tjwacter.—The Servians are distinguished for the vigor of their frame, their per sonal valor, love of freedom, and glowing poetical spirit. Their manners and mode of life are exceedingly picturesque, and strongly prepossess a stranger in their favor. They rank among the most gifted and promising members of the Slavic family: Ilistory.-111 the earliest times of which we have record, Servia was inhabited by Thracian or Illyrian races—the Bessi, Scordisci, Dardanii, and Triballi. Shortly before Christ it was subjugated by the Romans, and under the name of Akesia Superior formed part of the province of Illyricum, whose fortunes it shared during the vicissitudes of the empire. Overrun successively by the Huns, Ostrogoths, Longobards, etc., it reverted to the Byzantine rulers about the middle of the 6th c.. but was wrested from them by the Avars in the 7th c., to oppose whom the emperor Heraclius, about 036, invoked the aid of the Serbs from eastern Galicia. The Serbs obeyed the call, and in less than two years drove the Avars from the land, over which they themselves spread in great num bers, their settlements extending from the Morava as far w. as the Dalmatian Alps and the Adriatic, and from the Save as far s. as the Balkan' and lake Scutari. About the middle of the 9th c. they were converted to by missionaries sent by the emperor Basilins, but this did not in the least abate their natural ardor for battle, and for nearly 200 years they were almost constantly at war with the neighboring Bulgarians —the inveterate enemies of their Byzantine liege lord. In 1043, however, Stephen Bogislav expelled the imperial governors; and during 1050-80 his son, Michael, made himself wholly independent, took the title of king of Servia, and procured the recogni tion of his royal dignity from pope Gregory VII. for the next hundred years the Serbs had to fight hard to maintain their independence, but the struggle terminated in their favor; and in 1165 Stephen Nemanja founded is dynaity which lasted for two centuries, during which period the kingdom of Servia attained the acme of its power and pros perity. Under Stephen Dushan (1336-56), the greatest monarch of the Nemanja dynasty, it embraced the whole of Macedonia, northern Greece, and Bulgaria. The progress of the Turkish arms, however, was fatal to its welfare, and in 1389 king Lazar fell in the disastrous battle of Kossovopolje. Sultan Bajazet divided the country between Lazar's son, Stephen, and Lazar's son-in-law, Vuk Brankovitch, but compelled both to pay tribute, and to follow him in war. Gradually the Serbs sunk more and more under the Turkish yoke, until, in 1459, Servia was thoroughly subjugated by the sultan Mahmud. It was uniformly the theater of the bloody wars between Hungary and Turkey, and frequently suffered the uttermost horrors of devastation. Prince Eugene's brilliant successes for a moment flashed a ray of hope into the miserable hearts of the long-suffering Serbs, and by the treaty of Passarowitz (1718) a considerable por tion of the country was made over to Austria; but in 1739 it reverted to Turkey, and for the next 60 years the cruelty and oppressions of the pashas and their janizaries surpasses all belief. At length the. unhappy people could endure the tyranny of their foreign masters no longer, and in 1801 an insurrection broke out, headed by George Czerny (q.v.), which, by the help of Russia, ended in the triumph of the patriots, and in the election of Czerny by the people as prince of Servia. The invasion of Russia by France, however, left the Serbs at the mercy of their late rulers, and the war again broke out. Czerny was forced to flee, and the tyranny of the Turks became more ferocious than ever. • Again the people flew to arms under the leadership of Miksch Obrenovitch, and were a second time successful in winning back their liberties. Milosch was chosen prince of Servia in 1815. Compelled to abdicate in 1839, he was, in 1858, restored to his former dignity, which was made hereditary in his family. In July, 1876, Servia, excited by the rebellion in Herzegovina, de lured war against Turkey. and was joined by Mon tenegro. The Servians, unsuccessful, in spite of the help of numerous Rus sian volunteers, were totally defeated at Alexinatz in September; in November an armistice was concluded; and in Mar., 1477, the conditions of peace were signed. Next month war was declared by Russia against Turkey. The svtnpathies of the principality were undoubted; but Servia did not venture again to take tit field against Turkey till the fate of the war had been practically decided by the fall of the Turkish stronghold of Plevna in Dec., 1877. The recognition of Servia's independence and an important increase of its territory to the southward, demanded by Russia at the close of the war, were agreed to by the Berlin congress in 1878.
Language and Literature.—The Servian language, called also the Illyrian. belongs to one of the four great divisions of the Slavic family, and is more nearly allied to Rus sian than to Polish or Bohemian. It is distinguished from the other members of its
division by the predominance of vowels, and consequently by its soft, melodious reso nance. This character it owes in part to the influence of the Italian and Greek languages —the former influence being the result of commercial intercourse; the latter of corn, munity of religious belief. The long domination of the Turks has also left unmistakable traces on the Servian tongue; nevertheless it has on the whole preserved a genuine Slavi• character, possessing along with the other members of that family a complete system of declension and conjugation, along with a free The old classical meters are imitated with facility in it. It is spoken (in the three dialects—Herzegovic, Razavic, and Svrinic) by more than 7,000.000 people, of whom 4,500,000 are under Austrian, 2,500,600 under Turkish, and a few under Russian authority.
After their conversion to Christianity, the Serbs, like the Russians, employed the old Slavic church language in writing, but in two different styles, one called the church style, and the other the chancery or legal style. The most important monument of the latter is the "law-book," published by king Stephen Dushan, though the oldest extant specimens go back Ilf4 far as the 11th century. The literary remains of the former Iwo more numerous, and embrace ecclesiastical, devotional, and historical works, for the most part composed by the clergy and the monks. With George Brankovitch (b. 1645, d. 1711), who wrote a History of Semite from the origin of the nation to his own time, this first or medixval period in Servian literature closes. The second or modern period is characterized in its commencement by an effort to raise the spoken language of the Serbs to the dignity of a written language. The consequence was, for a considerable time, the literary language of Servia was a chaos of confusion, writers not appearing able to make up their minds which dialect to use, and spoiling their productions by a bar barous mixture of both; and it was not till Vuk Stephanovitch published his Grammar the Sereian Language (1814), and his Songs of the Servian People, that the victory of Ile reformers was complete. Since then the spoken language of Servia has also become the language of literature. These Servian popular songs or ballads constitute by far the finest part of Servian literature. The picturesque scenery of the land, and the free soli tary life led in the mountain ranges, kindled the imagination of the people, and awoke the voice of song at an early period. Some of the ballads—DOW so widely known throughout Christendom by means of translation—go back to a period anterior to the appearance of the Turks in Europe. In a wonderful manner they combine the rude strength, spirit, and naiveté characteristic of the ballad everywhere, with oriental fire and Greek plasticity. They are invariably unrhymed, but preserve at the same time a rhythmic measure See Rapper's Volkslieder der Serbien (2 vols. Leip. 1852); and Bow ring's Servian Popular Poetry (Loud. 1827); and Owen Meredith's Serbske Pesme (Loud. 1861); the last, however, a book of doubtful honesty. Among the poets who acquired distinction in the first part of the century, and have employed the vernacular, the most important is Lucyan Muschiki (died 1837), archbishop of Carlovitz, whose Poems appeared at Pesth in 1838. Of recent or living Servian poets, the most gifted are Branko Radit shevitz and Jovan Ilitz. As yet, science has made little progress. In another branch of the Servian people—the so-called Il]yriaus, especially the Dalmatians, who profess the Roman Catholic faith—literature received an earlier and more artistic development than among the Serbs of the Greek church. In the 12th c. a priest of Ducla (Dioclea) wrote a chronicle, first in Slavic, and afterward in Latin, fragments of which are still extant. During the 13th and 14th centuries devotional works in the vernacular were numerous, toward the end of the 15th c. the republic of Ragusa (Slay. Dubrovnik) obtained the name of the " Illyrian Athens" on account of the brilliant success with which it cultivated literature, art, and science. Epic, lyric, and dramatic poetry, history, and jurisprudence are all admirably represented. The list of its poets is particularly large. Toward the end of the 18th c. literary activity abated among the southern or Illyrian Serbs, but at the 4rne time began to increase in the n., especially in Croatia and Ilmigary.—See Ristitz, Veber die Serb. Literatur (Berl. 1853), and, in English, Talvi's Historical New of the Lan guages and Literature of the Slavic Nations (New York, 1850); as also Sehafarik's Gesehiekte der Sildslowisehen Literatur (1864), and Novakovitz's IstmVa stpske Knijzevnosti (Belgrade, 1867). There are numerous grammars and dictionaries.