Introduction: Who Were the Triballi?
The Triballi were an ancient Thracian tribe who lived in the central Balkans, roughly in what is today Serbia and Bulgaria. Classical authors like Herodotus, Demosthenes, and Strabo often mention them.
The Triballi appear in Greek and Roman sources as fierce warriors, but also as a people living on the margins of the civilized world — a typical label Greek writers gave to their northern neighbors.
By the 4th century BCE, they were well-known enough that even Alexander the Great fought against them during his Balkan campaigns.
From Triballi to Serbs in the Middle Ages
Centuries later, the name of the Triballi did not disappear. Byzantine chroniclers frequently reused the term when writing about the medieval Serbs. For example:
1. Anna Komnene (1083–1153), Alexiad 13.5
“He campaigned also against the Triballoi, who are called Serbs in the common tongue.”
2. Nikephoros Gregoras (1295–1360), Roman History
“…he marched against the Triballoi, that is, the nation of the Serbs.”
3. John VI Kantakouzenos (1292–1383), Histories 2.24
“Against the Triballoi, whose name in our time is Serbs.”
4. Laonikos Chalkokondyles (c. 1423–1490), Histories 1.5
“For the Triballoi, or Serbs as they are now called…”
5. Western Latin humanists (15th–16th c.)
E.g. in papal and Hungarian charters, Serbian rulers or lands are styled rex Triballorum (“king of the Triballi”) or ducatus Triballorum.
Pope Pius II (Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini, Europa, mid-15th c.):
“The Triballi, who are now called Serbs.”
Mainstream Historical View: A Byzantine Fabrication
As we can see, by the late Byzantine period, Triballi and Serbs were used almost interchangeably in learned texts.
However, modern historians are clear on this point: the identification of Serbs with the Triballi is a Byzantine literary convention, not an ethnic memory.
Byzantines had a habit of “classicizing” their geography. For example, they called Bulgarians “Mysi” or “Scythians,” Hungarians “Huns,” and Serbs “Triballi.” This practice gave their chronicles an antique flavor and placed contemporary events into the framework of the ancient world.
Thus, when we read about the “Triballi” in Byzantine sources, we should understand it as a stylistic choice — not a literal statement about ancestry.
A Curious Passage in Athenaeus: Syrbenians and Triballi Together
But here is where things get interesting. Long before the medieval Byzantine historians, a Greek author writing in Roman Egypt in the 2nd century CE preserved a puzzling fragment.
In his massive work Deipnosophistae (The Banquet of the Learned), Athenaeus of Naucratis quotes comic poets to amuse his dinner-guests. In Book 15, Chapter 11, he mentions something very strange:
πόθεν γάρ σοι καὶ ὁ τῶν συρβηνῶν ἐπήλθεν χορὸς …
“From where did you get the idea of the chorus of the Syrbenians?”
Both major Greek editions preserve the same word:
συρβηνῶν (genitive plural) → “of the Syrbenians.”
So, who are the Syrbenians? (Συρβηνοί)
It’s anyone’s guess, because this exact form: ΣΥΡΒΗΝΟΙ (Syrbenoi), plural noun, is only attested here in all of the ancient Greek literature!
However, this word is suspiciously close to Serbs (Σέρβοι) or Sorbs (Σόρβοι). The only problem is that we are talking about the 2nd century AD, where there should be no Serbs in the Balkans.
But that is not all.
Immediately after this, Athenaeus quotes a comic verse from Alexis where even the Triballi are mocked for barbarous customs. So we have, side by side in one passage, two peoples: the well-known Thracian Triballi, and the mysterious Syrbenians.
The coincidence is remarkable: an author writing in 2nd-century Egypt records the Triballi and Syrbenians side by side — the very pairing that Byzantine historians would later popularize when equating Triballi with Serbs.
Coincidence, or a Memory Preserved?
Mainstream scholarship will continue to treat “Syrbenians” as a scribal oddity, unique to Ancient Greek literature.
But for anyone interested in deep cultural memory, the overlap is too striking to ignore.
- Triballi: a Thracian tribe historically located in Serbia.
- Syrbenians: a mysterious name that looks very much like Serbs.
- Both appear in the same line of an Ancient Greek text, centuries before the medieval Byzantines.
Conclusion
The story of the Triballi and the Serbs is usually told as a Byzantine literary convention. And yet, a strange fragment from Athenaeus of Naucratis suggests that the association between Triballi and Syrbenians may go back much earlier.
When equating Serbs and Triballians, perhaps the Byzantines knew more than they are credited for by modern historians.
In my view, the Serbs were always Serbs. Serbian medieval rulers never referred to themselves as leaders of the Triballi. Titles in Serbian royal charters, inscriptions, and correspondence consistently use “King of the Serbs” (Rex Serviae in Latin, Basileus tōn Serbōn in Greek) — never “Triballians.”
The rare word Syrbenians shows that the author knew both the exonym Triballi (how outsiders named them) and the endonym (what the Serbs called themselves).
The label Triballians may have been a broader umbrella term, encompassing several Balkan tribes — much like the Roman Tribus (Latin for tribe) is explained as coming from tres (three), because the earliest Roman people were divided into three tribes: 1. Ramnes (Latins) 2. Tities (Sabines) and 3. Luceres (Etruscans).
