Domagoj

Domagoj (Domagous, Domogous, Dommagous, Latin Domagoi ; †  876 ) was a Slavic Knes and ruled over the Duchy of Croatia , the so-called Dalmatian Croatia , from 864 until his death in 876 . He was the namesake of the Domagojević house .

Monument to Domagoj and his archers in Vid near Metković ( Croatia )

Life

There are two theories about Domagoj's origin.

One assumes that Domagoj was originally the prince of the Narentans (Croatian: Neretvani), as later sources from the 15th and 16th centuries report ( Domoghoi prinze de Narentani ). The name ending -goj also indicates that it comes from the mouth of the Neretva, as the only names of this ending (Domagoj and Berigoj ) were Neretvan princes. The other theory is that he was a nobleman from Knin in the Dalmatian hinterland . Is that he is not sure descendant of its predecessor I. Trpimir was, but most likely as a usurper to the power came when he Trpimir sons Petar Zdeslav and Muncimir to exile by Konstantin Opel forced.

During his reign, piracy was the main source of income for his small state . This bothered the trading city of Venice , which was under Byzantium rule .

Venice tried to exploit the chaos of the throne to attack Croatia, but after a few skirmishes Domagoj managed to negotiate a peace. The Saracens also continued to attack the coastal cities, including Ragusa , which successfully survived a 15-month siege with the help of Byzantium's fleet .

In the years 869-871 Domagoj helped the Holy Roman Emperor Ludwig II in a naval alliance with Ragusa in the reconquest of Bari from the Arabs. Bari was captured on February 2, 871.

Byzantium took advantage of this to attack the Neretvanians. When the Arabs again attacked the Byzantine cities on the Croatian coast, Domagoj took the opportunity to drive the Byzantines and Venetians back from the coast.

The fights and battles were so numerous and Domagoj so brutal in his methods against his opponents that after his death the chronicles of Venice described him as the worst prince of the Slavs ( Latin : pessimus Sclavorum dux ). Pope John VIII, however, calls him in his letter from the years 874/875 "glorious prince of the Slavs" ( Latin : gloriosus dux Sclavorum ). But he also asked him not to kill his enemies, but to forgive them and punish them with exile.

Domagoj died in 876 and was followed by his son Ilyko . After a break, Branimir , another member of the Domagojević dynasty , was later Prince of Croatia .

See also

• Croatia in the Middle Ages
• History of Croatia
• Order of Prince Domagoj with collar

literature

• Rudolf Horvat: Povijest Hrvatske I. (od najstarijeg doba do g. 1657.) . Zagreb 1924.
• Nada Klaić: Povijest Hrvata u ranom srednjem vijeku . Zagreb 1975.
• Ivan Mužić: Hrvatska povijest devetoga stoljeća (Povjesnice Hrvata 3). Split 2007. ISBN 978-953-263-034-3 ( PDF )

swell

• Domagoj. In: Hrvatska enciklopedija. Leksikografski zavod Miroslav Krleža, accessed December 30, 2019 (Croatian). 
• Josip Lučić: DOMAGOJ. In: Hrvatski biografski leksikon. 1993, accessed December 30, 2019 (Croatian). 
• Konstantin Porfirogenet, O upravljanju carstvom , prijevod i komentari Nikola pl. Tomašić (hrvatski), R. [Romilly] J. [James] H. [Heald] Jenkins (engleski), priređivač grčkog izvornika Gyula Moravcsik, Zagreb: Dom i svijet (Biblioteka Povjesnica), 2003. ISBN 953-6491-90- 7 .

predecessor	Office	successor
Trpimir I.	Prince of Dalmatian Croatia 864–876	Son of Domagoj (Ilko / Iljko?)