TheSeawordik’in Armenia: An attempt to identify an Armeno-Greek ethnonym

Abstract

This article attempts at identifying the enigmatic Seawordik’ people in mediaeval Armenian history. The ethnonym which first occurs in Patriarch John’s Chronicle in the 10th century, will be analysed from the viewpoint of the history of nomadic peoples. The investigation of the Seawordik’ people in the Armenian sources naturally leads to the well-known problem of the Sabartoi Asphaloi occurring in Constantine Porphyrogenitus’s works, De Administrando Imperio and De Cerimoniis Aulae Byzantinae. I try to prove that the Armenian name Seawordik’ can plausibly be related to the names Sabartoi Asphaloi and Serbotioi (another ethnonym in Constantine’s works). Considering the large number of the sources, and the intricate questions involved, a relatively brief article like ours cannot give solutions to all problems raised by the Armenian sources concerning the history of early Hungarians. Rather, it must be regarded as a first step in a new attempt to reevaluate the evidence of the Armenian sources and their bear...