SERBOI ("Serboi", "Serbioi")

A term that first appears in the 'Geography' of Ptolemy (ed. Nodde,42.22, book 5, chapter 9.21) to designate a tribe dwelling in Sarmatia, probably on the Lower Volga.

The name reappears, in the form Serbloi, in Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos and in Theophanes Continuatus, usually in the same context as the Croatians, Zachlumians, and the other peoples

of Pannonia and Dalmatia (TheophCont 288.17-20).

Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos (De adm.imp.32.1-16) derives the name from the Latin 'servi', which he explains as 'douloi' (slaves), a name that the Serboi allegedly acquired as the slaves

of Roman emperors. He relates that the Serboi are descended from the unbaptized Serboi who lived in the place called Boiki (Bohemia?), next to Frankia, and that they claimed the protection of Emperor Herakleios, who settled them in the province of Thessalonike. There are no sources to verify Constantine's evidence. Kekaumenos (Kek.268.28) locates the Serboi on the Sava River, apparently incorrectly.

The first certain data on the state of the Serboi, Serbia, begin with the 9th century, and the episcopal lists of Leo VI mention bishops of Drougoubiteia and the Serbioi.

Circa 993 envoys of the Serboi arrived at the court of Basil II (Lavra 1, no.10.12).

In the 11th century there was probably a theme of Serbia: a seal of Constantine Diogenes, 'strategos' of Serbea, is preserved, and ca.1040 Theophilos Erotikos was the governor of the Serboi until he was expelled by Stefan Voislav, who reportedly conquered the territory of the Serboi and became its 'archon' (Skyl.408.73-75).

A.Kazhdan,

Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium (1991), vol.3, pp.1875,1876