Városok és folyók a Dai-ban

Abstract

This study treats the method of locating different countries and folks in Emperor Constantine's work entitled De administrando imperio (cited as DAI) written around 950. The author of the study points out, that the geographical location of most nations was identified by the enumeration of cities and fortifications while in case of three folks only rivers were mentioned. It can be seen, that when the location was identified by cities the emperor emphasized that these people practiced occupations connected to permanent settlement. At the same time, in case of the three folks whose territories were defined by rivers, their regular raids were stressed by Emperor Constantine. These three groups of people were the Avars, the Pechenegs and the Magyars. Their common characteristic features were their nomadic life-style, during their raids they devastated whole regions. Due to their grazing animal husbandry they attributed no value to cities and fortifications. Considering this aspect, the Magyars were undoubtedly nomads in the mid-tenth century.