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 DALMATIA

607

DALMATIA

Dalmatian league soon came into conflict with the Romans. In 153 b. c. the Roman Senate sent envoys to negotiate with the Dalmatians, but they returned complaining that they were received in an unfriendly manner, and that they would have been killed if they had not secretly escaped. During the next year war broke out. Finally Publius Cornelius Scipio Nasica conquered the land and demolished the city of Delminium. The Romans' success was incomplete; they must subdue the neighbouring illyrians and Celts if they wished to retain the whole of Dalmatia The two new consuls had to march from Gaul to Illyrium and occupy the city of Segestica, now Sisak, thence to invade Dalmatia and capture the city of Salona The consul Metellus carried out this plan, defeated the enemy in 118 B. c, and celebrated a triumph at Rome, receiving the title Dalmaticus (117). The Roman Senate now created the large prov- ince of Illyricuni, extending southward to the River Drim, northward as far as the Julian Alps and the Ri\-er Sava The principal strategic point and fortress in tliis new province was the city of Salona (Solin). But the Dalmatians did not patiently bear the Roman yoke and tribute Many uprisings broke out until the time of Octavian, who came to lUyricum in 40 B. c, and subjugated all the tribes; he made the rivers Drava and Danube the northern boundaries of the Roman possessions and sailed on them in his triremes. Later, when emperor, he broke the power of the Dalmatian and Pannonian tribes who tried again to throw off the Roman rule. The insurrection started in the year 6 B. c and ended in A. D. 9. The power of the rebels was crushed and their country devastated. Since the Punic wars Rome had not been in as critical a situation as during this insurrec- tion suppressed by Tiberius.

From this date begins the Romanizing of Illyricum. This province now received the name of Dalmatia and comprised all the land south of the River Sava, within which were many famous watering places, such as Aquae Jasss (the Varaidinske toplice of to-day), Aquae BalLssae (Lipik in Croatia), and much mineral wealth exploited by them, as appears from their re- mains to-day. The Roman rule in Dalmatia ended with the entry of Christianity and the invasion of the northern natiorts. The Romans persecuted the Chris- tians in Dalmatia and Pannonia, but they fiourislied nevertheless. St. Paul sent his disciple Titus to Dal- matia, who founded the first Christian see in the city of Salona and consecrated it with his blood a. d. 65. St. Peter sent St. Domnius. Salona became the centre from which Christianity spread. In Pannonia St. Andronicus founded the See of Syrmium (Mitro- vica) and later those of SLscia and Mursia. The cruel persecution under Diocletian, who was a Dalmatian by birth, left numerous traces in Old Dalmatia and Pannonia. St. QuiriniLS, Bishop of Siscia, died a martyr a. d. 303. St. Jerome was born in Strido, a city on the border of Pannonia and Dalmatia. .(Vfter the fall of the Western Empire in 476, peace never came to Dalmatia. She successively fell into the power of Odoacer, Theodoric, and Justinian. The Goths were Arians, but they did not persecute the Catholics. Two provincial cnurch councils were held at Salona — 530 and 532. The Western Empire w:ls succeeded by the Ostro-Goths, after whose fall in 555 Dalmatia came under Byzantine power. In a. u. 598 the khan of the Avars advanced from Syrmium through Bosnia, devastated Dalmatia, and demolished forty cities. In a. d. 600 appeared the Slavs, who entered Dalmatia. Pope Gregory the Great wrote to Maxim, Archbishop of Salona: "Et de Slavorum gente, quae vobis valde imminet, affligor vehementer et conturbor. Affligor in his, qua; iam in vobis patior; conturbor quia per IstriiE aditum iam Italiam intrare cceperunt".

In the seventh century Dalmatia received the

dominant element of its present population, the Croats. In the ninth century we find the Croatian influence at its height, and the Croatian princes recognized as Kings of Dalmatia. At the time of Thomislav there were held two councils at Spljet for the whole of Dalmatia and Croatia. The legates of the Holy See, John, Bishop of Ancona and Leo, Bishop of Praeneste, were present. Pope John X wrote a letter to Thomislav, King of the Croats and all the people of Dalmatia. In this he reminded the king of the Anglo-Saxons, to w-hom Gregory I sent not only Christianity, but also culture and education. The council met in 925 to decide the fjuestion of the pri- macy of the Sees of Nin and Spljet ; to re-establish rules of discipline, to settle administrative questions arising from disputes about the boundaries of dioceses, and finally to show the reason for using the Old Croatian

Dalmatia (XIII Centur>0

language at Mass. On this occasion BLshop Grgur Ninski energetically defended the right of the Croa- tians to use that language. Pope Leo VI decreed by his Bull that the primate of Dalmatia and Croatia should bo the Archbishop of Spljet. All the decisions of the councils were sent to Rome for confirmation. The See of Nin was suppressed in 928, when the S(« of Spljet renounced the jurisdiction of the Patriarch of Constantinople and submitted to the Holy See. At the next council, held 1059-60 at Spljet, permission was given to use the Greek and Latin langu:iges at Mass. The use of the old Croatian language was f)ften forbidden, but never abolished. During the following centuries the history of Dalmatia is closely connected with that of Croatia. In the course of time, however, Venice extended her authority over Dalmatia. Venice never gained the affection of the Dalmatian people. By the treaty of Campo Formio in 1797 she lost Dalmatia, which came under Austrian rule, under which it has continued to the present time with the exception of Napoleonic times (1805-1814). The feeling towanls Austria was not friendly, as the outbreak in 1869 shows. This was put down by force of arms in February of the next year. Influential patriots, the members of the home Diet, and the dele-