LITMIR.BIZ

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and in that of Poljice.67 The tribute which the Ragusans paid for this privilege was called margarisium or magarisium;68 its value varied considerably. In 1363 that due to the Zachulmians was of sixty ipperperi, paid by the owners of the vineyards in proportion to the extent of their holdings. The Zachulmians, on their side, sent a cow, called the vacca di margarisio, which was divided between the Count of Ragusa and some of the boni homines (optimates) of the city. Later, instead of one animal, several were sent.69 Besides the tribute, the Ragusans paid a tithe in kind to the Slave princelings. From time to time they made special treaties with their neighbours, usually of a commercial character. By one of these, which Resti dates 831,70 Svetimir, King of Bosnia, agreed to send 50 oxen, 500 sheep and goats, and 200 loads of oats to Ragusa, and to treat the Ragusans in his territory as though they were his own subjects, while they were to send him fourteen braccia71 of red cloth. This indicates the city’s economic position, which enabled it to send manufactured articles from the west into the Balkan lands, while it bought from the latter the cattle and foodstuffs which its own limited territory could not provide. Even in later times most of the grain consumed by the Ragusans was imported from abroad.

      Relations with the Slaves, however, were not always of so peaceable a character, and the Ragusans were often engaged in little wars with their turbulent neighbours. The gradual extension of the Ragusan vineyards was a fertile source of dispute (lis de vineis),72 as the Republic claimed and finally obtained by prescription the right to govern the territory in question. Another cause of dispute was the arrest and ill-treatment to which Ragusan merchants were often subjected when travelling in the interior. At other times the Ragusans aroused the ire of the neighbouring princes by giving shelter to their rebellious subjects. The story of Bodino, in spite of its legendary character, illustrates this very clearly. This Slavonic prince, having deposed his uncle, Radoslav,73 and made himself King of Dalmatia and Croatia, conquered Bosnia and Servia. But he wished to get rid of Radoslav’s sons, who still ruled over a small territory on the river Drina. In this he succeeded by treachery, but their children managed to escape to Ragusa, and placed themselves under the protection of the Republic. Bodino demanded that they should be given up to him, and on the refusal of the Ragusans he besieged their city for seven years. At the end of this time, finding that his efforts were useless, he put his cousins to death, and retired with the bulk of his army. But in order to molest Ragusa he built a castle at the head of the bridge connecting the town with the mainland, and left a small containing force behind. The Ragusans obtained possession of this stronghold by the following stratagem. After having bribed the commanders of the garrison by promising them land and honours in the city, they allowed a large consignment of wine to fall into the hands of the enemy; while the latter were making merry on it the burghers issued forth and put them all to the sword. The castle was destroyed, and the church of San Niccolò in Prijeki74 erected on its site. These events are recorded as having occurred some time during the eleventh or twelfth century, but the accounts are by writers who lived several hundreds of years later. Probably there were wars with the Slaves in which incidents of a similar character occurred, but the seven years’ siege is pure fiction, and the name of Bodino is not found in any history of the Serbs or Croatians.

      Another Servian war, on which we possess somewhat more reliable information, is that which broke out in 1184 between the Ragusans and Stephen Nemanja, King of the Serbs. An army commanded by the King himself attacked the city from the land side,75 while a fleet under his brother, Miroslav, attacked it by sea. The citizens, under Michele Bobali, completely defeated the besiegers, who were ignorant of siege operations and quite unprovided with necessaries. On the Feast of the Three Martyrs,76 September 27, 1186, peace was concluded.77 Both sides agreed to forget past injuries, and Nemanja granted the Ragusans permission to trade in all parts of his dominions, while his own subjects were to be protected at Ragusa; but it was also stipulated that rebels should be prevented from using the city as a place in which to conspire against their sovereign. There was another stipulation, that should the King or his brother ever need a safe refuge, Ragusa should be open to them—a clause found in many subsequent treaties.

      Venice in all that concerned Ragusa’s relations with the Slave states allowed the citizens to do as they pleased, even during the period when Venetian counts presided over its government. It was only in questions concerning maritime affairs that the Queen of the Adriatic asserted her authority over Ragusa from time to time.

      This same year the Normans made another raid into Dalmatia, and occupied Ragusa and several other coast towns. Norman rule lasted until 1190, and does not seem to have left any traces beyond a few documents. The treaty of peace, dated September 27, 1186,78 was drawn up “at the court of the most glorious King William and of the lord archbishop Tribunus, in the presence of Tasilgard, the Royal Chamberlain, of all the nobles, of Gervase the count (of Ragusa), and of all the people.” This shows that Ragusa was under a Norman count. Document xxii. of the Monumenta spectantia Historiam Slavorum Meridionalium is a treaty of peace between Ragusa and the Cazichi (another name for the Narentan, pirates): “And on the side of the Ragusans, Gervase the count swore to preserve this peace, without prejudice to his sovereign lord. … In the year of our Lord (1190), in the month of February, on the day of St. Blaize (the 3rd), the Assembly having been summoned by Gervase the count to the sound of the bell, we decided,” &c. Document xxiii., dated June 13, 1190, is a treaty between this same count of Ragusa and Miroslav, Prince of the Serbs, in which Gervase promises that the latter should receive hospitality at Ragusa if he ever required it, salvo sacramento domini nostri regi Tancredi.

      The occupation of Ragusa by the Normans is evidently an episode in the wars which they waged against the Eastern Empire, and the town was probably seized merely as a basis for further operations. Gervase, who ruled the whole time, does not seem to have been an absolute despot, as the consent of the Assembly was required for all the acts of the Government. Norman rule in Dalmatia did not survive the death of Tancred and the consequent collapse of the Sicilian kingdom in 1190. In documents of a date posterior to this, such as the treaty with Fano in 1199,79 with Ancona80 of the same year, with Bari of 1201,81 and with Termoli of 1203,82 no mention either of Venetian or Norman counts is made, so that we may conclude that for the time being Ragusa enjoyed freedom from foreign rulers.

      But Venice was preparing to re-occupy the whole of Dalmatia, and the Fourth Crusade of 1202 provided her with the desired opportunity. The Crusaders began their expedition to the Holy Land by storming and sacking Zara, where they wintered. In 1204 they captured Constantinople, subverted the Greek Empire, and set up the ephemeral Latin Empire of the East in its place, with Baldwin of Flanders as Emperor. The Doge of Venice, Enrico Dandolo, the prime mover and leader of the expedition, became “lord of a quarter and a half of Romania.” In 1205 the Venetians, at the height of their power, demanded the submission of Ragusa, which was at once tendered. Dandolo (the historian) thus describes this fourth surrender:—

      “Tommaso Morosini, who had been nominated Patriarch (of Constantinople) by Innocent III., returned to Venice, carrying the Pope’s letters; he set sail with a fleet of four triremes and made war against the city of Ragusa, who, at the suggestion of the Greeks, had rebelled against Venice. The citizens, no longer trusting in the strength of the Greeks, surrendered their city to the Venetians.”

      Two other chronicles83 give similar accounts of the event. The indefatigable “Esadastes” of course tries to prove that Ragusa did not surrender, because the people who had held out so bravely and successfully against the Saracens 340 years previously would not have tamely submitted to a squadron of four ships commanded by a priest. The Ragusan apologist, however, forgets the enormous prestige acquired by the Venetians as a consequence of their exploits in subverting the Eastern Empire, after which event Ragusa could not hope to oppose the greatest Power in the Adriatic with any chance of success.84

      With this act of submission ends the first period of Ragusan history, during which the possession, or rather suzerainty over the city was a matter of dispute between the Venetians and the Greeks, with intervals of absolute independence, and four years of Norman rule. As, however, Byzantine influence, not necessarily political, predominates even in Venice itself, we may call this the Byzantine period. For the next hundred and fifty years, save for one short interruption, Ragusa remains under Venetian supremacy.

      An important question in connection

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