The sea-passage, which is crossed by a swing bridge, is called the "Cavanella di Ossero"; through it a strong current runs. The island of Cherso, the ancient Apsirtide, is a miniature of Monte Maggiore, with some fine mountain scenery in it, and a curious fresh-water lake, the surface of which is only 50 ft. above sea-level, though it is 225 ft. deep in some parts. The finest mountain scenery is near Smergo, where the rock rises sheer from the water to the height of 1,000 ft. Here is the "Dirupo di Smergo," a cave with a domed top. At one time the sea broke into it, laying bare the interior, which is like a giant amphitheatre with ribbed roof and sides. The fragments then detached lie at the foot of the rock, making a wall between the sea and the cave. The city of Cherso is best reached from Pola or Fiume. It lies at the head of a winding inlet, protected by a round tower at the point, a relic of the fortifications of an earlier period. It belonged to Venice from 1126 or 1130 till 1358, becoming finally Venetian in 1409, and was granted in feud to various patrician families, so that all the objects of art in the city show distinct traces of Venetian influence. The piazza by the harbour is triangular in shape, the narrow streets, with many picturesque houses in them, climb the hillside from the water, and the ancient walls remain on the land side. The loggia is a simple seventeenth-century building supported on six stone piers; in the back wall are encrusted two inscriptions—one Roman, one mediæval. The cathedral was burnt in 1827, but the west door still remains, very closely resembling that of Ossero. A picture by Alvise Vivarini is preserved in the priest's house—a Madonna with SS. Sebastian and Catherine, and SS. Christopher and Cosmas.
SMERGO FISHERMEN
In the chapel of the Mother of God is a Byzantine Madonna and Child on a gold ground. The carnations are brownish; there is a cross on the breast and on both sides of the head, with the Greek monogram ΜΗ Θϒ. There are also some fine stalls in the church of the Franciscan monastery; but there is not very much of interest in the town except the numerous Venetian houses.
XVI
HISTORICAL SKETCH OF DALMATIA
The history of Dalmatia is obscure and confused for a great part of its course. That there were Greek and Phœnician colonies along the coast and on the islands is certain; the earliest of the former was that founded by the Syracusans in Issa (Lissa) in 390 B.C. A Cyclopean building, the so-called Gradina Gate at Gelsa, is attributable either to this colony or to that of 385 B.C. in the ancient Pharia (Lesina). Tragurium (Traù) and Epetium (Stobreć) were daughter colonies of Issa. The largest number of inscriptions and coins have been found on Lesina and Lissa. Celts were in the country from about the same period. The Roman conquest was brought about by the appeal of the people of Issa for help against the powerful native queen Teuta. Illyria, south of the Narenta, became a Roman province in 168 B.C., though war with the inland tribes continued till 34 B.C., when Augustus took the ships of the pirates of Curzola and Meleda and the Liburnians, and conquered the inland tribes at Promona—eight long and disastrous campaigns in all. There was, however, another revolt in 6 A.D., when the danger to Rome was so great (800,000 men being in rebellion) that Augustus sent seven legions under such generals as Tiberius, Germanicus, and Postumius, who took several years to overcome their resistance, so that it was not till 12 A.D. that Tiberius enjoyed his triumph. Some of the cities were made municipia, and some colonies, and from this time Dalmatia was loyal to Rome. The Antonines erected important buildings in Jadera and Burnum, and they also fortified Salona.
Roman Dalmatia included the whole coast from Istria to the Drina, part of Albania, all Montenegro, Herzegovina, Croatia, Servia, almost all Bosnia, and some of the islands of the Quarnero. The legions for the most part remained near the coast, which gradually increased in commercial prosperity and civilisation; broad and safe roads were made to the interior uniting the Save and the Danube on one side, and the Drina on the other. From Burnum a road by way of Petrovac reached the basin of the Save; from Salona a fan of carriage-roads spread out—one across the Dinaric Alps by Æquum and the hill of Prolog to the Danube, another by the same hill to Livno and Kupres, a third between Delminum and Serajevo. From Narona (Vid) the great Roman Road of the Narenta started, and in Albania was the Via Ignatia from Durazzo and Vallona to Salonica. The great coast-road from Zara went past Scardona and Salona to Narona and Scodra; the inner land route commenced at Tarsatico (Fiume) and went by Zengg over the Velebits to Clambeta (near Obrovazzo) and Zara, then by Nadinum, Asseria (Podgradje), Burnum, Promona, Municipium Magnum, and Andetrium to Salona.