Slav(es)

[Tsontos]

Could someone post some information about the policy of the Byzantines to make Slaves out of the Slavs on our northern frontiers?

Me thinks Akritas would be able to help me out here ;)

[akritas]

Nice thread and need a lot attention.
For start the obscure records of the eighth century allow us to discern through their dim atmosphere a considerable increase of power in popular feelings, and they even afford some glimpses of the causes of this new energy. The fermentation which then pervaded Christian society marks the commencement of modern civilisation, as contrasted with ancient times. Its force arose out of the general diminution of slave labour.
The middle classes in the towns were no longer rich enough to be purchasers of slaves, consequently the slave population henceforward became a minority in the Eastern Empire; and those democratic ideas which exist among free labourers replaced the aristocratic caution, inseparable from the necessity of watching a numerous population of slaves.

The agricultural population along the frontiers of the two empires(Roman and Eastern) must have been greatly diminished during these successive ravages; for farm-buildings and fruit-trees were constantly destroyed, and slaves formed the most valuable booty of the soldiers.

True, historical sources, particularly the Strategikon, describe warfare as one of the most important features of early Slavic society. In Strategikon Procopius argue that the Slavic “military democracy” implied a particular form of slavery, which they described as “patriarchal. ” Warfare brought a large number of captives, who became slaves. Such slaves, however, played no determining role in production, and, in time, they were set free.

Strategikon XI 4.4: “They do not keep those who are in captivity among them in perpetual slavery, as do other nations. But they set a definite period of time for them and then give them the choice either, if they so desire, to return to their own homes with a small recompense or to remain there as free men and friends. ”

to be continue.....