Dioclea in De administrando imperio

In this text the author analyzes the data on the Slavic Principality of Dioclea found in De administrando imperio, the work by the Byzantine emperor and writer Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos. In the beginning, he adresses the narrative given in chapter 29 (Of Dalmatia and of the adjacent nations in it) concerning the emperor Diocletian building ancient Dioclea, after which the inhabitants of this principality were named Dioklhtianoi. This is then followed by an attempt to specify the data from chapter 30 (The story of the province of Dalmatia) about Dioclea’s borders being given arbitrarily in relation to the Byzantine cities and the neighbouring Slavic principalities. The most concrete datum in chapter 35 (Of the Diocletians and of the country they now dwell in) refers to the list of Dioclean towns which have not been located even today. The author reveals new data in terms of the names of those towns, which in certain cases point to where they could now be possibly located. De administrando imperio does not contain valuable data on the Slavic past of the Dioclea Principality, but only general views of Dioclea accentuating its geographical characteristics.

Abstract licence: CC BY-NC

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