Višeslav of Serbia
Mentioned in the De Administrando Imperio (DAI) from the mid-10th century, Višeslav was a progenitor of the Serbian ruling family, known in historiography as the Vlastimirović dynasty.
He was descended from the unnamed "Serbian prince" who led his people to the Dalmatia province and established hereditary rule under Byzantine suzerainty.
[11] The history of the early medieval Serbian Principality and the Vlastimirović dynasty is recorded in the work De Administrando Imperio ("On the Governance of the Empire", DAI), compiled by the Byzantine Emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus (r. 913–959).
[12] The work mentions the first Serbian ruler, who is without a name but known conventionally as the "Unknown Archon", who led the Serbs from the north to the Balkans.
[14][c] It is considered that the Serbs arrived as a small military elite which managed to organize and assimilate other already settled and more numerous Slavs.
[17] His account on the first Christianization of the Serbs can be dated to 632–638; this might have been Porphyrogenitus' invention, or may have really taken place, encompassing a limited group of chiefs and then very poorly received by the wider layers of the tribe.
[d] The DAI mentions that the Serbian throne is inherited by the son, i.e., the first-born; his descendants succeeded him, though their names are unknown until the coming of Višeslav.
[23] According to V. Ćorović, the land was divided between the ruler's friends and governors, with the oldest brother having near-absolute domestic rule over the collective.
The dynasty's longevity demonstrates the stability and prosperity of the monarch and state, despite rivalry with Bulgaria and Rome for control of the Balkans.
The four named succeeding Serbian rulers are not mentioned in the Chronicle of the Priest of Duklja (CPD),[38] a source dating to c. 1300–10[39] and considered unreliable by historians with regard to the Early Middle Ages.
[40] Instead, the CPD mentions several historically confirmed rulers, Svevlad, Selimir, Vladin and Ratimir, although it maintains the patrilineal succession tradition.
