Structures of the Slovene Territory in the Early Middle Ages

CHAPTER NINE STRUCTURES OF THE SLOVENE TERRITORY IN THE EARLY MIDDLE AGES Introduction Th e present-day Slovene territory is wedged between the Karavanke mountain range and the Kolpa River, extends eastwards into the Pannonian plain, and borders on Friuli and the Bay of Trieste in the west. Th ree circumstances left distinct marks on this territory between the 6th and the 9th centuries of the Early Middle Ages. Th e Slavic settlement of the late 6th century, related to Avar lordship, caused the Slovene territory to be separated from the former Roman ecumene, the Western world, and to a great extent from the traditions of Antiquity as well, for two centuries. It was only aft er the fall of the Avar khaganate and the following expansion of Frankish lordship over the Western Balkans and the Pannonian area that the territory was once more annexed to the West at the end of the 8th century, causing similarly far- reaching changes to its structures as had occurred two centuries earlier. Th e third circumstance determining the history of this territory not only in the Early Middle Ages, but already in Antiquity, was the vicinity of Italy, because it dictated its function. From the time of Emperor Augustus, the principal road artery connecting Italy with the east and vice versa ran across this territory, and in this respect the Slovene territory was typically transitional in nature.1 It was the springboard for incursions into Italy, and whoever ruled the Slovene territory had the key that opened the door to Italy.2 Th e signifi cance of the Slovene territory was dictated by geography. Here, the Pannonian Plain comes closest to the Mediterranean and here are the shortest and easiest passages across the entire swathe of mountains extending from Marseille in France to Th essaloniki in Greece, separating Mediterranean Europe from continental Europe. Th e highest Karst passages near Postojna – called the “Postojna Gate,” 1 Šašel 1975a, 74 ff .; Bosio 1997, 201 .ff 2 Štih 1999b, 103 ff . structures of the slovene territory 137 “Adriatic Gate” or “Illyrian-Italic Gate” – are just 600 metres above sea- level and continue towards Italy through the almost 40 kilometres long Vipava Valley that cuts into the mountainous interior from the Friulian plain and the Soča (Isonzo) River.3 From around the second half of the 6th century, the eastern border of Italy chiefl y ran along the watershed between the Sava and Soča (Isonzo) rivers and through the vast forests that formed a redoubtable barrier between the Ljubljana Basin and the Karst; in the Early Middle Ages Italy thus included – of the present-day Slovene territory – the Soča (Isonzo) basin, the Vipava Valley, the Karst, and the coastal prov- ince.4 Th e early medieval border of Italy at Hrušica (Ad Pirum) in the Trnovo Forest, to which in Antiquity Emona’s ager extended to the west,5 was so stable and solid that as late as 1253 nemus quod vulgariter Pirpovmerwalt nuncupatur constituted the border of Spanheim Carniola.6 Carniola started to expand across this border only in the 14th century, when seigneuries in the Karst began to join it, while Vipava became part of Carniola much later – in 1528.7 Th is border divided the Slovene area in the Early Middle Ages into two structurally completely diff erent parts, and below we will pay atten- tion to the part located outside Italy. We will therefore merely outline some basic facts about the western part of the Slovene territory that belonged to Italy. Politically this western part of present-day Slovenia was divided between Byzantine Istria and Lombardian Venetia from the Lombard settlement in Italy in 568 onward, but the coastal part of Venetia belonged to Byzantium.8 If we ignore the short Lombard occupation of Istria in the third quarter of the 8th century,9 a uniform eastern Italian border was re-established only two centuries later with the beginning of Frankish lordship over the territory (Friuli 774/776, Istria 788).10 Th e area’s division between several states in the early 7th century was followed by an ecclesiastical division and the disintegration of the 3 Melik A. 1960, 5 ff .; Melik A. 1963, 7 ff .; Hauptmann 1929, 315 .; ff Grafenauer 1978a, 17 ff ., especially 29 ff . 4 Štih 1999b 104, 107 ff . 5 Šašel 1992, 574. 6 MC 4/1, no. 2541. 7 Hauptmann 1929, 451. 8 Ferluga 1987, 165; Ferluga 1992, 175 ff .; Margetić 1992, 157 ff. 9 Th at the Lombards occupied Istria is not documented beyond dispute. See Margetić 1994, 5 ff . 10 Krahwinkler 1992, 119 ff .; Margetić 1994, 7 ff ..

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