d. It belonged to Venice from 1126
or 1130 till 1358, becoming finally Venetian in 1409, and was granted in
feud to various patrician families, so that all the objects of art in
the city show distinct traces of Venetian influence. The piazza by the
harbour is triangular in shape, the narrow streets, with many
picturesque houses in them, climb the hillside from the water, and the
ancient walls remain on the land side. The loggia is a simple
seventeenth-century building supported on six stone piers; in the back
wall are encrusted two inscriptions--one Roman, one mediaeval. The
cathedral was burnt in 1827, but the west door still remains, very
closely resembling that of Ossero. A picture by Alvise Vivarini is
preserved in the priest's house--a Madonna with SS. Sebastian and
Catherine, and SS. Christopher and Cosmas.

In the chapel of the Mother of God is a Byzantine Madonna and Child on a
gold ground. The carnations are brownish; there is a cross on the breast
and on both sides of the head, with the Greek monogram [Greek: ME ThY]. There are
also some fine stalls in the church of the Franciscan monastery; but
there is not very much of interest in the town except the numerous
Venetian houses.

[Illustration: SMERGO FISHERMEN

_To face page 186_]

XVI

HISTORICAL SKETCH OF DALMATIA

The history of Dalmatia is obscure and confused for a great part of its
course. That there were Greek and Phoenician colonies along the coast and
on the islands is certain; the earliest of the former was that founded
by the Syracusans in Issa (Lissa) in 390 B.C. A Cyclopean building, the
so-called Gradina Gate at Gelsa, is attributable either to this colony
or to that of 385 B.C. in the ancient Pharia (Lesina). Tragurium (Trau)
and Epetium (Stobrec) were daughter colonies of Issa. The largest number
of inscriptions and coins have been found on Lesina and Lissa. Celts
were in the country from about the same period. The Roman conquest was
brought about by the appeal of the people of Issa for help against the
powerful native queen Teuta. Illyria, south of the Narenta, became a
Roman province in 168 B.C., though war with the inland tribes continued
till 34 B.C., when Augustus took the ships of the pirates of Curzola and
Meleda and the Liburnians, and conquered the inland tribes at
Promona--eight long and disastrous campaigns in all. There was, however,
another revolt in 6 A.D., when the danger to Rome was so great (800,000
men being in