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Author analyzes several parts of the Elder Pliny's Naturalis historia (3, 141-142 and 152) describing central part of the
Dalmatia. It is well known fact that Pliny's sources differ in many ways and that it is extremely hard to define the meaning and chronology of every single data in his
text. Author tries to identify groups of data or "blocks" originating from different
sources. There are Pliny"s main sources: a geographical text (so called
periplous) and a source that contains the official provincial records (formula
provinciae); the second source certainly belongs to the beginning of the 1st
cent. AD. Analyzing Pliny's description of the Central Dalmatia one can discern clearly the relations between these sources
(see the scheme). According to the elements that repeat in different parts of the
text, it seems that the geographical source could belongs to the last decades of the Roman
Republic, with a number of later data inserted (from the Agrippa"s map
etc.). From the source of late republican origin Pliny mentions Tragurium
resp. Issa civium Romanorum. These notes probably reflect the situation immediately after the fall of independent Issa in 47
BC; using the same source Pliny mentions the ethnic regions (Histria,
Liburnia, Iapudia, Dalmatia) as parts of the province, according to the organization that
pre-existed the Augustan division of the province in three districts (conventus). For better understanding of the history of Central Dalmatia and the Salona area in
particular, it could be important the author"s hypothesis that three lesser communities to the East of Salona
(Pituntium, Nerate, Onaeum) were remains of the native tribes that, supported by Issaeans and Rome, resisted to the pressures of the powerful
Delmatae.
Key words: Elder
Pliny, province of Illyricum, central Dalmatia.
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