The reconstruction of South-Eastern Europe

THE RECONSTRUCTION OF

Speak not word like these, oh noble princes. Sooth ’twere a sin to speak such words, Sirs. Never did my father spend his treasures Buying arms and chargers bold for battle, Buying lances forged of steel and maces.

No, my father spent his vast possessions Building white abodes for God’s high presence. Where God’s hymns be sung through all the ages, Bringing healing to my father’s spirit.

Up then spake the mighty Christian Princes: Blessed be thy holy Father’s memory,

Blessed be thy soul, Nemanji¢ Sava.”

But besides the songs and ballads in which the Serbo-Croats have expressed their ideals and their general outlook on life, we have the witness of foreigners who have depicted the character of the Balkan Slavs. Thus the greatest contemporary historian of the seventh century, Theophilactes Simocates, the historian of Byzantium during the reign of the Emperor Mavricius (582-602), says that during a raid against the Slavs already established on the banks of the Lower Danube the patrols of the Emperor returned bringing in some Slav prisoners. They were tall, broad-shouldered men, armed only with pipes, and in appearance quite harmless and good-natured. Being asked who they were, they answered: “ We are Slavs coming from the far-off sea. We do not know steal or arms, we graze our herds, make music with our pipes and do not harm any one.” Another historical writer of the eighth century, the well-known Paulus Diaconus, relates how his grandfather

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