Menander Protector mentions a Daurentius (c. 577–579) who slew an Avar envoy of Khagan Bayan I for
asking the Slavs to accept the suzerainty of the Avars; Daurentius declined and is reported as saying:
"Others do not conquer our land, we conquer theirs – so it shall always be for us as long as there are
wars and weapons".[23]
Migrations
Further information: Slavic migrations to the Balkans
Slavic tribes from the 7th to 9th centuries AD in EuropeAccording to eastern homeland theory, prior to becoming known to the Roman world, Slavic-speaking
tribes were part of the many multi-ethnic confederacies of Eurasia – such as the Sarmatian, Hun and
Gothic empires. The Slavs emerged from obscurity when the westward movement of Germanic tribes in
the 5th and 6th centuries CE (thought to be in conjunction with the movement of peoples from Siberia
and Eastern Europe: Huns, and later Avars and Bulgars) started the great migration of the Slavs, who
settled the lands abandoned by Germanic tribes fleeing the Huns and their allies: westward into the
country between the Oder and the Elbe-Saale line; southward into Bohemia, Moravia, much of present-
day Austria, the Pannonian plain and the Balkans; and northward along the upper Dnieper river. It has
also been suggested that some Slavs migrated with the Vandals to the Iberian Peninsula and even North
Africa.[24]
Around the 6th century, Slavs appeared on Byzantine borders in great numbers.[25] Byzantine records
note that Slav numbers were so great, that grass would not regrow where the Slavs had marched
through[ citation needed ]. After a military movement even the Peloponnese and Asia Minor were reported to
have Slavic settlements.[26] This southern movement has traditionally been seen as an invasive
expansion.[27] By the end of the 6th century, Slavs had settled the Eastern Alps regions.[28]
Pope Gregory I in 600 CE wrote to Maximus, the bishop of Salona (in Dalmatia), in which he expresses
concern about the arrival of the Slavs:
Latin: "Et quidem de Sclavorum gente, quae vobis valde imminet, et affligor vehementer et conturbor.
Affligor in his quae jam in vobis patior; conturbor, quia per Istriae aditum jam ad Italiam intrare
coeperunt."
English: "I am both distressed and disturbed about the Slavs, who are pressing hard on you. I am
distressed because I sympathize with you; I am disturbed because they have already begun to arrive
in Italy through the entry-point of Istria."[29]