SETTLEMENT OF THE SLAVS IN ASIA MINOR DURING THE RULE OF JUSTINIAN II AND THE BISHOPRIC ΤΩΝ ΓΟΡΔΟΣΕΡΒΩΝ
SETTLEMENT OF THE SLAVS IN ASIA MINOR DURING THE RULE OF JUSTINIAN II AND THE BISHOPRIC ΤΩΝ ΓΟΡΔΟΣΕΡΒΩΝ

Summary/Abstract: In the Acts of the Council of Trullo in 691/692 there was mentioned for the fi rst time a bishop τῶν Γορδοσέρβων (of Gordoserba), in the province of Bythinia, Asia Minor. The appearance of the episcopal see called Gordoserba in Asia Minor at the end of the 7th century has been often explained as a consequence of settlement of some group of the Serbs from the Balkans to Asia Minor, during some of the many resettlements of peoples conducted by Byzantine emperors throughout the 7th century. The paper points to the fact that the bishop τῶν Γορδοσέρβων was mentioned for the first time in the Acts of the Council of Trullo in 691/692, and that there was no mention of him in the Acts of the Sixth Ecumenical council in Constantinople in 680/681. Thus, it might be concluded that the resettlement of the Serbs from the Balkans to Asia Minor occured between the to councils. As it is well known, emperor Justinian II conquered many tribes of the Slavs in the vicinity of Thessalonica in 688/689 and then transferred them to Asia Minor, to the Opsician Theme, which is the territory of the Province of Bythinia. It could be possible that Serbs whose bishop was present at the Council of Trullo in 691/692 were part of that resettlement of the Slavs and that they originated in the region of Th essalonica, where, according to Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus, Serbs did live in the 7th century.

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