History
The first settlement in the place of today's town of Vis was built in the fourth century BC by Greek colonists from Sicily under the name of Issa. Greeks were attracted by Issa's geographical position because it enabled control of shipping in the Adriatic Sea. Antique Issa developed as the urban and economic center of Dalmatia and also served as a military base for colonization of places near the present-day town of Split, such as Stobreč (Epetion) and Trogir (Tragurion). Issa functioned as an independent polis until the first century BCE, when it was conquered by the Roman Empire. After the Roman conquest Issa lost its significance until the late Middle Ages when it was mentioned in several historical sources.
Read more about this topic: Vis (town)
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“A people without history
Is not redeemed from time, for history is a pattern
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—T.S. (Thomas Stearns)
“Culture, the acquainting ourselves with the best that has been known and said in the world, and thus with the history of the human spirit.”
—Matthew Arnold (1822–1888)
“Every generation rewrites the past. In easy times history is more or less of an ornamental art, but in times of danger we are driven to the written record by a pressing need to find answers to the riddles of today.... In times of change and danger when there is a quicksand of fear under men’s reasoning, a sense of continuity with generations gone before can stretch like a lifeline across the scary present and get us past that idiot delusion of the exceptional Now that blocks good thinking.”
—John Dos Passos (1896–1970)