RIDER
(Danilo Gornje by Šibenik) Croatia, Yugoslavia.
On the steep hill of Gradina 360 m N
of the present village a strong hillfort of the Delmatian
Riditae. The settlement was encircled with strong walls
without mortar. The rock-cut foundations of numerous
huts and a large quantity of native pottery have been
excavated. The hill settlement continued to exist even
after the Roman subjugation of the Delmatae by Tiberius
la A.D. 9. Down in the large fertile valley a parallel Illyro-Roman settlement developed on the road from Salona to
Scardona. It obtained municipal rank under the Flavii
as the center of the Riditae. In the administration the
members of native aristocracy “principes Riditarum” and
“principes Delmatarum” participated as decuriones, as
mentioned in inscriptions.
The Roman settlement had several monumental buildings of which a villa urbana has been explored. It had a
bath complex which in late antiquity was rebuilt as an
Early Christian church. There are several necropoleis on
the periphery of the town. The importance of Rider lies
in the unusually large number of the tombstones found
there. They record the native Delmatian-Illyrian names
to which its population steadily clung all through the
Roman period.
The archaeological material is preserved in the Town
Museum at neighboring Šibenik.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
D. Rendić-Miočević, “Novi ilirski epigrafički spomenici iz Ridera,”
Glasnik Zemaljskog muzeja u Sarajevu 6 (1951) 49-64; id., “Princeps inunicipi Riditarum,”
Arheološki radovi i rasprave 2 (1962) 315-31.
M. ZANINOVIĆ
