Christianity among the Bessi, in Late Antiquity: Sources, Facts, Problems

Authors:

Pages: 55-69

Abstract:

The present article is devoted to the historical fate of the Thracian people in Late Antiquity with focus on the process of Christianization among them. The first part deals with the development of the denomination Bessi, which in Late Antiquity embraced all the Thracian population south of Danube, existing interchangeably with the ethnical notion of Thracians. Many names of Thracians/ Bessi were preserved for people usually included in the military and administrative system of the Later Roman and Early Byzantine Empire. The last usage of Bessos as an ethnical notion was connected with events as late as the early 8th century. There is enough evidence to support the existence of Thracian/Bessic speaking population in the Balkans in that period. Secondly, I turn my attention on the Christianization of the Thracian and other Balkan ethnic groups in Late Antiquity with stress on the figure of Nicetas of Remesiana. Notwithstanding some modern speculations on his identity, he was a Christian missionary in the Balkans, Roman politically and culturally, who spread the new religion among the population south of Danube, his main language being Latin. We could hardly point his aboriginal language. Thirdly, I present sources, which indicate the existence of a Bessic language, used in liturgy in the Balkans as well as among the monasteries of the Holy Land. A source-based analysis demonstrates that it could not be the Vulgar Latin, neither Georgian nor some other language, but most probably a kind of Thracian used for liturgical purposes.

Keywords:

Thracians, Bessi, Christianity, Late Antiquity, Bessic language

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