Drougoubitai
Encyclopedia
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...
group (Sclaveni) who settled in the Balkans
Balkans
The Balkans is a geopolitical and cultural region of southeastern Europe...
in the 7th century. Two distinct branches are mentioned in the sources, one living in medieval Macedonia
Macedonia (region)
Macedonia is a geographical and historical region of the Balkan peninsula in southeastern Europe. Its boundaries have changed considerably over time, but nowadays the region is considered to include parts of five Balkan countries: Greece, the Republic of Macedonia, Bulgaria, Albania, Serbia, as...
to the north and east of Thessalonica and around Veroia (in modern Greece
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
), while the other lived in Thrace
Thrace
Thrace is a historical and geographic area in southeast Europe. As a geographical concept, Thrace designates a region bounded by the Balkan Mountains on the north, Rhodope Mountains and the Aegean Sea on the south, and by the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara on the east...
, around Philippopolis (modern Plovdiv
Plovdiv
Plovdiv is the second-largest city in Bulgaria after Sofia with a population of 338,153 inhabitants according to Census 2011. Plovdiv's history spans some 6,000 years, with traces of a Neolithic settlement dating to roughly 4000 BC; it is one of the oldest cities in Europe...
in Bulgaria
Bulgaria
Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...
).
The 7th-century Miracles of St Demetrius, which chronicle the Slavic invasions and settlement in the Balkans
Balkans
The Balkans is a geopolitical and cultural region of southeastern Europe...
, list the first branch of the Drougoubitai along with four other Sclaveni tribes living in the vicinity of Thessalonica. According to the Miracles, they were led by kings, and were tributary allies to the Byzantines. The Miracles also record their participation in two unsuccessful attacks by Sclaveni coalitions on Thessalonica in 617/618 and 677.
By 879, a bishopric of Drougoubiteia (Δρουγουβιτεία), suffragan to Thessalonica, had been established. N. Oikonomides has suggested that at about the same time, the tribe was placed under a military governor with the title of strategos
Strategos
Strategos, plural strategoi, is used in Greek to mean "general". In the Hellenistic and Byzantine Empires the term was also used to describe a military governor...
. In the late 10th and 11th centuries, Drougoubiteia is attested as being united with the themes of Thessalonica
Thessalonica (theme)
The Theme of Thessalonica was a military-civilian province of the Byzantine Empire located in the southern Balkans, comprising varying parts of Central and Western Macedonia and centred around Thessalonica, the Empire's second-most important city.-History:In Late Antiquity, Thessalonica was the...
and Strymon
Strymon (theme)
The Theme of Strymon was a Byzantine military-civilian province located in modern Greek Macedonia, with the city of Serres as its capital...
into a single province. In the early 10th century, John Kaminiates
John Kaminiates
John Kaminiates was a Greek resident of Thessalonica when the city, then one of the largest in the Byzantine Empire, was besieged and sacked by a Saracen force led by Leo of Tripoli in 904...
speaks of the Drougoubitai as living around Veroia, while in the 13th century, Demetrios Chomatenos
Demetrios Chomatenos
Demetrios Chomatenos or Chomatian , Archbishop of Ohrid from 1216 to 1236, was a Byzantine priest and judge.His comprehensive legal education allowed him to exert substantial influence as judge, arbiter, confessor and advisor to the Byzantine Imperial house...
mentions them as "ruling" all the land from Veroia up to Skopje, Macedonia.