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| Samo's realm |
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| This article is part of the Slovak history series. |
| Samo's realm |
| Great Moravia |
| History of Slovakia |
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King Samo (? - 658) was a merchant born in the Senonian country (Senonago) (probably today's Sens in France). He was the first ruler of the Slavs whose name is known, and the founder of the so-called (King) Samo's Empire or Samos's Realm (623 - 658), the first known organized community of the Slavs - actually a kind of supra-tribal union, not a true State. As for Samo's nationality (see the end of this article), Fredegar's chronicle - the only contemporaneous source mentioning Samo- says explicitly "Samo, a Frank by birth [or nation] from the Senon[ag]ian province". It is recorded that the Frankish ruler Samo had twelve Wendish wives; the women were possibly refugees and their men or husbands dead.
The Avars arrived in the Carpathian Basin in the 560s from the steppes of Asia and subdued the Slavs living on the conquered territory. The Avar border ran approximately along the line of the Byzantine Empire in present-day Serbia - Lake Balaton - eastern Bratislava - southern Slovakia - Ruthenia. However, after the Avars were defeated at Constantinople in the early 7th century, the Slavs living north of the Danube started to revolt against them. Samo was one of the merchants who supplied arms to the Slavs (mainly) for these revolts. During a Slav revolt in 623 (probably at today's Bratislava-Devín), Samo joined the Slavs, the Avars were defeated under his leadership, and the Slavs made him their ruler, thereby giving birth to what is known as the King Samo's Empire.
Archaeological findings indicate that the "empire" was situated in present-day Moravia, Slovakia, Lower Austria and Carinthia. The settlements of the later Moravian and Nitrian principalities (see Great Moravia) are often identical with those from the time of Samo's Empire. Present-day Bohemia probably, Sorbia at the Elbe surely, and state of Karantania temporarily, became parts of the empire later (in the 630s), as well. Although the Slavs, led by King Samo, managed to defeat all Avar attacks, Slav conflicts with Frankish merchants, in which merchants were killed and goods stolen, forced them to fight against the Franks as well: In 631, the Frankish king Dagobert I (Merovingian) sent three armies against King Samo. The biggest of the armies, hailing from Austrasia (Avstrazia), was defeated by the Slavs led by King Samo at the castle Wogastisburg (Vosgate Castle) when trying to attack the center of Samo's Empire. As a result, Samo even invaded Frankish Thuringia several times and undertook looting raids there. The Sorbian prince Dervan joined Samo after this success. The location of the Wogastisburg is currently strongly disputed with claims ranging from castles in Bohemia, to castles at the Danube, to the Frankish Forchheim, to Bratislava, to Devin, to Nitra, to Carnuntum etc.
The history of the empire after Samo's death in 658 (or 659) is largely unclear. It is generally assumed that it disappeared with Samo's death. Archaeological findings show that the Avars returned to their previous territories (at least to southernmost Slovakia) and entered into a symbiosis with the Slavs, whereas territories to the north of the Avar empire were purely Slav territories. The first specific thing that is known about the fate of these Slavs and Avars, is the existence of the Moravian and Nitrian principalities in the late 8th century (see Great Moravia) which were attacking the Avars, and the defeat of the Avars by the Franks under Charlemagne in 799 or 802/803, after which the Avars quickly ceased to exist.