The history of the eastern Adriatic—particularly Dalmatia and the inland regions stretching toward Slavonia—has long suffered from overly simplified ethnic labels. Among the most persistent is the broad and politically charged use of the term “Slavs” to describe populations that, in reality, represented a complex tapestry of Adriatic-Aegean-Ionian, Italo-Hellenic, and eastern Aegean-Cypriot-Anatolian and Jewish-Levantine diasporic identities. Reliance on this terminology not only collapses diverse historical communities into a modern nationalist category, but also obscures the true demographic, linguistic, religious, and commercial networks that shaped the region across centuries.
Modern political frameworks, especially those emerging in the 19th and 20th centuries, popularized the homogenizing “Slav” narrative. Yet archival records, ecclesiastical registers, maritime correspondence, trade networks, linguistic traces (Božanić, 2007), and genetic evidence speak to a far richer population story. These records reveal continuity and movement among Adriatic peoples—a historically layered population influenced by Roman, Byzantine, Venetian, Illyrian, Greek, and eastern Aegean-Cypriot-Anatolian and Jewish-Levantine diasporic worlds.
While Sadovski-Kornprobst (2021) emphasizes Venetian and Slavic linguistic elements in Dalmatian administrative documents, extended review of parish registers, censuses, and civil records indicates that the local spoken language was not purely Slavic. Instead, Byzantine-era Greek elements, Illyrian remnants, Italianate vocabulary, and Venetian (Mletački) used in administrative and maritime contexts were all present, with Slavic terms forming a minor, non-defining layer. This suggests that Dalmatian vernacular reflected a multicultural Adriatic-Aegean-Ionian and Italo-Hellenic maritime zone, rather than a homogeneous Slavic population.
Significant components of these communities included Romaniote, Sephardic, and Mizrahi Jewish families, Greek and Cypriot merchants, Venetian and Genoese settlers, Italianate maritime families, Illyrian-rooted Christian lineages, and individuals with ties to older Israelite traditions. Many spoke Italian, Greek, Ladino, Judeo-Greek, local Romance dialects, and later Slavic-influenced variants—reflecting coexistence, not homogeneity. Trade networks documented by Peričić (1987) further illustrate the connectivity of Dalmatian ports with Venice, Greece, and Cyprus, demonstrating the economic and cultural integration of these Adriatic and Italo-Hellenic maritime communities.
By contrast, referring to all such groups simply as “Slavs” reflects a later political vocabulary rather than historical reality. It risks erasing the eastern Aegean-Cypriot-Anatolian and Jewish-Levantine diasporic and Adriatic-Aegean-Ionian and Italo-Hellenic maritime zone strands that shaped coastal and inland society, trade, religion, naming patterns, and cultural identity in Dalmatia and surrounding regions. It also undermines recognition of the region’s role as a crossroads of Adriatic-Aegean-Ionian and Italo-Hellenic maritime zone and Eastern migratory currents, rather than an isolated ethnolinguistic enclave.
Recent scholarship on post-Ottoman settlement in Slavonia highlights migration patterns and Habsburg settlement policies (Lazanin, 2024). While these studies focus on administrative frameworks and population movements, archival evidence from Dalmatia—including extensive review of parish registers, censuses, and civil records available through FamilySearch—suggests a more complex picture. The populations involved in inland migration were not exclusively Slavic, but rather included communities with Adriatic-Aegean-Ionian, Italo-Hellenic, and Jewish-Levantine diaspora connections. This evidence supports the persistence of multi-ethnic, multi-linguistic networks and underscores the need to use historically precise terminology rather than homogenizing labels.
Correct terminology is therefore not an academic nuance; it is essential to preserving accuracy, cultural identity, and historical truth.
Using more precise, historically grounded expressions—such as Adriatic-Aegean-Ionian and Italo-Hellenic maritime zone communities, Post-Roman and Byzantine populations, Italo-Hellenic and eastern Aegean-Cypriot-Anatolian and Jewish-Levantine diaspora networks, and Adriatic peoples—better honors the documented past. These terms reflect a world shaped by commerce, faith, migration, and shared maritime culture rather than the retroactive application of modern nationalist categories.
Scholarly rigor requires acknowledging that the Adriatic was not defined by ethnic isolation but by connectivity: a dynamic interface of Adriatic-Aegean-Ionian and Italo-Hellenic maritime zone, Israelite-Jewish, Hellenic, Illyrian, Italianate, and eastern Aegean-Cypriot-Anatolian and Jewish-Levantine diaspora lineages. To speak accurately of its people is not only a matter of precision—it is an act of historical integrity.
Extensive review of parish registers, censuses, and civil records in Dalmatia (FamilySearch Digital Collections) over many decades indicates consistent patterns of population continuity, migration, and settlement across coastal and inland areas. This archival research underpins the identification of Adriatic-Aegean-Ionian and Italo-Hellenic maritime zone lineages and their diasporic extensions.
Hence, extensive archival records, parish registers, censuses, and civil documents indicate that the populations of Dalmatia and the eastern Adriatic—and, through migration, the communities of eastern Croatia and Slavonia—were not primarily Slavic, challenging long-standing nationalist narratives dating from the 19th-century uprisings. The Slavic presence in these areas largely reflects later migrations from northern regions after the 1850s, rather than earlier southern settlement as previously asserted. Populations that moved from Dalmatia and the Adriatic coast carried with them the multicultural, multi-linguistic identities detailed in this study: Adriatic-Aegean-Ionian and Italo-Hellenic maritime zone lineages, eastern Aegean-Cypriot-Anatolian and Jewish-Levantine diasporic networks, Venetian and Italianate influences, Byzantine-Greek elements, Illyrian-rooted traditions, and Romaniote, Sephardic, and Mizrahi Jewish connections.
Given the breadth of archival and genealogical data—including extensive FamilySearch parish, census, and civil records—future research and historical narratives must reflect these complexities rather than relying on simplified ethnic labels. Correct and precise terminology is essential to understanding the Adriatic’s population history, the dynamics of migration, and the composition of communities across what is now Croatia and its nation. The continued use of “Slavs” as a blanket descriptor misrepresents historical realities and obscures the rich tapestry of Adriatic and Croatian identity.
Note. For purposes of historical clarity, “Adriatic-Aegean-Ionian and Italo-Hellenic maritime zone” designates the interconnected coastal and island networks linking Dalmatia, the Peloponnese, Crete, western Anatolia, and the Italian peninsula. The related term “eastern Aegean-Cypriot-Anatolian and Jewish-Levantine diaspora sphere” refers to communities rooted in Judean–Israelite, Romaniote, Cypriot, and Anatolian cultural and commercial traditions, reflecting enduring maritime, linguistic, and diasporic linkages rather than modern national ethno-labels.
Glossary: Terminology Framework
Adriatic Peoples – A historically diverse population of Dalmatia and the eastern Adriatic shaped by post-Roman, Byzantine, Illyrian, Italianate, Greek, and eastern Aegean-Cypriot-Anatolian and Jewish-Levantine diaspora influences.
Adriatic/Aegean/Ionian and Italo-Hellenic maritime zone Communities – A broad cultural term emphasizing trade, maritime society, and exchange across Venice, Dalmatia, Greece, Cyprus, and the eastern Aegean-Cypriot-Anatolian and Jewish-Levantine diaspora.
Eastern Aegean-Cypriot-Anatolian and Jewish-Levantine diaspora–Adriatic Diaspora – Historical communities with ties to the Adriatic/Aegean-Ionian and Italo-Hellenic maritime zone, including Romaniote, Sephardic, and Mizrahi Jews, Greek and Cypriot merchants, and other Israelite-rooted or Near Eastern lineages.
Post-Roman Adriatic Population – Local continuity from Roman provincial communities, later layered with Byzantine and Venetian influences.
Italo-Hellenic Tradition – Cultural and linguistic currents linking Adriatic populations to Italy and Greece.
Romaniote – Sephardic – Mizrahi Jews – Distinct Jewish communities historically present in Adriatic/Aegean/Ionian and Italo-Hellenic maritime zone ports and inland Adriatic towns, part of long-standing Israelite diaspora presence.
Illyrian Rooted Lineages – People traced to pre-Roman and Roman-era populations indigenous to the Balkan-Adriatic region.
Ladino – Judeo-Greek – Romance Dialects – Languages historically spoken among these populations, reflecting multicultural and multilingual exchange.
Mletački – Venetian – The language of the Venetian Republic historically used in Dalmatian coastal towns, particularly for administrative, ecclesiastical, and maritime correspondence.
Misuse of “Slavs” – A modern nationalist oversimplification that masks multi-ethnic Adriatic-Aegean-Ionian and Italo-Hellenic maritime zone and Israelite-eastern Aegean-Cypriot-Anatolian and Jewish-Levantine diaspora histories and identities.
References
Božanić, M. (2007). Dalmatian trade networks, maritime correspondence, and linguistic traces. Split: Institute of Adriatic History. State Archives in Split, Croatia. (n.d.).
Parish registers, census, and civil records for Dalmatian parishes [FamilySearch Digital Collection]. https://www.familysearch.org
Lazanin, S. (2024). The Habsburg policy of settling the Hungarian part of the Monarchy in the 18th century, with an emphasis on Slavonia and Srijem: Legal acts. Migration and Ethnic Themes, 40(2), 277-308. https://doi.org/10.11567/met.40.2.6
Sadovski-Kornprobst, L. (2021). Multilingualism in Venetian Dalmatia: studying languages and orality in written administrative documents from Split (fifteenth/sixteenth centuries).
Mediterranean Historical Review, 36(2), 217-236. https://doi.org/10.1080/09518967.2021.1964062 Peričić, Š. (1987). Trade networks of Dalmatian ports in the Venetian maritime sphere. Split: Institute of Adriatic History.