Salona

Salona (Ancient Greek: Σάλωνα) was an ancient city on the Dalmatian coast. The name Salona preserves the language of the early inhabitants of this area whom the Romans called Dalmatae, and considered to be part of a larger group called Illyrians. In the first millennium BCE, the Greeks had set up an emporion (marketplace) there. After the conquest by the Romans, Salona became the capital of the Roman province of Dalmatia. The city quickly acquired Roman characteristics: walls, a forum, a theater an amphitheater- –the most conspicuous above-ground remains today—public baths and an aqueduct. Many inscriptions in both Latin and Greek have been found both inside the walls and in the cemeteries outside, since Romans forbad burial inside city boundaries. A number of fine marble sarcophagi from those cemeteries are now in the Archaeological Museum of Split. All this archaeological evidence attests to the city's prosperity and integration into the Roman Empire.