Dalmatia (Roman province)

From Infogalactic: the planetary knowledge core
Jump to: navigation, search
Provincia Dalmatia
Province of the Roman Empire

32 BC–480 AD
Location of Dalmatia
Province of Dalmatia highlighted
Capital Salona
Historical era Antiquity
 •  Illyrian Wars 220 BC - 168 BC
 •  Established 32 BC
 •  Disestablished 480 AD
Today part of  Croatia
 Bosnia and Herzegovina
The Roman empire under Hadrian (ruled 117-38), showing the imperial province of Dalmatia in southeastern Europe
Province of Dalmatia highlighted
Dalmatia in the 4th century

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 Classical antiquity. It encompassed much of present-day Albania, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbia, Kosovo etc, an area significantly larger than the current region of Dalmatia.


The region was the northern part[1] 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. The area north of the Neretva was slowly incorporated into Roman possessions until the province of Illyricum was formally established c. 32-27 BC.


The Dalmatia region then became part of the Roman province of Illyricum. Between 6 and 9 AD the Dalmatians raised the last in a series of revolts together with the Pannonians, but the rebellion 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 in today's Croatia.[2]

German historian Theodore Mommsen wrote (in his The Provinces of the Roman Empire) that coastal Dalmatia and its islands were fully romanized and Latin speaking by the 4th century.[3]



In 475, Dalmatia came under the rule of the deposed Roman Emperor Julius Nepos. After the Western Roman Empire collapsed in 476, with the beginning of the Migration Period, Nepos continued to rule Dalmatia until his death in 480, when it was governed for several months by Ovida, before being conquered by Odoacer. Dalmatia was ruled by the Ostrogoths up to 535, when Justinian I added the territory to the Byzantine Empire. Later, the Byzantines formed the Theme of Dalmatia in the same territory.


The first modern account of Roman Dalmatia in English was J.J. Wilkes, Dalmatia (Harvard University Press) 1969. Wilkes surveys Illyricum and Dalmatia, in its Romanized aspects, to the end of Antiquity, based primarily on the evidence of inscriptions and the ancient historians.

Episcopal sees

Episcopal sees of the Roman province of Dalmatia Inferior that are listed in the Annuario Pontificio as titular sees include:[5] (suffragans of ?Salona)

Episcopal sees of the Roman province of Dalmatia Superior that are listed in the Annuario Pontificio as titular sees include:[5]


  1. Thomas Kelly Cheyne and John Sutherland, BlackEncyclopaedia Biblica: A Critical Dictionary
  2. C. Michael Hogan,"Diocletian's Palace", The Megalithic Portal, Andy Burnham ed., 6 October 2007.
  3. Theodor Mommsen; William Purdie Dickson; Francis Haverfield (1886). The Provinces of the Roman Empire: From Caesar to Diocletian. Gorgias Press LLC. pp. 203–. ISBN 978-1-59333-025-5. 
  4. A. Stipčević, Iliri, Školska knjiga Zagreb, 1974, page 70

External links