to admit foes as well as friends, closed the gates, and left their comrades to perish by the hands of the besiegers *; and at length, despairing of further resistance, they surrendered the place to the Romans. Arduba †, a strong town on a hill, surrounded by a rapid river that washed its base, was also delivered up to Germanicus and Postumius; and the latter, being appointed Præpositus of Dalmatia, completed the conquest of the country; compelling Bato to sue for peace, and give his son a hostage for his fidelity to Rome. After the final conquest of Dalmatia and Pannonia, Illyricum was again enlarged, by incorporating with it Rhætia, Vindelicia, Noricum, and Pannonia; and it appears that Moesia, Dacia, and other districts to the south, were afterwards added to it. The extent of Illyricum continued the same, from the reign of Augustus until the division of the empire. The whole of Macedonia, with the first and second Mœsia, as far as Mount Scardus, the Drilo, and the Danube, was then given to Arcadius, and all beyond Pannonia and Dalmatia to Honorius. Illyria was also divided, like the Empire, into its eastern and western sections. But In the fifth century, Illyria was invaded by the Goths, Alans, Vandals, Huns, and other barbarous hordes; and the Suevi made inroads into Dalmatia, about 461. the courage of Marcellinus was enabled still to maintain the Roman power there; and though the allegiance of that general to the Emperor was doubtful, and he had *The woods in the vicinity, mentioned by Dio (like the others in Dalmatia), have disappeared from the now barren mountains. Dio, lib. lvi. 8. See above, p. 9., and Vol. I. pp. 38. 229.251. † See above, Vol. I. p. 212. See above, Vol. I. p. 36. assumed independent authority over the province, it was for the time protected from, the inroads of those invaders. In 481, the Heruli, under Odoacer, obtained a footing in Dalmatia; after whose death it passed under the dominion of Theodosia; and it was not till Justinian had restored the drooping power of the Empire that Italy, Dalmatia, and part of Pannonia were rescued from the Goths, (A. D. 535.) In the reign of the same Emperor, the limits of Dalmatia were advanced eastward over Pannonia. It was then divided into maritime, and inland, Dalmatia: the former extending from Istria through Liburnia, Dalmatia, and northern Albania, with the adjacent islands; and the latter lying to the east of the range † of mountains, known under the names of Albius, Bebius, Ardius‡, and Scardus. * Dalmatia had been first placed, by Augustus, under consular jurisdiction; and had been intrusted to the rule of a proconsul, appointed by the Senate. But the frequent attempts of the people, to recover their liberty, showed the necessity of maintaining a strong force in the country, and induced him to take it under his own management; he therefore transferred it from the authority of a consular, to that of a prætorian, governor; and P. Cornelius Dolabella was appointed proprætor of Dalmatia. This office he held, under Augustus, and his successor; as is attested by inscriptions found at Epidaurus, and Iadera; which mention Dolabella as the "Legatus Proprætor" of those Emperors. There was at that time no seat of government, or capital; but the province was divided into regions, called Dæceses, or Conventus; each region consisting of several * Illyricum and Dalmatia are often used synonymously. † The modern Prolog range. ‡ Or Adrius. villages and towns, with the lands appertaining to them; and one city was selected, within it, as a place of general meeting, where the prætor* decided causes, and where all affairs, both public and private, were discussed. Maritime Dalmatia consisted of three Conventus, which were called from the chief towns, the Scardonitan, the Salonitan, and the Naronitan. The jurisdiction of the Proprætor, or Legatus Augustalis, does not appear to have extended throughout the whole of Dalmatia, but merely over the maritime portion; the inland district either having its own governor, or being under the præfect of Pannonia. The title too of the governor varied at different periods. At the beginning of the third century, Apronianus and Dio Cassius Coccejus were styled præsides; and the same designation was given to Tarquinius, who ruled the country in the reign of Diocletian. In process of time, the city of Salona became distinguished as the capital of the province; and great favour was shown to it, from having been the first seat of a Roman colony in Dalmatia. From that circumstance, as well as from the wealth it possessed, and the desire of obtaining possession of so important a city, the attacks of the barbarous hordes, which assailed the empire in the fifth century, were directed against Salona; and being at length destroyed, in 639, it ceased to be a city; and the title of capital of Dalmatia was afterwards transferred to Zara. This was at the beginning of the ninth century, when the country had become Slavonic, and, with the exception of the maritime towns, independent of the Byzantine empire; which has already been mentioned in the History of Dalmatia. † *This title is still retained in Dalmatia. (B.) THE SLAVONIANS IN THE MOREA. A singular fact has been established by Fallmerayer, in his History of the Morea during the middle ages", that this part of Greece was in the possession of Slavonians, from the sixth to the eighth, or even ninth, century; which accounts for the many Slavonic names of places still found there, and explains in a satisfactory manner the origin of the name Morea. A common notion is, that it was so called from the number of its mulberry trees; (though it was not more noted for them than many other parts of the Byzantine empire ;) but it is far more reasonable to derive the name of that sea-girt peninsula from móré, “the sea;" especially as the Byzantine writers never used it, and always retained that of Peloponnesus; since they would not have objected to its adoption, had it been a Greek word, and their only reason for rejecting it must have been its barbaric origin. I ought properly to leave this, and the whole subject of the Slavonians, to one, who, from his intimate knowledge of it, is so much more capable of doing it justice, and who will shortly give the world the benefit of his researches; but the imperfect remarks I offer may perhaps induce those who are interested in the question, to seek for fuller information from a better, and more copious, source, in the forthcoming work of Count Valerian Krasinski, on the Slavonic races. I have been indebted to him for much information on the subject; and the following is a summary of his observations on the History of Fallmerayer, relative to the Morea. * Two volumes, 1830-36, in German. "The most remarkable part of it is his decided opinion that the modern Greek population (of the Morea), is not composed of the descendants of the countrymen of Miltiades, Socrates, and Plato, but that they are derived from the Slavonic hordes; a statement which created a considerable outcry amongst the Philhellenes, but one to which no conclusive refutation appears to have been offered. "It is well known that the Slavonians, who had begun to make frequent inroads into the Greek Empire, under Justinian I., were conquered, during the second part of the sixth century, by the Asiatic nation of the Avars, who had been induced by the Court of Byzantium to attack the Slavonians. The Avars, however, became more formidable enemies of the Greek empire, than the Slavonians had been; and these last, now marching under the banners of the Khan, as the vanguard of the Avars, penetrated to the very walls of Constantinople. "The whole of the Peloponnesus was devastated by the Slavonians, with the exception of the Acro-Corinthus, with its two sea-ports, (Cenchrea, and Lecheum,) Patras, Modon, Coron, Argos with the adjacent country, Anapli in the present district of Praslo, Vitylos on the western slope of the Taygetus, and the highlands of Maina. The rest of the Peloponnesus was reduced to a complete desert, and the inhabitants, who had not perished, or been dragged into captivity, fled either to the above-mentioned strong places, or to the islands of the Archipelago. "It may, however, be objected that, although the present Morea was completely devastated, like many other provinces of the empire, it does not follow that it was re-peopled by a Slavonic population, like Thrace, Mœsia, and some other countries, where the inhabitants even |