asking to be allowed safe access to him (the Emperor). When he got what he asked, he came to with his satrapian armed escort, and appearing before the Emperor’s face he was rebuked for his fickleness and released so that no peace agreement was made. Even though little effort was needed for him to be captured, yet he was allowed to go home because he promised with so much awesome oaths to change his posture and that he would never do what the Emperor does not favour, although it was impossible to dress with the cloak of the whiteness of truth a chameleon, which otherwise easily wraps itself in different colours throughout. Having moved away from the Emperor's eyes, he was distraught with many a suffering of the soul. He was ashamed having come to the Emperor, enraged by what he had experienced, torn by the fact that by the partition he made to his pledges he truly prevented himself to change his stance. Finally, he rejected everything that he, concealing his true thoughts, had pledged to the Emperor, he put on himself his everyday leopard skin and this barbarian openly commended a saying of the tragic, saying “The tongue has made an oath, the soul has not”.
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{zaglavlje}
John Kinnamos
Epitomes
1172
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At that time the Serbs, after the Venetians incited them to this, prepared an uprising, and when Stephen, who ruled the Huns, was bereft of life, a great confusion arose there...
However, when he put Bella to power, the Emperor went after the people of the Serb intending to take revenge for their arrogance. Yet, what still surprises me, the entire army had not yet gathered, and the Emperor rode through some deserted and rugged landscapes, rushing with several thousand of his troops to this country to conflict with the Grand Župan. While he, although he had collected countless allied troops from all sides, at first fled as if his soul was possessed by fear, and then, sending messengers to the Emperor, prayed to get a pardon for his evil deeds. Having achieved nothing with this he had prayed that he be allowed to securely receive an audience before the Emperor. As the Emperor agreed, he came and approached the throne with his uncovered head and arms bare to the elbows, barefoot, with a rope tied around his neck and a sword hanging in his hand, throwing himself to the Emperor’s mercy. Astonished by this, the Emperor forgave him his wrongdoings. After completing this successfully, the Emperor through Serbian lands having in his escort a Grand Župan as well.
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{zaglavlje}
Niketas Choniates
History
After 1166
Serbo-Byzantine Conflict
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The following springtime, the Emperor used to recover his body. When the Sun drove through the constellation of Cancer, passed the constellation of Leo, when the heat of Syria began to give way and the dark shadows of autumn began to be discerned, then the Emperor moved to the West and made camp at Philipopolis. He, in fact, had learned that the Satrap of the Serbs, at that time it was Stefan Nemanja, was bolder than he should be and, as a man who wrongly uses his spare time, considers inappropriateness to be wisdom and weaving insatiable desires to expand to all areas there availabile, is severely attacking his fellow tribesmen and speaks to his own kind with a sword, not knowing a measure that suits him...
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{zaglavlje}
Constantine Manasius
Chronicle
1172
Stefan Nemanja defeated by Emperor Manuel Komnenos Ι comes as a captive to Constantinople.
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What a pleasure to us, O Emperor, was that one prisoner in triumph, a very broad-shouldered man and an unwieldy old man. And behold, an unruly spectator mocked him, “Is that you, O wretched one, who intended to get away from Christ’s anointed one, the chosen one, the great and glorious victor, having knocked his light and generous yoke to go to another master, and ousting the reigns of the Byzantine leadership, offer yourself to the reins of the Germans and the Teutons? Did you not know that my autocrat is ardent and winged and quick, and so if you try to escape, you will be caught, if you take off, you do not escape his arrow, if you hide in the dark, the fire will spread and burn you?
"A broad-shouldered bull, even under a small whip, paces straight through.”
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Eusthatius of Thessalonica
1172
Nemanja in the triumphal procession of Manuel Komnenos I
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Here I would not be silent about Nemanja either, who later, though invisible, lured great words out of me, and, a short time ago my eyes were astonished by this man, whose stature is not one that the nature assigns to people, but one that is very tall and by looks very presentable. Before this, testing his manhood and getting used to fomenting uprisings, he was quick to step into the war, but soon, some due to fear a more due to wounds, he was reformed to do good and now participates in triumph...
He observed that she artwork that shows your military victories , which are hand painter at the memorial developed , among others, those relating to the care of the Jedi as she raises her people to rise up the second time ( to rise ) infantry and cavalry at another place again as a roundabout way of the sword catches on several occasions to openly collect the army and placed in ambush , and how he was eventually defeated and escaping the field covered and how ( to escape ) was burdensome and that after all conquered .
There he observes those artwork that shows your military victories, which are done by hands of painters as a memorial, among others, those relating to he himself: one time as he rises his people to rebellion, another time as he rises the infantry and the cavalry, and yet again as he takes a roundabout way of the sword, on several occasions how he openly raises the army and places them in ambush, and how he was eventually defeated and how he covered the field with escape and how (this escape) was burdensome and how after all he was conquered.
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{zaglavlje}
Stefan the First-Crowned
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After that one, in the city of Constantinople arose another emperor, an angry and bloodletting one, and broke the peace with the Reverend and the Holy One. Having gaped his mouth, he had thought to engulf the countries of others, which he, so ludicrous, did not, nor did he achieve such intents, but, wanting to hurt the Meek and the Holy One, bring his own demise on himself and blasphemy against his empire, and devastation on his land.
Because he went the venerable Saint Simeon with the Hungarian king, and came to a town, by name Sredac, and demolished it and wreaked havoc upon it completely.
And when the Hungarian king returned to his country, the Holy One, having separated from him, went with his force to the town of Pernik, and he also razed it with his power, and wreaked havoc on the town of Stob, and the town of Zemln, and the town of Velbuzd, and the town of Žitomit, and the town of Skopje , and the town of Leški in Donji Polog, and the town of Gradac, and the town of Prizren, and the glorious city of Niš, and the tow of Svrljig, and the town of Ravni, and the town of Kozli. These towns he razed and demolished them to their foundations, because one stone upon another stood there without breaking down. And they have risen not to this day. Their lands, and their riches, and their glory he contributed to the riches and the glory of his fatherland, and the glory of its heroes, and his people.
He acceded to the country of his fatherland the area of Niš completely, Lipljan, and Morava River, and the county named Vranje, the Prizren area and both Pologs to the ends with their borders.
And he lived in gratitude to God and in prayers of day and night.
He vanquished his enemies as Moses did to Amalek, carrying the cross of Christ before his eyes and with it delivering victory over barbaric foes.
He retook Diocletia and Dalmatia, his ancestral land and his birthplace, his true parental home, which was forcibly held by the Greeks, and the cities in it, built by their hands, so as to be called a Greek country, cities named: Danj grad, Drivast, Rosaf Town also known as Skoder, town of Svač, town of Ulcinj, glorious town of Bar.
And Kotor he left, fortified it and moved his court to it, that remains to this day.
The rest of the town he knocked down and demolished and turned their glory to desolateness, eradicated the Greek name, so as it not be mentioned in those lands. He left the people in those towns unharmed to serve to his state, in fear, and with promised tribute to the Holy One.
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{zaglavlje}
Stefan the First-Crowned
1191.
Isaac II Angelos triumphs over the Serbian force
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What they would not suffer in this respect, those who learn that, a short time ago, just yesterday, the Serb power and arrogance was trampled by our emperor as a threshing floor full of beams and turned into chaff, as this defeat will transfer the same fear onto them?
…This accident in a short time takes up nearly all Christians and beginning from Germany and Sicily extends up to the very Ocean – the Empire learns, your holiness, that your country is taking arms against each other – and having crossed the ocean and the Rhine, is expanding on the Danube . And until recently, the courteous father-in-law of my empire – and now I do not know how my empire will call him henceforth – dissatisfied with his heritage, which he hardly won with military and financial aid of Romania, desired authority over Serbia too, which has long been under Romania and has never been in the hands of another; and forgetting those heavy oaths that he passed to the blessed memory of the uncle of my empire, Master Manuel, when he was sent to receive the inherited power, together with those who again made to my empire, when he made an agreement with my empire and the beloved Augusta, his daughter, and when it was established that he will never do anything against the rights of Romania, or against Serbia, he took arms against the latter (Serbia), without consent of my empire, and sent an army to it considering he would conquer it in first wave of attack.
But my empire, having learned thins, sent a large detachment of its army to Grand Župan of Serbia for the defence of the lands of Serbia and compelled to return those that he had sent.
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{zaglavlje}
Stefan The First-Crowned
The Charter of Hilandar
1200-1202
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When in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth and the people on it, and blessed them and gave them authority over all his substance, ones he made emperors, others kings, and yet others masters, and He gave everyone the duty to feed his flock and protect it from all evil that it would encounter. Therefore, brethren, the merciful God established the Greeks to be emperors, and the Hungarians to be kings, and he made each nation, and gave laws to them, and established customs, and by His wisdom established masters to them according to laws and customs.
That is why by His immense and unmeasurable mercy and philanthropy, He gifted to our great grandfathers and our grandfathers to rule this Serbian land as God doing everything to make better for the people, not wanting death of people, and the Lord set as the Great Župan the onw that is my father, called at his Holy Baptism – Stefan Nemanja.
And he renewed his ancestral loom and fortified it better with the help of God and his wisdom, given to him by God. And he raised again the lost ancestral loom and took over from the sea land Zeta and its cities, from the Albanians Pilot, and from the Greek lands Lab with Lipljan, Dubočica, the Rivers, Zagrlata, Levče, Lepenica, Belica.
And when with Lord’s help he conquered all these lands with his efforts, and when his land receive with Lord's help peace and quiet in every place, he began tightening his thought and teaching his mind and wanting to hurry and take care of the soul of his.
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{zaglavlje}
Simeon Nemanja
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When many time passed, my Gracious Bishop not overlooked the praying of His creature, but as a generous striver and rewarder, who hath said with his pure mouth, “I came not to call upon the righteous, but sinners to repentance”, and since by His mercy appropriate time suddenly came , and all of this world , the honour and glory came to me as anything, and all the beauty of this life and stunning looks, showed to me to be as smoke, and the love of Christ tied to me more and more, although unworthy, and immediately I left my rule and all of mine, exclusively, since Christ and the Most Holy Lady Theotokos deigned to make it so. And he vouchsafed me, a sinner, to carry his mild yoke and He made me a fraternalist in honourable and angelic apostolic likeness, small and large. When this was finished with me, and since this was established, I left on my throne and in gifted by Christ my beloved son Stefan, the Great Župan and Sebastokrator, God-wedded son-in-law of kir Alexius, Emperor of Greece.
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{zaglavlje}
Vukan Nemanjić
Letter to Pope Innocent III
1199/1200
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To the Most Blessed and All-Holy Father and Master, Innocent, by the grace of God the supreme priest of the Holy Roman Church and the Pope of all, Vukan, by the same grace, king of Duklja and Dalmatia, greetings and expressions of devotion. When they came to us, Master John the chaplain and Master Šimun, loyal and trusted emissaries of the Holy Catholic and Apostolic See, we rejoiced beyond all measure because as a ray of the Sun shines with the brightness of its power, so much we believe that their saintly and salvific preaching shall illuminate the entire kingdom of ours therefore we rightly say, “We are lit up by a young sun from up above” (Luke 1, 7).
We indeed do not desire to hide to your Fatherhood that quite a heresy in the country of the Kingdom of Hungary, namely Bosnia, is apparently spreading to such an extent that, seduced by the alluring fallacy, the Ban Kulin himself, with his wife, and his sister, who was the woman of the late Miroslav of Hum, and many cousins, let into the same heresy with more than ten thousand Christians. That is why the outraged Hungarian king by the power obtained from you forced them to come before you (…)
So we pray thee, recommend to the Hungarian king that he expel them from his kingdom as weeds from the wheat.
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Geoffrey de Villehardouin
The Chronicle of the Fourth Crusade
1203
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Now you may know that those who had never before seen Constantinople looked upon it very earnestly, for they never thought there could be in all the world so rich a city; and they marked the high walls and strong towers that enclosed it round about, and the rich palaces, and mighty churches of which there were so many that no one would have believed it who had not seen it with his eyes-and the height and the length of that city which above all others was sovereign. And be it known to you, that no man there was of such hardihood but his flesh trembled: and it was no wonder, for never was so great an enterprise undertaken by any people since the creation of the world.
And the other people, spread abroad throughout the city, also gained much booty. The booty gained was so great that none could tell you the end of it: gold and silver, and vessels and precious stones, and samite, and cloth of silk, and robes fair and grey, and ermine, and every choicest thing found upon the earth. And well does Geoffry of Villehardouin the Marshal of Champagne, bear witness, that never, since the world was created, had so much booty been won in any city.
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Stefan The First-Crowned
The Life of Saint Simeon
1216
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Later on, the holy master of mine left me and my brother, with the blessing and a law to live and keep his commandments without fault and do what he commanded in all the days of our life, and that his offspring live in peace and without turmoil. Yet for my sins’ sake, this did go amiss.
Because he left the commandments of the master and of his father, and was a felon. He gathered the non-kinsmen out to his fatherland, he took away my lands and ravaged them, he failed to listen, as cruel as he is, the commandment of the Lord, who said, “Listen to thy father and thy mother”, and others. Yet although the regiments of non-kinsmen were numerous, the power of God indeed was not among them, by the covenant and the prayer of the Saint. Yet as the Prophet said, “They who are mighty shall fall, yet we shall arise and be righteous”, because we gave our hopes not in our arms, but in the power of the Lord God and our Saviour Jesus Christ, and in the true blessing and prayer of the holy master of ours, St. Simeon. That is why we erred not in our hopes. For vanguishing them by his power, he restored me back to the fatherland of mine.
“For this I incessantly pray to thee, our Reverend Father Sava, listen to the voice that I send to thee from my heart of hearts, despise not my prayers, and, having gathered the relics of the Holy and the Reverend, do us grace and bring thyself the sweet scent of the relics of the Holy One, to enlighten his fatherland with the bringing forward of the relics of his and the arrival of yours, because our country is defiled by our iniquities, was slain by bloods, and we fell prey as the bounty of non-kinsmen...”
