New Interpretations of Data about South Slavic Gentes from the De Administrando Imperio of Byzantine Emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus (944-959)

Abstract

This paper presents an overview of historical research of one of the most important documents for the earliest history of South Slavs – the De administrando imperio by the Byzantine Emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus (944–959). It is evident that previous researchers investigated this work according to a black/white, correct/incorrect template and that the most important things remained unanalysed – where  does all this information come from, who collected it and when, for which occasion was it written and with which aim? The researchers posed of the source legitimate questions but in an incorrect order. The first
thing which should have been asked is: on what sources is the work based on, when and where was it written, and who wrote it. Beside the historiographic part  of the work, the author, using his own methodological template, also provides information about the newest results in the study of this historical text. He argues that the Emperor’s main source on the settlement of the
South Slavic peoples on the Balkan peninsula was the now lost work titled De conversione Croatorum et Serborum. Including this element into research allows us to understand some of the Emperor’s claims which but which were never properly understood by historians.