| Tzeésthlabos Časlav | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| archon (ἄρχων) | |||||
| Prince of Serbia | |||||
| Reign | c. 933 –c. 943[b] | ||||
| Predecessor | Zaharija | ||||
| Successor | possiblyTihomir[c] | ||||
| Born | before 896 Preslav,First Bulgarian Empire | ||||
| Died | 943/960 (aged about 45-60) | ||||
| |||||
| Dynasty | Vlastimirović dynasty | ||||
| Father | Klonimir | ||||
| Religion | Chalcedonian Christian | ||||
| Vlastimirović dynasty |
|---|
Tzeésthlabos (Greek:Τζεέσθλαβος), usually transliterated asČaslav (Serbian Cyrillic:Часлав) orChaslav andTzeeslav,[a] wasPrince of the Serbs fromc. 933 until his death inc. 943/960.[b]
Časlav was the son ofKlonimir, a son ofStrojimir who ruled as co-prince in 851–880. He belongs tothe first Serbian dynasty, the Vlastimirovićs (ruling since the early 7th century), and is the last known ruler of the family. His mother was aBulgarian noblewoman chosen as wife of Klonimir byBoris I of Bulgaria himself.
Initially an ally of the Bulgarians, Časlav successfully came to the throne of Serbia in a very chaotic period of history, managing to reorganize and repopulate the country afterBulgarian–Serbian wars of 917–924. He was a vassal of the Byzantine Empire. A possible identification with a same-named person from theChronicle of the Priest of Duklja reveals that he presumably fought off theMagyars, but eventually dying in combat with them. Časlav is remembered, alongside his predecessorVlastimir, as founders of Serbia in the Middle Ages.
In the 880s,Mutimir seized the throne for himself, exiling his brothers andKlonimir, who was Strojimir's son, to theFirst Bulgarian Empire, to the court ofBoris I.[1] This was most likely due to treachery.[2] Petar, the son of Gojnik, was kept at the Serbian court of Mutimir for political reasons,[2] but he soon fled toCroatia.[1]
When Mutimir died, his sonPribislav inherited the rule, but he only ruled for a year; Petar returned and defeated him in battle and seized the throne; Pribislav fled toCroatia with his brothersBran andStefan.[1] Bran was defeated, captured and blinded (blinding was aByzantine tradition meant to disqualify a person from taking the throne[3]). In 896, Klonimir returned from Bulgaria, backed by Boris I, taking the important Serbian stronghold ofDestinikon. Klonimir was defeated and killed.[4]
TheByzantine–Bulgarian Wars made the Bulgarian Empirede facto the most powerful Empire ofSoutheast Europe. The Bulgarians won after invading at the right time; they met little resistance in the north because of theByzantines fighting theArabs inAnatolia.[5]
Časlav was born in the 890s, but before 896, inPreslav, the capital of theFirst Bulgarian Empire, growing up at the court ofSimeon I the Great.[6] His father was Klonimir, and his mother was aBulgarian noblewoman.[7]
In 924, Časlav was sent to Serbia with a largeBulgarian army.[8][9] The army ravaged a good part of Serbia, forcing Zaharija, who at the time was the Prince of Serbia, to flee to Croatia.[8][9] Simeon of Bulgaria summoned all the Serbian zhupans to pay homage to their new prince, but instead of instating Časlav, he took them all captive, entered Serbia, and "took away with them the entire folk, both old and young, and carried them into Bulgaria, though a few escaped away and entered Croatia; and the country was left deserted".[8][10] Bulgaria considerably expanded its borders to the west, now neighbouring its powerful allyMichael of Zahumlje and Croatia, where Zaharija was exiled and soon died.[9]Croatia at this time was ruled by the powerful monarchTomislav.[9]
Bulgarian rule was not met with popularity, as many Serbs fled to Croatia and Byzantium.[11] According toDAI, seven years afterCroatian–Bulgarian battle of 926, Časlav and four friends escaped from Preslav to Serbia.[8] Although he found that the land almost completely deserted, "he took possession of the country".[8] Accordingly, the beginning of his reign is dated around 933/934.[12][13] He immediately submitted to the overlordship of Byzantine emperorRomanos I Lekapenos and gained financial and diplomatic support for his efforts.[8][11] Thanks to the help and benefits by the Byzantine emperor he "organized and populated the country", resulting in Serbs from Croatia, Bulgaria, nearby countries and Constantinople coming back to Serbia.[14][15]
He maintained close ties with Byzantium throughout his reign.[11]Byzantine influence (the Church in particular) greatly increased in Serbia, as did Orthodox influence from Bulgaria.[11] As he lived in Bulgaria having close spiritual ties with theBulgarian Church, were introduced in Serbia the Byzantine-Slavic culture and literature envisioned byCyril and Methodius.[16] The period was crucial to the future Christian demonym (Orthodox versus Catholic) adopted by the Serbian Church, as ties formed in this era were to have great importance on how the differentSlavic churches lined up when they eventually split during theGreat Schism of 1054.[11] Many scholars have felt that the Serbs, being in the middle of Roman and Orthodox jurisdiction, could have gone either way, but, unfortunately, information on this era and region is scarce.[11]
In the context of boundaries, Časlav restored Serbia after its conquest by Simeon.[17] The exact borders of Časlav's state are uncertain, possibly expanding intoBosnia.[18][19] Some scholars consider he significantly enlarged Serbia, taking over regions held byMichael of Zahumlje,[6] but Michael probably died after 930[20] and ruled into the 940s.[18] While others consider that he also expanded into Travunia,[21] Kanalites and Pagania,[22] andRascia,[17] there is no evidence,[20] and it is improbable because all these polities are mentioned as separate from Serbia whenDAI was written roughly around 959.[20][17][23]
Francis Dvornik argued that Časlav's presumed expansion into Bosnia would have been impossible in the first decade of reign, and only after "he had re-populated and re-established his country", with the best fit being in 949 when Croatian power temporarily declined.[19] Relja Novaković doubts that Časlav's state included Bosnia, saying that there is no evidence inDAI and other sources that the Serbian state at the time had significant territorial gains, and that caution is needed when showing Serbian territorial borders in the mid-10th century, adding "we could almost say with certainty that the extent of Serbia at that time was not of the scale shown on the maps".[17][24]Tibor Živković also emphasized that "it is important to notice that theDAI I, 32.141 – 145, does not speak about any of presumed Časlav's military campaigns, but only that he became a ruler recognized in Constantinople".[25]
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There is no information about Serbia's second-half of the 10th century.[22] According to the data fromDAI, Časlav reign would have ended by 943/944.[12][13] However, the late 13th centuryChronicle of the Priest of Duklja (CPD) mentions a certainCiaslavus/Seislav ("Časlav") who some scholars identify withDAI's Časlav, butCPDs Časlav whou have ruled "according to the chronology of theChronicle, at the beginning of the 9th century".[26][27] He was the son of mythical king Radoslav,[28] and was disobedient to his father during the conflict with the ban ofWhite Croatia, and later banished his father from throne and country, being cursed by Radoslav.[29][30] In the Croatian version of the text, he is in addition shown as of having a "lack of humility",[31] and was cursed by God.[32] The etymology and initial account of events related toSeislav don't correlate with Časlav's, but partly do with the life of Croatian dukeZdeslav (878–879) who overthrown previous duke and distanced himself from the Roman Church.[33]
The Magyars, led byKisa, invaded Bosnia, and Časlav hurried and encountered them at the banks of riverDrina around the place called Civelino.[34][35][36] However, comparative analysis of the Chronicle's chronology of events doesn't indicate thatDAI's Časlav ruled Bosnia, or fought the Hungarians in Bosnia, as in the mid-10th century it was ruled by a Bosnian ban who escaped to the Hungarians because the region was conquered by White Croatian ban Krešimir (usually associated withMichael Krešimir II) and continued to be ruled by him and his son Stjepan (identified withStephen Držislav).[27]
The Magyars were decisively defeated, with Kisa being slain by Časlav'svoivodeTihomir.[37][35] In gratitude, Časlav married off his daughter to Tihomir. Kisa's widow requested the Magyar leaders give her an army to exact vengeance.[37][35] With an "unknown number" of troops, the widow returned and surprised Časlav atSyrmia.[37][35] In the night, the Magyars attacked the Serbs, captured Časlav and all of his male relatives.[35][38] On the command of the widow, all of them were bound by their hands and feet and thrown into theSava river.[39][35] The events are interpretatively dated, withDAI in mind, to around 950-960.[35][18]
Serbia fell ca. 960 under Byzantine and later under Bulgarian rule again.[40][11] TheCatepanate of Ras was established between 971–976, during the rule ofJohn Tzimiskes (r. 969–976).[41] A seal of astrategos of Ras has been dated to Tzimiskes' reign, making it possible for Tzimiskes' predecessorNikephoros II Phokas to have enjoyed recognition in Rascia.[42][43] Theprotospatharios and katepano of Ras was a Byzantine governor named John.[44] Data on thekatepano of Ras during Tzimiskes' reign is missing.[45] Byzantine military presence ended soon thereafter with thewars with Bulgaria, and was re-established only c. 1018 with the short-livedTheme of Sirmium, which, however, did not extend much into Rascia proper.[42]
Stevan Sremac (1855–1906) authoredVeliki župan Časlav in 1903.[46]
According to theChronicle of the Priest of Duklja, Časlav had one daughter:[47]
U stvari, problem obima Srbije u doba Časlava rešava se saznanjem o prostoru Srbije u vreme prethodnog vladara ili prethodnih vladara, jer je bugarski car Simeon napao i privremeno pokorio tu Srbiju, a Časlav je opet samo tu Srbiju obnovio i u njoj se učvrstio. Znači, ako Bosna nije bila u sastavu Srbije pre Časlava nije bila ni u njegovo vreme, jer on, sudeći po carevom kazivanju, nije ni stigao da proširi granice Srbije ... Međutim, mada je za vreme Časlava u Srbiji došlo do izvesne stabilizacije, nikakvih dokaza nemamo da je tada srpska država ostvarila i neko veće teritorijalno proširenje. Jedva se usuđujemo da kažemo da je tih godina došlo do prvog uključivanja Raške u sastav srpske države i to pretpostavljamo jedino na osnovu Dukljaninove priče o zbivanjima posle Časlavljevog uspeha u borbi sa Ugarima. Drugih dokaza nema, te bismo morali biti veoma oprezni prikazujući teritorijalni obim Srbije sredinom H veka. Gotovo bismo sa sigurnošću mogli tvrditi da obim Srbije u to vreme nije bio onih razmera kako se to na kartama prikazuje.
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