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Name for two different historical creations. [German version] A. The so-called ‘ancient Bulgarian kingdom’ Around 635 Khan Kubrat succeeded in freeing the Ogur-Turkish  Bulgari from the hegemony of the  Avares and establishing a kingdom which extended along the north bank of the Black Sea to the east and west of the Sea of Asov. The Byzantines saw this kingdom as a stability factor in the north against the Avares and  Antae; Emperor  Heracleaus allied himself to Kubrat and granted him the title of patríkios. After Kubrat's' death his empire was divided between his sons; the  …

[German version] (Βούλγαροι; Boúlgaroi, more rarely Bulgares; Boúlgares, Βούλγαρες, Latin usually Bulgares or Vulgares, more rarely Bulgari). Name of a people belonging to the tribal group of the Huns; there is most probably an etymological connection with Old Turkish bul γ amak, ‘confuse’, ‘mix’ (cf. Turkish bulgur ‘wheat gruel’), so the name would be understood as ‘mixed people’. In fact the B. appear in the 2nd cent. AD to have been a loose conglomerate of various tribes settled in Siberia, with the Ogur-Turkish element dominating. In th…

[German version] (Ἄνται; Ántai, Antae, Anti). Barbaric nomads recorded north of the Black Sea in the 6th cent. The A. are usually mentioned together with the Sclavenes (e.g. Procop. Goth. 3,14; Mauric. 11,4); they are considered Slavs by some, Iranians and even Goths by others, but the name is probably a non-ethnic and non-linguistic designation for a warrior band. The A. were allies of the Byzantines against the Avars in 545-602. Kramer, Johannes (Trier) Bibliography R. Werner, Zur Herkunft der A., in: Studien zur ant. Sozialgesch., Festschrift Friedrich Vittinghoff, 1980, 573-595 O…

[German version] A. Palaeo-Balkanic languages Those languages, which were spoken in antiquity in the Balkan area, are considered to be Palaeo-Balkanic languages, but are only known in fragments from indirect sources (references by Greek and Lat. authors, names on Greek and Lat. inscriptions) (so-called fragmented languages), especially 1. Pre-Greek ( Pre-Greek languages), 2.  Macedonian, 3. Thracian, 4. Dacian, 5. Illyrian. Thracian was spread throughout the eastern half of the continental area of the Balkans and probably showed a strong division into …

(Roman province of Dacia). [German version] A. Origins The Dacian group of tribes originally settled an extensive territory north of the lower Danube; in the west it reached to the Pathisus (Theiss), in the east possibly to the Hierasus (Sireth) or the Pyretus (Pruth); it was bordered to the north by the crescent of the Carpathians. The D. were a Thracian people. The location of their settlements enabled them to enter into various kinds of relations with neighbouring peoples, e.g. the Scythians and Gepi…