Norwich bulletin., 1919-04-11
IN THE DAYS NEWS
SPALATQ.

Here says bulletin from the Ma
tional Geographic Society, lis just one
OF the tangled international landlord
and tenant problems, the peace con-
ferees at Paris must wrestle With
If you build a city in mans house,
and the city grows, and grows, until it
outgrows the house, in fact, does the
city belong to the nation which is heir
OF the man who built the house, or to
the nation of the city that centers in
the house?
Sounds like combination conun-
drum of the house that Jack built and
! the mooted priority of egg or chicken,
but it is an exact statement of the case
| of Spalato, contended for by Jugo-
I SlavS and Italians. Feeling runs so
| high that American and British de-
Ttroyers rushed there this month, dis
| patches state, following the allegation
! of Italians that Jugo- Slavs compelled
| an Italian warship to haul down its
flag.
| of course Spalato is unique, first
| all. for being city founded and still
| largely contained in a house-in the
palace that Diocletian built when he
voluntarily abdicated as Roman en-
peror in the early fourteenth century.
He betook himself, not to Elba or some
reluctant Holland, but to a beauty spot
@N+N' NASA1AeNAAI
the site of palace covering nearly ten
acres. more than twice the ground area
! of the L. S. Capitol building.
/ 'Diocles of Dioclea was born near
Salona, three miles from Spalato. So
after he made a success in life, which
consisted in those DAYS of getting a
crown rather than fortune, he re-
turned to the place of his hunt BILE
birth, as many an American million
aire has done. and became the citizen
that made his home town famous.
Three centuries after Diocletian
died, and his palace in the meantime
had been converted into a cloth factory
and then deserted Salona was over
run successfully by Huns, Goths and
Avars,. Inhabitants fed to the islands
along the Da1matian coast and after
the storms of invasion blew over dug
into the Gargantuan palace, and thus
founded Spalato.
Thousands of Spalato citizens today
live and keep shop among the
!, chapels and suites, the vestibules ant
festal halls, of the palace ruins
Bright green shutters fare out like
post-impressionistic daubs of gaudS
color against the mellowed tints O.
: ancient stone columns and granite pit
lars. Cfumbling walls that surround
. ed the city have been built into those
dwellings and stores that cluster along
! both sides of the old boundary.
'Spalato has been called a city of tht
| dead. But it is intensely alive, ting
: ling with memories and pulsating witt
! the business hustle of what WIS, be
l, fore the war the most important t"ad
center of the Dalmatian coast. Thu
people then offered contrasts as vivit
as the buildings. Turban and fsz, cal
and hat, gave hint of many tyncs
The dominant element of resident p5p
ulation is erbo-Croatian.
) homogeneous, but picturesque, i!
, this modern moving picture projected
: among the ruins of what has beef
called the 'vastest and noblest dwelling
: which ever arose at the bidding of
single man. Remembered chiefly as
a despot and prosecutor, Diocletian'
+ reign was noteworthy for some gov
= ernmental experiments usually consid
:. cred ultra modern. He adopted pric
, fixing for needful commodities, abol
6 ished inheritance taxes, swung
mighty imperial stick against trust
: and graft, and acted as a sort of sub
limated trade booster for the EnpiE
q that he evolved from Republic.
:, Had Diocletian done nothing els
+ posterity would be grateful for hi
: country home. Its four noble gate:
+ two still standing, its cathedral. one
: the mausoIeum, its temple of Jupiter
supposed to have been private chape
are priceless treasures for the studeu