The case of Greece was exceptional in Slav history. Following as they did in most parts of Europe more closely on the heels of Germanic peoples, the Slavs remained largely unaffected by the civilised world until the Germans themselves had been absorbed and converted. Few, if any, Germans were evangelised by missions sent for the purpose beyond the frontiers of civilisation. But once they had settled within these frontiers they were brought comparatively rapidly into the Christian fold. No one in those times had thoughts for the further geographical extension of Christendom: all energies were required for redeeming former civilised provinces from barbarisation.

There is a superficial similarity, therefore, but no more, between the hellenization of the Slavs in Greece and the romanization of the Franks in Gaul. In contrast, most approaches to the Slavs in Central Europe came to be made in the first place by Germanic peoples and in the event by Germanic peoples themselves relatively recently made Christian, particularly the Bavarians and the Saxons.

BAVARIA, CARANTANIA AND AVARIA

The Bavarians settled in the territories which they still occupy today in the early decades of the sixth century, at the same time as the Lombards (Langobards) entered Pannonia. Both movements may have been partly due to Slav pressure on their eastern flank. The arrival of the Avars, a Turkic or Mongoloid horde, in the Central European steppes in the middle of the sixth century added strength to the Slav pressure, both westwards and southwards, and caused the Langobards to move on into north Italy (568).