history

Historical Overview

Split, Croatia, which is today the largest port on the Dalmatian coast, and Croatia's second-largest city, began as the Roman colony of Salona. Built 5 km away, the palace of the Emperor Diocletian is the center of modern Split.

Salona's beginnings are lost in the mists of time. Since prehistoric times, a people called the Illyrians had inhabited much of what is now Croatia, Yugoslavia, and Bosnia-Herzegovina. Salona is frist mentioned in 119 B.C.E., when L. Caecilius Metellus and his army spent a winter there. At that time, it was a stronghold of the Delmatae, an iron-age Illyrian tribe. Enjoying a strategic location on the Dalmatian coast, as well as the protection of the fairly calm Castella Bay, Salona was a prominent player in the trade networks of the ancient Mediterranean. Like most ancient cities, Salona also served as a fortification for its inhabitants.

It was in the beginning of the first century B.C.E. that Rome first cast its eye towards Salona. In 78-77 B.C.E., C. Cosconius captured the city from the Delmatae. Early on, the area attracted traders and settlers from Italy, who formed a conventus civium Romanorum. The area maintained a rate of slow buy steady growth, until around 47 B.C.E., when Caesar rewarded the loyalty of his Dalmatian allies by establishing a colony at Salona.

Because of its economic and strategic importance, Salona was made the capital of the Roman province of Dalmatia. The city flourished as a center of trade and administration. P. Cornelius Dollabella, a governor of Dalmatia, started the construction of five roads to connect Salona with its hinterland, and with the frontiers of the province. By the second century C.E., Salona was a city of 60,000 people. In the year 295, the Emperor Diocletian, himself a native of Dalmatia, willingly passed on his throne to a pair of heirs, and retired to the magnificent palace he had built for himself five km out of Salona. Diocletian was a successful Emperor, but the days of the Roman Empire were numbered. In the middle of the fifth century, barbarians began to invade Dalmatia. By the sixth century, the region was under the protection of the Eastern Empire (based in Constantinople). In 613-614, Salona was destroyed by Avars and Slavs. The survivors fled to nearby Diocletian's palace, and there founded the city of Split.