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 populated by Slavic tribes, besides the Romanized Illyrian natives (and Celtic in the north), roughly Croats to the north and Serbs to south; separated by the Cetina river.
- The Byzantine enclaves populated by the native Romance-speaking descendants of Romans and Illyrians (speaking the dalmatian language, who lived safely in Ragusa, Iadera, Tragurium, Spalatum and some other coastal towns, like Cattaro (Kotor).
These towns remained powerful because they were highly civilized (because of their connection with the Byzantium) and also fortified. The Slavs were at the time barely in the process of becoming Christianized. The two different communities were frequently hostile at first.
Read more about this topic: History Of Dalmatia
Famous quotes containing the words middle and/or ages:
“Death cut the strings that gave me life,
And handed me to Sorrow,
The only kind of middle wife
My folks could beg or borrow.”
—Countee Cullen (1903–1946)
“To abolish a status, which in all ages God has sanctioned, and man has continued, would not only be robbery to an innumerable class of our fellow-subjects; but it would be extreme cruelty to the African Savages, a portion of whom it saves from massacre, or intolerable bondage in their own country, and introduces into a much happier state of life; especially now when their passage to the West-Indies and their treatment there is humanely regulated.”
—James Boswell (1740–1795)