Moesi

[1] The ethnic name of the Balkan Μοισοί Moesi, as well as of the Anatolian Μυσοί Mysoi, seems to be based on the root Masa, from the Paleo-Balkan word for 'horse', *me(n)za-; also the ethnic name Muška seems to be a suffixal derivative holding some kind of semantic distinction from the original root.

They have been connected with the Albanian word for 'mule' mushk(ë) (virtually identical to Muška/i), Romanian muşcoiu and Aromanian musca, as well as in almost all Slavic languages (cf.

[2] Already in the 19th century German linguist Gustav Meyer suggested a link between Μυσοί and Albanian mushk.

[3] Furthermore, he provided the evidence of a fragment written by Anacreon mentioning the Mysians of Anatolia as 'inventors' of the interbreeding between jacks and mares.

[4] Further relevant Paleo-Balkan evidence can be seen in Iuppiter Menzanas, mentioned in a passage written by Festus in relation to a Messapian horse sacrifice, and in ΜΕΖΗΝΑ̣Ι from a Thracian inscription on the Duvanli gold ring also bearing the image of a horseman.

The image of the historical Dardani in the 1st century BC was that of Illyrian barbarians who raided their Macedonian frontier and had to be dealt with.

[13] Byzantine official and historian Niketas Choniates (c. 1155 – 1217) wrote that the barbarians of the Haemus region, formerly known as Moesians, were now known as Vlachs.

[14] Byzantine eastern orthodox priest and judge Demetrios Chomatenos (c. 1216 - 1236) wrote the following: "This great father of ours and a luminary of Bulgaria was descended from the European Moesi whom the people usually know as Bulgarians.

They were displaced in old times by the military force of Alexander the Great, from the situated near Brusa mount Olympus, to the Northern Ocean and the Dead Sea, and after a long time had passed, they crossed the Danube with a formidable army, and took possession of all the neighbouring provinces of Pannonia, Dalmatia, Thrace and Illyricum, and a great part of Macedonia and Thessaly.