This is Robin Pearson from the History of Byzantium podcast.

You might think that late Roman history has little to do with the 20th century.

But, as I'm sure you know, the First World War began because of ethnic tensions in the Balkans.

In addition to some of the most exciting battles in human history, endless palace intrigue,

and scary plagues, the history of Byzantium also serves as the origin story for the Balkans,

and therefore the conflicts which shaped the 20th century.

Come and find out how the Romans influenced the world we live in today at the history of

Byzantium.com.

Music In AD 98, the Roman historian Tacitus described a people he called the Veneti,

living between the eastern fringe of Germania, or Germany,

and the western edge of Sarmacia. He admitted that he wasn't sure whether these people qualified as Germans or Sarmations. They went around plundering like the Sarmations,

but they lived in houses like the Germans.

These Veneti may be the earliest reference to the people we know today as Slavs.

By the beginning of the 19th century, Slavs are among the largest ethnic groups in Europe,

and Slavic peoples occupy close to half the total

land area of Europe. And yet, there is only one nation in Europe actually governed by Slavs,

the Russian Empire. And in an age of rising nationalism, even by the end of the 19th century, we can add to that list only a couple more small states, Serbia, the semi-independent Bulgaria, and little Montenegro.

Slav nationalism. It's going to be a thing. Welcome to the history of the 20th century. Episode 27. Too soon to thank God.

The first unambiguous references to the people that we now call Slavs come from Byzantine sources

during the reign of Justinian I. The Slavs would become one of the many challenges the declining

Roman Empire would have to deal with. The Slavs would become one of the many challenges the declining Roman Empire would have to deal with.

The Slavs' word for themselves in the old days was Slovena,

...