between Latin- and Greek-language Roman inscriptions According to the
theory of Daco-Roman continuity, the ancestors of modern Vlachs and Romanians originated from
Dacians. For proponents of this theory, Eastern Romance languages prove the survival of the
Thraco-Romans in the lower Danube basin during the
Migration Period. On the other hand, the other theory states that the Romanians and the Vlachs, including the ancestors of present-day Aromanians, were originally part of the same group of speakers of Eastern Romance languages, and that their origins should be sought in the southern Balkans (
Thraco-Roman and
Illyro-Roman populations). Early Romanian-speakers would have then moved northwards from the 12th century onwards.
John Skylitzes mentioned that in 976 Vlachs fought with and killed
David of Bulgaria, somewhere between
Prespa and
Kastoria. A latter addition to the text by Skylitzes Continuatus names the Vlachs as "hoditōn", a word that was associated by historians with the Serbian "kjelatori": guides and guards of caravans in the Balkans.
Ibn al-Nadīm published in 998 the work
Kitāb al-Fihrist mentioning "Turks, Bulgars and
Blaghā". According to B. Dodge the ethnonym
Blaghā could refer to Wallachians/Romanians. The original Arabic text does not contain the word "Blaghā" but rather "البلغار," which translates to "
al-Bulghār," the term used in contemporary Arabic texts to refer to
Volga Bulgaria. The new Arabic edition also features the word "al-Bulghār" ("البلغار") instead of "Blaghā." Furthermore, the first critical edition edited by
Gustav Flügel in 1871, which includes the original Arabic text, likewise uses the designation "البلغار" ("al-Bulghār"). The word "البلغار" ("al-Bulghār") appears instead of "البلغم" ("al-Blagham") in both the 1971/1973/1988
Tehran/
Beirut/
Cairo critical editions as well. Thus, Bayard's translation is incorrect, as he mistakenly read "البلغار" ("al-Bulghār") as "البلغم" ("al-Blagham"). Therefore, the original Arabic text refers to Volga Bulgaria, not the Vlachs. According to other non-Romanian historians, based on the context, the "Waladj" are not the Vlachs, but a people living around the
Volga.
11th century Vlachs were present in large numbers, on the
Chalcidice peninsula around 1000, according to monastic documents from
Mount Athos. On the peninsula, the Vlachs were famous for their cheese and meat products. In these texts sometimes they are called "
Vlachorynhinii", which may be a mixture of the name "Vlach" and "
Rynhini" a Slavic tribe who settled in the same area in the 7th century. In 1013, a Byzantine document mentions the settlement of "Kimbalongu" in the mountains near
Strumitsa, which was a Vlach settlement. The names
Blakumen or
Blökumenn is mentioned in Nordic sagas dating between the 11th and 13th centuries, with respect to events that took place in either 1018 or 1019 somewhere at the northwestern part of the
Black Sea and believed by some to be related to the
Vlachs.
Omeljan Pritsak, however, point out that the texts probably refer to a nomadic
Turkic people, since the "Blakumen" in the texts are "non-christian heathens" and nomadic horsemans. Spinei contrasts Pritsak's view by claiming that there are several mentions of the
Blakumen or
Blökumen in contexts taking place decades before the earliest appearance of the Cumans in the Pontic steppe, and that translating the name to "Black Cumans" is not concordant with the Varangian ethnic terminology. In 1025, the
Annales Barenses mentions a people called "Vlach" who live near the river
Axios. The same chronicle the Annales Barenses describes that in 1027 the
Byzantine army led by Orestes that tried to recapture
Sicily from the
Arabs, also included many Vlachs recruited from
Macedonia.
Kekaumenos writes in his
Strategikon (1075–1078) about the revolt in 1066 in the region of
Thessaly under the protospatharios
Nikoulitzas Delphinas, nephew of the homonymous 10th century military commander, and father in law of the writer. He writes about a leader,
Nikulitsa, who is given command by
Basil II over the Vlachs in
Hellas theme. Nikulitsa switched alliance to
Samuel of Bulgaria after the conquest of
Larissa by the Bulgarian Tsar. The Vlachs of Larissa met with Nikoulitzas Delphinas in the house of one of their leaders named Beriboes to discuss their decision to revolt. The Vlachs already sent their families (women and children) and livestock to the mountains of Bulgaria. Delphinas convinced them to postpone their actions until they harvest the fields. Kekaumenos mentions the herds of the Vlachs and their household spend the months of April to September beyond
Thessaly, in the high mountains of Bulgaria, where it is very cold. (it is clear from the text that we are talking about the mountains of today's
North Macedonia). The same text describes that the homeland of the Vlachs is Thessaly, precisely the part of the region divided by the river Pleres. According to Kekaumenos, the Vlachs were
Dacians and
Bessi, who lived near and south from the
Danube and the
Sava, where the
Serbs live now. They feigned loyalty to the Romans while they were constantly attacked and pillaged, therefore,
Trajan launched a war, their leader,
Decebalus was also killed, and then the Vlachs were scattered in
Macedonia,
Epirus and
Hellas. According to Hungarian historians, Kekaumenos made the Dacians the ancestors of the Vlachs because he knew about the deceitfulness of the Dacians against the Romans, and according to him the Dacians and Vlachs had a perfectly matching nature, treachery and political unreliability, so much that in his opinion they should not be believed even if the Vlachs take an oath.
Anna Komnene mentions in her
Alexiad that in 1091
Emperor Alexios ordered
Nikephoros Melissenos to raise an army against invading
Pechenegs. Melissenos recruited, among others, Bulgarians and "the nomadic tribes called Vlachs in popular parlance". According to the Alexiad, in 1094–1095, Emperor Alexius Komnenos was notified by a Vlach chieftain called Poudila about the crossing of the Danube by a
Cuman army, and that to prepare himself for the attack, then the Vlachs likewise led the Cumans through the gorges of the Balkan Mountains. In 1099,
crusading armies were attacked by Vlachs, in the mountains along the road from
Braničevo to
Naissus. The
Primary Chronicle, written states that the
Slavs settled beside the
Danube, then the
Volochi people attacked the Slavs, settled among them and did them violence, leading to the Slavs departing and settling around the
Vistula under the name of
Leshi. According to the chronicle the Slavs settled there first, and the
Volochi seized the territory of the Slavs; later, the
Hungarians drove the
Volochi away, took their land and settled among the Slavs. The Primary Chronicle thus contains a possible reference to Romanians. The
Frankish Empire stretched from the
North Sea to the
Danube. The Byzantine princess and scholar
Anna Komnene, in her book
Alexiad, mentions a Vlach settlement called Ezeba, which was near
Larissa and Androneia. In the same work she also describes the Vlachs as "the nomadic tribes, called Vlachs in popular parlance". Traveler
Benjamin of Tudela (1130–1173) of the
Kingdom of Navarre was one of the first writers to use the word
Vlachs for a Romance-speaking population. In his work he mentions that these Vlachs live high up in the mountains of
Thessaly, and from there they sometimes come down to plunder, which they do quickly, as swift as deers, for which reasons there is no king to rule them. In 1167, Vlachs living by the border of the
Principality of Halych during the reign of
Yaroslav Osmomysl, captured Andronicus and returned him to
Emperor Manuel. Byzantine historian
John Kinnamos described Leon Vatatzes' military expedition along the northern Danube, where Vatatzes mentioned the participation of Vlachs in battles with the Magyars (Hungarians) in 1167.
John Kinnamos says Vlachs were "colonists brought from Italy". Historian Florin Curta hypothesizes that the Italian origin of Vlachs was an editorial addition of Kinnamos aimed to justify the claim of taking back the old Roman lands north of the Danube, part of the
Kingdom of Hungary. According to
Niketas Choniates, after the Byzantine
Emperor Isaac II Angelos lost his wife, he wanted to marry the daughter of Bela III of Hungary, but there was not enough money for the wedding, so he imposed taxes in the regions and cities of the
empire, but he angered the "barbarians who dwelt in the
Haemos mountains, who were once called
Moesians, but are now called Vlachs". Mentions of Vlachs in
Medieval Bulgaria also come from
Niketas Choniates who writes about a Vlach called
Dobromir Chrysos who established an autonomous polity in the upper region of
Vardar river and
Moglena. A similar event is recorded by the same author in the area of
Philippopolis where a Vlach called
Ivanko, formerly a boyar at the
Asen brothers' court was given military command by Emperor Isaac and expanded his rule to
Smolyan,
Mosynopolis, and
Xanthi. According to
Niketas Choniates, Thessaly and Macedonia is called "Magna Vlachia",
Aetolia and Acarnata are called "Little Vlachia" and north-eastern
Epirus is called "Upper Vlachia". Sometime between 1183 and 1185 the first mention of Vlachs living in the theme of
Moglena, in a charter kept in the archive of the monastery Great Lavra on Mount Athos. According to this, Emperor
Andronikos I Komnenos replies to the monks of the monastery's complaint that Vlachs on their domain are not paying taxes and are inciting other inhabitants of
Moglena region, such as Bulgarians and Cumans, to rebel and declare themselves independent from the Great Lavra. A Byzantine church document mentions that in 1190, "the
Cumans and the Vlachs take the relics of
Saint Ryli from
Sofia to
Tirnovo with a great pomp." The first mention of Vlachs in Serbian medieval chronicles is dated from the time of
Stefan Nemanjić, most probably 1198–1199, and it is related to a donation act towards restoration of
Hilandar monastery with aid from the inhabitants of the area of
Prizren. The
History of the Expedition of the Emperor Frederick mention the Vlachs as people living in the mountains and forests of the Balkans. The chronicle also describes the Vlachs' homeland as being near
Thessaloniki. The chronicle describes how the Crusaders captured several Vlachs who told them that the Vlachs live in Macedonia, Thessaly and Bulgaria, and that because they were heavily taxed, they were rebelling. Numerous
Serbian documents from the very end of the 12th century speak of Vlach shepherds in the mountains between the
Drina and the
Morava.
13th century In the
Nibelungenlied, written around the year 1200, appears a certain Duke Ramunc of Wallachia (
Herzog Ramunc aus dem Walachenland) among
Attila's guests at his wedding with Kriemhild; in another passage, the Vlachs (
Wlâchen) are mentioned as well. Romanian historians claim the name of this fictional character could be derived from the Romanian ethnonym itself. According to Pop, the author's anachronistic view that Vlachs were contemporaries with Attila stems from oral tradition noting that Hungarians encountered Vlachs upon arriving in Pannonia. Since Huns were seen as their ancestors, Vlachs were retrospectively placed as Attila’s contemporaries. However, the environment described there is from the 9th-12th centuries. The presence of the Russians, Pechenegs, Poles and Hungarians as contemporary with Attila confirms that. According to the medieval Hungarian chronicle, the
Gesta Hungarorum ("The deeds of the Hungarians"), written in the early 13th century, when the
Hungarians of
Grand Prince Árpád conquered the
Carpathian Basin, at that time
Slavs,
Bulgarians and
Blachij, and also the
shepherds of the Romans (
sclauij, Bulgarij et Blachij, ac pastores romanorum) inhabited Pannonia. Most researchers say that the
Blachij are the Vlachs, some Hungarian scholars claim that they are the
Bulaqs, a Turkic people. László Makkai writes that "this hypothesis does not bear the test of scholarly scrutiny". The chronicle's authenticity is in question in
historiography, because it confuses the peoples living in the area in the 12th century and the peoples of the 9th century. Among others, it includes the
Cumans in
Transylvania, who arrived only centuries later. Romanian historian
Ioan-Aurel Pop states that some exaggerations and inaccuracies, typical of a chronicle at the time and mostly in favour of the
Royal House, are not a sufficient reason to discredit the entire document as a historical source. It is important to note, however, that the chronicle mentions many rulers, but none of them is mentioned in any other contemporary chronicle.
Whether archeology supports the Gesta
or not is disputed among historians. British-Romanian historian Dennis Deletant states the analysis of the Gesta Hungarorum'' shows that is too naive to claim it is an immaculate source, just as it is foolhardy to totally discredit its reliability, and the conclusion, the cases for and against the existence of
Gelou and the Vlachs simply cannot be proven. British historian
Carlile Aylmer Macartney writes in his critical and analytical guide of Anonymus that all Romanian historians refer to
Anonymus, but they are not credible in the subject and the chronicle is not evidence for presence of Vlachs in Transylvania. Madgearu attempts to prove that a Vlach-Slav population existed in Transylvania before the arrival of the Hungarians by recounting place names of Slavic origin he believes weren't adopted to Romanian via Hungarian. and the title ("King of the Bulgarians and the Vlachs") by
Pope Innocent II. In 1204 and 1205
Raimbaut de Vaqueiras mentions the Vlachs as enemies of
Boniface of Montferrat. After 1207
Geoffrey of Villehardouin mentions twelve times the Vlachs part of the armies of
Kaloyan of Bulgaria, either as defenders against
Henry of Flanders or among the
attackers of Adrianopole. Around the same time
Henry of Valenciennes writes in his
History of Emperor Henry of Constantinople about the country he calls
Blaquie ruled by
Burile (Borilă). Henry of Flanders conquers this land and awards it to ''Burile's
cousin Esclas
(Slav). From there on the country will be known as Blakie la Grant'' (Great Valachia). After this, all Hungarian battles in the Carpathian region were supported by Romance-speaking soldiers from Transylvania.
Robert de Clari narrates in his
Conquest of Constantinople, written sometime after the death of Henry of Flanders, about the Emperor's conflict with
Kaloyan of Bulgaria - named
Jehans li Blakis in his work, and calls Kaloyan's country
Blakie. In 1220, king
Stefan the First-Crowned proclaimed that all Vlachs of his kingdom belonged to the
Eparchy of Žiča. A royal chancellery document from 1223, connected to the foundation of the
Cistercian abbey at Cârța around 1202, which was granted land, mentions it was built in the land of the Vlachs/Romanians. This is also the first mention of the Vlachs in Hungarian documents. In the
Diploma Andreanum issued by King
Andrew II of Hungary in 1224, "
silva blacorum et bissenorum" was given to the
Saxon settlers. The Orthodox Vlachs spread further northward along the Carpathians to the present day territory of
Poland,
Slovakia, and
Czech Republic, and were granted autonomy under the "
Vlach law". In 1230
Constantine Akropolites, in his writing about the conquests of Bulgarian Tsar Ivan Asen, notes that the "Magna Vlachia" is next to
Albania.
Pope Gregory IX wrote several letters to the Hungarian royalty regarding the ecclesiastical organization of the Cuman Bishopric in regions of present-day Romania. In a letter from 1234, he addressed
Prince Béla regarding the Vlachs (
Walathi), who were bypassing local Catholic diocese to receive sacraments from Orthodox "pseudo-bishops." The Pope expressed particular concern that Catholic Hungarians and Germans were migrating into these areas and integrating with the Vlachs, forming "one people" and adopting their rites. To halt this, Gregory IX exhalted the Prince to "compel the said Vlachs to receive the bishop whom the Church granted them" and requested that Béla "assign to him sufficient and honorable revenues" from the taxes collected from the Vlach population.
Giovanni da Pian del Carpine mentions in 1247, when returning from his mission to the
Mongol Khan, a "Rus" prince by the name Olaha east of the
Carpathian Mountains. Historians
Victor Spinei and Nikolai Russev consider it a reference to a Vlach community of Orthodox faith. In 1247,
Béla IV of Hungary gives the "
Land of Severin" to the
Knights Hospitallers with two polities (
kenezatus of
John and
Farkas), except
kenezatus of
voivode Litovoi which was left to the Vlachs as they held it. The land of
Hateg is excepted, while the voivodate of Seneslaus the king keeps for himself. In 1252 King
Béla IV of Hungary, for his services in various foreign embassies, donates to Vince, Comes of the Szekler of Sebus, the land called Zek between the territory of the Vlachs of Kyrch, the Saxons of Barasu, and the Szeklers of Sebus, which once belonged to a Saxon estate called Fulkun, but has been uninhabited since the Mongol invasion. In 1256 King
Béla IV of Hungary, upon the complaint of Archbishop
Benedict of
Esztergom, confirms the right of the archdiocese to tithes from mining wages and from animal taxes collected from the Szeklers and Vlachs to the king or anyone else, among the judicial, accommodation and taxation privileges of the archdiocese, with the exception of land rents from Saxons, but also from Vlachs from everywhere and from anywhere they came. King
Ottokar II of Bohemia reports to
Pope Alexander IV that about
the defeated of King
Béla IV of Hungary on 12 July 1260, on the border between Hungary and Austria, near the castle and town of Hemburg on the Moraua River. Among the people that fought in Béla's army Vlachs, called
Walachorum, are named. In 1272, King
Ladislaus donates the royal lands or villages of Budula and Tohou, also known as Olahteleky, to Simon's son, Nicholas of Brașov. From 1276 King Ladislaus allows the chapter of Alba Iulia to settle 60 Romanian households (mansiones) on the border of his estates called Fülesd and Enyed, separated from the episcopal lands, and to exempt them from all royal taxes, fiftieth and tithes. In a grant (around 1280) Queen Helena confirmed the grant given by
Stefan Vladislav to the
Vranjina monastery, the Vlachs are separately mentioned, along with
Arbanasi (Albanians), Latins, and Serbs. Miskolczy points out that the (
Ulahis advenis) "Vlach newcomer", the adjective classifying Romanians as immigrants was omitted from the Romanian translation. Pop on other hand argues that Moravians (Slavs), as well as the Byzantines (Greeks), Germans (Teutons, East Franks), Bulgarians (Messians) and Romanians (Vlachs) are confirmed by other sources as being present in Pannonia or, at least, on its edges in the period preceding the appearance of the Hungarians. Some Hungarian scholars noted that Simon of Kéza used different spellings for '
and ', arguing that '''' were actually the Turkic people
Bulaqs who were confused with the Vlachs. According to Polish historian Ryszard Grzesik, the Vlachs appeared in
Transylvania only in the 12th century, therefore Hungarian chroniclers identified the semi-nomadic lifestyle of the Vlachs as a distinguishing characteristic. Kézai wrote that the Vlachs gave script to the Székelys, but the reality is different, because Kézai wrote about the
Székelys runs, and his opinion was based on the observation that the Vlach shepherds engraved symbols while counting their sheep. Several sources cite that the passes of the Carpathians in
Transylvania were defended by the Vlachs together with
Székelys and
Saxons during the
Second Mongol invasion of Hungary in 1285. According to the old Russian chronicle,
Ladislaus IV of Hungary asked for help from
Rome and
Constantinople because he feared an invasion by the
Tartars. Constantinople sent an army of Vlachs from what is now
Serbia, but after the victorious battle, the Vlachs refused to go home and settled in the territory of
Maramures. Also in 1285,
Emperor Andronikos II Palaiologos decides to move the Vlachs from
Thrace to
Asia-Minor, fearing their possible alliance with the
Tatars. The same emperor, in 1289, confirms the rights of St. Andrew Monastery from
Thessaly over the village Praktikatous or Vlachokatouna. In 1288, as external threats from the Tatars, Cumans, Saracens, and other pagans arose (
omnino Tartarorum vel Cumanum Saracenum vel Meugarium), the universitas of the Vlachs was called to join the other Estates, including Hungarian nobles, Saxons and Szeklers (universisque nobilibus Ungarorum, Saxonibus, Syculis et Volachis), along with Church representatives from Brașov and Sibiu counties. This assembly was convened to defend the Christian faith, as stated in a letter from Lodomer, Archbishop of Esztergom. According to a legend, in 1290
Ladislaus the Cuman was assassinated; the new Hungarian king allegedly drove
voivode Radu Negru and his people across the Carpathians, where they formed
Wallachia along with its first capital
Câmpulung, as a Hungarian vassal state. In 1291
Andrew III of Hungary presides over a meeting of "Nobles, Saxons, Szeklers, and Vlachs" in
Alba Iulia. In 1292, Andrew III of Hungary allows some Hungarian nobles to invite Vlachs to the country, to their estates called "Ilye", "Szád" and "Fenes". In 1293,
Andrew III of Hungary, publishes an "angry" charter to the Transylvanian nobility, mentions that all the Vlachs were supposed to be settled on the royal crown's property called "Székes", not on their own estates.
14th century and Monte de Murlachi in
Dalmatia – CE
Stefan Milutin Serbian king donated 6
katuns to the church of St. Nikita in Bania. In a battle, Vlachs fought alongside
Mladen Šubić near
Trogir in 1322. Goods sold by the Vlachs are mentioned in after 1328 by Ragusan documents, among them
formaedi vlacheschi, a type of cheese. First mention of a Vlach called
Radul in 1329, in the
Istrian Peninsula. In 1330
Stefan Dečanski gifts to
Visoki Dečani monastery the Vlach pastures and katuns along Drim and Lim rivers. In the
list of Papal Tithes from 1332–1337 in the Kingdom of Hungary, one settlement mentioned in the source as Romanian: "
Căprioara". This Romanian place-name is the first recorded Romanian toponym in the
Kingdom of Hungary, including
Transylvania. In 1335, a royal commissioner, on the orders of the King of Hungary, arranges for a Vlach voivode named Bogdan to move to the Kingdom of Hungary "with his entire household and people". According to the charter, the settlement of the Vlach voivode and his people lasted from 1 November 1334 to 15 August 1335. In 1341, a Hungarian royal document notes that the Hungarian Czibak noble family can invite and settle more Vlachs to their
Mező-Telegd estate, "from the south".
Stefan Dušan styles himself "Imperator Raxie et Romanie, dispotus Lartae et Blachie comes" – Emperor of Rascia and Romania, despot of Arta and
ispan of Vlachia. In 1349, another Hungarian royal charter mentions the Vlachs, allowing the
Wallachian voivode to send a Vlach priest to
Transylvania, thus encouraging more Vlachs to settle in the
Hungarian kingdom from the south. In 1359, the King of Hungary allowed a Vlach noble family and their household to settle in the country, first giving them 13 villages, and then 6 years later another 5 villages in the
Banat. In 1365
Balc, son of Voivode
Sas of Moldavia, defeated by
Bogdan, moves to the Kingdom of Hungary and is given by
Louis I of Hungary the confiscated domains of his opponent. Later, Balc became the head of
Szatmár (Sătmar),
Ugocsa and
Máramaros (Maramureș) counties in the Kingdom of Hungary, and he was also invested with the title of
Count of the Székelys. Vlachs from the domain of Vidčeselo, between
Lika and
Zrmanja, are rewarded for their military support by the
ban of Croatia . In June 1366 King Louis I of Hungary grants through the
Decree of Turda special privileges to the Transylvanian noblemen to take measures against malefactors belonging to any nation, especially the Vlachs. In 1370,
Louis I of Hungary decreed that only those Vlach settlers who were
Catholic could receive royal grants. In a letter dates to 1374, the
Cathedral chapter of
Várad complains that he has only 9 Vlach villages, and asks for permission "to invite more Vlachs into
the country" and to "settle them on his estates". Also in the same letter, he asks the "border nobles" that "if strangers come from Wallachia, do not stop them". Papal documents from late 14th century reference the conquest of Medieș fortress "from the hands of schismatic Vlachs" by an unnamed King of Hungary. Historian
Ioan-Aurel Pop places this event close to the
Fourth Council of the Lateran In 1381 Croatian documents from
Knin mention "universitas Valachorum". In 1383 the so-called "Peace convention of Christian" is signed by Saxons and Romanians (Vlachs) from the area of Sibiu, aimed to ensure the peace between the two communities. Vlachs are a documented presence in
Belz region since the rule of
Siemowit IV, Duke of Masovia, probably as early as 1388. In the 14th century, royal charters from the
Kingdom of Serbia included segregation policies stating that "a Serb shall not marry a Vlach". However, these laws were not successful and intermarriage between Slavs, Vlachs and also Albanians did take place. The biggest caravan shipment between
Podvisoki in
Bosnia and
Republic of Ragusa was recorded on 9 August 1428, where Vlachs transported 1500
modius of
salt with 600 horses. In 1433 Vlach
knezes,
voievodes, and juzi from Croatia vow to respect the property right of the local St. John church.
Nicholas of Ilok styled himself as "
Bosniae and Valachiae Rex". In 1450, the Vlachs are granted a privilege in
Šibenik, allowing the Vlachs to enter the town if they call themselves
Croats. In 1453,
Flavio Biondo notes that "the Dacians or Vlachs claim to have Roman origins and they think this fact is a decoration in itself" and that "when they spoke the language of their common and simple people it scent of a grammatically incorrect peasant Latin". King
Matthias confirmed the liberties of the Vlachs in an open letter, issued 31 March 1474 in the town of
Ružomberok.
Jan Długosz in his
Annales seu cronici incliti regni Poloniae wrote about Vlachs in Medieval Poland – Małopolska region, theorizing their origin as a population that came from Italy or
Rome who expelled the
Ruthenian (Slavic) population from the Danube settlements, and then they themselves settled in the fertile lands there.
Ottoman Empire ways of the Vlach shepherds in the 18th and 19th centuries. Vlachs engaged in both transhumant pastoralism and sedentary agriculture. Vlachs in the Balkans were granted tax concessions under Byzantine and Serb rulers in return for military service; and this continued under
Ottoman rule. Instead of some of the customary taxes, they paid a special "Vlach tax",
Rüsûm-i Eflakiye: One sheep and one lamb from each household on St. Georges Day each year. Because Vlachs were taxed differently, they were listed differently in
defters. == Toponymy ==