page_title: Duchy of Croatia
section_title: Background
hierarchical_section_title: Duchy of Croatia / History / Background
caption_attribution_description: English: Skyllitzes Matritensis, fol. 96r, detail. Miniature: Delegation of Croats and Serbs to the Byzantine Emperor Basil I. Text from the Chronicle of John Skylitzes: "... When the aforementioned races of Scyths, the Croats, Serbs and the rest of them saw what had happened in Dalmatia as a result of Roman intervention, they sent delegates to emperor requesting to be brought into subjection under Roman rule. This seemed to emperor to be a reasonable request; he received them with kindliness, and they all became subjects of the Roman government and were given governors of their own race and kin. ..." (Translated by John Wortley, in: John Skylitzes: A Synopsis of Byzantine History, 811-1057: Translation and Notes, p. 143) References: Ioannis Scylitzae Synopsis Historiarum. Editio Princeps. Rec. Ioannes Thurn, p. 146-147, in: Corpus Fontium Historiae Byzantinae 5 Series Berolinensis, 1973 Tsamakda V.: The illustrated chronicle of Ioannes Skylitzes in Madrid, p. 131-132 Grabar A., Manoussacas M.: L'illustration du manuscript de Skylitzes de Madrid, p. 60 Deutsch: Skyllitzes Matritensis, Fol. 96r, Detail Miniatur: Delegation der Serben und Kroaten beim byzantinschen Kaiser Basileios I.. Text aus der Chronik von Johannes Skylitzes: "... Auch die vorher aufgeführten Skythenstämme, also die Chrobatoi, Serboi und die anderen, nahmen die erfolgreichen Maßnahmen der Rhomäer in Dalmatien wahr. So entsandten sie zum Kaiser Delegierte in der Absicht, sich dem Joch rhomäischer Herrschaft zu beugen. Der Kaiser hörte ihre Bitte an und nahm sie menschenfreundlich auf. Sie alle kehrten unter rhomäischer Botmäßigkeit zurück und empfingen als Häuptlinge vertraute Leute ihrer Nationalität. ..." (Synopsis Historion S. 146-147 übersetzt von Hans Thurn, in: Byzantinische Geschichtsschreiber 15, S. 83)
context_page_description: The Duchy of Croatia was a medieval state that was established in the former Roman province of Dalmatia. Throughout its time it had several seats – namely, Klis, Solin, Knin, Bijaći and Nin. It comprised the littoral – the coastal part of today's Croatia –, except Istria, and included a large part of the mountainous hinterland, as well. The duchy was in the center of competition between the Carolingian Empire and the Byzantine Empire for rule over the area. Rivalry with Venice emerged in the first decades of the 9th century and was to continue for the following centuries. Croatia also waged battles with the Bulgarian Empire, with whom the relations improved greatly afterwards, and the Arabs and sought to extend its control over important coastal cities under the rule of Byzantium. Croatia experienced periods of vassalage to the Franks or Byzantines and de facto independence until 879, when Duke Branimir was recognized as an independent ruler by Pope John VIII. The duchy was ruled by the Trpimirović and Domagojević dynasties. Around 925, during the rule of Tomislav, Croatia became a kingdom.
context_section_description: Most of Dalmatia in the 7th century was under the Avar Khaganate, a nomadic confederacy led by the Avars who subjugated surrounding Slavic tribes. In 614 the Avars and Slavs sacked and destroyed the capital of the province of Dalmatia, Salona, and retained direct control of the region for a few decades until they were driven out by the Croats. The earliest recorded Croatian leader, referred to by the Emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus, was Porga. After their participation in Samo and Kubrat 's 632 defeat of the Avars, White Croats were either invited into Dalmatia by the Byzantine Emperor Heraclius (r. 610-641) and allowed to settle there, or prevailing the Avars after that lengthy war the Croats migrated across the Sava from Pannonia Savia and settled Dalmatia on their own. In either case, a new wave of Avars retook Pannonia in 677 but only as far as the Sava and Danube. By the early 9th century, Croatia emerged as a political entity with a duke as head of the state, territorially in the basins of the rivers Cetina, Krka and Zrmanja. It was administered in 11 counties (županija). According to De Administrando Imperio, the Croats in Pannonia were subject to the Franks for several years, ''as they had formerly been in their own country'', until they rebelled and defeated the Franks after a seven-year war, but it is not known on which specific war and time span this refers to.
  From that point on, they were independent, and demanded to be baptised from the bishop of Rome, and was sent to them to be baptised in the time of Porinos their prince. Their land was divided in eleven zupanias, which are: Hlebiana, Tzenzena, Emota, Pleba, Pesenta, Parathalassia, Brebere, Nona, Tnena, Sidraga, Nina, and their ban has Kribasan, Litzan, Goutzeska.
  — Constantine Porphyrogenitus in De Administrando Imperio
  Although the Christianization of Croats began right after their arrival to Dalmatia, in the early 9th century a part of the Croats were still pagan.
caption: Delegation of Croats and Serbs to Basil I, in the Madrid Skylitzes.
exif: {}