DELMINIUM
(Županac) Bosnia-Herzegovina, Yugoslavia.
On the plain near Duvno in Duvanjskopolje. The pre-Roman settlement of the same name, the capital and the largest city of the Illyrian Delmatae, was
near its Roman successor at either Lib or Gradina kod
Gaja. The city was besieged by the Romans in 156 B.C.
under C. Marcius Figulus; a year later it was captured
by P. Cornelius Scipio Nasica, its fortifications destroyed,
and the surrounding country converted into sheep pasturage (App.
Ill. 11; Florus. 2.25; Frontin.
Str. 3.6.2;
Strab. 7.5.5). Following the typical Dalmatian pattern,
the later Roman settlement moved from a hilltop site
to the valley as the need for fortifications passed, and the
territory of the Delmatae was administered from Salona
on the coast (Plin.
HN 3.142). Roman Delminium was
probably established under Augustus and survived
through the 6th c. when it was mentioned as a bishopric
under Pope Gregory ca. 585. Grants of Roman citizenship to the native population first appear under the emperor Hadrian. The city flourished as the agricultural center for the valley although it never regained the importance held by its Illyrian predecessor.
The major monument known from the site is the
forum, partially excavated. Over three-quarters of the
forum area consists of a paved open space surrounded
by a wall. The principal feature within the enclosure is
the building on its S end. The long axis of the building
is parallel to the S edge of the forum pavement and is
divided by cross walls into two larger spaces and several
smaller ones. The two largest occupy the central and E
part of the building and presumably served as the city
basilica and senate house. The senate chamber is distinguished by the addition of a fireplace sometime after
its original construction. The whole forum complex is
probably contemporary with the granting of municipium
status to the town, usually assigned to Hadrian or Antoninus Pius. Further building activity there is recorded
during the 3d c. The relatively high concentration of
Roman burials and traces of roads in the valley suggest
a fairly large population for the area in the Roman
period. However, the poor quality of construction in the
civic center indicates that the city did not attain the
same degree of prosperity under the Romans as did the
former Illyrian centers at Doclea and Salona.
The finds from the site are located in the Zemaljski
Musej at Sarajevo.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
D. Sergejevski, “Epigrafski nalazi iz
Bosne,”
Glasnik Zemaljskog Muzeja u Sarajevo, NS 12
(1957) 109-25; B. Pašalić,
Antička naselja i komunikacije u Bosni i Hercegovini (1960); M. Zaninović,
“Delminium. Primjedbe uz lokaciju,”
Vjesnik za arheologiju i historiju dalmatinsku 63-64 (1961-62) 49-55;
J. J. Wilkes,
Dalmatia (1969)
MP.
M. R. WERNER
