Dalmatia (Roman province)

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Dalmatia was an ancient Roman province. Its name is probably derived from the name of an Illyrian tribe called the Dalmatae which lived in the area of the eastern Adriatic coast in the 1st millennium BCE.

History

The region was the northern part of the Illyrian kingdom between the 4th century BC until the Illyrian Wars in the 220s BC and 168 BC when the Roman Republic established its protectorate south of the river Neretva. Area north of the Neretva was slowly incorporated into roman possessions until the province of Illyricum was formally established c. 32-27 BC

Dalmatia region then became part of the Roman province of Illyricum. In 9 AD the Dalmatians raised the last in a series of revolts together with the Pannonians, but it was finally crushed and in 10 AD Illyricum was split into two provinces, Pannonia and Dalmatia. The province of Dalmatia spread inland to cover all of the Dinaric Alps and most of the eastern Adriatic coast. Dalmatia was the birthplace of the Roman Emperor Diocletian, who, upon retirement from Emperor, built Diocletian's Palace near Salona.

The historian Theodore Mommsen wrote (in his The Provinces of the Roman Empire) that all Dalmatia was fully romanized and Latin speaking by the fourth century. After the Western Roman Empire collapsed in 476, with the beginning of the Migration Period, the region was ruled by the Goths up to 535, when Justinian I added all Dalmatia to the Byzantine Empire.

See also

• Dalmatae
• Dalmatia
• History of Dalmatia
• Kingdom of Dalmatia

Reference line notes

External links

• Map
• Map

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Last updated on Wednesday February 20, 2008 at 13:37:07 PST (GMT -0800)
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