 The name of the region stems from an Illyrian tribe called the Dalmatae, who lived in the area in classical antiquity.Later it became a Roman province, and as result a Romance culture emerged, along with the now-extinct Dalmatian language, later largely replaced with related Venetian.With the arrival of Croats to the area in the 8th century, who occupied most of the hinterland, Croatian and Romance elements began to intermix in language and culture.