Rhynchinen

The Rhynchinen ( Middle Greek Ῥυγχίνοι Rhynchinoi ) were a South Slavic tribe in Macedonia in the 7th and 8th centuries.

history

The Rhynchines were first mentioned in 616 when they besieged the Byzantine city of Thessaloniki with other Slavic tribes . In 658, the Byzantine Emperor Constans II forced them to pay tribute after a campaign in Macedonia. Around 675 their king Perbundus was killed by the Byzantines. They then besieged with Drugubiten and sagudates again Thessaloniki for two years (676-678).

In 759, the Byzantine Emperor Constantine V made a campaign against various Slavic tribes and again obliged the Rhynchines to pay tribute. After that they were no longer mentioned in contemporary chronicles.

A tribe of the Rechinen ( Ρηχίνοι Rechinoi ) on the Chalkidiki peninsula was mentioned in a chronicle from the 17th century for the period around 800 . This should be Christianized along with the sagudates.

Surname

The origin and meaning of the name are unclear. Rhynchinen could be derived from Rǫčeni , to Old Slavic * rъčej small river . Rechinen can be the de-nasalized form (compare Retschanen ).

In Greek rhynchos means "snout, beak, trunk". An originally different Slavic name could have been adapted to this Greek word.

literature

• Perbundos (# 5901). In: Friedhelm Winkelmann , Ralph-Johannes Lilie et al. (Eds.): Prosopography of the Middle Byzantine Period : I. Department (641–867), 3rd volume. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 1998, ISBN 3-11-016673-9 , p. 556 f. ( online ).
• Florin Curta : Southeastern Europe in the Middle Ages, 500-1250. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2006, ISBN 978-0-521-81539-0 , pp. 96 f. ( online ).