Salonae

Salonae 

(now the village of Solin), originally an Illyrian settlement, located 5 km north of what is now the city of Split in Yugoslavia. From the early second to the first century B.C., Salonae was a military base for the Romans in Dalmatia. In 27 B.C. it became a Roman colony. During the Flavian dynasty it was a large trade and artisan center and the capital of the province of Dalmatia. In the fourth century A.D. it became a bishop’s seat. Salonae was destroyed by the Avars and the Slavs in the sixth and seventh centuries.

The city fortifications with their polygonal towers have been preserved. The remains of several other structures still exist. They include a forum, an amphitheater (second century A.D.), a temple (first century), thermae and villas with mosaics, and basilicas (fourth and fifth centuries). There are also Roman and early Christian necropolises, the bishop’s palace, numerous classical statues and sarcophagi with relief ornamentation, and monuments with inscriptions. From the 1880’s to the 1920’s archaeological excavations were conducted in Salonae by F. Bulič.