Folia onomastica Croatica, No. 8, 1999.
Izvorni znanstveni članak
The Zadar Archipelago of Constantine Porphyrogenetus: philological, toponomástical and historical notes
Slobodan Čače
; Filozofski fakultet u Zadru
Sažetak
In the end of the chapter 29 of Constantine Porphyrogenetus »De administrando
imperio« there is a brief description of the east Adriatic islands that
belonged to the Dalmatian thema. The last section is dedicated to the Zadar
Archipelago, containing two general remarks (these islands are uninhabited,
there is a number of deserted kastrd) and a list of names. There are some uncertainties
and questions: is that a list of the islands or the list of the deserted castles?
what kind of source exploited the Emperor? is it possible to determine the
time and historical context of the data?
Analyzing at first the names mainly preserved in medieval and modern names
of the islands and places and their distribution over the Archipelago, the author
concludes that some order could be traced. The ordering of the names in the list,
at first glance chaotic, could be analyzed as a result of excerpting the data
(names) of the castles in the Archipelago from some text containing substantial
data concerning the geographical distribution of the islands and the castles.
Following the general direction from south to the north, and then, for the northern
part, taking the Island of Silba as a pivot, the other islands/castles were chosen
alternatively, one from the west and one from the east of Silba; the list ends
with the sequence of the islands to the south of Silba. The arrangement of the
northern group, as it appears in the list, could originate in some description of the
Archipelago, at least partially pervaded by rhetoric.
The hypothetical text belongs probably to the age of Constantine's grandfather,
the Emperor Basilius I, who tried to renew the imperial authority in
Dalmatia, sending his fleet in the Adriatic in 870s. The list of the deserted castles
(that is small island communities) is the record of the end of military organized
island Roman communities that survived from the Late Antiquity up to the period
between 830 and 870 approximately, when the incursions, plundering and
even the complete devastation of the cities took place in the Adriatic. Small island
communities were not able to survive. After all, this probably open wide the
Archipelago to the early Croat colonization, echoed in specific changes of the
place names.
The archaeological and toponomastical evidence of the islands of Pag and
Dugi otok, here briefly examined as the best available in the Archipelago, does
not contradict this interpretation of the Emperor's data.
Ključne riječi
the Zadar archipelago; Constantine Porphyrogenetus; »De administrando imperio«; place-names
Hrčak ID:
180303
URI
Datum izdavanja:
26.6.2000.
Posjeta: 1.395 *