The Greek Emperors wished to pursue the Saracens into Apulia, where they had established themselves, and the rendezvous for one part of the expedition was Ragusa. A large force of Serbs and Croatians in the pay of the Empire congregated there, and were transported to the Italian shore on Ragusan ships. The expedition was successful, Bari being recaptured, and the Saracen power in Southern Italy broken.[37] This is the first mention we have of Ragusan shipping, which was afterwards to play so large a part in the history of the Levant trade.
Of all the Slavonic tribes settled in Dalmatia, the most lawless and uncivilised were the Narentans, the Arentani or Porphyrogenitus. This hardy race of mariners occupied the land about the mouth of the Narenta[38] and the coast,[39] between that river and the Četina, besides the islands of Brazza, Lesina, Curzola, Lissa, Meleda, and Lagosta. Connected by racial ties with the Serbs and the Croatians, they obeyed the laws of neither. The ancient Illyrians were famous for their piracy, which first called the attention of the Romans to the country, and the Narentans proved worthy successors of the aborigines. The conformation of the coast with its numerous inlets, well-sheltered harbours, safe refuges, and countless islands lends itself to this species of occupation. The Narentans ravaged the coast towns of Dalmatia with their swift galleys, plundered peaceful merchantmen, and so harried Venetian trade that the Republic was forced to pay them blackmail for a hundred and fifty years. On more than one occasion it sent its fleets to attempt their subjugation, at first with but little success. At the beginning of these wars Ragusa was a friendly harbour for the Venetian galleys, their most southern port of call in the Adriatic, where they could revictual and their crews rest from the fatigues of the voyage.[40] But the Ragusans very soon began to look askance at the Venetians as a possible danger to their own independence, and adopted the practice of secretly, or even openly, supporting the pirates against the Venetians. This naturally caused trouble later when the Venetians were strong enough to act energetically against the Narentans: it affords a curious insight into the policy of the Ragusans, who, while anxious to preserve their own civilisation and culture, were never averse to siding with barbarians, whether they were Narentans or Turks, against Christian Powers, especially against Venice.
As early as the reign of the Doge Giovanni Particiaco I. (829-836) the pirates of the Narenta had begun to seize Venetian galleys, and his successor, Pietro Tradonico (836-864), sent two punitive expeditions against them without definite result. After the Venetian fleet had been defeated by the Saracens, the Dalmatian corsairs were audacious enough to make a raid on the Lagoons. In 887 the Doge Pietro Candiano I. sent a first unsuccessful expedition against them, and a few months later led a second himself. This too was defeated, and the Doge killed. Probably there was another in 948 under Pietro Candiano III., and this time operations were directed against Ragusa itself, if we are to believe the native historians, the town being saved only through the special intercession of San Biagio,[41] who henceforth became the patron of Ragusa in the place of San Bacco.[42]
In the course of the tenth century Ragusa was again besieged by barbarians—they were Bulgarians this time, under the Tsar Simeon (not Samuel, as had been stated), who invaded the western provinces of the Eastern Empire. According to Cedren, his attack on Ragusa failed,[43] whereas the Presbyter of Doclea writes that the town was burnt.
It was during this same century that Ragusa first began to acquire territorial possessions. The account of the manner of these acquisitions is in part legendary; but, according to Prof. Gelcich, it has some substratum of fact. Paulimir Belo or Belus, King of Rascia,[44] having been deposed and exiled, took refuge in Rome, and married a Roman lady. In 950 he returned to Illyria, and landed at Gravosa, near Ragusa, with a large suite of Roman nobles. The Ragusans received him with great honours, and he in return helped them to enlarge their city, and sent a number of his followers, including some Romans, to increase the population. After this he returned to Rascia and regained his throne. As Prof. Gelcich observes, Rome is evidently a mistake for Rama, a country which forms part of the Herzegovina, and takes its name from a small river tributary to the Narenta. A few years later Stephen, Banus of Bosnia, and his wife, Margaret, came to Ragusa in order to fulfil a vow which the former had made to St. Stephen when his wife was ill, that he would visit the saint’s church in the city if she recovered. As a reward for the welcome accorded to him by the citizens he gave them the districts of Breno, Bergato (Brgat), Ombla, Gravosa, Malfi, and part of Gionchetto.
Nearly fifty years had passed since the last Venetian expedition to Dalmatia; but when the great Doge Pietro Orseolo came to the throne in 991, he determined to put an end to the depredations of the Narentans once for all. The annual tribute which the Venetians had been forced to pay to the freebooters only secured a very imperfect immunity, and the Adriatic trade was never really safe. Orseolo suspended the tribute, and as the Narentans at once recommenced their molestations, an expedition under Badoer was sent out which destroyed the town of Lissa. The Venetian admiral took a great many prisoners, but failed to attack the pirates’ chief stronghold at Lagosta and the Narenta’s mouth. They retaliated on the Latin towns of the coast, and the latter, unable to obtain help from their natural protector, the Greek Emperor, placed themselves under the suzerainty of the Venetians, whom they implored to intervene once more. The Croatians, to whom the towns in the northern and central parts of the country had paid tribute, now declared war on all who obeyed the Venetians, ravaged the territory of Zara, and attacked the islands of the Quarnero. The Ragusans were then tributary to the Serbs, by whom they were surrounded, and fearing the Narentans, who were so close at hand, separated their cause from that of the rest of Latin Dalmatia, and maintained an ambiguous attitude.[45] The Croatians, not content with terrorising the towns, sent ambassadors to Venice to demand the tribute; but the Doge replied: “Non per quemlibet nuntiorum tributum remittere curo; sed ad hanc persolvendam dationem venire ipso non denegabo.” He at once fitted out another expedition on a large scale, which set forth under his command on May 9, 1000.[46] It reached Ossero on June 5, and the Doge claimed the homage of the Dalmatians as their protector; this was paid both by the Latins and by a number of the Slaves. He then proceeded to Zara, which recognised his authority, and the bishops of Arbe and Veglia came to swear fealty to him, promising that his praises should be sung in the churches after those of the Emperor. Negotiations with the Narentans were now opened; the pirates agreed to forego all tributes, and swore to infest the Adriatic no longer; but the moment the Doge’s back was turned they recommenced their depredations. Orseolo then sailed with the fleet for Beograd[47] (Zaravecchia), the residence of the Croatian king. The terrified inhabitants paid him homage, and he prepared to strike a decisive blow at the Narentans. He sailed down the coast and received the submission of Traù and Spalato, and on hearing that forty Narentan “nobles” (pirate captains) were returning from Apulia, some of his galleys lay in wait for them, and captured them off the island of Cazza. The Narentans then sued for peace, which was granted them on a promise of future good behaviour, and all the prisoners were liberated save six, who were retained as hostages. The pirates on the islands of Curzola, Lesina, and Lagosta still held out. The first two were easily captured, but the Lagostans, hearing that the Doge meant to raze their stronghold to the ground, made a desperate resistance. The Venetians and their Dalmatian allies attacked the town, poured in through a breach in the walls, and put all the inhabitants to the sword. After the capture of this important fortress the power of the Narentans was broken, and the whole of Dalmatia lay at Orseolo’s feet.
With regard to the subsequent proceedings and the dedition of Ragusa there is considerable divergence of opinion between Venetian and Ragusan writers. The latter wish to prove that their city remained independent, at all events until the beginning of the thirteenth century, whereas the Venetians affirm that in 998 (1000) Ragusa made full submission to Venice.
The first account of this dedition is that of Johannes Diaconus, who writes: “This (the capture of Lesina, Curzola, and Lagosta) having been accomplished, the victorious prince repaired to the church of St. Maximus; there the Archbishop of Ragusa and his suite came and did great homage to the said prince, all partaking of the sacrament.” Dandolo uses almost identical language, and Sabellico adds that the Archbishop and the Ragusan envoys made formal submission to the Doge and the Venetians,[48] and that counts were appointed to govern the Dalmatian towns, Ottone Orseolo being chosen for Ragusa. To this a Ragusan writer, calling himself “Albinus Esadastes de Vargas” (whom Pisani declares to be Sebastiano Dolci,[49] a Ragusan monk of the seventeenth century), in a work entitled Libertas perpetua reip. Ragusine ab omni jure Venete reipub,[50] replies that the church of St. Maximus must mean that of Masline at Lesina, and that this island is so far that the Ragusan envoys would hardly have come there to tender their submission. Jadesta, which is also alluded to, does not exist. The Ragusans, who had resisted other attacks, both by the Venetians and the Saracens, so valiantly, would not have surrendered now without striking a blow; and, moreover, the Greek Emperors, Basil and Constantine, would not have authorised the submission. With regard to the first and third objections, it is most probable that when the fate of Lagosta had become known to the Ragusans they would have gone to tender their submission to Orseolo wherever he happened to be. Jadesta is simply an old name for Lagosta. As for the Greek Emperors, they were far too much occupied in holding their own against the Bulgarians to be able to make any objections. The former attacks on Ragusa had all been on a small scale, whereas this expedition was a large and well-equipped force, against which it would have been madness for the tiny Ragusa to resist. Then “Esadastes” shifts his ground, and asserts that the envoys went to the Doge merely to reclaim a ship captured by the Venetians, and that they actually threatened reprisals on the part of the Emperors if satisfaction were refused. But it is most unlikely that for so trifling a cause the Archbishop and chief citizens would have been sent to the Doge. This version, however, is accepted by Mauro Orbini.[51] Ragnina does not even mention the expedition. Resti[52] says that Ottone Orseolo was sent to Ragusa merely to make a commercial treaty; but as Pisani observes, if the magistrates appointed to the other Dalmatian towns were sent to govern them, there is no reason to suppose that an exception was made for Ragusa. There is, on the whole, the strongest evidence that Ragusa did actually submit to Venetian supremacy, together with the other coast towns, in 1000, and received a Venetian governor. Local usages and laws, however, were respected, according to the Venetian practice of the time; nor was Imperial authority wholly disregarded, and prayers for the Emperor continued to be sung in the churches of Ragusa.
Venetian rule was not of long duration. On the death of Pietro Orseolo in 1008, his son Ottone became Doge; and during this reign a strong opposition to the house of Orseolo was aroused, which ended with Ottone’s expulsion in 1026. During the reign of his successor, Pietro Centranico, faction feuds broke out, greatly weakening the Republic, and the Dalmatian towns revolted, as Venetian suzerainty was of use to them only so long as Venice was powerful. Some of them went over to Dobroslav, prince of the Tribunian Serbs, and elsewhere Byzantine authority revived. Thus in 1036, instead of a Venetian count at Zara, we find Gregory, Jadertinus Prior, Pro-consul and Imperial Strategos for all Dalmatia.[53] But his authority was disputed by the Croatians, whose sovereign now proclaimed himself King of Dalmatia.[54] Against this act the Venetians issued a protest, and the Doge Domenico Contarini (1043-1071) reasserted the authority of the Republic.