Dalmatian city-states
This article needs additional citations for verification. (January 2023) |
History of Dalmatia |
---|
Dalmatian city-states were the
The original names of these cities were Jadera, Spalatum, Crespa, Arba, Tragurium, Vecla, Ragusium, and Cattarum. The language and the laws were initially Latin, but after a few centuries, they developed their own Neo-Latin language, Dalmatian, which survived into the 19th century. The cities were maritime centers with important commerce links, mainly with the Italian peninsula and with the rising Republic of Venice.
History
The eight city-states were:
- Jadera (now called in Italian: Zara; Croatian: Zadar) – Originally a small island in the central Dalmatia coast
- Spalatum (Italian: Spalato; Croatian: Diocletian Palace
- Crespa (Italian: Cherso; Croatian: Cres) – On an island in northern Dalmatia
- Arba, (Italian: Arbe; Croatian: Rab) – On a small island in front of the northern Velebit mountains
- Tragurium (Italian: Trau; Croatian: Trogir) – On a small island not far away from Roman Salona
- Vecla (Italian: Veglia; Croatian: Krk) – On an island near the northern Dalmatia coast
- Ragusium (Italian: Ragusa; Croatian: Dubrovnik) – Originally a promontory in southern Dalmatia
- Cattarum (Italian: Cattaro; Croatian: Kotor) – Inside the Bay of Kotor, today in Montenegro
Later were added other cities in north-central Dalmatia, like Sebenicum (now Šibenik), Flumen (now Rijeka), and Pagus (now Pag). According to Kingsley Garland Jayne:
The great Slavonic migration into Illyria, which wrought a complete change in the fortunes of Dalmatia, took place in the first half of the 7th century. In other parts of the Balkan Peninsula these invaders—Serbs, Croats or Bulgars—found little difficulty in expelling or absorbing the native population. But here they were baffled when confronted by the powerful maritime city-states, highly civilized, and able to rely on the moral if not the material support of their kinsfolk in Italy. Consequently, while the country districts were settled by the Slavs, the Latin or Italian population flocked for safety to Ragusa, Zara and other large towns, and the whole country was thus divided between two frequently hostile communities. This opposition was intensified by the schism between Eastern and Western Christianity (1054), the Slavs as a rule preferring the Orthodox or sometimes the
Bogomil creed, while the Italians were firmly attached to the Papacy. Not until the 15th century did the rival races contribute to a common civilization in the literature of Ragusa. To such a division of population may be attributed the two dominant characteristics of local history—the total absence of national as distinguished from civic life, and the remarkable development of art, science and literature. Bosnia, Servia and Bulgaria had each its period of national greatness, but remained intellectually backward; Dalmatia failed ever to attain political or racial unity, but the Dalmatian city-states, isolated and compelled to look to Italy for support, shared perforce in the march of Italian civilization. Their geographical position suffices to explain the relatively small influence exercised by Byzantine culture throughout the six centuries (535–1102) during which Dalmatia was part of the Eastern empire. Towards the close of this period Byzantine rule tended more and more to become merely nominal.[3]
Indeed, in the
The Slavs, loosely allied with the Avars, permanently settled the region in the first half of the 7th century AD and remained its predominant ethnic group ever since. The
The two communities were somewhat hostile at first, but as the Croats became
Around 950 AD, as the Dalmatian city-states gradually lost all protection by
The Venetians, to whom the Dalmatians were already bound by language and culture, could afford to concede liberal terms as its main goal was to prevent the development of any dangerous political or commercial competitor on the eastern Adriatic. The seafaring community in Dalmatia looked to Venice as the new "queen" of the Adriatic Sea. In return for protection, these eight Neo-Latin cities often furnished a contingent to the army or navy of their suzerain, and sometimes paid tribute either in money or in kind. Arbe (now Rab), for example, annually paid ten pounds of silk or five pounds of gold to Venice. The Dalmatian cities might elect their own chief magistrate, bishop, and judges; their Roman law remained valid, and they were even permitted to conclude separate alliances.
In these centuries, the Dalmatian language started to disappear, assimilated by the Venetian language. Dalmatian was spoken on the Dalmatian coast from Flumen (now Rijeka) as far south as Cottorum (Kotor) in Montenegro. Speakers lived mainly in the coastal towns of Jadera (Zadar), Tragurium (Trogir), Spalatum[12] (Split), Ragusium (Dubrovnik), and also on the islands of Curicta (Krk), Crepsa (Cres), and Arba (Rab). Almost every city developed its own dialect, but the most important dialects now known were Vegliot, a northern dialect spoken on the island of Curicta, and Ragusan, a southern dialect spoken in and around Ragusa (Dubrovnik).
The cities of Jadera, Spalatum, Tragurium, and Ragusium and the surrounding territories each changed hands several times between Venice, Hungary, and Byzantium during the 12th century. In 1202, the armies of the Fourth Crusade rendered assistance to Venice by occupying Jadera, which started to be officially called Zara. In 1204, the same army conquered Byzantium and finally eliminated the Eastern Empire from the list of contenders on the Dalmatian territory.
The late 13th century was marked by a decline in external hostilities. The Dalmatian cities started accepting complete foreign sovereignty, mainly that of the Republic of Venice. The only exception was Ragusium, which remained independent creating the Republic of Ragusa, which later ended in 1808 after the Napoleon conquest.
From 1420 started the Venetian domination of the other seven of the original Dalmatian city-states, which were fully integrated with the Venetian (and Italian) society of the
The last speaker of any Dalmatian dialect of the Dalmatian city-states was Tuone Udaina (Italian: Antonio Udina), who was accidentally killed in an explosion on June 10, 1898, on the island of Veglia (now Krk).[13] With him disappeared the last vestige of the Dalmatian Neo-Latin cities.[14] His language[15] was studied by the scholar Matteo Bartoli, himself a native of nearby Istria, who visited Udaina in 1897 and wrote down approximately 2,800 words, stories, and accounts of his life. These were published in a book which has since provided much information on the vocabulary, phonology, and grammar of the language. Bartoli wrote in Italian and published a translation in German (Das Dalmatische) in 1906; this book is considered the first on ethnic minority disappearance in world literature.
Dalmatian Pale
The boundaries of the eight original Dalmatian city-states were defined by the so-called Dalmatian Pale, the boundary of Roman local laws.[citation needed]
Historian Johannes Lucius included Flumen (now Rijeka) and Sebenico (now Šibenik) after the year 1000, when Venice started to take control of the region, in the Dalmatian Pale.[citation needed]
Indeed, Flumen was the former Roman
South of the ancient Roman municipium of
Furthermore, about Sebenico, Thomas Jackson[18] wrote that:
In 1167 Stephen III raised Sebenico to the rank of a 'free city' conferring on it a charter and privileges similar to those enjoyed by the old Dalmatian cities of Trau and Spalato, and from that time forward Sebenico must be reckoned as within the 'Dalmatian Pale', though a Croatian town by descent and tradition. Lucio says the Sebenzani were some time in learning to wear their new privileges easily; accustomed for so long to be governed despotically, they accommodated themselves with difficulty to the Dalmatian (Latin) laws; they had Counts appointed for life, and not for a short term like the other cities, who were with difficulty restrained from their old habits of piracy, and they were more exposed than the other cities to the arbitrary interference of the Ban. Gradually however the Sebenzani became Latinized, and in later ages, the city was described by Fortis as next to Zara the best built-in Dalmatia, and inhabited by the greatest number of noble families, as far removed from the barbarous manners of ancient pirates as their houses are unlike the former cottages or sibice; and the same writer tells us that in the sixteenth century the arts and sciences flourished in this city more than in any other of Dalmatia.
Lucius wrote even that Pagus (the Venetian Pago, now called Pag) had municipal autonomy and was virtually independent for centuries around the year 1000. In 1244, the Hungarian King Béla IV named it a "free royal city" and in 1376, Louis I of Hungary granted it autonomy. In 1409, Pago, together with the whole island, passed permanently to the Republic of Venice and reconfirmed their communal autonomy guaranteed by a board of 50 civic local aristocratic families (this board was created in 1451).[clarification needed]
See also
- Venetian Dalmatia
- Dalmatian Italians
- Stato da Mar
References
- ^ Thomas Jackson: Recovery of Roman municipalities. p. 14-16
- ^ Giovanni Cattalinich. "Storia della Dalmazia" V chapter
- ^ Jayne, Kingsley Garland (1911). Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 07 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 772–776, see page 774, beginning at line nine.
History – Dalmatia under Roman Rule, A.D. 9–1102 – The great Slavonic migration...
. In - ISBN 978-953-57369-1-2.
- ^ Curta Florin. "Southwestern Europe in the Middle Ages, 500-1250". Introduction
- Miroslav Krleža Lexicographical Institute, retrieved 25 January 2023
- Croatian Encyclopaedia(in Serbo-Croatian). 2021. Retrieved 25 January 2023.
- ^ Brković, Milko (October 2001). "The Papal Letters of the second half of the IXth Century to addressees in Croatia". Radovi (in Croatian) (43). Institute for Historical Sciences of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts in Zadar: 31–32. Retrieved 2012-07-27.
- ^ Jakić-Cestarić, Vesna (1981). "Nastajanje hrvatskoga (čakavskog) Splita i Trogira u svjetlu antroponima XI. stoljeća" [The formation of Croatian (Chakavian) Split and Trogir in light of anthroponyms in the 11th century]. Hrvatski dijalektološki zbornik (in Croatian) (5): 93–112. Retrieved 10 September 2023.
- ISBN 978-953-340-061-7.
- ^ Zekan, Mate (1990). Kralj Zvonimir - dokumenti i spomenici [King Zvonimir - Documents and Monuments] (in Croatian and English). Zagreb: Muzej hrvatskih arheoloških spomenika Split, arheološki muzej Zagreb. p. 9–24.
- ^ Colloquia Maruliana, Vol. 12 Travanj 2003. Zarko Muljacic — On the Dalmato-Romance in Marulić's Works (hrcak.srce.hr). Spalatum Romance (Spalatin) is studied by the author. Zarko Muljacic has set off in the only way possible, the indirect way of attempting to trace the secrets of its historical phonology by analysing any lexemes of possible Dalmato-Romance origin that have been preserved in Marulić's Croatian works.
- ISBN 90-334-6094-7.
- ISBN 978-0-9765325-0-7.
- ^ "Romance languages in Istria and Dalmatia (in ancient Italian)" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-10-30. Retrieved 2014-12-25.
- ^ [author missing]. "Sibenik: Rediscovery of Burnum" (in Italian). Archived from the original on 2014-12-26.
{{cite web}}
:|author=
has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ [author missing]. "History of Šibenik" (PDF) (in Italian). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2005-03-16.
{{cite web}}
:|author=
has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ Thomas Jackson, Dalmatia, the Quarnero and Istria. 1887
Bibliography
- Cattalinich, Giovanni. Storia della Dalmazia (Books 1-2; editore Battara, 1834). Oxford University. Oxford, 2007
- Florin, Curta. Southeastern Europe in the Middle Ages, 500-1250. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge, 2006. ISBN 978-0-521-81539-0 ([1])
- *Fortis, Alberto (1778), Travels into Dalmatia; containing general observations on the natural history of that country and the neighboring islands; the natural productions, arts, manners and customs of the inhabitants: in a series of letters from Abbe Alberto Fortis., London: J. Robson, OCLC 4895425
- Jackson, Thomas. Dalmatia, the Quarnero and Istria with Cettigne in Montenegro and the Island of Grado. Clarendon Press. Oxford, 1887
- Jayne, Kingsley Garland (1911). Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 07 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 772–776. . In