The Carolingian south-eastern frontier
From Firenze University Press Book: Carolingian Frontiers: Italy and Beyond
Neven Budak, University of Rijeka, Croatia
- The establishment of the frontier
The question of the Carolingian frontier towards the southeast today seems to be solved, leaving little possibility for further discussion. We need only briefly to recall the steps of creating the defence system, which was more a basis for further expansion than a bulwark for repelling enemy invasion. Its beginnings fall into the period between the death of Hrodgaud and the establishment of the Italian sub-kingdom under Pippin in 781. The former Lombard duchy of Friuli was put under the command of a Carolingian dux, and the same happened to Istria, conquered possibly in 788, where a dux de Histria, mentioned already in 791, replaced the Byzantine magister millitum1. The Istrian dux was subject to the dux of Friuli, as was Carniola, the region between Friuli and Pannonia, which probably had a dux of its own, although he is not mentioned in our sources. Because of the Carolingian-Avar wars at the time when Charlemagne was occupied fighting the Saxons, the region of Friuli, and so its Duke Eric, gained in importance. After the victorious campaigns against the Avars, the preconditions had been created for the annexation of Byzantine possessions in Venice and Dalmatia. Partly through attracting supporters from among Byzantine subjects, and partly through exercising military pressure, Charlemagne and his son Pippin temporarily acquired control over Venice and Zadar/Iadera, the Byzantine capital of Dalmatia. Very soon, however, after the appearance of the Byzantine fleet in the Adriatic, the renegades returned under the authority of the eastern emperor. The conflict ended with the Treaty of Aachen in 812, according to which the Carolingians could keep Istria and most of Dalmatia, whereas Venice and the coastal Dalmatian towns, together with the adjacent islands, remained Byzantine. Dalmatia was thus divided in the way that the eastern Empire kept only isolated strongholds on the mainland in Lower Dalmatia, namely Zadar, Trogir and Split, but held control over the maritime route towards Venice. In Upper Dalmatia, the situation of Dubrovnik and Kotor was similar, though, immediately after 812, somewhat less clear. We do not know how deep into the mainland of Dalmatia superior did the imperial authority extend, but we are justified in believing that the local elites in the immediate hinterland recognized the sovereignty of the emperor in Constantinople. Findings of Carolingian provenance in the late antique castrum in Mogorjelo near Čapljina (close to the Neretva river) and in the castrum of Gornji Vrbljani near the source of the Sana river (both in today’s Bosnia and Herzegovina) could be seen as marking the outreach of Frankish influence, i.e. the easternmost strongholds of the indigenous elites recognising Carolingian authority. The newly gained territory in Dalmatia, which also included the former province of Liburnia, was organised in the same way as other Slavic (or Avar) regna along the eastern border of the Carolingian Empire. A local dux was entrusted with its government, having the title of dux Dalmatie et Liburnie. But this did not happen until 817, when a Byzantine delegation arrived in Aachen in order to settle some disputes about the border between Slavic and Roman Dalmatians. The Friulian dux Cadolah, «ad quem illorum confinium cura pertinebat», was sent to Dalmatia to help resolve the matter. As no other local official was mentioned, we should suppose that at that time there was no indigenous representative of the Carolingian Empire in the province10. The f irst one we know of was Borna, who was also described as dux Guduscanorum, obviously a gens he originated from. Borna most likely owed his position to his engagement in the Carolingian-Byzantine conflict. However, his appointment may have been a consequence of Louis’ anticipation of Ljudevit’s revolt, because he was first mentioned in 818, when he attended the assembly in Aachen, the same one on which Ljudevit was suspected of initiating «res novas» because he accused Cadolah for committing atrocities. In the region to the north of Dalmatia, in southern Pannonia, there was another local dux, the aforementioned Ljudevit, installed as a representative of Carolingian authority. However, there is no Barbarian name attached to his title. Like Borna, he was subordinate to the duke of Friuli and carried the title of dux Pannonie inferioris. He became infamous among the Franks because of the rebellion he raised in 819 against Cadolah, the duke of Friuli, and which lasted for four years, requiring a huge Frankish military effort to quell the uprising.
DOI: 10.36253/979–12–215–0416–3.20
Read Full Text: https://books.fupress.it/chapter/the-carolingian-south-eastern-frontier/15113
