Daurentius () or Dauritas () was a Slavic ('' Sclaveni'') chieftain in the 6th century. He seems to have been the supreme chief of a Slavic tribal confederation, which "fellow chiefs" were or subordinated to him, or of the similar tribal rank and status as Daurentius.

Etymology

Linguists consider that the original Slavic form of the name was ''Dobręta'', which was rendered via the Greek pronunciation and transcription of "''β''=''ν''".

Sources

Daurentius is the first Slavic chieftain to be recorded by name, by the

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...

historian Menander Protector whose primary focus was on Roman interactions with foreign peoples, particularly the

Persians Persians ( ), or the Persian people (), are an Iranian ethnic group from West Asia that came from an earlier group called the Proto-Iranians, which likely split from the Indo-Iranians in 1800 BCE from either Afghanistan or Central Asia. They ...

and Avars. The Slavs are mentioned only in relation to their interactions with the Avars. Menander reported that the Avar

khagan Khagan or Qaghan (Middle Mongol:; or ''Khagan''; ) or zh, c=大汗, p=Dàhán; ''Khāqān'', alternatively spelled Kağan, Kagan, Khaghan, Kaghan, Khakan, Khakhan, Khaqan, Xagahn, Qaghan, Chagan, Қан, or Kha'an is a title of empire, im ...

Bayan I sent an embassy, asking Daurentius and his Slavs to accept Avar suzerainty and pay tribute, because the Avars knew that the Slavs had amassed great gold after repeatedly plundering the Byzantine Balkan provinces. Daurentius reportedly retorted that "Others do not conquer our land, we conquer theirs ..so it shall always be for us ..as long as there are wars and weapons", Menander often used this quote, especially when depicting the speeches of Roman or Persian envoys. According to Menander, the Sclaveni eventually slew the envoys of the Khagan. Bayan then campaigned (in 578) against the Sclaveni, with support from the Byzantine emperor Tiberius II. Bayan laid waste to the fields and set fire to many of their settlements, a lot of Sclaveni took refuge in the woods and none "dared to face" the Khagan. Although this did not fulfill the expectations of the Byzantine Emperor as the situation in the Balkans continued to remain chaotic.

Location

The location of his realm and mentioned Sclaveni is a matter of scholarly debate. Usually scholars consider Daurentius led the Sclaveni around the

Lower Danube The Danube ( ; see also other names) is the second-longest river in Europe, after the Volga in Russia. It flows through Central and Southeastern Europe, from the Black Forest south into the Black Sea. A large and historically important r ...

region (roughly

Wallachia Wallachia or Walachia (; ; : , : ) is a historical and geographical region of modern-day Romania. It is situated north of the Lower Danube and south of the Southern Carpathians. Wallachia was traditionally divided into two sections, Munteni ...

), while others situated it in the basin of the Zala river in the territory of the old

Roman province The Roman provinces (, pl. ) were the administrative regions of Ancient Rome outside Roman Italy that were controlled by the Romans under the Roman Republic and later the Roman Empire. Each province was ruled by a Roman appointed as Roman g ...

of Pannonia Prima, in present-day

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

References

Sources

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bibliography entry
* {{Cite book, last=Živković, first=Tibor, author-link=Tibor Živković, title=Forging unity: The South Slavs between East and West 550-1150, url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JlIsAQAAIAAJ, year=2008, location=Belgrade, publisher=The Institute of History, Čigoja štampa, isbn=9788675585732 South Slavic history 6th-century Slavs 6th-century monarchs in Europe 6th century in Hungary Slavic warriors