Дневник: Constantine Porphyrogenitus

петък, февруари 11, 2005

Constantine Porphyrogenitus - De Administrando Imperio

Като го чета този текст ми прави впечетление че Българските поселища на северното черноморие са имали църкви и т.н. и са били доста - преди идването на Печенегите

ей тук и един линк
линка

(Constantine Porphyrogenitus De Administrando Imperio, Ed. by Gy. Moravcsik, tr. by R. J. H. Jenkins, New, rev. ed. (Washington, D. C.: Dumbarton Oaks Center for Byzantine Studies, 1967), pp. 49-51, 167-171, 57-63,):

Of the nation of the Pechenegs

Originally, the Pechenegs had their dwelling on the river Atil, and likewise on the river Geich, having common frontiers with the Chazars and the so-called Uzes. But fifty years ago the so-called Uzes made common cause with the Chazars and joined battle with the Pechenegs and prevailed over them and expelled them from their country, which the so-called Uzes have occupied till this day. The Pechenegs fled and wandered round, casting about for a place for their settlement; and when they reached the land which they now possess and found the Turks living in it, they defeated them in battle and expelled and cast them out, and settled in it, and have been masters of this country, as has been said,for fifty-five years to this day.

The whole of Patzinacia is divided into eight provinces with the same number of great princes. The provinces are these: the name of the first province is Irtim; of the second, Tzour; of the third, Gyla; of the fourth, Koulpei; of the fifth, Charaboi; of the sixth, Talmat; of the seventh, Chopon; of the eighth, Tzopon. At the time at which the Pechenegs were expelled from their country, their princes were, in the province of Irtim, Baitzas; in Tzour, Konel; in Gyla, Kourkoutai; in Koulpei, Ipaos; in Charaboi, Kaidoum; in the province of Talmat, Kostas; in Chopon, Giazis; in the province of Tzopon, Batas. After their deaths their cousins succeeded to their rule. For law and ancient principle have prevailed among them, depriving them of authority to transmit their ranks to their sons or their brothers, it being sufficient for those in power to rule for their own life-time only, and when they die, either their cousin or sons of their cousins must be appointed, so that the rank may not run exclusively in one branch of the family, but the collaterals also inherit and succeed to the honour; but no one from a stranger family intrudes and becomes a prince. The eight provinces are divided into forty districts, and these have minor princelings over them.

Four clans of the Pechenegs, that is to say, the province of Kouartzitzour and the province of Syroukalpei and the province of Borotalmat and the province of Boulatzopon, lie beyond the Dnieper river towards the eastern and northern parts that face Uzia and Chazaria and Alania and Cherson and the rest of the Regions. The other four clans lie on this side of the Dnieper river, towards the western and northern parts, that is to say that the province of Giazichopon is neighbour to Bulgaria, the province of Kato Gyla is neighbour to Turkey, the province of Charaboi is neighbour to Russia, and the province of Iabdiertim is
neighbour to the tributary territories of the country of Russia, to the Oultines and Dervlenines and Lenzenines and the rest of the Slavs. Patzinacia is distant a five days journey from Uzia and Chazaria, a six days journey from Alania, a ten days journey from Mordia, one day's journey from Russia, a four days journey from Turkey, half a day's journey from Bulgaria; to Cherson it is very near, and to Bosporus closer still.

At the time when the Pechenegs were expelled from their country, some of them of their own will and personal decision stayed behind there and united with the so-called Uzes, and even to this day they live among them, and wear such distinguishing marks as separate them off and betray their origin and how it came about that they were split off from their own folk: for their tunics are short, reaching to the knee, and their sleeves are cut off at the shoulder, whereby, you see, they indicate that they have been cut off from their own folk and those of their race. On this side of the Dniester river, towards the part that faces Bulgaria, at the crossings of this same river, are deserted cities: the
first city is that called by the Pechenegs Aspron, because its stones look very white; the second city is Toungatai; the third city is Kraknakatai; the fourth city is Salmakatai; the fifth city is Sakakatai; the sixth city is Giaioukatai. Among these buildings of the ancient cities are found some distinctive traces of churches, and crosses hewn out of porous stone, whence some preserve a tradition that once on a time Romans had settlements there....