Dalmatae

The Delmatae (alternatively, Dalmatae in the Roman era) were a group of Illyrian tribes which lived in Dalmatia - which takes its name from them - and present-day western Bosnia and Herzegovina in classical antiquity.

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History of Dalmatia
Map depicting the Adriatic Searegion in PreRoman time, showing several Illyrian tribes and the extent of the territory of some tribes.

The Delmatae appear in historical record for the first time in 181 BCE, when upon the death of their ruler Pleuratus III of the Illyrian kingdom, they refused to accept the rule of his son, Gentius and seceded. They expanded and came to include coastal Illyrian tribes like the Hylli and the Nesti and increased their territory to the north against the Liburni. Conflict with Roman expansionism and its local allies in the eastern Adriatic began in 156-55 BC. The Roman–Dalmatae Wars lasted until 33 BC when Octavian (the later Emperor Augustus) installed Roman hegemony in Dalmatia. Local instability and minor rebellions continued in the province of Dalmatia and culminated in the Great Illyrian Revolt in Dalmatia and closely linked Pannonia in 6 CE. The revolt, which lasted for three years, involved more half a million combatants, auxilliaries and civilians on both side. In the aftermath, some Delmataean communities were relocated in the northern Sandzak region and others were resettled in parts of Carinthia to provide labor for the Roman mines. The defeat of the revolt began the integration of Dalmatia which in turn led to the romanization of the region by the early Middle Ages.

Name

The original name of the tribe is Delmatae. It appears to be connected to Albanian delmë (sheep).[1] The form Dalmatae and the name of region Dalmatia respectively are later variants as is already noted by Appian (2nd century CE). His contemporary, the grammarian Velius Longus highlights in his treatise about orthography that the correct form of Dalmatia is Delmatia and notes that Marcus Terentius Varro, who lived about 2 centuries before Appian and Velius Longius, used the form Delmatia as it corresponded to the capital settlement of the Delmatae, Delminium.[2]

History
Main article: Illyrian Wars

The Delmatae appear in historical record in 181 BCE. The death of Pleuratus III of the Illyrian kingdom and the succession by his son Gentius led the Delmatae to not recognize his rule and secede altogether. The Daorsi, who lived to the south of the Delmatae did the same. Over the centuries, the Delmatae and Ardiaei were among the Illyrian groups which expanded their territory northwards at the expense of the Liburni. They Delmatae may have been originally pushed towards the coast because of Celtic migrations in Pannonia Strabo writes that the territory of the Delmatae was divided into an inland (present-day Tropolje) and a coastal region by the Dinaric Alps. Their capital settlement Delminium was located close to present-day Tomislavgrad.[3]

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 78–76 BC finished with the capture of Salona (port Solin near modern city Split) by the proconsul C. Cosconius.[4]

During the Roman Civil War of 49–44 BC, the Delmatae supported Pompey against the coastal Roman colonies which supported Caesar and continuously fought against the Caesarian generals Gabinius and Vatinius. After Pompey's defeat they continued to fight against Roman legions in Dalmatia.[5] The fourth and final conflict occurred 34–33 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 Bato, 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:

Culture and society

Archaeology and onomastic shows that the Delmatae were akin to eastern Illyrians and northern Pannonii.[6] The tribe was subject to Celtic influences.[7][8] One of the Dalmatian tribes was called Baridustae[9] that later was settled in Roman Dacia.

The archeological remnants suggest their material culture was more primitive than those of the surrounding ancient tribes, especially in comparison with the oldest Liburnians. Only their production of weapons was rather advanced. Their elite had stone built 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 on the Adriatic.

Pliny the Elder also mentions a subtribe called the Tariotes.

Religious practices

The major collective deity of the Delmatic federation was their pastoral god 'Sylvanus' they called Vidasus.[10] His divine wife was 'Thana',[11] 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 for 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.

References
  1. Wilkes 1992, p. 244.
  2. Šašel Kos 2005, p. 2005.
  3. Wilkes 1992, p. 188.
  4. Dzino 2010, p. 68.
  5. Wilkes 1992, p. 196
  6. The Illyrians by J. J. Wilkes, 1992, ISBN 0-631-19807-5, Page 70, "... on Pannonia (1959) and Moesia Superior (1970). Duje Rendic-Miocevic has published several studies of names from the territory of the Delmatae, ..."
  7. The Oxford Classical Dictionary by Simon Hornblower and Antony Spawforth, 2003, page 426.
  8. A dictionary of the Roman Empire Oxford paperback reference, ISBN 0195102339, 1995, page 202, "contact with the peoples of the Illyrian kingdom and at the Celticized tribes of the Delmatae ..."
  9. Roman Dacia: the making of a provincial society by W. S. Hanson, Ian Haynes, 2004, page 22, "Outside the main urban centres, the best attested group of civilian immigrants is members of the Dalmatian tribes such as the Baridustae"
  10. The Illyrians by J. J. Wilkes, 1992, ISBN 0-631-19807-5, page 247, "... Death among Illyrians 247 identities of Silvanus and Diana, a familiar combination on many dedications in the territory of the Delmatae. Sometimes the name of a local deity is recorded only in the Latin form, for example, ..."
  11. Wilkes. "North of the Japodes, the altars to Vidasus and Thana dedicated at the hot springs of Topusko reveal the local Roman Illyrians..."

Sources
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