Apartment Tedo
The Illyrians in Dalmatia
WIKIPEDIA:Illyria was in Classical antiquity a region in the western part of today's Balkan.
Ancient Illyria can pose a problem to historians, since before the Roman conquest the Illyrians were not unified into an Illyrian kingdom, and Illyria's borders before Rome are not always clear. For example, the Dalmatae, though classed as an Illyrian tribe by language, were only subject to the kingdom of Illyria for a short time and soon defected during the reign of King Gentius.
In the first decades under Byzantine rule (until 461), Illyria suffered the devastation of raids by Visigoths, Huns, and Ostrogoths. Not long after these barbarian invaders swept through the Balkans, the Slavs appeared. Between the 6th and 8th centuries they settled in Illyrian territories and proceeded to assimilate Illyrian tribes in much of what is now Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Montenegro, Polog valley in The Republic of Macedonia, Serbia, and Slovenia.
Dalmatia's name is derived from the name of an Illyrian tribe called the Dalmatae who lived in the area of the eastern Adriatic coast in the 1st millennium BC. They arrived to the Adriatic Coast from the Dalmatian inland during 3rd and 2nd century BC. The name "Dalmatia" was in use probably from the second half of the 2nd century and certainly from the first half of the 1st century BC, defining a coastal area of the eastern Adriatic between the Krka and Neretva rivers. Its territory stretched northwards from the river Neretva to the river Cetina, and later to the Krka, where it met the confines of Liburnia. Its capital during this period was Delminium.
Dalmatia in the Roman Empire.
The Roman Republic attempted to subdue the Illyrian tribes during the Illyrian Wars of 220 and 168 BC, and succeeded, forming the Roman province of Illyricum. The Romans, however, were often faced by rebellions of various Illyrian tribes. In 156 BC the Dalmatae themselves were attacked by a Roman army for the first time, and were defeated but not fully subdued. They raised a number of formidable revolts, more notable of which was that of 33 BC. In AD 9 the Dalmatians formed an alliance with the Pannonians and rebelled for the last time,[2] but were finally crushed by Tiberius. In AD 10, Illyricum was divided by Emperor Augustus into two provinces: Pannonia and Dalmatia which spread into a larger area inland to cover all of the Dinaric Alps and most of the eastern Adriatic coast.[3] This event was followed by total submission and a ready acceptance of Roman culture which spread all over Illyria.
The province of Dalmatia spread inland to cover all of the Dinaric Alps and most of the eastern Adriatic coast, while its new capital was Salona. During the general reorganization of Roman Empire in 297 AD, the existing provincial organization in Dalmatia was changed, with the southern part of the Narona district becoming the Roman province of Praevalitana. The Narona district was a region from Budva to the river Cetina,[4] while Liburnia, also one of the provincia Dalmatiarum, was north of the Cetina and included Scardona. Liburnia enjoyed the status of a separate administrative-territorial unit later on during the Empire's final decades.[5]
Later on, Dalmatia was the birthplace of Emperor Diocletian who constructed the famous Diocletian's Palace for his retirement a few kilometers south of Salona, in Spalatum. The Palace is now the heart of the modern-day capital of Dalmatia, Split.[6][7]
The historian Theodore Mommsen wrote in his book, The Provinces of the Roman Empire, that all Dalmatia was fully romanized by the 4th century AD. However, analysis of archaeological material from that period has shown that the process of romanization was rather selective. While urban centers, both coastal and inland, were almost completely romanized, the situation in the countryside was completely different. Despite the Illyrians being subject to a strong process of acculturation, they continued to speak their native language, worship their own gods and traditions, and follow their own social-political tribal organization which was adapted to Roman administration and political structure only in some necessities.[8]
The collapse of the Western Roman Empire, with the beginning of the Migration Period, left the region subject to Gothic rulers, Odoacer and Theodoric the Great. They ruled Dalmatia from 476 to 535 AD, when it was restored to the Eastern (Byzantine) Empire by Justinian I (Liburnia stayed in Gothic possession as Liburnia Tarsatica[9]).