The History of Dalmatia concerns the history of the area that covers eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea and its inland regions, from the 2nd century BC up to the present day. The region was populated by Illyrian tribes around 1,000 B.C, including the Delmatae, who formed a kingdom and for whom the province is named. Later it was conquered by Rome, thus becoming the province of Dalmatia, part of the Roman Empire.
Dalmatia was conquered by the Ostrogoths in the 5th century. Slavs started settling in the area in the 6th and 7th century, including Croats and Serbs. These Slavic arrivals created the Duchy and Kingdom of Croatia, Principality of Serbia, and Pagania, Zachlumia, Travunia, Kanalites and Duklja principalities. Since then, the province's territory was vastly reduced to only a coastal part, known as the Byzantine theme of Dalmatia (with its own Dalmatian city-states), and closely associated with the Kingdom of Croatia. Since the 12th century, both Byzantium, Hungary, Venice, and the Ottoman Empire have all fought for control of Dalmatia. In the south, the Republic of Ragusa (1358–1808) emerged. The Republic of Venice held territorries in Dalmatia from 1420 to 1797, during which time the area considered Dalmatia became confined to the Venetian-ruled teritorries. In 1527, the Kingdom of Croatia and Dalmatia became a Habsburg crown land, and in 1812 the Kingdom of Dalmatia was formed. In 1918, Dalmatia was a part of the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs, then the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. After World War II, Dalmatia became part of Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in SR Croatia.
Illyria and the Delmatae
Main articles: Illyria, Ilyrians, Delmatae, Illyro-Roman Wars, Roman-Dalmatian Wars
From around the 10th century B.C., the eastern shore of the Adriatic was inhabited by the Illyrians, a West Balkan Indo-European people. Starting in the 8th century B.C. a number of Illyrian kingdoms were established in the region. These kingdoms traded with and were influenced by neighboring Greek kingdoms.. The Greek historian, Polybius, gives as an image of society within an Illyrian kingdom as peasant infantry fought under aristocrats which he calls in Greek Polydynastae (Greek: Πολυδυνάστες) where each one controlled a town within the kingdom.. The monarchy was established on hereditary lines and Illyrian rulers used marriages as a means of alliance with other powers.
Three Greek colonies were established on Dalmatian islands, at Pharos (Hvar), Issa (Vis) and Black Korkyra (Korčula), In 229 B.C, Rome started a series of wars, known as the Illyro-Roman Wars, to conquer Illyria, which continued for over 200 years, until 9 A.D..A key role in the Second Roman-Illyro War was played by Demetrius of Pharos (Hvar), who is described as either Greek,Budin (2000), p. 87; McGeough (2004), p. 69; Champion (2004), p. 113; Scullard (1980), p. 193; Chamoux, p 97; Sinnige, p. 104 half-Greek,Šašel Kos (2012). or IllyrianWalbank (2002), p. 117; Hoyos, p. 201; Edwards, p. 475. In 222 B.C. he became regent of the Illyrian Ardiaean Kingdom. He detached Illyria from its alliance with Rome and re-established its traditional ties with Macedonia, then led a fleet of 90 ships all the way to the Cyclades in Greece.
In 180 BC the Illyrian tribe, the Delmatae, from which Dalmatia derives its name declared itself independent of Gentius, the Illyrian king, and established a republic. Its capital was Delminium (current name Tomislavgrad); its territory stretched northwards from the river Neretva to the river Cetina, and later to the Krka, where it met the confines of Liburnia. After the fall of the Illyrian Ardiaei Kingdom in southern, the Dalmatae posed the greatest force against the Romans in their conquest of Illyria. A series of Roman-Dalmatian Wars were fought for control of Dalmatia, The first war in 156 BC – 155 BC finished with the destruction of the Dalmatian capital Delminium by the Roman army. Additional wars were fought 118-117 BC and 78 BC-76 BC, the latter finishing with Rome's capture of the Dalmatian stronghold of Salona (near modern Split, Croatia). Further uprisings against Rome occurred in 34. B.C., ending with Rome's capturer of the Dalmatian capital of Klis, and during the Great Illyrian Revolt against Rome in 6 - 9 A.D, which involved half a million combatants, auxiliaries and civilians.
Roman era
Following the end of the Illyrian wars the Romanization of Dalmatia began, similar as in conquered Gaul and Hispania. The Roman province of Dalmatia spread inland to cover all of the Dinaric Alps and most of the eastern Adriatic coast. Its capital was the city of Salona (Solin). Emperor Diocletian made Dalmatia famous by building a palace for himself a few kilometers south of Salona, in Aspalathos/Spalatum. Other Dalmatian cities at the time were: Tarsatica, Senia, Vegium, Aenona, Iader, Scardona, Tragurium, Aequum, Oneum, Issa, Pharus, Bona, Corcyra Nigra, Narona, Epidaurus, Rhizinium, Acruvium, Olcinium, Scodra, Epidamnus/Dyrrachium.
The Roman Emperor Diocletian (ruled AD 284 to 305) reformed the government in the late Roman Empire and established the Tetrarchy. This new system for the first time divided rule of the empire into the Western and Eastern courts, each headed by a person with the title of Augustus. Each of the two Augusti also had an appointed successor, a Caesar, who administered about half the district belonging to his own Augustus (and was subordinate to him). In Diocletian's division, Dalmatia fell under the rule of the Eastern Court, headed by Diocletian, but was administered by his Caesar and appointed successor Galerius, who had his seat in the city of Sirmium. In AD 395, the Emperor Theodosius I permanently divided Imperial rule by granting his two sons the position of Augusti separately in the West and the East. This time, however, Spalatum and Dalmatia fell under the Western Court of Honorius, not the Eastern Court.
In 468 Flavius Julius Nepos became the ruler of the province of Dalmatia. Four years later, in the spring of 472, the Western Emperor Anthemius was murdered by his Germanic general Ricimer; the appointment of his successor legally fell to Emperor Leo I the Thracian of the Eastern Court. Leo however tarried in his appointment. Ricimer, along with his nephew Gundobad, appointed Olybrius and then Glycerius as their puppet emperors in the West. This was not recognized by Leo I and the Eastern Court, who considered them usurpers. In 473 Leo appointed Flavius Julius Nepos, the ruler of Dalmatia, as the legal Western Emperor. In June 474, Nepos sailed across the Adriatic, entered Ravenna (the seat of the Western court), forced Glycerius to abdicate, and secured the throne. However, next year his Magister militum Orestes forced Nepos to flee back to Salona (on 28 August 475). Romulus Augustulus, the son of Orestes, was proclaimed Emperor within a few months, but was deposed the following year after the execution of his father. Odoacer, the general who deposed Romulus Augustulus, did not appoint a puppet emperor, but instead, for his part, abolished the Western court altogether. Julius Nepos, however, continued to rule in Dalmatia until 480 as the sole legal Emperor of the West (Dalmatia still being de jure a part of the Western court's administration).
Byzantine period
Following the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in 481 A.D. Dalmatia briefly fell under Gothic rulers who had also conquered Italy - Odoacer and Theodoric the Great. During the rule of the Ostrogoths, Dalmatia was united with the Pannonian area south of the Drava river into a single military-administrative unit, which was governed from Salona.
In 545, during Justinian I's war against the Ostrogoths, Dalmatia became part of the Greek-dominated Byzantine Empire. Ruled from Constantinople, it became a Byzantine province, still associated with Pannonia. The 6th and 7th century saw the gradual arrival of the Slavs and Avars into the territory of Dalmatia, conquering a number of Dalmatian cities (Salona, Epidaurum, Delminium, etc.).The traditional borders between the provinces disappeared, and the direct Byzantine possessions were reduced to a narrow coastal strip of towns and islands, with the hinterland becoming Slavic.
In 751 what remained of Byzantine Dalmatia (the coastal cities of Zadar, Trogir, Split, Dubrovnik and Kotor and the islands of Krk, Lošinj, Cres and Rab) was organized into a separate Dalmatian theme, which was managed by a Byzantine strategist in Zadar. Throughout the following centuries, effectively until the early 13th century and the Fourth Crusade, the city of Split remained a possession of the Byzantine emperors, even though its hinterland would seldom be under Byzantine control, and de facto suzerainty over the city would often be exercised by Croatian, Venetian, or Hungarian rulers. Overall, the city enjoyed significant autonomy during this time, due to the periodic weakness and/or preoccupation of the Byzantine Imperial administration.
Middle Ages Following the great Slavic migration into Illyria in the first half of the 6th century, Dalmatia became distinctly divided between two different communities: The hinterland, semi-depopulated by the Barbarian Invasions, Slavic tribes settled - which were roughly Croats and Serbs. There were also the Romanized Illyrian natives, and Celts in the north. The Byzantine enclaves populated by the native Romance-speaking descendants of Romans and Illyrians (speaking Dalmatian), who lived safely in Ragusa, Iadera, Tragurium, Spalatum and some other coastal towns, like Cattaro. +Historical affiliations of Dalmatia Liburnians and Dalmatae (9th century BC – 59 BC)
Roman Republic (Province) (59 BC – 26 BC)
Roman Empire (Province) (59 BC – 454)
Marcellinus magister militum (454 – 481)
Ostrogothic Kingdom (481 – 535)
Byzantine Empire (535 – 800)
Francia (800 – 812)
Duchy of Croatia (8th century – 925)
Principality of Serbia (780 – 960)
Byzantine Empire (Theme) (812 – 11th century)
Kingdom of Croatia (925 – 1102)
Kingdom of Dioclea (925 – 1102)
Kingdom of Hungary ( Kingdom) (1102 – 1202)
Grand Principality of Serbia (1091–1217)
Republic of Venice (1202 – 1358)
Serbian Kingdom (1217 – 1346)
Serbian Empire (1346–1371)
Bosnian Banate (1325 – 1377)
Bosnian Kingdom (1377 – 1463)
Serbian Despotate (1402–1459)
Duchy of Saint Sava (1448 – 1482)
Kingdom of Hungary ( Kingdom) (1358 – 1409)
Republic of Ragusa (1358 – 1808)
Kingdom of Naples (1403 – 1409)
Republic of Venice ( Regimento) (1409 – 1797)
Austria ( Kingdom) (1797 – 1806)
First French Empire ( Province) (1806 – 1813)
Austria ( Kingdom) (1813 – 1867)
Austria-Hungary( Kingdom) (1867 – 1918)
Kingdom of Italy ( Governorate) (1918 – 1920)
Kingdom of Yugoslavia (1920 – 1941)
Region of Dalmatia (1918 - 1922)
Province of Zara (Zadar) (1920 – 1941)
Banate of Croatia (1939 – 1941)
Kingdom of Italy ( Governorate) (1941 – 1943)
German Occupation (OZAK) (1943 – 1944)
SFR Yugoslavia ( SR Croatia) (1944 – 1991)
ZO Dalmacija (1974 – 1990)
Republic of Croatia (1991 – today)
Duchy of Croatia
With the arrival and conquest by the Slavs who started organizing their own principalities, the Roman province of Dalmatia in the sense of a political subject with the name of Dalmatia by the 9th century fell to the narrow coastal-island Theme of Dalmatia (existed between c. 870s-1060s) which was under Byzantine influence and control.
The most significant Slavic principality founded on the former large province of Dalmatia was the Duchy of Croatia and Borna of Croatia (803–821) is one of the earliest recorded rulers in Dalmatia. In 806, Dalmatia was temporarily added to the Frankish Empire, but the cities were restored to Byzantium by the Treaty of Aachen in 812. The treaty had also slightly expanded the Duchy of Dalmatia eastwards.