The Banatians are the people of Banat. Although the term aplies to all of its inhabitants, it could primarily refer to its Slavic population.
The Banatian ancestors migrated to modern-day Banat in the 6th and 7th centuries. In the 12th and 13th centuries Banat was populated by Hungarians. Throughout the late Middle Ages to modern times the Slavic Banatians kept their identity as Illyrians. In the emergence of Romantic nationalism the Banatian elite ideologically adopted Serbdom, but in the form of religious Orthodoxy, which was standard practice in the process of creation of the Serbian nation during the plans of a Greater Serbia.
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