Salonae
Salonae, located in present-day Solin, Croatia, was a significant ancient Roman city situated in the coastal region of Dalmatia. Initially a partially Hellenized fortress of the Delmatae tribe, it fell under Roman control during the late Republic, serving as a strategic base in military operations. Salonae grew in prominence after becoming the capital of Dalmatia when the province was established around AD 9, benefiting from its advantageous position on key communication routes. Under Emperor Diocletian, who built a massive palace nearby upon his retirement, the city flourished and became a vital center for early Christianity.
The archaeological remains of Salonae showcase its rich history, including public baths, a theater, and several early Christian churches, reflecting its diverse cultural influences. After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, Salonae transitioned into a semi-independent principality, eventually succumbing to the rule of Odoacer. The city’s evolution from a military stronghold to a cultural and religious hub illustrates the broader historical shifts in the region throughout antiquity. Today, the ruins of Salonae serve as a testament to its storied past and are an important site for archaeological exploration.
Subject Terms
Salonae
later Salona (Solin)
A coastal city of Dalmatia (Yugoslavia). Salonae was an important, partially Hellenized, fortress of the tribe of the Delmatae, based on a harbor in Manios (Kaštelanski) Bay. Occupied by the Romans, it served as a base for Lucius Caecilius Metellus (later Delmaticus) in his operations against the Delmatae (118–117 BC) but subsequently, after the establishment of the province of Illyricum, had to be recaptured by Gaius Cosconius in 78/77.
A local community of Roman traders (conventus civium Romanorum) sided with Julius Caesar in his civil war against Pompey the Great, whose admiral Marcus Octavius they defeated (48), gaining promotion to the status of a Roman veteran colony, under the titles of Martia Julia, either shortly afterward or after the Dalmatian campaigns of Octavian (the future Augustus) in 33; there may, at one time, have been two adjacent sister communities. When the province of Illyricum was divided into Lower and Upper provinces, Pannonia and Dalmatia, in cAD 9, Salonae became the capital of the latter, prospering rapidly as the focal point of a communication system which included not only roads parallel to the coast and but also routes leading into the interior. The colony was probably reinforced by Claudius (41–54). During the Marcomannic Wars of Marcus Aurelius (c 170) its fortifications were rebuilt by legionary detachments.
Under Diocletian (284–305), who was born in the vicinity, and built a palace for his retirement nearby (see below), the city flourished as never before, and gained even greater importance in the years that followed, when it became a leading Christian episcopal center. After the empire had been divided into eastern and western halves, Dalmatia belonged to the latter, but on the death of the western emperor Honorius (423) the eastern government of Theodosius II occupied Salonae, and in the following year dispatched an army from its port to place the infant Valentinian III on the western throne at Ravenna. Subsequently it became the capital of the semi-independent princedom of Marcellinus (454, 461), inherited after his murder (468) by his nephew Julius Nepos, who after a brief tenure of the purple at Ravenna (in 474–75, when he sent away his imperial predecessor Glycerius to become bishop of Salonae), retreated to the same city in his turn, and lived on there for five years, during the last four of which he was the last reigning Roman emperor in the west (although his suzerainty over Italy was only nominal). After his death, Salonae passed into the hands of the de facto ruler of Italy, the Herulian (German) King Odoacer.
The ancient city possessed an elongated shape referred to by the poet Lucan. Remains of the forum, pagan basilica, local senate house (curia), several public baths, a theater and an amphitheater (built into the defensive perimeter) can be seen. The city also contained early Christian churches of considerable size and grandeur, including a three-aisled cathedral built c 400 by bishop Sympherius and his nephew Hesychius, and another basilica of about the same date at Manastirine outside the city, which also possessed three aisles and incorporated several earlier memorial chapels.
Diocletian, after his abdication, lived for his remaining eleven years, at the huge mansion-fortress he had built at Spalatum (Split, Spalato), situated on a promontory three miles from Salonae (Solin is now a suburb of Split). This remarkable blend of civilian and military architecture combined the public rooms of an imperial palace, the personal quarters of a grandiose Dalmatian villa or commander-in-chief's residence, and the defences of a stronghold encircled by a wall studded by towers. A large avenue passes through a colonnaded atrium (flanked by an octagonal mausoleum) to a domed vestibule leading onward to the throne room (Aula Palatina), of which the three-bayed, pedimented, arched columnar facade is still to be seen. The south front of the Aula, flanked by two square towers, consisted of a huge windowed gallery overlooking the Adriatic Sea. Under the threat of Avar and Slav invasions in the seventh century the population of Salonae retreated within the walls of the palace, which became the nucleus of the medieval town of Spalato.