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the towns, sent ambassadors to Venice to demand the tribute; but the Doge replied: “Non per quemlibet nuntiorum tributum remittere curo; sed ad hanc persolvendam dationem venire ipso non denegabo.” He at once fitted out another expedition on a large scale, which set forth under his command on May 9, 1000.46 It reached Ossero on June 5, and the Doge claimed the homage of the Dalmatians as their protector; this was paid both by the Latins and by a number of the Slaves. He then proceeded to Zara, which recognised his authority, and the bishops of Arbe and Veglia came to swear fealty to him, promising that his praises should be sung in the churches after those of the Emperor. Negotiations with the Narentans were now opened; the pirates agreed to forego all tributes, and swore to infest the Adriatic no longer; but the moment the Doge’s back was turned they recommenced their depredations. Orseolo then sailed with the fleet for Beograd47 (Zaravecchia), the residence of the Croatian king. The terrified inhabitants paid him homage, and he prepared to strike a decisive blow at the Narentans. He sailed down the coast and received the submission of Traù and Spalato, and on hearing that forty Narentan “nobles” (pirate captains) were returning from Apulia, some of his galleys lay in wait for them, and captured them off the island of Cazza. The Narentans then sued for peace, which was granted them on a promise of future good behaviour, and all the prisoners were liberated save six, who were retained as hostages. The pirates on the islands of Curzola, Lesina, and Lagosta still held out. The first two were easily captured, but the Lagostans, hearing that the Doge meant to raze their stronghold to the ground, made a desperate resistance. The Venetians and their Dalmatian allies attacked the town, poured in through a breach in the walls, and put all the inhabitants to the sword. After the capture of this important fortress the power of the Narentans was broken, and the whole of Dalmatia lay at Orseolo’s feet.

      With regard to the subsequent proceedings and the dedition of Ragusa there is considerable divergence of opinion between Venetian and Ragusan writers. The latter wish to prove that their city remained independent, at all events until the beginning of the thirteenth century, whereas the Venetians affirm that in 998 (1000) Ragusa made full submission to Venice.

      The first account of this dedition is that of Johannes Diaconus, who writes: “This (the capture of Lesina, Curzola, and Lagosta) having been accomplished, the victorious prince repaired to the church of St. Maximus; there the Archbishop of Ragusa and his suite came and did great homage to the said prince, all partaking of the sacrament.” Dandolo uses almost identical language, and Sabellico adds that the Archbishop and the Ragusan envoys made formal submission to the Doge and the Venetians,48 and that counts were appointed to govern the Dalmatian towns, Ottone Orseolo being chosen for Ragusa. To this a Ragusan writer, calling himself “Albinus Esadastes de Vargas” (whom Pisani declares to be Sebastiano Dolci,49 a Ragusan monk of the seventeenth century), in a work entitled Libertas perpetua reip. Ragusine ab omni jure Venete reipub,50 replies that the church of St. Maximus must mean that of Masline at Lesina, and that this island is so far that the Ragusan envoys would hardly have come there to tender their submission. Jadesta, which is also alluded to, does not exist. The Ragusans, who had resisted other attacks, both by the Venetians and the Saracens, so valiantly, would not have surrendered now without striking a blow; and, moreover, the Greek Emperors, Basil and Constantine, would not have authorised the submission. With regard to the first and third objections, it is most probable that when the fate of Lagosta had become known to the Ragusans they would have gone to tender their submission to Orseolo wherever he happened to be. Jadesta is simply an old name for Lagosta. As for the Greek Emperors, they were far too much occupied in holding their own against the Bulgarians to be able to make any objections. The former attacks on Ragusa had all been on a small scale, whereas this expedition was a large and well-equipped force, against which it would have been madness for the tiny Ragusa to resist. Then “Esadastes” shifts his ground, and asserts that the envoys went to the Doge merely to reclaim a ship captured by the Venetians, and that they actually threatened reprisals on the part of the Emperors if satisfaction were refused. But it is most unlikely that for so trifling a cause the Archbishop and chief citizens would have been sent to the Doge. This version, however, is accepted by Mauro Orbini.51 Ragnina does not even mention the expedition. Resti52 says that Ottone Orseolo was sent to Ragusa merely to make a commercial treaty; but as Pisani observes, if the magistrates appointed to the other Dalmatian towns were sent to govern them, there is no reason to suppose that an exception was made for Ragusa. There is, on the whole, the strongest evidence that Ragusa did actually submit to Venetian supremacy, together with the other coast towns, in 1000, and received a Venetian governor. Local usages and laws, however, were respected, according to the Venetian practice of the time; nor was Imperial authority wholly disregarded, and prayers for the Emperor continued to be sung in the churches of Ragusa.

      Venetian rule was not of long duration. On the death of Pietro Orseolo in 1008, his son Ottone became Doge; and during this reign a strong opposition to the house of Orseolo was aroused, which ended with Ottone’s expulsion in 1026. During the reign of his successor, Pietro Centranico, faction feuds broke out, greatly weakening the Republic, and the Dalmatian towns revolted, as Venetian suzerainty was of use to them only so long as Venice was powerful. Some of them went over to Dobroslav, prince of the Tribunian Serbs, and elsewhere Byzantine authority revived. Thus in 1036, instead of a Venetian count at Zara, we find Gregory, Jadertinus Prior, Pro-consul and Imperial Strategos for all Dalmatia.53 But his authority was disputed by the Croatians, whose sovereign now proclaimed himself King of Dalmatia.54 Against this act the Venetians issued a protest, and the Doge Domenico Contarini (1043–1071) reasserted the authority of the Republic.

      

      In the year 1071 the Normans from Apulia made their first appearance in Dalmatia; they crossed the Adriatic, and threatened the Eastern Empire. The Emperor Alexius Comnenus having implored the help of the Venetians, the Doge Selvo set sail for Dyrrhachium in command of a fleet. Alexius had also asked help of the Ragusans, who were now practically independent; but they feared the Normans more, and cast in their lot with them. The Græco-Venetian fleet encountered the Normans off Dyrrhachium; but in spite of the valour displayed by the allies they were defeated, and the town fell into the enemies’ hands. It is said that the Ragusan contingent distinguished itself by hurling clouds of arrows, which wrought much havoc among the Venetians.55 As a reward they obtained important commercial privileges in Southern Italy. In 1085 the Venetians again attacked the Normans, and partially defeated them at Corfu, for which action Alexius granted the Doge Vitale Falier the Golden Bull, conferring upon him the title of Protosebastus, and created him Duke of Dalmatia and Croatia. Thus the Republic regained all its lost influence on the eastern shore of the Adriatic.

      Yet another Power now begins to interfere in the affairs of Dalmatia, a Power which was to play a most important part in its subsequent history. In 1091 Ladislas, King of Hungary, was summoned by the Slaves of inland Croatia, who as usual when quarrelling among themselves called in foreign aid, and they willingly recognised him as their king. He did not wait to be asked a second time, but at once entered the province and appointed his nephew, Almus, Count of Cismontane Croatia. On his death in 1094 he was succeeded by another nephew, Koloman, who in the following year crossed the Velebit mountains and invaded Maritime Croatia. He defeated and killed the Croatian king, Krešimir, at Petrovogora, became master of the littoral from Istria to the Narenta, and prepared to conquer the Serb states of Rascia and Tribunia. By marrying Busita, daughter of King Roger, he allied himself with the Normans, and enlisted their help for his schemes. At Beograd he crowned himself King of Dalmatia and Croatia. These conquests were not at all to the taste of the Ragusans, who had every interest in the maintenance of a number of weak but independent Slavonic buffer States at their back, whereas they dreaded the advance of a powerful military monarchy like Hungary. At first they tried to conciliate Koloman with gifts,56 but as this availed them little they applied to their old enemies, the Venetians; the latter made a treaty with the Hungarian king, by which the Latin municipalities of Dalmatia were recognised as outside the Hungarian sphere. But it was not respected for long. The Emperor Alexius, annoyed with the Venetians for their action in the First Crusade and in the Levant generally, intrigued with Koloman, and induced him to violate his pledges. The Magyar king needed but little pressure, as the conquest of the Dalmatian seaboard was one of his chief ambitions. When the Venetians sent their fleet to Palestine in 1105 he occupied Zara, Traù, and Spalato, and forced the citizens to swear fealty to him. The Ragusans were not disturbed,

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