CHAPTER II
THE FOUNDATION AND EARLY HISTORY
OF THE CITY (656-1204)
WE have alluded to the destruction by the Avars of Salona and Epidaurum,[14] and the flight of their inhabitants to the new settlements. Of Salona extensive ruins remain, but with regard to the site of Epidaurum there is a division of opinion among archæologists. It is generally held that the remains at or near the village of Ragusavecchia, a few miles to the south-east of Ragusa, are those of the ancient Epidaurum. In the neighbouring valley of Canali (Slavonic, Konavli) there are the ruins of a Roman aqueduct. The name Ragusavecchia corroborates the tradition that it was the original home of the Ragusans; while its Slavonic name, Cavtat, is undoubtedly derived from the Latin civitas. Some archæologists, however, have doubts as to this point, and Professor Giuseppe Gelcich, than whom no greater authority on Dalmatian history exists, is of opinion that Epidaurum must be sought for somewhere on the Sutorina promontory in the Bocche di Cattaro. Fragments of Roman brickwork and mosaic pavement have been found there too; and according to Professor Gelcich, the Canali aqueduct is so built that it must have served a city farther south than Ragusavecchia. On the other hand, the statements of the classical writers, especially of Pliny, seem to bear out the general opinion, which is, in fact, based on them.
The exact date of the incursion of the Avars and of the destruction of Epidaurum has also been the subject of controversy. According to some writers, among whom are the native historians of Ragusa, the city was destroyed by the Goths in the third century A.D. But documents written between the third and the seventh centuries mention it as still existing. Constantine Porphyrogenitus speaks of Ragusa as having been founded by refugees from Salona five hundred years before his own time, i.e. about 449.[15] But Pope Gregory I. is the last writer who alludes to Epidaurum, so that it was evidently not destroyed before 603. The geographer of Ravenna, who flourished in the eighth century, is the first to mention Ragusa. The Avars made their first appearance in Dalmatia in the year 597-598.[16] They belonged to the same Tartar group as the Huns, and their path was marked with the same ruin and destruction. At one time they were in the service of Justinian, but under his successors they became so powerful and insolent that the Greek emperors might almost be regarded as the vassals to the Chagan of the Avars. In 597 they raided Dalmatia and destroyed over forty towns; and during the next thirty years they conquered the whole country, with the exception of some of the coast settlements, unimpeded by the Greeks, who were then occupied with the Saracens. In 619 they destroyed Salona, whose inhabitants, or at least such of them as escaped from the fury of the barbarians, for the most part took refuge in the walls of Diocletian’s palace at Spalato. But a few wandered southwards and established themselves on an island rock, where Ragusa now stands. About the year 656 the Avars swept down on Epidaurum and razed it to the ground, the surviving inhabitants flying to Ragusa. This year is generally accepted as the date of the city’s, birth. In all probability, however, it was not founded at any definite period, but arose gradually through the influx of refugees from all parts of Southern Dalmatia, from a fishing village into a town. The original settlers were nearly all Latins, and it was not until later that a certain number of Slaves were admitted.[17]
The traditional origin of the name Ragusa is connected with the situation of the town on a precipitous ridge. According to Porphyrogenitus, it is derived from λαῦ, a precipice, and was originally Lausa. The L changed to R, and it became Rausa or Rhausion. According to Professor Jireček,[18] this derivation is quite inaccurate. The rocky seaward ridge, even in the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries, were called Labe or Laue, from the Latin word labes, a downfall or precipice. The form Ragusa is found in William of Tyre, and in the Arabic writer Edrisi (1153). Later we find the form Rausa, and in the fifteenth century Raugia, and occasionally Ragusium. The Slavonic name Dubrovnik is said to be derived from dubrava, a wood. This etymology does not sound unlikely, as there is a wood in close proximity to the town, a rarity in this part of the world. But Professor Jireček says that from Dubrava the original form should have been Dubravnik, and this appears nowhere. The Presbyter Diocleas writes: “Dubrounich, id est silvester sive silvestris, quoniam quando eam aedificaverunt, de silva venerunt.” Whatever may be the philological value of these traditions, they indicate the double character (i.e. Latin and Slavonic) of Ragusa in the early, if not in the earliest times.
Ragusa is situated on the coast of Southern Dalmatia, about forty kilometres to the north-west of the Bocche di Cattaro.[19] It is built partly on a precipitous rocky ridge jutting out into the Adriatic, and partly on the mainland, ascending the steep slopes of the Monte Sergio. The original town was limited to the seaward ridge, which was formerly an island divided from the mainland by a marshy channel where the Stradone now runs. There was also a settlement of Bosnians or Vlachs on the Monte Sergio opposite. The ridge slopes gradually up from the channel, but drops sheer down on the side towards the sea. In an old drawing preserved in the library of the Franciscan monastery at Ragusa we see the town as it was when it only occupied the ridge. It is surrounded by a wall, and divided into two parts by another wall. Three extensions of the walls are recorded previous to the beginning of the twelfth century, rendered necessary by the number of fugitives who took refuge within its walls in ever-increasing numbers. “The original city,” writes Professor Gelcich, “was limited to the centre of the northern slope of the ridge now called Santa Maria, which, separating from the Monte Sergio, stretches forth in an opposite direction to that of the neighbouring peninsula of Lapad; it comprised the quarter of the town between the diocesan seminary and the street leading from the Chiesa del Domino to the summit of the ridge.”[20] The earliest extensions were the suburbs of Garište and Pustijerna, the former on the western side, the latter to the east, reaching as far as the harbour. Thus the whole rock was occupied and surrounded by a wall. The channel which divided it from the mainland soon became a marshy field, and finally dried up. As a protection against the Slavonic settlement on the Monte Sergio a castle was built by the sea, on the site of the present rector’s palace, guarding the bridge to the mainland.[21] Later the Bosnian colony was also absorbed, and the town walls were extended to the circuit which they now occupy.
Of the various groups of refugees who settled within the hospitable walls of Ragusa we have fairly reliable accounts. Porphyrogenitus mentions the earliest of these immigrations, and also gives us the names of the most prominent among the newcomers: Arsaphios, Gregorios, Victorinos, Vitalios, Valentinos the archdeacon, and Valentinos the father of the Protospathar Stephen. All these have unquestionably a Latin sound; they were probably Roman provincials from the minor Dalmatian townships destroyed by the barbarians. Besides the Latin refugees, at an early date a certain number of Slaves, who preferred the quiet life and safety of Ragusa to the constant turmoils and disorders among their own people, added to the population. The Anonymous Chronicle of Ragusa[22] describes several of these immigrations:—
“690. Many people came to Ragusa with all their goods from Albania and the parts of Bosna, because many in Bosna were partisans of Duchagini,[23] and wished to save themselves from being accused (punished).”
This evidently refers to a civil war, but the date given is much too early: it is not likely that the Ragusans would have admitted barbarians within their walls so soon after the destruction of Epidaurum:—