The West Slavs are Slavic peoples who speak the West Slavic languages . They separated from the common Slavic group around the 7th century, and established independent polities in Central Europe by the 8th to 9th centuries. The West Slavic languages diversified into their historically attested forms over the 10th to 14th centuries.
31-414: The Selpoli was a West Slavic Lusatian tribe, that in the 10th and 11th centuries, inhabited the area to the east from Lusatian Neisse river. Selpoli was a West Slavic Lusatian tribe, that in the 10th and 11th centuries, inhabited the area to the east from Lusatian Neisse river. Between 936 and 940, together with other tribes, they rebelled against Saxons . The tribe was noted three times, in
62-521: A common ancestor. A branch of gens, sometimes identified by a distinct cognomen , was called a stirps ( pl. : stirpes ). The gens was an important social structure at Rome and throughout Italia during the period of the Roman Republic . Much of individuals' social standing depended on the gens to which they belonged. Certain gentes were classified as patrician , others as plebeian ; some had both patrician and plebeian branches. The importance of
93-568: A gens being admitted to the patriciate prior to the first century BC was when the Claudii were added to the ranks of the patricians after coming to Rome in 504 BC, five years after the establishment of the Republic. Numerous sources describe two classes amongst the patrician gentes, known as the gentes maiores , or major gentes, and the gentes minores , or minor gentes. No definite information has survived concerning which families were numbered amongst
124-471: A gens voluntarily left or were expelled from the patriciate, along with their descendants. In some cases, gentes that must originally have been patrician, or which were so regarded during the early Republic, were later known only by their plebeian descendants. By the first century BC, the practical distinction between the patricians and the plebeians was largely symbolic, with only a few priesthoods and ceremonial offices restricted to patricians. However, such
155-419: A limited number of personal names , or praenomina , the selection of which helped to distinguish members of one gens from another. Sometimes different branches of a gens would vary in their names of choice. The most conservative gentes would sometimes limit themselves to three or four praenomina, while others made regular use of six or seven. There were two main reasons for this limited selection: first, it
186-410: A state within a state, governed by its own elders and assemblies, following its own customs, and carrying out its own religious rites. Certain cults were traditionally associated with specific gentes. The gentile assemblies had the responsibility of adoption and guardianship for their members. If a member of a gens died intestate and without immediate family, his property was distributed to the rest of
217-618: A territory rather than a population, is a matter of scholarly debate. The early Slavic expansion reached Central Europe in the 7th century, and the West Slavic dialects diverged from common Slavic over the following centuries. The West Slavic tribes settled on the eastern fringes of the Carolingian Empire , along the Limes Saxoniae . Prior to the Magyar invasion of Pannonia in the 890s,
248-520: The Thietmar's Chronicle , an 11th-century chronicle written by Thietmar of Merseburg . They were noted before 963, in 990, and in 1008. West Slavs Today, groups which speak West Slavic languages include the Poles , Czechs , Slovaks , Silesians , Kashubians , and Sorbs . From the ninth century onwards, most West Slavs converted to Roman Catholicism , thus coming under the cultural influence of
279-485: The Bavarian Geographer made a list of West Slavic tribes who lived in the areas of modern-day Poland , Czech Republic , Germany and Denmark : Gens In ancient Rome , a gens ( / ɡ ɛ n s / or / dʒ ɛ n z / , Latin: [gẽːs] ; pl. : gentes [ˈgɛnteːs] ) was a family consisting of individuals who shared the same nomen gentilicium and who claimed descent from
310-522: The Etruscans , whose language was unrelated. All of these peoples were eventually absorbed into the sphere of Roman culture. The oldest gentes were said to have originated before the foundation of Rome (traditionally 753 BC), and claimed descent from mythological personages as far back as the time of the Trojan War (traditionally ended 1184 BC ). However, the establishment of the gens cannot long predate
341-608: The Latin Church , adopting the Latin alphabet , and tending to be more closely integrated into cultural and intellectual developments in western Europe than the East Slavs , who converted to Eastern Orthodox Christianity and adopted the Cyrillic alphabet . Linguistically, the West Slavic group can be divided into three subgroups: Lechitic , including Polish , Silesian , Kashubian , and
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#1732852084742372-540: The Republic, it is not entirely certain which gentes were considered patrician and which plebeian. However, a series of laws promulgated in 451 and 450 BC as the Twelve Tables attempted to codify a rigid distinction between the classes, formally excluding the plebeians from holding any of the major magistracies from that time until the passage of the Lex Licinia Sextia in 367 BC. Another law promulgated as part of
403-456: The West Slavic polity of Great Moravia spanned much of Central Europe between what is now Eastern Germany and Western Romania. In the high medieval period, the West Slavic tribes were again pushed to the east by the incipient German Ostsiedlung , decisively so following the Wendish Crusade in the 11th century. The early Slavic expansion began in the 5th century, and by the 6th century
434-399: The adoption of hereditary surnames. The nomen gentilicium , or "gentile name", was its distinguishing feature, for a Roman citizen's nomen indicated his membership in a gens. The nomen could be derived from any number of things, such as the name of an ancestor, a person's occupation, physical appearance, character, or town of origin. Because some of these things were fairly common, it
465-681: The domination of the Holy Roman Empire after the Wendish Crusade in the Middle Ages and had been strongly assimilated by Germans at the end of the 19th century. The Polabian language survived until the beginning of the 19th century in what is now the German state of Lower Saxony . Various attempts have been made to group the West Slavs into subgroups according to various criteria, including geography, historical tribes, and linguistics. In 845
496-756: The extinct Polabian and Pomeranian languages ; Sorbian in the region of Lusatia ; and Czecho–Slovak in the Czech lands . In the Early Middle Ages , the name " Wends " (probably derived from the Roman-era Veneti ) may have applied to Slavic peoples. However, sources such as the Chronicle of Fredegar and Paul the Deacon are neither clear nor consistent in their ethnographic terminology, and whether "Wends" or "Veneti" refer to Slavic people, pre-Slavic people, or to
527-886: The following West Slav tribes in the 11th century from "the coastlands and hinterland from the aby of Kiel to the Vistula, including the islands of Fehmarn, Poel, Rügen, Usedom and Wollin", namely the Wagrians , Obodrites (or Abotrites), the Polabians , the Liutizians or Wilzians, the Rugians or Rani, the Sorbs, the Lusatians, the Poles, and the Pomeranians (later divided into Pomerelians and Cassubians). They came under
558-426: The gens as a social structure declined considerably in imperial times , although the gentilicium continued to define the origins and dynasties of the ancient Romans, including the emperors. The word gens is sometimes translated as "race", or "nation", meaning a people descended from a common ancestor (rather than sharing a common physical trait). It can also be translated as "clan", "kin", or "tribe", although
589-468: The gens. The decisions of a gens were theoretically binding on all of its members. However, no public enactment is recorded as having been passed by the assembly of a gens. As a group, the gentes had considerable influence on the development of Roman law and religious practices, but comparatively little influence on the political and constitutional history of Rome. Certain gentes were considered patrician, and others plebeian. According to tradition,
620-499: The gentes maiores, or even how many there were. However, they almost certainly included the Aemilii , Claudii , Cornelii , Fabii , Manlii , and Valerii . Nor is it certain whether this distinction was of any practical importance, although it has been suggested that the princeps senatus , or speaker of the Senate , was usually chosen from their number. For the first several decades of
651-609: The gentes whose names they shared, but within a few generations it often became impossible to distinguish their descendants from the original members. In practice this meant that a gens could acquire new members and even new branches, either by design or by accident. Different branches or stirpes of a gens were usually distinguished by their cognomina , additional surnames following the nomen, which could be either personal or hereditary. Some particularly large stirpes themselves became divided into multiple branches, distinguished by additional cognomina. Most gentes regularly employed
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#1732852084742682-734: The groups that would become the West, East , and South Slavic groups had probably become geographically separated. One of the distinguishing features of the West Slavic tribes was manifested in the structure of the Pagan sanctuaries of the closed (long) type, while the East Slavic sanctuaries had a round (most often open) shape ( see also : Peryn ). Early modern historiographers such as Penzel (1777) and Palacky (1827) have claimed Samo's Empire to be first independent Slavic state in history by taking Fredegar's Wendish account at face value. Curta (1997) argued that
713-409: The orders over the next two centuries. Certain patrician families regularly opposed the sharing of power with the plebeians, while others favoured it, and some were divided. Many gentes included both patrician and plebeian branches. These may have arisen through adoption or manumission, or when two unrelated families bearing the same nomen became confused. It may also be that individual members of
744-409: The patricians were descended from the "city fathers", or patres ; that is, the heads of the family at the time of its foundation by Romulus , the first King of Rome . Other noble families which came to Rome during the time of the kings were also admitted to the patriciate, including several who emigrated from Alba Longa after that city was destroyed by Tullus Hostilius . The last known instance of
775-510: The tables forbade the intermarriage of patricians and plebeians, but this was repealed after only a few years, by the Lex Canuleia in 445 BC. Despite the formal reconciliation of the orders in 367, the patrician houses, which as time passed represented a smaller and smaller percentage of the Roman populace, continued to hold on to as much power as possible, resulting in frequent conflict between
806-637: The text is not as straightforward: according to Fredegar, Wends were a gens , Sclavini merely a genus , and there was no "Slavic" gens . He further states that " Wends occur particularly in political contexts: the Wends, not the Slavs, made Samo their king." Other such alleged early West Slavic states include the Principality of Moravia (8th century–833), the Principality of Nitra (8th century–833), and Great Moravia (833–c. 907). Christiansen (1997) identified
837-547: The word tribus has a separate and distinct meaning in Roman culture. A gens could be as small as a single family, or could include hundreds of individuals. According to tradition, in 479 BC the Fabia gens alone were able to field a militia consisting of three hundred and six men of fighting age. The concept of the gens was not uniquely Roman, but was shared with communities throughout Italy, including those who spoke Italic languages such as Latin , Oscan , and Umbrian as well as
868-587: Was because of traditions concerning disgraced or dishonoured members of the gens bearing a particular name. For example, the Junia gens avoided the praenomina Titus and Tiberius after two members with these names were executed for treason. A similar instance supposedly led the assembly of the Manlia gens to forbid its members from bearing the praenomen Marcus , although this prohibition does not seem to have been strictly observed. In theory, each gens functioned as
899-454: Was possible for unrelated families to bear the same nomen, and over time to become confused. Persons could be adopted into a gens and acquire its nomen. A libertus , or " freedman ", usually assumed the nomen (and sometimes also the praenomen) of the person who had manumitted him, and a naturalized citizen usually took the name of the patron who granted his citizenship . Freedmen and newly enfranchised citizens were not technically part of
930-490: Was their prestige that, beginning with the administration of Caesar , and continuing into imperial times, a number of families were raised to the patriciate, replacing older families that had become extinct or faded into obscurity, and which were no longer represented in the Roman senate . By the third century, the distinction between patricians and plebeians had lost its relevance. The emperor Constantine and his successors revived
961-552: Was traditional to pass down family names from one generation to the next; such names were always preferred. Second, most patrician families limited themselves to a small number of names as a way of distinguishing themselves from the plebeians, who often employed a wider variety of names, including some that were seldom used by the patricians. However, several of the oldest and most noble patrician houses frequently used rare and unusual praenomina. Certain families also deliberately avoided particular praenomina. In at least some cases, this