LITMIR.BIZ

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century, but Jadera or Zara. The other towns of the theme were: Veglia, Arbe, and Opsara (comprising Cherso and Lussino) in the Quarnero; Tragurium, Spalatum or Aspalathum, and Rhagusium, founded by refugees from Salona and Epidaurum; Decatera (Cattaro), Rosa (Porto Rose), and Butova (Budua). The theme was governed by a Greek Strategos residing at Zara (Jadertinus Prior), and by inferior officials (dukes) in the smaller centres. But their authority hardly extended beyond the town walls.

      The inhabitants of these cities in the themes of Dalmatia and Dyrrhachium were the remains of the Roman provincials from all parts of Illyria. Porphyrogenitus calls them Romans, as distinguished from the Ῥωμαῖοι or Byzantine Greeks. In spite of all subsequent Slavonic incursions Latin, and later Italian, always remained the official language; it was also the common language of the people all down the coast, save at Ragusa, where Slavonic was also spoken at an early date.8 Other fragments of the Roman population were to be found perhaps among the shepherds of the mountains, who were either Latins or Latinised descendants of the native Illyrians. The Slaves speak of them as together with the town-dwellers as Vlachs, which word signifies Italians or Rumanians to this day. The townsmen described these shepherds as Maurovlachs, i.e. “Sea Vlachs” or “Black Vlachs.”9

      The other Dalmatian towns and all the country outside the towns were occupied, as we have said, by the Southern Slaves. Of these the two principal tribes were the Serblii or Serbs and the Chrobatians or Croatians. The latter settled in the northern part of the country; their frontiers were the Save, the Kulpa, the Arsia, and the Četina. Their settlement seems to have preceded that of the Serbs. They came from the land beyond the Carpathians, with the name of which theirs may have been connected. Croatia was divided into fourteen Župe or counties, each governed by a Župan. The various Župans owed a somewhat shadowy allegiance to a Grand Župan, whose title was afterwards changed to that of king. The Serbs, who issued forth from what is now Galicia, settled in the land to the south and east of that of the Croatians, i.e. the modern kingdom of Servia, Old Servia, Montenegro, Northern Albania, and Dalmatia south of the Četina. For many centuries they recognised no central authority, but were divided into tribes, of which the most important were the Diocletiani or Docletiani, who occupied what is now Montenegro and part of Albania; the Terbuniotae, whose country, called Terbunia or Tribunia or Travunia, centres round the modern Trebinje, with the semi-independent southern district of Canale or Canali;10 the coast north of Ragusa up to the Narenta was occupied by the Zachloumoi of Constantine Porphyrogenitus, and was called Zachlumje, Zachulmia, Hlum, or Chelmo. It corresponds to the Herzegovina.11 About the Narenta was the land of the Narentani (the Ἀρεντάνοι or Παγάνοι of Porphyrogenitus), notorious for their piratical exploits. This tribe was converted to Christianity much later than the other Serbs, whence their name of Pagani. Inland was Bosnia, inhabited by various tribes. Still deeper in the interior was the territory of the Serbs proper.12

      Thus by the eighth century we have a series of coast towns and a few islands peopled by Latins still under the rule of the Eastern Roman Empire set in the midst of a country whose inhabitants, if we except the Latin or Latinised shepherds, were all Slaves. Imperial influence over these townships gradually declined, and at an early date they constituted themselves into city-states of the Italian type.13 As they grew rich and powerful they acquired territory, developed their trade, both sea-borne and with the interior, until they were finally absorbed by the Venetian Republic. Their conditions are, therefore, in many respects similar to those prevailing in the maritime republics of Italy during this period. In Italy there was a Latin civilisation, overwhelmed by hordes of pagan or partly pagan barbarians. Italy, like Dalmatia, is reclaimed to Latin culture by Greek arms, and the Greeks rule over it, although constantly fighting the armies of the invaders with varying success. There, too, city-communities arise on or near the sites of Roman cities, modelling their institutions and their laws on those of Rome, with certain modifications due to barbarian influences. But here the parallel ends. In Italy the barbarian hordes never settled in such large numbers as wholly to absorb the Latins, whereas the Slaves in Dalmatia far outnumbered the colonists, and, save for the Latin fringe, the land soon became a Slavonic land. Whereas in Italy, Latins and barbarians soon amalgamated—in fact, one may say that the former absorbed the latter—in Dalmatia, Latins and Slaves have remained distinct and separate to this day, in language, character, and ideals. The Latin cities were like islands in a Slavonic sea. The relations between the Latins and the barbarians in Italy, even before they amalgamated, were different from what they were in Dalmatia. In Italy the feudal system arose among the Germanic peoples, and Germanic lords had Latin subjects and serfs, whereas the Slavonic chieftains of Dalmatia had no Latin dependents to speak of. The causes of this division of race and language, which exercised so deep an influence on the history and development of the Dalmatian municipia, are not very apparent. They are probably to be sought in the different proportions of barbarians to Latins in the two countries. In Italy the number of invaders who settled permanently in the country was never very great compared with that of the Latin inhabitants. The conquered were, therefore, soon able to absorb the conquerors, having civilisation as well as numbers on their side. But in Dalmatia the Slaves were, as we have said, far more numerous than the Latin burghers; and while the former could not absorb the communities of the coast, because they were more civilised, the latter, being so few in numbers, failed to absorb the Slaves. It should, moreover, be remembered that even the Latins were originally colonists from another land, and that the native Illyrians, of whom no trace now remains in Dalmatia, may perhaps have been merged in the Slaves, and helped to swell their numbers.

      

      View of Ragusa

       (From P. G. Coronelli’s “Views of Dalmatia”, 1680)

CHAPTER II

       THE FOUNDATION AND EARLY HISTORY

       OF THE CITY (656–1204)

       Table of Contents

      WE have alluded to the destruction by the Avars of Salona and Epidaurum,14 and the flight of their inhabitants to the new settlements. Of Salona extensive ruins remain, but with regard to the site of Epidaurum there is a division of opinion among archæologists. It is generally held that the remains at or near the village of Ragusavecchia, a few miles to the south-east of Ragusa, are those of the ancient Epidaurum. In the neighbouring valley of Canali (Slavonic, Konavli) there are the ruins of a Roman aqueduct. The name Ragusavecchia corroborates the tradition that it was the original home of the Ragusans; while its Slavonic name, Cavtat, is undoubtedly derived from the Latin civitas. Some archæologists, however, have doubts as to this point, and Professor Giuseppe Gelcich, than whom no greater authority on Dalmatian history exists, is of opinion that Epidaurum must be sought for somewhere on the Sutorina promontory in the Bocche di Cattaro. Fragments of Roman brickwork and mosaic pavement have been found there too; and according to Professor Gelcich, the Canali aqueduct is so built that it must have served a city farther south than Ragusavecchia. On the other hand, the statements of the classical writers, especially of Pliny, seem to bear out the general opinion, which is, in fact, based on them.

      The exact date of the incursion of the Avars and of the destruction of Epidaurum has also been the subject of controversy. According to some writers, among whom are the native historians of Ragusa, the city was destroyed by the Goths in the third century A.D. But documents written between the third and the seventh centuries mention it as still existing. Constantine Porphyrogenitus speaks of Ragusa as having been founded by refugees from Salona five hundred years before his own time, i.e. about 449.15 But Pope Gregory I. is the last writer who alludes to Epidaurum, so that it was evidently not destroyed before 603. The geographer of Ravenna, who flourished in the eighth century, is the first to mention Ragusa. The Avars made their first appearance in Dalmatia in the year 597–598.16 They belonged to the same Tartar group as the Huns, and their path was marked with the same ruin and destruction. At one time they were in the service of Justinian, but under his successors they became so powerful and insolent that the Greek emperors might almost be regarded as the vassals

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