Улога Константина VII Порфирогенита у опису Далмације
The Role of Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus in the Description of Dalmatia

Summary/Abstract: The role of the Emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus (945–959) in the creation of the chapter on Dalmatia (29–30) in the work De Administrando Imperio is primarily related to the issue of authorship of Chapter 30, considered by most scholars to have been added after his death. The key arguments behind assigning a later date to this Chapter were the news of the subjugation of White Croats to the German Emperor Otto I, who is described as ὁ μέγας and of the good relations between the Croats and the Hungarians - reportedly feasible only after Otto’s victory over the Hungarians in the Battle of Lechfeld in 955. However, all of that could have been known also at the time when Constantine was working on De Administrando Imperio (948–952), and certainly during his lifetime. Insufficient insight into the nature of the entire work led to overemphasized incongruities between Chapter 30 and the adjacent chapters, even though contradictions and data discrepancies featured in other sections as well. Thus, the specific hints indicating the author’s identical positions and reasoning present in Chapter 30 and the rest of the work were ignored, together with the compatibilities of some geographic information, supporting the claim that all the chapters in this work were produced by the same author.

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