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ANCIENT SALONA

The ruins of the ancient Salona, capital of the Roman province of Dalmatia, lie six kilometres north of Split in what is today the town of Solin. Favourable geographic position in the central part of the eastern coast of the Adriatic at the bottom of the well-sheltered Kastelanski Bay, along the delta of the Salon river (today the river Jadro), as well as good road links to the hinterland all contributed to the quick and unhindered development of the town.

Initially, Salona had been the coastal stronghold and the port of the Illyrian Delmats in the immediate vicinity of the ancient Greek colonies Tragurion and Epetion. Along with the local Illyrian population and the Greek settlers, Salona was at the time inhabited by a large Italic community. Following the civil war between Caesar and Pompey in 48 B.C., Salona was granted the status of a Roman colony thus becoming the centre of Illyricum and later of the province of Dalmatia.

After the last Illyrian rebellion had been stifled (Baton's Uprising, 6th-9th year A.D. ), Salona entered a new period of peace and prosperity, as illustrated by its urban development and the intensive construction activity.

The trapezium-shaped old town nucleus was fortified with walls and towers, some parts of which date back to the 2nd c. B.C. Of these fortifications the eastern section of the town walls, built out of huge stone blocks with the door surrounded by octagonal towers (Porta Caesarea) dating from the Augustus era, have been preserved to the present day. From here ran a road that branched towards the south-east and south, with another branch leading north towards the inland regions of the Province.

The period of rapid development of Salona during the rule of Emperor Augustus and throughout the whole of the first century A.D. is characterised by the construction of numerous public objects. In the south-eastern part of town the Forum with a capitoline was erected as the centre of public, political, and religious life of the region. Towards the end of the 1st c. B.C., a theatre that could hold 3,500 was built next to the Forum. A representation of Salona with the theatre is to be seen on Trajan's column in Rome.

South of the theatre an older temple was located. Along the roads leading outside the town walls, necropolises were built, as was customary in the ancient Roman Empire. The most famous of these is the western one, called in horto Metrodori, located along the road leading towards Tragurion. This necropolis is known for the "Cyclopean" construction of the walls encircling individual burial plots. From the 1st c. B.C., the town started to expand in the western and eastern directions. In the face of the threat posed by the invading Germanic tribes, the new extensions were fortified with defensive walls and rectangular towers. The town receives its characteristic elliptic form with the east-west axes of approximately 1,600 metres and the north-south one measuring about 700 metres.

During the construction of the town walls individual buildings became integrated into their structure, for the sake of quicker construction. Incorporated into the fortification were the overground part of the water supply system which supplied the town with drinking water from the Jadro spring as early as the 1st c. B.C., and the most impressive Salonitan structure - the amphitheatre that was erected in the second half of the 2nd c. at the outermost north-western part of town.

This ancient Roman building, in whose arena bloody gladiatorial contests were held, could hold almost 19,000. Found in the superstructure of the auditorium were two shrines of Nemesis, the goddess of fate and retribution who was worshipped by the gladiators. The Christians later turned these shrines into memorial chapels in memory of the Christian martyrs killed in the arena.

In the eastern town extension, ruins of residential buildings and the remains of the town insula were discovered, while south-east of Porta Caesarea ruins of a luxurious villa were found, probably praetor ium, the palace of the governor of the province. The palace floors are decorated with polychrome mosaics depicting mythological figures (Apollo, Triton, Orpheus).

In Salona a large number of private and public thermae have been found. Among the best-preserved are the Great Town Thermae dating back to the end of the 2nd c.,

located in the eastern part of town. A particularly significant period in terms of development of the town was the reign of Emperor Diocletian who built a magnificent palace not far from Salona to which he was to retreat after his abdication in 305.

During Diocletian's rule a great number of splendid buildings were erected, the forum, temples and thermae reconstructed, and an annex built to the amphitheatre. At the time Salona and the surrounding villages had a population of 60,000, with the urban life bearing a strong cosmopolitan stamp. Along with the official Roman religion, different oriental religions were practised in Salona, such as the cult of Isis and Cybele, with a particularly wide-spread worship of Mithras, the Persian god of light whose shrines were discovered on several locations within the town.

View of Salona