# Časlav of Serbia

Tzeésthlabos (Greek: Τζεέσθλαβος), usually transliterated as Časlav (Serbian Cyrillic: Часлав) or Chaslav and Tzeeslav, was Prince of the Serbs from c. 933 until his death in c. 943/960.
Časlav was the son of Klonimir, a son of Strojimir who ruled as co-prince in 851–880. He belongs to the first Serbian dynasty, the Vlastimirovićs (ruling since the early 7th century), and is the last known ruler of the family. His mother was a Bulgarian noblewoman chosen as wife of Klonimir by Boris I of Bulgaria himself.
Initially an ally of the Bulgarians, Časlav successfully came to the throne of Serbia in a very chaotic period of history, managing to reorganize and repopulate the country after Bulgarian–Serbian wars of 917–924. He was a vassal of the Byzantine Empire. A possible identification with a same-named person from the Chronicle of the Priest of Duklja reveals that he presumably fought off the Magyars, but eventually dying in combat with them. Časlav is remembered, alongside his predecessor Vlastimir, as founders of Serbia in the Middle Ages.

## Background

In the 880s, Mutimir seized the throne for himself, exiling his brothers and Klonimir, who was Strojimir's son, to the First Bulgarian Empire, to the court of Boris I. This was most likely due to treachery. Petar, the son of Gojnik, was kept at the Serbian court of Mutimir for political reasons, but he soon fled to Croatia.
When Mutimir died, his son Pribislav inherited the rule, but he only ruled for a year; Petar returned and defeated him in battle and seized the throne; Pribislav fled to Croatia with his brothers Bran and Stefan. Bran was defeated, captured and blinded (blinding was a Byzantine tradition meant to disqualify a person from taking the throne). In 896, Klonimir returned from Bulgaria, backed by Boris I, taking the important Serbian stronghold of Destinikon. Klonimir was defeated and killed.
The Byzantine–Bulgarian Wars made the Bulgarian Empire de facto the most powerful Empire of Southeast Europe. The Bulgarians won after invading at the right time; they met little resistance in the north because of the Byzantines fighting the Arabs in Anatolia.

## Early life

Časlav was born in the 890s, but before 896, in Preslav, the capital of the First Bulgarian Empire, growing up at the court of Simeon I the Great. His father was Klonimir, and his mother was a Bulgarian noblewoman.
In 924, Časlav was sent to Serbia with a large Bulgarian army. The army ravaged a good part of Serbia, forcing Zaharija, who at the time was the Prince of Serbia, to flee to Croatia. Simeon of Bulgaria summoned all the Serbian zhupans to pay homage to their new prince, but instead of instating Časlav, he took them all captive, entered Serbia, and "took away with them the entire folk, both old and young, and carried them into Bulgaria, though a few escaped away and entered Croatia; and the country was left deserted". Bulgaria considerably expanded its borders to the west, now neighbouring its powerful ally Michael of Zahumlje and Croatia, where Zaharija was exiled and soon died. Croatia at this time was ruled by the powerful monarch Tomislav.

## Reign

Bulgarian rule was not met with popularity, as many Serbs fled to Croatia and Byzantium. According to DAI, seven years after Croatian–Bulgarian battle of 926, Časlav and four friends escaped from Preslav to Serbia. Although he found that the land almost completely deserted, "he took possession of the country". Accordingly, the beginning of his reign is dated around 933/934. He immediately submitted to the overlordship of Byzantine emperor Romanos I Lekapenos and gained financial and diplomatic support for his efforts. Thanks to the help and benefits by the Byzantine emperor he "organized and populated the country", resulting in Serbs from Croatia, Bulgaria, nearby countries and Constantinople coming back to Serbia.
He maintained close ties with Byzantium throughout his reign. Byzantine influence (the Church in particular) greatly increased in Serbia, as did Orthodox influence from Bulgaria. As he lived in Bulgaria having close spiritual ties with the Bulgarian Church, were introduced in Serbia the Byzantine-Slavic culture and literature envisioned by Cyril and Methodius. The period was crucial to the future Christian demonym (Orthodox versus Catholic) adopted by the Serbian Church, as ties formed in this era were to have great importance on how the different Slavic churches lined up when they eventually split during the Great Schism of 1054. Many scholars have felt that the Serbs, being in the middle of Roman and Orthodox jurisdiction, could have gone either way, but, unfortunately, information on this era and region is scarce.

### State borders

In the context of boundaries, Časlav restored Serbia after its conquest by Simeon. The exact borders of Časlav's state are uncertain, possibly expanding into Bosnia. Some scholars consider he significantly enlarged Serbia, taking over regions held by Michael of Zahumlje, but Michael probably died after 930 and ruled into the 940s. While others consider that he also expanded into Travunia, Kanalites and Pagania, and Rascia, there is no evidence, and it is improbable because all these polities are mentioned as separate from Serbia when DAI was written roughly around 959.
Francis Dvornik argued that Časlav's presumed expansion into Bosnia would have been impossible in the first decade of reign, and only after "he had re-populated and re-established his country", with the best fit being in 949 when Croatian power temporarily declined. Relja Novaković doubts that Časlav's state included Bosnia, saying that there is no evidence in DAI and other sources that the Serbian state at the time had significant territorial gains, and that caution is needed when showing Serbian territorial borders in the mid-10th century, adding "we could almost say with certainty that the extent of Serbia at that time was not of the scale shown on the maps". Tibor Živković also emphasized that "it is important to notice that the DAI I, 32.141 – 145, does not speak about any of presumed Časlav's military campaigns, but only that he became a ruler recognized in Constantinople".

## Mythical war with Magyars

There is no information about Serbia's second-half of the 10th century. According to the data from DAI, Časlav reign would have ended by 943/944. However, the late 13th century Chronicle of the Priest of Duklja (CPD) mentions a certain Ciaslavus/Seislav ("Časlav") who some scholars identify with DAI's Časlav, but CPDs Časlav whou have ruled "according to the chronology of the Chronicle, at the beginning of the 9th century". He was the son of mythical king Radoslav, and was disobedient to his father during the conflict with the ban of White Croatia, and later banished his father from throne and country, being cursed by Radoslav. In the Croatian version of the text, he is in addition shown as of having a "lack of humility", and was cursed by God. The etymology and initial account of events related to Seislav don't correlate with Časlav's, but partly do with the life of Croatian duke Zdeslav (878–879) who overthrown previous duke and distanced himself from the Roman Church.
The Magyars, led by Kisa, invaded Bosnia, and Časlav hurried and encountered them at the banks of river Drina around the place called Civelino. However, comparative analysis of the Chronicle's chronology of events doesn't indicate that DAI's Časlav ruled Bosnia, or fought the Hungarians in Bosnia, as in the mid-10th century it was ruled by a Bosnian ban who escaped to the Hungarians because the region was conquered by White Croatian ban Krešimir (usually associated with Michael Krešimir II) and continued to be ruled by him and his son Stjepan (identified with Stephen Držislav).
The Magyars were decisively defeated, with Kisa being slain by Časlav's voivode Tihomir. In gratitude, Časlav married off his daughter to Tihomir. Kisa's widow requested the Magyar leaders give her an army to exact vengeance. With an "unknown number" of troops, the widow returned and surprised Časlav at Syrmia. In the night, the Magyars attacked the Serbs, captured Časlav and all of his male relatives. On the command of the widow, all of them were bound by their hands and feet and thrown into the Sava river. The events are interpretatively dated, with DAI in mind, to around 950-960.

## Aftermath

Serbia fell ca. 960 under Byzantine and later under Bulgarian rule again. The Catepanate of Ras was established between 971–976, during the rule of John Tzimiskes (r. 969–976). A seal of a strategos of Ras has been dated to Tzimiskes' reign, making it possible for Tzimiskes' predecessor Nikephoros II Phokas to have enjoyed recognition in Rascia. The protospatharios and katepano of Ras was a Byzantine governor named John. Data on the katepano of Ras during Tzimiskes' reign is missing. Byzantine military presence ended soon thereafter with the wars with Bulgaria, and was re-established only c. 1018 with the short-lived Theme of Sirmium, which, however, did not extend much into Rascia proper.

## Legacy

Stevan Sremac (1855–1906) authored Veliki župan Časlav in 1903.

## Family

According to the Chronicle of the Priest of Duklja, Časlav had one daughter:
* Unnamed, married Tihomir, who succeeded in ruling terram Rassa.