Memory, identity, typology: An interdisciplinary reconstruction of Vlach ethnohistory.

This thesis seeks to provide a detailed account of the ethnogenesis and ethnohistory of the Vlachs of southeastern Europe, using Anthony Smith's theory of the origins of nation and Mircea Eliade's concept of mythical scenario to theorize Vlach origins. The thesis also argues that the historical structure that enabled Vlach ethnogenesis was the Roman frontier army of comitatenses. It will be argued that these mobile troops, relying also on herding for their subsistence, after the fall of the Roman Empire, became the Vlach population and that the identity of this nascent ethnie was buttressed by a mythical scenario, the cult of the military saints. This is the cultural history of a Diaspora that never had a state - archaic, medieval or modern - yet left an indelible mark on the history and culture of the Balkans and lands farther afield. --P. 4.