Rupture – Integration – Renewal: The Gathering in Dalma and the Creation of a Political Community in the Chronicle of the Priest of Dioclea
Rupture – Integration – Renewal: The Gathering in Dalma and the Creation of a Political Community in the Chronicle of the Priest of Dioclea

Summary/Abstract: In this paper I would like to discuss an excerpt from the Chronicle of the Priest of Dioclea that concerns a great gathering ordered by the newly baptized King Svetopelek at the fields of Dalma. The Chronicle is a rather mysterious and controversial source which presents the history of a fictional state stretching through medieval Dalmatia and the hinterland. The division of the state which took place during Svetopelek’s reign shows how the chronicler believed the kingdom was to be governed. Space played a special role in the narrative about the gathering. Describing the King’s actions, the Priest of Dioclea simultaneously offered a geographical and political vision of a new order. The interpretation of the events that took place in Dalma (the coronation ceremony, the process of defining the borders of the kingdom and, above all, the unification of the newly founded state community) led to the conclusion that the chronicler was most interested in the problem of creating a political community of two previously hostile groups: the barbarian Slavs and the inhabitants of coastal cities, who were the heirs of the ancient world.

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