Original scientific paper
ADRIATIC TOWNS IN THE LATE ANTIQUITY. THE EXEMPLE OF THE TOWN OF HVAR
Miroslav Katić
; Ministarstvo kulture, Konzervatorski odjel u Splitu
Abstract
The author presents the results of recent archaeological reserch in the town of Hvar on the homonymous island. The earliest recoar in Dalmatina, when it was called Lisina. The Byzantine fleet had assembled in the harbour of Lisina before attacking Salona, which belonged to the Ostrogoths at that time. This first mention of Lisina in late Antiquity corresponds with the results of archaeological excavation. The earliest urban traces in the town of Hvar data from the 4th and the beginning of the 5th centuries, showing that its foundation was in the late antiquity like many of the towns on the eastern coast of the Adriatic. At the end of the 6th century the anonymous author from Ravenna in his »Cosmographia« gave the names of 26 new civitates, as he called them, which do not appear in the older travelogues like the Peutinger’s Table or the Antonine’s Itinerary. This implies that they originated, or became significant, during tha late antiquity. There were several factor which led to the inception of late anti que towns on the eastern Adriatic coast: the crisis on the Danube limes and the subsequent dereliction of the Pannonian route Aquileia–Siscia–Sirmium–Serdica–Constantinopolis, and the fact that the Aquileia–Salona–Dyrrachium–Thessalonica–Constantinopolis coastal route had ceased to function. These two important land routes once connected the Eastern and Western Empires and formed the very »spine« of the Roman Empire as a whole. When they became endangered by barbarian incursions, traffic was transferred to more secured sea–routes, whish stimulated development of the new fortified coastal towns. Their origins appear in written historic sources and have also been revealed by archaeological excavation. Lisina became a place of habitation near the end of the 4th century and the beginning of the 5th century and developed steadily through the 6th century under the impetus of Justinian’s REconquest, which affected all the Adriatic coastal towns. By all accounts, the late-antique forts built on the eastern Adriatic coast during the Reconquest not only helped to secure traffic on the Adriatic, but their foundation relied on the existing traffic infrastructure of the 5th century and on the existing fortified towns.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
145460
URI
Publication date:
3.7.2000.
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