{"slug": "slavs", "label": "Slavs", "wikipedia": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavs", "wikidata": "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q40477", "qid": "Q40477", "description": "Indo-European group living in Central Europe, Eastern Europe, Southeastern Europe, Northern Asia, and Central Asia", "entries": 49, "years": 48, "span": [583, 1143], "span_label": ["583 CE", "1143 CE"], "topics": [{"title": "Conflict & Security", "count": 26}, {"title": "Exploration & Expansion", "count": 7}, {"title": "Deaths", "count": 6}, {"title": "Geopolitics & Diplomacy", "count": 4}, {"title": "Crime & Justice", "count": 2}, {"title": "Religion & Belief", "count": 2}, {"title": "Climate & Environment", "count": 1}, {"title": "Culture & Society", "count": 1}], "related": [{"slug": "pannonian-avars", "label": "Pannonian Avars", "shared": 11}, {"slug": "byzantine-empire", "label": "Byzantine Empire", "shared": 9}, {"slug": "danube", "label": "Danube", "shared": 7}, {"slug": "balkans", "label": "Balkans", "shared": 7}, {"slug": "bulgars", "label": "Bulgars", "shared": 5}, {"slug": "constantinople", "label": "Constantinople", "shared": 4}, {"slug": "first-bulgarian-empire", "label": "First Bulgarian Empire", "shared": 4}, {"slug": "thessaloniki", "label": "Thessaloniki", "shared": 4}, {"slug": "bulgaria", "label": "Bulgaria", "shared": 4}, {"slug": "lombards", "label": "Lombards", "shared": 3}, {"slug": "maurice-emperor", "label": "Maurice (emperor)", "shared": 3}, {"slug": "justinian-ii", "label": "Justinian II", "shared": 3}], "items": [{"year": 583, "year_label": "583 CE", "section": "Exploration & Expansion", "date": null, "text": "The city of Monemvasia (Peloponnese) is founded by people seeking refuge from the Slavs and Avars.", "cite": {"url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1372793107#Europe", "title": "583", "revid": 1372793107, "section": "Events › By place › Europe"}}, {"year": 584, "year_label": "584 CE", "section": "Conflict & Security", "date": null, "text": "The Slavs push south on the Balkan Peninsula – partly in conjunction with the Avars under their ruler (khagan) Bayan I – ravaging the cities Athens and Corinth, and threatening the Long Walls of Constantinople.", "cite": {"url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1364754048#Europe", "title": "584", "revid": 1364754048, "section": "Events › By place › Europe"}}, {"year": 586, "year_label": "586 CE", "section": "Exploration & Expansion", "date": null, "text": "Slavs advance to the gates of Thessaloniki and the Peloponnese.", "cite": {"url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1364748798#Europe", "title": "586", "revid": 1364748798, "section": "Events › By place › Europe"}}, {"year": 587, "year_label": "587 CE", "section": "Geopolitics & Diplomacy", "date": null, "text": "Emperor Maurice builds more fortifications along the Danube frontier, separating the Byzantine Empire from the realm of the Avars and Slavs (approximate date).", "cite": {"url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1364756380#Eastern_Roman_Empire", "title": "587", "revid": 1364756380, "section": "Events › By place › Eastern Roman Empire"}}, {"year": 591, "year_label": "591 CE", "section": "Exploration & Expansion", "date": null, "text": "Summer – Maurice begins a series of military expeditions, to defend the Balkan provinces from the Avars and Slavs. He establishes the Danube frontier (Limes Moesiae) from the Delta to the fortress city of Singidunum (Belgrade), and permits the Byzantines to reassert their authority in the interior.", "cite": {"url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1364751608#Byzantine_Empire", "title": "591", "revid": 1364751608, "section": "Events › By place › Byzantine Empire"}}, {"year": 596, "year_label": "596 CE", "section": "Conflict & Security", "date": null, "text": "Emperor Maurice uses the city of Marcianopolis (modern Bulgaria) as a military base of operations on the lower Danube River, against the Slavs on the Balkans.", "cite": {"url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1364739187#Byzantine_Empire", "title": "596", "revid": 1364739187, "section": "Events › By place › Byzantine Empire"}}, {"year": 599, "year_label": "599 CE", "section": "Conflict & Security", "date": null, "text": "Priscus pursues the fleeing Avar tribes and invades their homeland in Pannonia. He devastates the land east of the Tisza River, deciding the war for the Byzantines and ending the Avar and Slavic incursions across the Danube.", "cite": {"url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1364752063#Byzantine_Empire", "title": "599", "revid": 1364752063, "section": "Events › By place › Byzantine Empire"}}, {"year": 600, "year_label": "600 CE", "section": "Exploration & Expansion", "date": null, "text": "Germanic and Slavic peoples have tremendous population growth, with the Slavs colonizing the Balkan Peninsula.", "cite": {"url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1364751689#Europe", "title": "600", "revid": 1364751689, "section": "Events › By place › Europe"}}, {"year": 601, "year_label": "601 CE", "section": "Climate & Environment", "date": null, "text": "Food production increases in northern and Western Europe as a result of agricultural technology introduced by the Slavs, who employ a lightweight plow with a knife blade (coulter), that cuts deep into the soil at grassroots level, together with a shaped board, or \"moldboard\", that moves the cut soil to one side.", "cite": {"url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1364903478#Agriculture", "title": "601", "revid": 1364903478, "section": "Events › By topic › Agriculture"}}, {"year": 602, "year_label": "602 CE", "section": "Conflict & Security", "date": null, "text": "Emperor Maurice succeeds in winning over the Avars to Byzantine rule, but his campaigns against the Avars, Lombards, Persians and Slavs drain the imperial treasury, requiring an increase in taxes. He orders the troops to stay for winter beyond the Danube, but a mutiny breaks out under Phocas. He brings the Byzantine forces back over the Danube and marches on to Constantinople.", "cite": {"url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1364904263#Byzantine_Empire", "title": "602", "revid": 1364904263, "section": "Events › By place › Byzantine Empire"}}, {"year": 603, "year_label": "603 CE", "section": "Conflict & Security", "date": null, "text": "King Agilulf besieges Cremona, and with the assistance of the Slavs the city is destroyed. He captures Padua and Mantua (Northern Italy); its territory is divided between the Lombard duchies of Brescia and Bergamo.", "cite": {"url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1364752956#Europe", "title": "603", "revid": 1364752956, "section": "Events › By place › Europe"}}, {"year": 604, "year_label": "604 CE", "section": "Conflict & Security", "date": null, "text": "The Avars regroup after they are almost destroyed; together with the Slavs they start pillaging through the Byzantine provinces, west and south of the Danube. Due to the new Persian war, Emperor Phocas has few imperial troops available to defend the Balkan Peninsula.", "cite": {"url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1364754628#Byzantine_Empire", "title": "604", "revid": 1364754628, "section": "Events › By place › Byzantine Empire"}}, {"year": 610, "year_label": "610 CE", "section": "Deaths", "date": null, "text": "The Avars invade the Duchy of Friuli, an important buffer between the Kingdom of the Lombards in Italy and the Slavs. During the fighting Gisulf II dies and his duchy is overrun (approximate date).", "cite": {"url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1368795500#Europe", "title": "610", "revid": 1368795500, "section": "Events › By place › Europe"}}, {"year": 615, "year_label": "615 CE", "section": "Conflict & Security", "date": null, "text": "The Balkans are freely overrun by the Slavs, who settle in large numbers in what is now Bulgaria, Serbia, North Macedonia and parts of Greece. The western territories of modern-day Yugoslavia (Bosnia, Croatia and Dalmatia) suffer raids from the Avars, who settle in this region.", "cite": {"url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1364752554#Europe", "title": "615", "revid": 1364752554, "section": "Events › By place › Europe"}}, {"year": 615, "year_label": "615 CE", "section": "Deaths", "date": null, "text": "Chatzon, chieftain of the Slavs", "cite": {"url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1364752554#Deaths", "title": "615", "revid": 1364752554, "section": "Deaths"}}, {"year": 619, "year_label": "619 CE", "section": "Conflict & Security", "date": null, "text": "The Avars attack the outskirts of Constantinople. Numerous Slavic tribes rebel against Avar overlordship; they carve out their own sovereign territory in Moravia and Lower Austria (approximate date).", "cite": {"url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1340802932#Byzantine_Empire", "title": "619", "revid": 1340802932, "section": "Events › By place › Byzantine Empire"}}, {"year": 620, "year_label": "620 CE", "section": "Conflict & Security", "date": null, "text": "The Slavs invade the area around Thessaloniki, which is unsuccessfully besieged. The city becomes a Byzantine enclave surrounded by Slavic territory. Urban life disappears and many towns in the Balkan Peninsula become villages.", "cite": {"url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1364749611#Byzantine_Empire", "title": "620", "revid": 1364749611, "section": "Events › By place › Byzantine Empire"}}, {"year": 631, "year_label": "631 CE", "section": "Conflict & Security", "date": null, "text": "Battle of Wogastisburg: The Slavs under King Samo defeat the Austrasian Franks, in a three-day battle. King Dagobert I is forced to retreat; the Franks with their allies are slaughtered. Samo invades Thuringia and undertakes looting raids.", "cite": {"url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1364749921#Europe", "title": "631", "revid": 1364749921, "section": "Events › By place › Europe"}}, {"year": 636, "year_label": "636 CE", "section": "Conflict & Security", "date": null, "text": "Arab–Byzantine War: Emperor Heraclius assembles a large army consisting of contingents of Byzantines, Slavs, Franks, Georgians, Armenians, and Christian Arabs. He establishes a base at Yaqusah (near Gadara), close to the edge of the Golan Heights, protecting the vital main road from Egypt to Damascus. The base is protected by deep valleys and precipitous cliffs, well supplied with water and grazing.", "cite": {"url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1267068315#Byzantine_Empire", "title": "636", "revid": 1267068315, "section": "Events › By place › Byzantine Empire"}}, {"year": 658, "year_label": "658 CE", "section": "Deaths", "date": null, "text": "Samo, king of the Slavs (Carinthia)", "cite": {"url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1369710051#Deaths", "title": "658", "revid": 1369710051, "section": "Deaths"}}, {"year": 666, "year_label": "666 CE", "section": "Conflict & Security", "date": null, "text": "Duke Lupus of Friuli revolts against King Grimoald I, with allied Avars. Grimoald takes and devastates Friuli, tracks down Lupus's son Arnefrit (allied with the Slavs), and beats him and kills him in battle at the castle of Nimis. Grimoald appoints Wechtar as the new duke of Friuli.", "cite": {"url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1368711664#Europe", "title": "AD 666", "revid": 1368711664, "section": "Events › By place › Europe"}}, {"year": 688, "year_label": "688 CE", "section": "Conflict & Security", "date": null, "text": "Byzantine–Bulgarian War: Emperor Justinian II carries out a Balkan campaign and marches through Thrace, where he restores Byzantine rule. He establishes a theme administration, and migrates many Bulgars and Slavs to the Opsician Theme (Asia Minor).", "cite": {"url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1340806290#Byzantine_Empire", "title": "688", "revid": 1340806290, "section": "Events › By place › Byzantine Empire"}}, {"year": 689, "year_label": "689 CE", "section": "Conflict & Security", "date": null, "text": "Byzantine–Bulgarian War: Emperor Justinian II defeats the Bulgars of Macedonia and recaptures Thessalonica, the second most important Byzantine city in Europe. He resettles the subdued Slavs in Anatolia (modern Turkey), where they are required to provide 30,000 men to the Byzantine army.", "cite": {"url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1350231931#Byzantine_Empire", "title": "689", "revid": 1350231931, "section": "Events › By place › Byzantine Empire"}}, {"year": 700, "year_label": "700 CE", "section": "Exploration & Expansion", "date": null, "text": "Avar and Slavic tribes conquer Byzantine territories in the Balkans, occupying lands as far south as the Peloponnese peninsula in southern Greece (approximate date).", "cite": {"url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1340806781#Byzantine_Empire", "title": "700", "revid": 1340806781, "section": "Events › By place › Byzantine Empire"}}, {"year": 705, "year_label": "705 CE", "section": "Conflict & Security", "date": null, "text": "Spring – An army of 15,000 Bulgar and Slav horsemen under Justinian II appear before the walls of Constantinople. After three days, his troops discover an unused water conduit under the walls of the city, and enter through the Valens Aqueduct. Hearing that Justinian has taken control of the Blachernae Palace, Emperor Tiberios III flees to Bithynia (modern Turkey), where he evades capture for several months.", "cite": {"url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1340807090#Byzantine_Empire", "title": "705", "revid": 1340807090, "section": "Events › By place › Byzantine Empire"}}, {"year": 706, "year_label": "706 CE", "section": "Crime & Justice", "date": null, "text": "Duke Corvulus of Friuli is arrested by King Aripert II of the Lombards, and has his eyes gouged out. He is replaced by Pemmo, who begins a war against the Slavs of Carinthia (modern Austria).", "cite": {"url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1367660928#Europe", "title": "706", "revid": 1367660928, "section": "Events › By place › Europe"}}, {"year": 720, "year_label": "720 CE", "section": "Culture & Society", "date": null, "text": "Summer – Emperor Leo III secures the Byzantine frontier, by inviting Slavic settlers into the depopulated districts of the Thracesian Theme (western Asia Minor). He undertakes a set of civil reforms, and reorganizes the theme structure in the Aegean region. Leo's 2-year-old son Constantine V is associated on the throne, and married to Tzitzak, daughter of the Khazar ruler (khagan) Bihar.", "cite": {"url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1349994139#Byzantine_Empire", "title": "720", "revid": 1349994139, "section": "Events › By place › Byzantine Empire"}}, {"year": 778, "year_label": "778 CE", "section": "Conflict & Security", "date": null, "text": "Saxon Wars: Widukind and his close followers return to Saxony from Denmark. He probably makes alliances with the Danes and the northwestern Slav tribes. Saxon rebels destroy the fortress of Karlsburg and sack Deutz (near Cologne), but are unable to cross the Rhine. They are driven back by the garrison of Koblenz, but then ambush and defeat the Frankish pursuers. Counter-attacking Frankish forces pursue the Saxons up the Lahn Valley, and defeat them near Leisa.", "cite": {"url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1267081416#Europe", "title": "778", "revid": 1267081416, "section": "Events › By place › Europe"}}, {"year": 795, "year_label": "795 CE", "section": "Conflict & Security", "date": null, "text": "Saxon War: The Slav Obodrites, under their ruler Witzan, attack the northern Saxons in Liuni. He is killed in an ambush and succeeded by his son Drożko (Thrasco), who becomes a Carolingian dux. King Charlemagne leads a Frankish expeditionary force north from Mainz, and marches to the Elbe, where eastern Saxon rebels again surrender.", "cite": {"url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1340848647#Europe", "title": "795", "revid": 1340848647, "section": "Events › By place › Europe"}}, {"year": 803, "year_label": "803 CE", "section": "Conflict & Security", "date": "May", "text": "May – Krum, ruler (khan) of the Bulgarian Empire, begins his territorial expansion and raids the Byzantine northern frontier. He leads his warriors — mostly Bulgars, Slavs, Thracians and Macedonians — across the Carpathian Mountains, over the Danube River, and throughout Transylvania, Thrace, and Macedonia.", "cite": {"url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1340848789#Europe", "title": "803", "revid": 1340848789, "section": "Events › By place › Europe"}}, {"year": 811, "year_label": "811 CE", "section": "Conflict & Security", "date": "July 26", "text": "July 26 – Battle of Vărbitsa Pass: Nikephoros I is trapped (probably in the Vărbitsa Pass) and defeated by the Bulgars, who use the tactics of ambush and surprise night attacks to immobilize the Byzantine forces. Nikephoros himself is killed; Krum has the emperor's head carried back in triumph on a pole, where it is cleaned out, lined with silver and made into a jeweled skull cup, which he allows his Slavic princes (archons) to drink from with him.", "cite": {"url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1366655051#Byzantine_Empire", "title": "811", "revid": 1366655051, "section": "Events › By place › Byzantine Empire"}}, {"year": 814, "year_label": "814 CE", "section": "Deaths", "date": "April 13", "text": "April 13 – Byzantine–Bulgarian Wars: Over the winter Krum, ruler (khan) of the Bulgarian Empire, had assembled a huge army (including Slavs and Avars), for a campaign against the Byzantine Empire. But before he sets out for a major attack on Constantinople, he dies of a stroke. Krum is succeeded by his son Omurtag.", "cite": {"url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1366655218#Byzantine_Empire", "title": "814", "revid": 1366655218, "section": "Events › By place › Byzantine Empire"}}, {"year": 827, "year_label": "827 CE", "section": "Conflict & Security", "date": null, "text": "Summer – Omurtag, ruler (khan) of the Bulgarian Empire, launches an attack to the West, and penetrates into Pannonia. He expels the local chiefs, and installs Bulgar governors over the Slavic tribes to control them. Omurtag conquers the cities of Beograd, Braničevo, Sirmium, and most of eastern Slavonia.", "cite": {"url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1340941309#Europe", "title": "827", "revid": 1340941309, "section": "Events › By place › Europe"}}, {"year": 832, "year_label": "832 CE", "section": "Conflict & Security", "date": null, "text": "King Pepin I of Aquitaine, and his brother Louis the German, revolt against their father, Emperor Louis the Pious. They gather an army of Slav allies and conquer Swabia.", "cite": {"url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1267075509#Europe", "title": "832", "revid": 1267075509, "section": "Events › By place › Europe"}}, {"year": 833, "year_label": "833 CE", "section": "Geopolitics & Diplomacy", "date": null, "text": "Mojmir I, Moravian duke, expels Prince Pribina from his homeland (western part of modern Slovakia). He unifies Great Moravia and becomes the first known ruler of the Moravian Slavs, who founds the House of Mojmir (approximate date).", "cite": {"url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1340941699#Europe", "title": "833", "revid": 1340941699, "section": "Events › By place › Europe"}}, {"year": 837, "year_label": "837 CE", "section": "Conflict & Security", "date": null, "text": "The Slavs in the vicinity of Thessaloniki revolt against the Byzantine Empire. Theophilos undertakes an evacuation of some Byzantine captives, who are settled in trans-Danubian Bulgaria.", "cite": {"url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1340941882#Byzantine_Empire", "title": "837", "revid": 1340941882, "section": "Events › By place › Byzantine Empire"}}, {"year": 852, "year_label": "852 CE", "section": "Geopolitics & Diplomacy", "date": "March 4", "text": "March 4 – Trpimir I, duke (knez) of Croatia, and founder of the Trpimirović dynasty, issues a first state document in Bijaći of all Slavonic peoples. In this Latin document Trpimir refers to himself as the \"duke of the Croats\" (dux Chroatorum), and to his country as the \"state of the Croats\" (regnum Chroatorum).", "cite": {"url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1287194271#Europe", "title": "852", "revid": 1287194271, "section": "Events › By place › Europe"}}, {"year": 894, "year_label": "894 CE", "section": "Deaths", "date": null, "text": "Svatopluk I, ruler (knyaz) of Great Moravia, dies after a 34-year reign, in which he has united the Slavic tribes in his kingdom. He is succeeded by his eldest son Mojmir II. The Principality of Nitra (modern-day Slovakia) is given as an appanage to his brother Svatopluk II.", "cite": {"url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1341130298#Europe", "title": "894", "revid": 1341130298, "section": "Events › By place › Europe"}}, {"year": 904, "year_label": "904 CE", "section": "Conflict & Security", "date": null, "text": "Emperor Leo VI (the Wise) is forced to sign a peace treaty with Simeon I, ruler (knyaz) of the Bulgarian Empire. All Slavic-inhabited lands of Macedonia and southern Albania are ceded to the Bulgarians.", "cite": {"url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1341130856#Byzantine_Empire", "title": "904", "revid": 1341130856, "section": "Events › By place › Byzantine Empire"}}, {"year": 916, "year_label": "916 CE", "section": "Deaths", "date": null, "text": "Clement of Ohrid, Bulgarian scholar, writer and enlightener of the Slavs, dies. He is regarded as the first bishop of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church and the founder of the first Slavic Literary School. Clement is buried in his monastery, Saint Panteleimon, in Ohrid (modern North Macedonia).", "cite": {"url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1352766259#Religion", "title": "916", "revid": 1352766259, "section": "Events › By topic › Religion"}}, {"year": 927, "year_label": "927 CE", "section": "Crime & Justice", "date": "August 15", "text": "August 15 – Led by the Slavic Sabir, the Fatimids from Sicily, capture and destroy Taranto. They enslave much of the population.", "cite": {"url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1341517107#Europe", "title": "927", "revid": 1341517107, "section": "Events › By place › Europe"}}, {"year": 929, "year_label": "929 CE", "section": "Exploration & Expansion", "date": null, "text": "Summer – The Slavic-Arab leader Sabir defeats a small Byzantine fleet and seizes Termoli (in Molise, on the Adriatic coast). He returns to Africa laden with booty and slaves.", "cite": {"url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1367671440#Europe", "title": "929", "revid": 1367671440, "section": "Events › By place › Europe"}}, {"year": 963, "year_label": "963 CE", "section": "Geopolitics & Diplomacy", "date": null, "text": "Gero I, margrave of Merseburg, campaigns against the Slavs. He forces Prince Mieszko I of the Polans in Poland to pay tribute to Emperor Otto I ( the Great). He expands his territory, the Marca Geronis (March of Gero), to the mouth of the Oder River.", "cite": {"url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1365272224#Europe", "title": "963", "revid": 1365272224, "section": "Events › By place › Europe"}}, {"year": 965, "year_label": "965 CE", "section": "Conflict & Security", "date": null, "text": "The Khazar fortress city of Sarkel, located on the Lower Don River, is captured by Kievan Rus' under Grand Prince Sviatoslav I. The city is renamed Belaya Vezha (White Fortress) and settled by Slavs.", "cite": {"url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1371364470#Europe", "title": "965", "revid": 1371364470, "section": "Events › By place › Europe"}}, {"year": 967, "year_label": "967 CE", "section": "Religion & Belief", "date": null, "text": "Otto I completes and dedicates a new cathedral at Magdeburg in Saxony. Like other imperial churches of the period, it includes a westwork – a structure attached to the entrance wall and outfitted with galleries. Otto makes Magdeburg a base for missionary efforts to convert the Slavs to the east. The patron saint of the city is Mauritius, who, as a military leader fighting for Christianity against pagan armies, shares affinities with Otto himself.", "cite": {"url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1364919490#Religion", "title": "967", "revid": 1364919490, "section": "Events › By topic › Religion"}}, {"year": 972, "year_label": "972 CE", "section": "Conflict & Security", "date": null, "text": "Spring – Emperor John I Tzimiskes divides the Bulgarian territories, recently held by the Kievan Rus', into six new themes. He turns his attention to the East against the Abbasid Caliphate and its vassals, beginning with an invasion of Upper Mesopotamia. John transfers Byzantine troops to Macedonia, and the region of Philippopolis in Thrace, to dilute the Slavs.", "cite": {"url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1365272305#Byzantine_Empire", "title": "972", "revid": 1365272305, "section": "Events › By place › Byzantine Empire"}}, {"year": 981, "year_label": "981 CE", "section": "Religion & Belief", "date": null, "text": "Spring – Pope Benedict VII dissolves the Slavic bishopric of Merseburg, after conferring with Otto II. He issues an encyclical, forbidding the exaction of money for the conferral of any Holy Order (known as simony).", "cite": {"url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1366191661#Religion", "title": "981", "revid": 1366191661, "section": "Events › By topic › Religion"}}, {"year": 986, "year_label": "986 CE", "section": "Conflict & Security", "date": null, "text": "Empress Theophanu, accompanied by the 6-year-old King Otto III and Henry II of Bavaria, leads a campaign against Bohemia and the Slavs on the Elbe frontier.", "cite": {"url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1365272436#Europe", "title": "986", "revid": 1365272436, "section": "Events › By place › Europe"}}, {"year": 1143, "year_label": "1143 CE", "section": "Exploration & Expansion", "date": null, "text": "Adolf II, count of Schauenburg and Holstein, founds Lübeck – which later becomes one of the leading Hanseatic cities. He divides the conquered Slavic lands, as part of the eastward expansion in Germany.", "cite": {"url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1337864253#Europe", "title": "1143", "revid": 1337864253, "section": "Events › By place › Europe"}}]}