Vlachs were the Romanized people of south-eastern Europe. The Vlach people are generally considered to have formed north of the Jireček Line, probably from a mix of Roman colonists (from various Roman provinces) and indigenous peoples who were Romanized.
Their more exact place of origin is hard to determine as they can be found all over the Balkan peninsula. Aromanians can be found in Greece, Bulgaria, Albania and the Republic of Macedonia, while Romanians in Romania, Moldova, Ukraine, Serbia and Hungary. However, most historians agree that their original land was somewhere north of the Jirecek Line.
Their occupations were mostly trading, shepherding and craftsmanship, but judging from the variety of ancient vocabulary related to agriculture we can assume that in the Roman period they were mostly farmers. It is not known exactly when the Vlachs who were the ancestors of present day Aromanians broke off from the general body of Vlach people; historians point to a period between the 5th--9th Centuries.
See also: Vlachs and Great Wallachia.
In 579 AD, two Byzantine chroniclers, Theophanis and Theophylactus, provided accounts of the language of the Armani (Vlachs) . The Slavic-derived exonym Vlachoi ("Vlachs") became a substitute for the term Armani when it was first used in 976 AD in a chronicle by a Greek author named Kedrinos. The Byzantine writer Cecaumenos, in his Strategicon of 1066 AD wrote that the Vlachs of Epirus and Thessaly came from north of the Danube and from along the Sava. Moreover, the author states that they were the descendants of the Bessi.
In the 18th century, as many of the Vlachs became involved in the trade between the Occident and Orient, their main city, Moscopole, became one of the most important and prosperous cities of the Balkans, until it was sacked and pillaged by the Ottomans in 1788.
After the Italian occupation of Greece the Aromanians created an autonomous state in Northern-Greece. The leaders of the Principality of Pindus were Alkiviadis Diamandi di Samarina (Prince Alchibiades I, 1941-1943) and Baron Gyula Milványi-Csesznegi (Prince Julius I, 1943). The principality was definitively annected by Greece in 1947.
Today, the official position of the Greek government is that the Vlachs are only Greeks speaking a Latin dialect. Some assert that the reason for this official position is because the Greek government does not want to declare the Vlachs as a national minority. However, the Vlachs themselves do not wish to become a national minority in Greece. The willingness of the Vlachs in Greece to maintain their ties with their fellow Greeks has led to the dwindling usage of their distinct dialect. Though their traditions are not infringed upon by the Greek state, the Vlachs are encouraged to return to speaking the language of their supposed ancestors (i.e. Greeks).
The Jirecek line is a theoretical line that goes from the coast of Bulgaria to the coast of Albania, passing through the Rodopes mountains: it is used to limit the areas where was spoken Latin (to the north) from those were was spoken old greek (to the south of the line) during the late Roman Empire.
The placing of the line is based on archaeological findings: most of the inscriptions found to the north of it were written in Latin, while most of the inscriptions found to the south were in Greek.
This line is important in establishing the place where the Romanian and Aromanian people were formed (see Origin of Romanians), since it is considered unlikely that a Latin people formed on the south of it.
It was originally used by the Czech historian Konstantin Jireček in 1911 in a history of the Slavic people.
Scritto Thursday, 21 September 2006 alle 02:28 nella categoria Senza categoria. Puoi seguire i commenti a questo post attraverso il feed RSS 2.0. Puoi lasciare un commento. Non è consentito il pinging.