SPALATO (Slav. Split ), a city of Dalmatia, at the head of one of the thirteen departments (area 730 square miles; population in 1880 31,003), is situated on the seaward side of a peninsula lying between the Gulf of Braza and the Gulf of Salona. Though not the capital, it is the most important city in the principality, is the see of a bishop, has a valuable museum of antiquities, and carries on an extensive trade in wine and oil. Since' 1879 it has been the terminus of a railway running northwards to Sebenico and Siveric. Built on the low ground at tho head of a beautiful bay, and thrown into relief by a background of picturesque hills rising close behind, Spalato has a striking sea-front, in which the leading feature is still the ruined façade of the great palace of Diocletian, erected in 303 a.d., to which the city owes its origin. In ground plan this is almost a square, with a quadrangular tower at each of the four corners. “Its faces correspond nearly with the four points of the compass. The south front (towards the harbour) measures 521 feet, or, with the towers, 598 feet 8 inches, and the eastern and western sides are each 705 feet 8 inches” (Wilkinson). The area included is 348,175 square feet, or, comprising the towers, 352,614 square feet, a little more than eight acres, or rather less than the area of the Escorial. There were four principal gates, with four streets meeting in the middle of the quadrangle, after the style of a Roman camp. The eastern gate (Porta Aenea) is destroyed; but, though the side towers are gone, the main entrance of the building, the beautiful Porta Aurea, in the west front, is still in fairly good preservation. The streets were lined with massive arcades. The vestibule now forms the Piazza del Duomo or public square; to the ...north-east of this lies the mausoleum (not, as the older antiquaries had it, the temple of Jupiter), which has long been the smallest and darkest of cathedrals; and to the south-east is the temple of Aesculapius, which served originally as a kind of court chapel and has long been transformed into a baptistery. Architecturally the most important of all the many striking features of the palace is the arrangement in the vestibule by which the supporting arches spring directly from the capitals of the large granite Corinthian columns. This, as far as the known remains of ancient art are concerned, is the first instance of such a method; and thus, in Mr Freeman’s words, “all Gothic and Romanesque architecture was in embryo in the brain of Jovius or his architect.”
The name Spalato, or Spalatro (a very old spelling), which used to be explained as a corruption of Salonae Palatium, is pretty certainly of different origin—the oldest form extant being Aspalathum (Constantine Porphyrogenitus) and early variants Spalathon, Spa-lathron, Spalatrum (Geogr. Rav.). Dr Evans suggests a connexion with Aspalathus (the name of a prickly shrub) or perhaps with Asphaltus. Not long after Diocletian’s death the buildings seem to have been turned into an imperial cloth factory, and as most of the workers were women we find it called a gynaecium (Notitia). About 4 miles from the palace lay the ancient city of Salona (Σ αλωvα or Σ αλωvαι ), which consisted of two parts, the earlier Roman city to the west and a later portion incorporated previous to the time of the Antonines. There are still remains at Salona of ancient city walls, an amphitheatre, &c., and a long line of walls extending “from the western side of the city for a mile and more nearly along tho present road to Trau (Tragurium).” The purpose of this line of walls is not evident, and the date of its construction has been the subject of much discussion. Mr Freeman is disposed to consider them Roman workmanship.
Salona in its best days was one of the chief ports of the Adriatic, on one of the most central sites in the Roman world. Made a Roman colony after its second capture by tho Romans (b.c. 78), it appears as Colonia Martia Julia and Colonia Claudia Augusta Pia Veteranorum, and bears at different periods the titles of respublica, conventus, metropolis, praefectura, and praetorium. In Christian times it became a bishop’s see; and St Doimo or Domnius, its first bishop, still gives his name to the cathedral of Spalato. The city was taken by Odoacer in 481 and by Totila in the 6th century. Recovered by Justinian in 535, it was in 544 aud 552 the starting-point of Belisarius and Narses for their Italian expeditions. In tho 7th century Salona was completely destroyed by the Avars; but the empty palace of Diocletian afforded an asylum for its inhabitants. The limits of the building proved sufficient for the new city up to the time that it passed under Hungarian and Venetian protection. Hungarian additions may still be seen above the Porta Aurea; and the large octagonal tower bears the name of Torre d’Harvoye from the Bosnian general who was created duke of Spalato by Ladislaus. The Venetians enclosed the town with regular curtains and bastions in 1645-1670. About 1807-1809 the castle was dismantled and parts of the walls were thrown down.
See Robert Adam, Ruins of the Palace of Diocletian, 1764; Cassas and Lavallée, Voyage Pittoresque et Historique de l'Istrie, 1802; wilkinson, Dalmatia and Montenegro, 1848; Freeman, Historical Essays, 3d series, 1879, and Subject and Neighbour Lands of Venice, 1881. Both the first-mentioned works contain magnificent views and restorations of the architecture of the palace.
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