While medieval sources support the existence of Latin-speaking Greeks [1] and in other cases the Hellenicity of the Vlachs (Aromanians) [2], Kekaumenos, a Byzantine Armenian author of the 11th century, writes that Vlachs were Dacians and Bessi who migrated to Macedonia, Epirus and Thessaly. This could perfectly fit the claims of Romanian propaganda, however modern experts reject the passage of Kekaumenos as unreliable and biased for the following reasons:
• Kekaumenos has misinterpreted ancient sources that he employed in his narrative [3]
• Kekaumenos purposely discredits the Vlachs by representing them as foreign migrants in order to blame them entirely about the revolt of 1066 and exculpate his father-in-law Nikulitzas Delphinas who lead the revolt [3]
• Kekaumenos' narrative comes from the epitome of Xiphilinus by Cassius Dio and does not represent a genuine oral tradition among the Vlachs about their origins and ancestors [4]
However, Kekaumenos accidentally implies that he considered the Vlachs to be Greeks, when he indirectly presents his Vlach grandfather Nikoulitzas as Greek and ruler of the Vlachs of Greece [5].
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Sources/References:
[1] John Lydus, Περί των Αρχών, 261, 68
[2] Georgios Pachymeris, De Michaele et Andronico palaeologis libri tredecim, vol.1, p.83
[3] Florin Curta, Eastern Europe in the Middle Ages (500-1300), p.672
[4] T.J. Winnifrith, The Vlachs, p.107
[5] T.J. Winnifrith, The Vlachs, p.108
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