Travunia Travunja Travunians

This was a medieval principality located in today's Hercegovina and Southern Dalmatia.

Bordered by Zahumlje to the west, Duklja to the south and Serbia to the north. Travunia encompassed what is now Southern Dalmatia and Dubrovnik. Today it is part of Dubrovnik-Neretva county. Its center is Dubrovnik. Other larger towns are Metković and Ploče in the Neretva river delta (hence the mention in the county name). It includes the larger islands of Korčula , Lastovo , Mljet, Šipan , Lopud and Koločep .

Constantine VII Porphyrogenitos descibes the Travunians in De Administrando Imperio as a Serb tribe which settled in the area at the start of the 7th century. Travunia entered into confederations with the Serb princes of Raska early on. In the early 9th century, Knez Vlastimir of Serbia married his daughter to Knez Krajina , son of Beloje , the grand zupan of Travunia.

The Serb prince Caslav Klonimirovic of the House of Vlastimirovic fully incorporated this area into his domain between 927 AD and and 940. After the death of Caslav in 960, Travunia was contested between Byzantium and Bulgaria. But by 968, it was violently conquered by the Croatian King Kresimir but it returned to the Serb princes of the House of Vojislavljevic of Zeta by the middle of the 11th century and later to Serb princes of the House of Nemanjic of Raska.

Croatian academics have pointed out that Travunia could have been Croats, but this is not generally accepted since these claims rely on Chronicle of the Priest of Duklja, which has been discredited as unreliable and full of errors. It is now accepted in most academic circles outside of Croatia that Zachumlie / Zahumlje, the Bosna River Valley and Pagania / Paganija and Zeta / Duklja were settled with Serb tribes, as it states in De Administrando Imperio.

External Links:

http://forum.stirpes.net/showthread.php?t=788[1]

http://www.encyclopedia.com/html/section/bosnianh_history.asp[2]

http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Serbia[3]

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02694a.htm[4]