https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vlachs Vlachs (English: /ˈvlɑːk/ or /ˈvlæk/, or rarely /ˈvlɑːx/), also Wallachians (and many other variants), is a historical term from the Middle Ages that designates an exonym mostly for Romance-speaking peoples who lived north and south of the Danube. As a contemporary term, in the English language, the Vlachs are the Balkan Romance-speaking peoples who live south of the Danube in what are now eastern Serbia, southern Albania, northern Greece, North Macedonia, and southwestern Bulgaria, as native ethnic groups, such as the Aromanians, Megleno-Romanians (Macedoromanians), and Macedo-Vlachs. …………………. …… “Vlachs” were initially identified and described during the 11th century by George Kedrenos. According to one origin theory, modern Romanians, Moldovans and Aromanians originated from Dacians. According to some linguists and scholars, the Eastern Romance languages prove the survival of the Thraco-Romans in the lower Danube basin during the Migration Period[7] and western Balkan populations known as “Vlachs” also have had Romanized Illyrian origins. …… Medieval usage See also: History of Romania, Origin of the Romanians, and History of the Aromanians The Jireček Line between Latin- and Greek-language Roman inscriptions Transhumance paths of the Vlach shepherds of the past The Hellenic chronicle could possibly qualify to the first testimony of Vlachs in Pannonia and Eastern Europe during the time of Attila. 6th century Byzantine historians used the term Vlachs for Latin speakers. The 7th century Byzantine historiographer Theophylact Simocatta wrote about “Blachernae” in connection with some historical data of the 6th century, during the reign of Byzantine Emperor Maurice. 8th century. First precise data about Vlachs are in connection with the Vlachs of the Rynchos river; the original document containing the information is from the Konstamonitou monastery. 9th century During the late 9th century the Hungarians invaded the Carpathian Basin, where the province of Pannonia was inhabited by the “Slavs [Sclavi], Bulgarians [Bulgarii] and Vlachs [Blachii], and the shepherds of the Romans [pastores Romanorum]” (sclauij, Bulgarij et Blachij, ac pastores romanorum —according to the Gesta Hungarorum, written around 1200 by the anonymous chancellor of King Béla III of Hungary.
From https://www.theapricity.com/forum/showthread.php?68798-Pictures-of-Vlachs
<< The first mention of the Vlachs, a Latinophone minority that still exists in Greece and Albania, can be dated to the 10th century, when the word “Βλάχοι” first appears. This population was perfectly Orthodox: they fought for various Orthodox states, but felt no allegiance to Byzantium, and they often fought as allies of the two Bulgarian empires in the 10th and late 12th centuries. Many of them were settled in Thessaly, where their number was large enough to give their name to the province, which is frequently called during the late middle ages the “Great Vlachia” or the “Vlachia which is in Greece”. After the conquest of Thessaly by the state of Epirus in the 1210s, the Vlachs became the elite troops of the Epirote army against the Latin Crusaders as well as against the armies of Nicaea, a rival state to Byzantium. But Thessaly displayed a strong particularism, due to the presence of the Vlach element, and became independent in 1267/68 when the state of Epirus was divided between the two sons of the late Despot of Epirus, Michael
II. However, they never ruled it, ceding power to Greek, Latin or Serbian leaders, a fact which shows that there was no Vlach nationalism in Thessaly.
In Epirus, the Vlachs are nowadays present in the chain of the Pindos, mostly around Metsovo, and they were already present there in the middle ages. They are first mentioned in Epirus in the last quarter of the 11th century.
Their presence is also attested in Etolia, which is probably the “Little Vlachia”, spoken about by Sphrantzes, while the ancient region of Dolopia, crossed by the river Achelôos, was called “Upper Vlachia”In 1221, John Apokaukos, metropolitan of Naupaktos, received a complaint against a 130 Vlach named Constantine Aurelian, who was accused of raping a Greek girl and attacking her father. Then, in 1228, he had to judge the case of a Greek landlord charged with the accidental manslaughter of his insolent Vlach peasant
The episode took place in “Vlachia”, but probably in this text the word does not mean Thessaly, which was not in the territory of the Metropolis of Naupaktos, but in a territory peopled by the Vlach, possibly in Etolia
or in the mountains of Pindos.
A century later, the privilege of Andronikos II of 1321 for the Metropolis of Ioannina provides evidence for the existence of some Vlach communities in the area of Ioannina describing their various duties and exemptions
Vlachs possibly peopled the mountains of the Zagori, but this question does not have a clear datable answer. The Zagori is quoted for the first time in a privilege of 1319 by the same Andronikos II, without mention of Vlachs living there. Nowadays there appears in this region a clear preponderance of Vlach toponyms in the north and east, close to Thessaly, while Albanian toponyms are present in the west and south. It must be noted that
the two zones are not mutually exclusive.
Unfortunately, it is impossible to put a date on these toponyms: both Albanian and Vlach ones may be post-medieval, so it is impossible to determine absolutely if the people of the Zagori mentioned in 1399 and 1411
as soldiers of Ioannina were Albanians, Vlachs, or Greeks
In any case, the impression given is that, in the region of Zagori, there was a peaceful sharing out of the land between Vlachs and Albanians. This cohabitation and sometimes alliance of the two populations
who shared more or less the same way of life is attested in later periods, but we can imagine that it began in the middle ages. Indeed, in 1379, theAlbanian army that attacked Ioannina was helped by some Vlachs
Then we find the well-known tasteful expressions of “boulgaroalbanitoblachos” or “serbalbanitoboulgaroblachos” in texts written by Greek writers of course
These expressions may be the result of mixed marriages as well as of
confusion among authors. The confusion lasted until recently, since Albanians have often been confused with the Vlachs by contemporary scholars
On the other hand, the cohabitation of the Vlachs with the Greeks is another attested fact. This cohabitation was not always peaceful. As we saw from our sources, everyday conflicts between Greeks and Vlachs were probably frequent. The hostility against the Vlachs may be inferred in Greek sources external to Epirus
Our judicial sources of course record only the litigious relationships, but they seem to be quite representative of the mutual hostility between the sedentary land-owning Greeks and the exploited Vlachs with their semi-nomadic way of life. However, our sources show that the Vlachs of Epirus were well-integrated, despite their disadvantage, in the political, social and economical system dominated by the Greeks. The documents of 1228 and 1321 show Vlachs in rural areas working the lands owned by the Greeks of the city. In the privilege of 1321, one group of Vlachs is exempted from military service, a fact which implies that the other Vlachs mentioned in this document participated in the army of Ioannina. In any case, there is no trace of any rebellion of the Vlachs against the Greeks in Epirus. Symptomatically, they are not present in the privilege of Andronikos II for the city of Ioannina in 1319, which presents the status of the population of Ioannina. >>
From Shepherds of the Romans https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shepherds_of_the_Romans << According to an early 13th-century report by one Friar Ricardus, a lost Hungarian chronicle—The Deeds of the Christian Hungarians—stated that Hungary had been called the pasturing lands of the Romans before the Magyars conquered it. The identification of Hungary as the one-time pascua Romanorum (“the Romans’ pasturing lands”) was also mentioned in the Rhymed Chronicle of Stična from the 1240s, in Thomas the Archdeacon’s History of the Bishops of Slanona and Split, which was written after 1250, and in the Anonymi descriptio Europae orientalis from the early 14th century.[4] On the other hand, Simon of Kéza and the 14th-century Hungarian chronicles did not refer to Hungary as the Romans’ pasturing land. Instead, they wrote of the “shepherds and husbandmen”[6] or the “farm-workers and shepherds”[7] of the Roman citizens of Pannonia, Pamphylia, Macedonia, Dalmatia and Phrygia who stayed behind when their masters fled from these Roman provinces after the arrival of the Huns. Both Simon of Kéza and the 14th-century identified these “shepherds and husbandmen” as Vlachs. >>
M A P S
From https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Theoretical_map_of_Romanian_origins.png Theoretical map of Romanian origins.png
Tartaria tablets 
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