Albania / [prepared under the direction of K. Mason].

  • Great Britain. Naval Intelligence Division
Date:
1945
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Albania / [prepared under the direction of K. Mason]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Western Empires separated in 395 it fell apart into a Latin-speaking and a Greek-speaking half, represented by the adherents of the Roman Catholic and the Greek Orthodox churches. Under Byzantine rule all north Albania—the districts of Scutari and Berat—became the thema of Dyrrhachium; all south Albania fell into the thema governed from Nicopolis at the entrance to the gulf of Arta. The Slav Invasions The earlier invasions of northern barbarians, mainly Goths, hardly reached the watershed, but there were Hun inroads in 441 and 447, and in 481 Dalmatia was annexed to the Ostrogoth kingdom in the Danube basin and only partially restored to the Eastern Empire by Justinian (535). The Avar raid of 565 opened the way for persistent immigrations of the southern Slavs (600-640) who came, not like earlier invaders mainly to raid, but to settle, and steadily replaced or absorbed alike the latinized Illyrians and their Gothic overlords; the western Croats acquiring the Latin culture and form of Christianity, while the eastern Serbs were civilized directly and exclusively from Greek Byzantium, a distinction of profound importance thereafter. Probably the differences between the Slav-speaking Montenegrins and the Serbs and Croats are due in part to the absorption of an Illyrian element. Slav tribal separatism resulted in a régime of small communities and republics which spread far into Greece. It was partly repelled, partly met and modified, by the survivors of the ‘Roman’ culture in Roumelia represented by the modern Aromuni or Vlachs, though most of them became slavonized and merged in the Bulgarian people; some early Bulgar princes were of Vlach origin. Only the coast cities such as Durazzo, Ragusa, and Spalato retained Italian cul- ture and connexions throughout; while some semi-nomad but Latin- speaking tribes in the highlands became associated with other ‘Roman’ groups throughout the Balkan lands and became the Mavro-vlach (‘Black Vlach’) people of medieval and modern times. The Bulgar Finns from the Volga, though they raided in 861 as far as Himaré (Gk. Chimarra) on the coast north of Corfu, had at first no greater success than the Serbs and Croats in establishing them- selves south of the Boyana (Buené) river or west of the watershed. After defeating the Serbs, however, the Bulgarian leader Simeon (893-927) temporarily conquered all the coast districts except Durazzo, and colonized systematically. His successor Shishman ruled from Ochrida (Ohrid) after 927, and Durazzo itself was taken by Shish- man’s son Samuel (976-1014). But after the victories of Basil II, the