Dalmatae The Dalmatae or Delmatae were an ancient people who inhabited the core of what would then become known as Dalmatia after the Roman conquest - now the eastern Adriatic coast in Croatia , between the rivers Krka and Neretva . The Delmatae are mostly classed as an Illyrian tribe , although for most of their history they were independent of the Illyrian kingdom which bordered to the southeast of them . Name . The name Dalmatae appears to be connected with the Albanian word " delmë " , " dele " which means sheep in English . The Illyrian town of Delminium has the same etymology . Culture and Society . Archaeology and onomastic shows that the Delmatae were akin to eastern Illyrians and northern Pannonii . The tribe was subject to Celtic influences . One of the Dalmatian tribes was called Baridustae that later was settled in Roman Dacia . The archeological remnants suggest their material culture was more primitive than this one of the surrounding ancient tribes , especially in comparison with the oldest Liburnians . Only their production of weapons was rather advanced . Their elite had the build stone houses only , but numerous Delmatic herdmen yet settled in natural caves , and a characteristic detail in their usual clothing was the fur cap . Their nomadic society had a strong patriarchal structure , consisting chiefly of shepherds , warriors and their chieftains . Their main jobs had been the extensive cattle breeding , and the iterative plundering of other surrounding tribes and of coastal towns at Adriatic . Roman conquest . There were some iterative Roman conflicts with the Delmatae lasting for 160 years . The main reason was the perpetual aggressiveness of nomadic Delmatae against all their neighbours ( " Liburni , Daorsi , Ardiei " , etc . ) , and also towards the Issaean federation , Greek - led Roman allies in central Adriatic islands , and so their pacification appeared inevitable . Delmatae land was mostly a rocky calcareous country with many pathless mountains , ideal for infinite guerilla wars ; thus Delmatae erected there about 400 stony forteresses and 50 major citadels against Romans . The first Dalmatian war in 156 BC – 155 BC finished with the destruction of capital Delminium by consul Scipio Nasica . The second Dalmatian war was fought in 119 – 118 BC , apparently ending in Roman victory as consul L . Caecilius Metellus celebrated triumph in 117 BC and assumed his surname Delmaticus . The third Dalmatian war 78 BC - 76 BC finished with the capture of Salona ( port Solin near modern city Split ) by the proconsul C . Cosconius . During the Roman Civil war of 49 BC - 44 BC , the Delmatae ( led by Versos and Testimos ) sided with Pompey and continuously fought against the Caesarian generals Gabinius and Vatinius . The fourth and final conflict occurred 34 BC - 33 BC during Octavian ' s expedition to Illyricum because of their iterative revolts , and finished with the capture of the new Delmatian capital - Soetovio ( now Klis ) . The last revolts of Delmatae under their federal leader Baton , against Romans were in 12 BC and the Great Illyrian Revolt in 6 - 9 AD ; both also failed and finished by a terminal pacification of bellicose Delmatae . Afterwards , the Dalmatae formed numerous Roman auxiliaries : Religion . The major collective deity of Delmatic federation was their pastoral god ' Sylvanus ' they called Vidasus . His divine wife was ' Thana ' , a Delmatic goddess mostly comparable with Roman Diana and Greek Artemis . Their frequent reliefs often accompanied by nymphs , are partly conserved up today in some cliffs of Dalmatia ; in Imotski valley also their temple used from 4th to 1st century BC , was unearthed . The third important one of Delmatae was a wargod ' Armatus ' comparable with Roman Mars and Greek Ares . Their bad deity was the celestial Dragon devouring the sun or moon in the eclipses . A strong weapons cult was very specific for the patriarchal Delmatae , and in their masculine tombs different weapons are widely present ( that is rare in neighbouring peoples e . g . Liburni , Iapydes , etc . ) . Their usual tombs were under the stone tumuli of kurgan type . After the classic Roman reports ( Muzic 1998 ) , nomadic Delmatae were extremely superstitious , and they had a primitive panic dread from all celestial phenomena : any view on the night stars was them forbidden in the fear of a sure death , and in the case of solar or lunar eclipses they repeated tremendous collective howling because of the immediate world ending , made hysterical suicides etc . Linguistic affinity . The ancient Dalmatian language was part of the Illyrian languages , which were spoken in the western part of the Balkans . The name Dalmatae is connected with the Albanian word " delmë " , which means sheep in English . During the Celtic settlements in the Balkans the Dalmatian language was partly influenced by the Celtic language regarding personal names and toponyms . The original language of the early Delmatae is scarcely known save a few toponyms noted by the Romans . Since the Roman conquest , town - dwelling Dalmatae were gradually Romanized , but shepherds in the countryside were assimilated more slowly and only partially . After the collapsed of the Roman Empire , Dalmatian citizens continued to partly speak the Old Dalmatic Romance language ( intermediary one between Italian and Rumanian ) . The medieval descendants of pastoral Delmatae in Dalmatian inlands conserved ( at least partly ) an Eastern Romance tongue ( see Istro - Romanian language ) with a large number of Slavic loanwords , called Morlachian dialect ( Murlaška besida ) , persisting also in the Austrian Empire ; it was chiefly spoken by 2100 local shepherds around the recent town of Livno up to World War I . Then in Yugoslavia during 20th century these non - Slavic pastorals under oppression were quickly slavicized . What remains of their language is but a few curious non - Slavic toponyms around the Livno valley , e . g . the rivulets Ayvatat , Sturba , and mountain peaks Bleynadorna , Brona , Ozirna , Gareta , Mitra , Zugva , Drul , Yenit , Yunch , Chamasir , and others .