This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 89.172.239.85 (talk) at 12:51, 24 September 2006 (rv, removed serbian propaganda). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.
Revision as of 12:51, 24 September 2006 by 89.172.239.85 (talk) (rv, removed serbian propaganda)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)You must add a |reason= parameter to this Cleanup template – replace it with {{Cleanup|May 2006|reason=<Fill reason here>}}, or remove the Cleanup template.
Pagania, Merania or Neretvia, the Neretvian Frontier was a South Slavic principality that existed in area of southern Dalmatia (modern day Republic of Croatia), west of the river Neretva (Narenta). The Romeii named the region Pagania because the Neretvians didn't accept Christianity when most other South Slavs did.
Geography
Pagania bordered Croatia (Dalmatia) to the west and spread eastwards from the river of Cetina. Pagania was consisted out of three lesser Principalities: Makar, Rastik (from Imotski until Ljubiški) and Dalen (which is not on the coast). It also included the islands of Mljet, Korčula (which also has a City of the same name), Brač and Hvar. The main Narentine cities were Vrulja, Mokro, Ostrog and Lavćen or Slavineca; but by far the most important was the fortified Omiš in the later ages. At the east, Neretvia reached the river of Neretva, which faced Zachlumia.
The Adriatic coastland of Pagania inhabited ranged 75 kilometers from the mouth of Neretva in the Adriatic Sea at the east to the City of Split at the west. It was 10-20 kilometers wide.
Most of the soil was composed out of forests and swamps, while there was very little arable land.
Name
The Neretvians were named by their land, Neretvia, which was named by its neighbouring river. Their secondary name, Pagans (and thus their land Pagania), the Romeii gave them because they weren't Christianized in the time when most South Slavs were. The Latin name Merania, meaning the Coastland, was also used - and it gave the name for its denizens: Marians.
People
The Pagans fiercly opposed Christianity, seeing it as a means of oppression, and cherished the Slavic Paganism for long.
Next to sailing, the Marians were proffessed in trading, growing olives, figs and vineyards. On the outskirts of Biokovo and Mosor and on the islands, they herded cattle and they were also tilling the fields to an extent. In the later medieval ages, Merania imported wheat and exported wine, solted fish, dry fruits, etc.
Their best expertiese and the main income of the Pagans was piracy. The loot was split traditionally just as the catch of fish - one half goes to the provider of the ships and/or the organizer of the hunt (Prince or Archont) and the other half is split amongst the crewmembers. The main type of vessel the Neretvians used was the Slavic Sagena (Latin: "Sagitta", meaning: "arrow") from the beginning of the 9th century, a variation of the Scandinavian Viking Drakkar. It was a long, relativly shallow vessel that was specific for its high speed with a slender body, a sharp bow and a mast. It was manned by 40 crewmembers that were at the same time proffessional fighters. Other than this type of vessel, the Pagans used the Kondura; a ship similar to the Sagena, but a lot smaller, with a crew of 20 members. The Marians also used other types of vessels and barges.
The Marian rulers were called Morstiks and Judges, although the Church refers to them as Kings. The titles of the nobility were: Prince, Treasure-keeper, Chaplain, Knight.
History
Founding
The Principality (Archonty) of Neretvia was created by the descendants of the unbaptised Slavs that were given the corresponding lands to inhabit in the first half of the 7th century, unsatisfied with their previous lands in the Theme of Thessalonika. As they abandoned their lands in the central Balkans and migrated backwards across the river of Danube, the Neretvians convinced Emperor Heraclius through their envoy, the Governor of Singidunum, to give them these new lands. There, they rather quickly assimilated with the local Romanized Latin populace which transferred them the secret of shipbuilding that combined with already rich practical Slavic experience. The Latin citizenry didn't manage to maintain its culture in Pagania like elsewhere in Dalmatia, as cities lost their fame quickly - like Narona, at the mouth of Neretva, that didn't survive the Slavic invasions.
Early
The Slavic Neretvian pirates have started to improve their shipbuilding trades when the Arabs started to massivly jeoperdize the Eastern Roman Imperial waters. The old fierce pirateering Illyrian tradition and their fameous resistence against the Romans was relieved. The Ancient Slavs were skilled shipbuilders and tallanted in the naval arts. Already by the middle of the 7th century - in 642 - the Slavs dispatched from the Dalmatian coast towards Italia and invaded Benentine Siponte at the Gulf of Monte Gargano. Afterwards, raids in the Adriatic increased rapidly, until Slavs became the most fiersome threat to safe travelling.
In 827-828, when the majority of the Venetian naval power was campaigining in the Sicilian waters, the Neretvians took more liberty in their raiding quests; but after the Venetian Navy returned, the Marians eased down again. One Neretvian leader was baptised in the Republic of Venetia in 829, marking a Treaty between Merania and the Venetian Republic. Although, not feeling any excessive vow of loyalty - as soon as the times in the Adriatic or in Venetia got worse - they resurrected their old trade, thus braking the treaty. When the Neretvians raided and slaughtered several Venetian traders returning from Benevento in southern Italia in 834/835, the Venetians were petrified. It is because of this that the new Venetian Doge, Pietro Tradonico led a large fleet against these slavic pirates accross the Adriatic in 839. To divide and conquer them, the Venetians made peace with Neretvia's traditional allies, the Croats of Dalmatia under Duke Mislav and with some of the Marian tribes led by Prince Družak (Drosaico, Marianorum judice). The Venetian offensive was launched again in 840 against the Neretvian Prince Ljudislav, but met little success. Doge Pietro had lost more than 100 men on this campaign and had to return infamously to Venetia.
These Dalmatian Slavs utilized the moment of Venetian weakness when the Arabs were heavily attacking them, and took more and more daring military attempts against the Venetians. In 846, they breached to Venice itself and robbed the neighbouring lagoon city of Kaorle . After numerious successful military attempts; self-conscience, freedom and tribalism gained ever more strength in Neretvia. The Marians were the first that took the initiative of fighting for themselves, but unlike other Slavs, these were strictly for the personal gains and guarranteed attaining of the loot.
The Neretvians have for long by the second half of the 9th century been trying to remove their pirateering habits and change their lifestyle completly. Despite that, the Neretvians kidnapped the Roman Bishop's emissaries that were returning from the Ecclesiastical Council in Constantinople in the middle of March of 870. The Pagans have for long resisted the influences of Christianity, until Eastern Roman Emperor Basil I of the Macedonian dynasty finally pacified them with a naval military attempt, after which he reunified the whole of Dalmatia under Imperial Byzantine rule and Constantinople. Pressed, the Pagans sent emissaries to the Emperor and requested baptising. The Byzantine Empire sent Priests to Pagania and put its Slavs under its protectorate.
The Arab navelmen raided Neretvian Brač in 872. The Arabs continued to dominate the Adriatic seas until the Romeii pushed the Saracens out of it and the surrounding regions. As soon as the Imperial Navy abandoned the waters of the Adriatic, the Pagans couldn't resist to once more relive their old habits - which caused a Venetian military offensive against them in 886. Venetia's Doge Pietro I Candiano himself went with 12 Galleys to invade Neretvia's waters in 887 and sank 5 Neretvian ships in the Port of Mokro. After he landed his forces near Mokro, he chased the Marians, advancing deeper inland. On 18 September 887, the Neretvians rushed against him and deceisivly defeated him. In the battle, Doge Pietro I himself lost his life. This caused the Venetian Republic to renew the anti-Slavic allience with the Italian ruler Bering on 7 May 888.
Late
Rascia's Princes have long attained the titles Grand Princes, desiring to exceed control over, among others, the Neretvian territories. After the 893 friendship between the former enemies, Rascia and Bulgaria, Grand Prince Petar Gojniković of the House of Vlastimirović started to exert his Rascian influence over Pagania with full effect. Dyrrachion's Commander Lav Ravduh came to the Neretvian Frontier to seek allies and to gain the Neretvians against the growing Bulgarians. He met with Grand Prince Petar of Gojnik on the coast of Merania, where the Rascian ruler negotiated an allience with the Byzantines.
In 917 Grand Prince Petar was tricked, and the Bulgarians installed his cousin, Pavle Branović of the same dynasty. As Pavle denied the suzeiranity of the Bulgarian Czardom, Tsar Simeon deposed him because of this and implaced his brother-by-uncle Zaharije Pribislavljević in 920-923. With the Bulgarian destruction of the Rascian realm by trickery in 924, stateless anarchy under Bulgarian occupation came, with an extent of Croatian influence being present.
In 927 Prince Časlav Klonimirović, the last of the Vlastimirović dynasty returned and rebuilt Serbia by 931, maintaining relations with the suzeiran Byzantine Empire. Around this time, the Neretvian Frontier had a Serbian character. After the death of Croatia's King Krešimir in 945, civil war erupted for the Croatian crown's succession, and the Neretvians took the islands of Kaza, Vis and Lastovo during Prince Časlav's expansions. The Neretvians served as the most fiersome warriors. They stubbornly did not give up their old habits towards piracy, which caused Venetian Doge Pietro III Candiano to lead a fleet of 33 Galleys against them in 948, attacking twice; in two waves. Both military attempts have utterly failed to put an end to the Neretvian domination of the Adriatic, and ever since the second, the Venetians were forced to pay taxes to the Marians for safe passage through the Adriatic Sea. In 960 the Serbian realm collapsed and the Byzantines created their own Theme of Serbia in its place. In the following periods of time, varying Croatian influence was present in the Neretvian lands.
On 9 May 1000 during the Spring, Venetian Doge Pietro II Orseolo decided to subject the allied Croats and Neretvians, protecting the interests of their trading colonies and the Dalmatian Romanized citizery. Without difficulties, he stroked the entire eastern Adriatic coastline - with only the Marians offering him some resistence. As a counterattak, the Neretvians kidnapped 40 of Zadar's first-graded citizens and stole a transportation loaded by goods from Apulia. On their way home, Venetian Doge Peter II dispatched 10 ships that surprised them between Lastovo and Kača and took them as prisoners to Trogir. Neretvian emissaries came to the Doge's temporary residence at Split to beg for the release of the prisoners. They guarranteed that the Marian Prince himself will show up with his men and renounce the old rights to tax the Venetians for free passage. All prisoners were allowed to return to their homes, except for 6 Neretvians that were kept as hostages. The Pagans eased down, except for Lastovo and Korčula that continued to oppose the Venetians. Korčula was conquered by Doge Peter II and Lastovo fell too after long bloody fights. As Lastovo was very infamous in the Venetian world for being a pirate haven, the Doge ordered the Lastovo city to be evacuated in order to be raized. After the denizens of Lastovo soundly refused to concur, the Venetians attacked the City. It was seized and entirely raized to the ground by the Venetian forces.
As soon as the slavic Czardom from Macedonia was destroyed by the Byzantines in 1018, the Neretvians accepted Byzantine rule together with the Croatians.
Since the first half of the 12th century, the Neretvian land became simply known as the Frontier and was completly absorbed into the neighbouring superior Zachlumia and the Serbian state. Croatia attempted to conquer the region in the late 13th and early 14th century, but failed eventually. It has remained as a part of the Serbian Hum until Zahumlje's conquest by the Bosnian Ban Stephen II Kotromanic in 1322-1326 with the exception of Omiš, which was ceized by the Hungarians.