NARO´NA
NARO´NA (
Ναρβῶνα, a mistake for
Ναρῶνα,
Ptol. 2.17.12,
8.7.8), a town in Dalmatia, and a Roman “colonia.” It appears from the letters of P. Vatinius to Cicero (
Cic. Fam. 5.9,
10), dated Narona, that the Romans made it their head-quarters during their conquest of Dalmatia. (Comp. Pomp, Mela, 2.3.13;
Itin. Anton.; Peut. Tab.; Geog. Rav. 4.16.) Narona was a “conventus,” at which, according to M. Varro (
ap Plin. 3.26) 89 cities assembled; in the time of Pliny (
l.c.) this number had diminished, but he speaks of as many as 540 “decuriae” submitting to its jurisdiction.
The ancient city stood upon a hill now occupied by the village of
Vido, and extended probably to the marsh below; from the very numerous inscriptions that have been found there, it appears that there was a temple to Liber and Libera, as well as other buildings dedicated to Jupiter and Diana. (Lanza,
sopra l'antica cittá di Narona, Bologna, 1842; Neigebaur,
Die Sud-Slaven, pp. 116, 122.)
A coin of Titus has been found with the epigraph Col. Narona. (Goltz,
Thesaurus, p. 241; Rasche, vol. iii. pt. i. p. 1048.)
When the Serbs or W. Slaves occupied this country in the reign of Heraclius, Narenta, as it was called, was one of the four “banats” into which the Servians were divided. The Narentine pirates, who for three centuries had been the terror of Dalmatia and the Venetian traders, were in A.D. 997 entirely crushed by the fleet of Venice, commanded by the Doge in person. (Schafarik,
Slav. Alt. vol. ii. p. 266.)
[
E.B.J]
