The Belegezites were a South Slavic

South Slavs

The South Slavs are the southern branch of the Slavic peoples and speak South Slavic languages. Geographically, the South Slavs are native to the Balkan peninsula, the southern Pannonian Plain and the eastern Alps...

 tribe that lived in the area of Thessaly

Thessaly

Thessaly is a traditional geographical region and an administrative region of Greece, comprising most of the ancient region of the same name. Before the Greek Dark Ages, Thessaly was known as Aeolia, and appears thus in Homer's Odyssey....

 in the Middle Ages

Middle Ages

The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...

.

History

Their name is rendered as Belegezites, Velegesites, Belegizites and Velzite Slavs. After settling in the region of Thessaly, the economic activities of the tribe included trade with the Byzantine

Byzantine

Byzantine usually refers to the Roman Empire during the Middle Ages.Byzantine may also refer to:* A citizen of the Byzantine Empire, or native Greek during the Middle Ages...

 city of Thessaloniki

Thessaloniki

Thessaloniki , historically also known as Thessalonica, Salonika or Salonica, is the second-largest city in Greece and the capital of the region of Central Macedonia as well as the capital of the Decentralized Administration of Macedonia and Thrace...

 by 670-80. When the city was besieged by the Sagudates

Sagudates

The Sagudates were a South Slavic tribe that lived in Macedonia, in the area between Thessaloniki and Veria.- History :The Sagudates were first attested in a Byzantine document of 686 as allies of the Avars and besiegers of Thessaloniki in alliance with other South Slavic tribes...

, Drogubites and other tribes in the late 7th century, the leaders of the Belegezites provided supplies for the besieged population. During the same period, along with other tribes they were using armed logboats to plunder the coasts of Thessaly. One of the leaders of the tribe in the late 7th century was a person named Tihomir, whose name has been found on artifacts of the same period. Religious buildings of the 8th century in Thessaly have been connected with the Christianization of the tribe, after the campaigns of Byzantine

Byzantine Empire

The Byzantine Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire during the periods of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, centred on the capital of Constantinople. Known simply as the Roman Empire or Romania to its inhabitants and neighbours, the Empire was the direct continuation of the Ancient Roman State...

 emperor Nikephoros I

Nikephoros I

Nikephoros I or Nicephorus I, Logothetes or Genikos was Byzantine emperor from 802 to 811, when he was killed in the Battle of Pliska....

against the Slavs of the area.