Salona

“Leaving, therefore, Spalato for the present, I joined the Lombards in hiring a carriage to go to the ruins of Salona, two or three miles distant, recently excavated under the superintendence of  Professor Carrara, a native of this place, though ordinarily engaged in the Museum at Venice. The day was fine. The first indication of the proximity of one of the more important towns of the Roman empire appears in the arches of an aqueduct, which one sees in the fields to the right within a mile above Spalato. (p.87) […] A mile or two further, on a gentle half-moon slop, looking towards Spalato, is the site of Salona, traced out by the remains of the city wall, much of which is in good preservation. […] The convexity of the half-moon is turned from Spalato, and runs along the highest part of the rise on which the town stood. Thence the ground shelves gradually down to a road leading to the Via dei Castelli, and lying along the bank of a sedgy river (…) At the lower line of the city on this waterside are some Cyclopean remains, which we passed on our way to the Castelli, but had neither time nor light to examine more closely. (p. 88) The area between the  road and the convexity at the top of the bank, now partly cultivated, partly excavated, and the rest rough, shrubby waste land, was occupied by the city, and would be, according to my eye, about half a mile across. […] Some peasants followed us offering us Roman coins, silver and copper, of small intrinsic value, but which they professed to have found on the spot. (p. 89) […] Salona suffered various sieges […] The inhabitants migrated to Spalato and Ragusa, leaving Salona in the hands of the poorer Contadini, or peasants. After such vicissitudes, it is not likely contain much of value.” (p. 90)