|
Dioclea
|
Place
|
|
|
In 431 AD Bishop Constantius of Doclea (Constantius episcopus civitatis Diocletianorum) took part at the Council of Ephesus, together with Bishop Paul of Dardania (Paulus episcopus Dardanorum). 20 years later, at the Council of Chalcedon, we find Bishop Evandrus of Doclea (Evandro Diocliae) among the participants. In the Synecdemus by Hierocles, an administrative and geographic source of the 6th century (ca. 527/28), only three cities (poleis) are listed in Praibalis, namely: Σκόδρα, Λίσσος and Δοκλέα. Among them only Δοκλέα is to be localised on the territory of today’s Montenegro, on the Northern periphery of today's capital Podgorica. Among them, Δοκλέα is to be localised on the territory of today’s Montenegro, being an excavation site on the Northern periphery of the capital Podgorica.
The excavation site is surrounded by the rivers Širalija in the North, Zeta in the West and Morača in the South, was encircled by a city wall and is structured in a Western and an Eastern part. A via triumphalis cuts as central axis through the Western part. At its Western end lies a triumphal arch. Along the via triumphalis, i.e. on its Southern side, a Temple of Roma, an urban villa, a Temple of Diana as well as large and small thermae are to be found (from the West to the East). North of the via triumphalis a Basilica, a Forum and the Capitol temple are located (again from the West to the East). These monuments are roughly dated from the 1st to the 4th century AD. In the Eastern part, which is cut off from the Western part by a modern tarmac road, two basilicae were excavated. Basilica A is a three nave basilica with a semicircular apse in the interior and a polygonal apse on the exterior. It is dated to the 5th century AD and could have been renovated during the reign of the Byzantine Emperor Justinian I (reigned 527-565). To the South-West of Basilica A, a second basilica (Basilica B) was found. It is also a three nave basilica with a semicircular apse in the interior as well as exterior. Basilica B is dated to the period from the 4th to the 6th centuries. Later, a cruciform church was erected above Basilica B, which is dated to the Early medieval period (9th century?). Finally, a necropolis was found to the South-East of the city, outside the city walls, with tombs dating from the 1st to the 4th centuries. Another necropolis to the North-East is dated from the 2nd to the 5th centuries.
Tatjana Koprivica identifies the aforesaid cruciform church (Basilica B) with the Church of St. Mary, which is mentioned in chapter IX of the “Letopis Popa Dukljanina” and in which King Budimir (Svetopluk, Svetopelek) was buried (in ecclesia sanctae Mariae in civitate Dioclitana), while his son and successor Svetolik was enthroned in the same church (ibique consecratus et coronatus est). Martin Homza has argued very recently in a new interpretation of chapter IX that the aforesaid Svetopluk should be identified with King Svatopluk I of Moravia (9th century), that the episode described in this very chapter should be placed on the territory of Pannonia and that it was re-worked for the purposes of the Dioclean ruler Mihailo Vojisavljević (reigned ca. 1046-1081) and his son Constantine Bodin (reigned 1081-1099) in the second half of the 11th century.
|