The history of Dalmatia is obscure and confused for a great part of its course. That there were Greek and Phoenician colonies along the coast and on the islands is certain; the earliest of the former was that founded by the Syracusans in Issa (Lissa) in 390 B.C. A Cyclopean building, the so-called Gradina Gate at Gelsa, is attributable either to this colony or to that of 385 B.C. in the ancient Pharia (Lesina). Tragurium (TraÙ) and Epetium (Stobrec) were daughter colonies of Issa. The largest number of inscriptions and coins have been found on Lesina and Lissa. Celts were in the country from about the same period. The Roman conquest was brought about by the appeal of the people of Issa for help against the powerful native queen Teuta. Illyria, south of the Narenta, became a Roman province in 168 B.C., though war with the inland tribes continued till 34 B.C., when Augustus took the ships of the pirates of Curzola and Meleda and the Liburnians, and conquered the inland tribes at Promona—eight long and disastrous campaigns in all. There was, however, another revolt in 6 A.D., when the danger to Rome was so great (800,000 men being in rebellion) that Augustus sent seven legions under such generals as Tiberius, Germanicus, and Postumius, who took several years to overcome their resistance, so that it was not till 12 A.D. that Tiberius enjoyed his triumph. Some of the cities were made municipia, and some colonies, and from this time Dalmatia was loyal to Rome. The Antonines erected important buildings in Jadera and Burnum, and they also fortified Salona.

Roman Dalmatia included the whole coast from Istria to the Drina, part of Albania, all Montenegro, Herzegovina, Croatia, Servia, almost all Bosnia, and some of the islands of the Quarnero. The legions for the most part remained near the coast, which gradually increased in commercial prosperity and civilisation; broad and safe roads were made to the interior uniting the Save and the Danube on one side, and the Drina on the other. From Burnum a road by way of Petrovac reached the basin of the Save; from Salona a fan of carriage-roads spread out—one across the Dinaric Alps by Æquum and the hill of Prolog to the Danube, another by the same hill to Livno and Kupres, a third between Delminum and Serajevo. From Narona (Vid) the great Roman Road of the Narenta started, and in Albania was the Via Ignatia from Durazzo and Vallona to Salonica. The great coast-road from Zara went past Scardona and Salona to Narona and Scodra; the inner land route commenced at Tarsatico (Fiume) and went by Zengg over the Velebits to Clambeta (near Obrovazzo) and Zara, then by Nadinum, Asseria (Podgradje), Burnum, Promona, Municipium Magnum, and Andetrium to Salona.

Illyricum was divided into Liburnia, from Istria to the river Kerka, the people belonging to the juridical Convent of Scardona, which settled the business of eighty-nine cities; from the Kerka to the Narenta they sent their representatives to Salona; and Illyris GrÆca, from the Narenta to Drilone in Epirus, which belonged to the juridical Convent of Narona. With the successive Eastern invasions and the consequent race differentiations, maritime and inland Dalmatia were separated, and the Turkish conquest made the Dinaric Alps into a bulwark not to be crossed.

The Illyrians furnished the Romans with many distinguished soldiers, of whom Claudius Gothicus, Aurelian, Septimius, Probus, and Carus of Narona were soldier emperors. Diocletian was the most celebrated. More than sixty Roman settlements are known. For about seventy years the country was ruled by the Goths. After the recovery of Italy by Belisarius and Narses it belonged to Byzantium from 537, and was ruled from Ravenna by a catapan at Salona. The war with Chosroes in 600-614 strained the Byzantine resources and thus denuded the coast of soldiers, so that the Avar and Slav inroads met with little resistance under Heraclius (610-640), who had called in the latter to drive out the Avars; Narona, Salona, Epidaurus, Burnum, and Rhizinium were destroyed. In 641 Pope John IV., a Dalmatian by birth, sent Abbot John to Istria and Dalmatia to ransom prisoners and collect relics.

The Croats and Serbs exterminated the Avars in the middle of the seventh century and delivered the province, the Croats occupying the west to the river Cetina, the Serbs the east from the Cetina to Albania. Under the Serbs the southern portion was divided into four zupanje, of which the only name which has survived is Trebinia, which reached from Cattaro to Ragusa and included the mountain regions. The Croat dukes recognised the sovereignty of the Carlovingians, as is proved by the oldest inscription extant, that of Tripimir (852), being dated by the rule of the Emperor Lothair. The title of king was assumed by Muncimir in 914. Two or three of the kings resided at Nona in the eleventh century—Stepan ([symbol: dagger] 1052), Peter Cresimir and Svinimir ([symbol: dagger] 1089). The widow of the last invited her brother Ladislas of Hungary to take the kingdom. In 1097 Coloman I. of Hungary married the daughter of Roger of Sicily. Under Coloman II. (1102-1113) the coast towns from Zara to Spalato were Hungarian, while Ragusa and Cattaro remained under the protection of Byzantium.

The government of the Dalmatian cities was democratic to a considerable extent, the oligarchy embracing a large proportion of the inhabitants, and the monasteries were expected to contribute to the common needs and share in the defence of the town. The supreme official was called prior; judges and tribunes also are mentioned in contemporary documents. A certain dependence upon the Greek Empire was recognised, for in Zara the strategos, the catapan, and the proconsul of Dalmatia appear even after the time of the Croatian kings. The Venetian doge had the title of King of Dalmatia given him by the Emperor of Constantinople about the end of the eleventh century in return for the help given by the fleet against the Normans.

During the whole of the twelfth century Venice and Hungary contested the possession of Dalmatia, victory inclining to Venice, who, by policing the Adriatic, made her protection valuable to the coast cities. The pirate raids from which the coasts suffered were of varied nationality—Saracen and Turk, Uscoc and bands of native pirates. Of these latter the Narentans were the most powerful. They remained pagan till near the end of the ninth century, and beat off an attack by Doge Pietro Candiano in 887, killing him. He was buried in the atrium at Grado. For one hundred and sixty-eight years they carried on the contest with Venice, being most powerful during the tenth century, when Otho I. sought their alliance. They had then become Christian, and assisted in driving the Saracens from Monte Gargano. In 992 the confederate Dalmatian cities asked for the protection of Venice, in response to which the expedition under Orseolo II. was fitted out, and broke their power. The population of the Narenta valley is now but 12,000, in spite of the facts that Metkovic, near the mouth, is the terminus of the railway from Serajevo and Mostar, and that the government has spent much money in dredging and embankment works at the mouth of the river. The boundary of Herzegovina is but a mile from Metkovic, for which it serves as port. Vid, a few miles away, is the ancient Narona. A good many inscriptions and antique fragments have been found there, and are now encrusted in the wall of a house. For many years Vid was a bulwark of Christianity against the Turks, and the minarets of a little Turkish village, Liubuski, in which half the population, male and female, wear Turkish costume may be seen not far away.

By the middle of the fourteenth century Lewis of Hungary had acquired the whole of Dalmatia from Zara to Cattaro. In 1409-1420 Venice bought the territory from Hungary, with the exception of Ragusa, which for some fifty years remained under Hungarian protection, but after 1467 was protected by Turkey. In the sixteenth century the Cross and the Crescent were bitterly opposed; Austria became the Christian champion in place of Venice towards the end of the seventeenth century, and at the fall of the Republic Istria and Dalmatia were given to her in 1797 by the treaty of Passerino. From 1806 till 1814 they were French; but the peace of Vienna settled their destiny as forming part of the Austrian dominions, in which they have remained till the present day.