some star evi 's sources in his polemic agains greater serbian ideology ancient historiography on croats but the croats at that time were dwelling beyond bavaria where the belocroats are now from them split off a family of five brothers kloukas and lobelos and kosentzis and mouchlo and chrobatos and two sisters touga and bouga who came with their folk to dalmatia and found the avars in possession of that land after they had fought one another for some vears the croats prevailed and killed some of the avars and the remainder they compelled to be subject to them and so from that time this land was possessed by the croats and there are still in croatia some who are of avar descent and are recognized as avars the rest of the croats stayed over against francia and are now called belocroats that is white croats and have their own prince they are subject to otto the great king of francia or saxony and are unbaptized and intermarry and are friendly with the turks from the croats who came to dalmatia a part split off and possessed themselves of illyricum and pannonia they too had a sovereign prince who used to maintain friendly contact though through envoys only with the prince of croatia for a number of years the croats of dalmatia also were subject to the franks as they had formerly been in their own country but the franks treated them with such brutality that they used to murder croat infants at the breast and cast them to the dogs the croats unable to endure such treatment from the franks revolted from them and slew those of them whom they had for princes on this a large army from francia marched against them and after they had fought one another for seven years at last the croats managed to prevail and destroyed all the franks with their leader who was called kotzilis from that time they remained independent and autonomous these baptized croats will not fight foreign countries outside the borders of their own for they received a kind of oracular response and promise from the pope of rome who in the time of heraclius emperor of the romans sent priests and baptized them for after their baptism the croats made a covenant confirmed with their own hands and by oaths sure and binding in the name of st peter the apostle that never would they go upon a foreign country and make war on it but rather would live at peace with all who were willing to do so and they received from the same pope of rome a benediction to this effect that if any of the pagans should come against the country of these same croats and bring war upon it then might the god of the croats fight for the croats and protect them and peter the disciple of christ give them victories again symeon sent another army against prince zacharias under kninos and himnikos and itzboklias and together with them he sent also tzeeslav then zacharias took fright and fled to croatia and the bulgarians sent a message to the 'zupans' that they should come to them and should receive tzeeslav for their prince and having tricked them by an oath and brought them out as far as the first village they instantly bound them and 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 now at that time these same bulgarians under alogobotour entered croatia to make war and there they were all slain by the croats on serbs but when two brothers succeeded their father in the rule of serbia one of them taking a moiety of the folk claimed the protection of heraclius the emperor of the romans and the same emperor heraclius received him and gave him a place in the province of thessalonica to settle in namely serbia which from that time has acquired this denomination 'serbs' in the tongue of the romans is the word for 'slaves' whence the colloquial 'serbula' for menial shoes and 'tzerboulianoi' for those who wear cheap shoddy footgear this name the serbs acquired from their being slaves of the emperor of the romans now after some time these same serbs decided to depart to their own homes and the emperor sent them off but when they had crossed the river danube they changed their minds and sent a request to the emperor heraclius through the military governor then governing belgrade that he would grant them other land to settle in and since what is now serbia and pagania and the so called country of the zachlumi and terbounia and the country of the kanalites were under the dominion of the emperor of the romans and since these countries had been made desolate by the avars for they had expelle