ABSTRACT
In writing about the early Slavs in East Central and Eastern Europe, most scholars have relied on five sources, two in Greek (Procopius of Caesarea and Theophylact Simocatta) and three in Latin (Jordanes, Fredegar, and Martin of Braga). Two of the three Latin sources refer to people called Venedi (or Venethi), who are the cornerstone of all theories attempting to project the Slavs into prehistory. While most studies of the relation between Procopius and Jordanes have focused on their respective notions of Thule and Scandza, the examination of how the two authors dealt with the Slavs may offer further support to the idea of a polemic between them. In an attempt to bestow a respectable antiquity onto the Slavs, Jordanes wrote of Venethi, Procopius of Sporoi. Procopius locates the Sclavenes and the Antes next to the Danube frontier of the Empire, while Jordanes moves them northwards as far as the Vistula River.
