Visiting Split: The Imperial Adjourn

“Without the occasional mass religion or powerful emperor or extraordinarily wealthy tycoon, we wouldn’t have nearly as many outlandish, impressive structures.” – Old Sean

The Croatian Coast

Following my day in Zagreb, I hopped on a bus heading for Split in the early morning.

Previously, my only knowledge about Split comes from the young adults novels, The Heroes of Olympus. The stories, which are enjoyable, follow the struggles of a teenagers who is born half-mortal and half-god. During a combined quest, many of the characters pass Split on their way to ancient lands.

The only other reference I have for Split is what I’ve read in Roman history textbooks. The town was the illustrious retirement home of the controversial emperor, Diocletian.

The bus ride took me past rounded mountains of deeply weathered stone with tiny clumps of bush-like trees and a sinfully green-blue sea to my right.  Our route followed the coast nearly the entire time, so when I finally reached Split I resolved to stay one extra day just to enjoy the water.

Time Amongst Split

Split is a splendid, if unusual, coastal retreat. 

Firstly, there’s a museum called Froggyland, an amphibian taxidermy display crafted in the early 1900’s by Mr. Ferenc Mere.  The strange exhibit contains a series of glass cases showing frogs quaintly enjoying the daily lives of highly-intelligent stuffed frogs.  There are frogs singing, doing chores, diving in ponds, playing musical instruments, playing pool, attending classes and performing acrobatics.

Froggyland is just enough of a departure from “life-as-we-know-it” into “what-in-the-Earth’s-green-teeth-am-I-seeing?” to make it a fun visit. 

However, the main attraction of Split is the immense Palace of the Roman Emperor Diocletian, who’s a historically contentious individual to say the least.

A Tangent on Diocletian

For those of you who don’t care one lick about history, read this anyway.  Be ensnared.  Suffer in my arm-waving joy.

Historically, Diocletian has endured a fairly consistent status as a super-villain due to generational thrashings by the Catholic Church. 

He was the final staunch Roman emperor to stand against the religious tide of Christianity, often violently oppressing Christian groups. Diocletian saw religious upheaval as one of the causes of instability in the crisis-filled Roman Empire, and he attempted to re-entrench the old Roman Gods. The polytheistic gods of Olympus, including Jupiter, Minerva, Juno, Mars, Bacchus and hundreds of others, were promoted by the state.

Paired with his brutal and systemic persecution of early Catholics and longstanding Roman weariness of the historically hardiness of Jewish citizens from whence the Christians came, Diocletian was not remembered fondly by the Church.

Furthermore, Diocletian saw the Catholic Church organizational structure as intensely hierarchal, and therefore suspected to have potential as an non-state-controlled military structure within Roman boundaries.

Beyond Diocletian and the Church

However, in other aspects, Diocletian is an exceptional ruler. 

To combat a crippling financial crisis, Diocletian successfully implemented a “barter-taxing” process that kept the figurative lights of the empire on. He also earned his way to emperor-hood through sheer merits (since he was born a slave) and remains for all eternity the only Roman emperor to willingly concede his power in the hopes of slipping into a quit retirement.  He wrangled in the empire’s rampant inflation by establishing a metal standard, which was eventually adopted more widely.

His career notes numerous military, economic and governmental success stories as he effectively ended the “Crisis of the Third Century” bringing back a crippled empire from practical anarchy.

I’m personally a fan of Diocletian. When citizens of the Roman empire begged for his return, following his retirement, he replied:

“If you could show the cabbage that I planted with my own hands to your emperor, he definitely wouldn’t dare suggest that I replace the peace and happiness of this place with the storms of a never-satisfied greed.”

Diocletian in Split

For the modern tourist, Emperor Diocletian had a real knack for real-estate, as his palace is situated on a rather beautiful cove along the Croatian coast. 

Ironically, the majority of the old palace has been restructured into St. Dominus Cathedral, a staunchly Christian institution of pale stone and tall bell towers.

I’m not sure if Diocletian had a sense of humor.  I hope so, because that’d be a tricky afterlife pill to swallow otherwise.

The good news is that I have that sense of humor for him. 

Exploring Diocletian’s palace is fairly glorious. It remains one of the best-preserved Roman structures in the world. Parts of the site are a luxury villa summer house, while others serve as a Roman military camp, also known as castrum.

Inside, I passed the Saint Domnius Cathedral, the famed Diocletian’s Cellars, Jupiter’s Temple, the Iron Gate and the tiny Split Ethnographic Museum.

Elsewhere in Split

For most of the day, I wandered around Split, enjoying myself far more than I expected. I saw the shiny toes of Gregory of Nin, a defiant bishop of Croatia who demanded the local language of the country could be used in church so his flock could better understand the Word of God.

I spent a couple of hours enjoying long walks along the Riva waterfront. Later on I hiked the numerous and surprisingly steep hills around Park Šuma Marjan.

With my “work” out of the way, I dropped off most of my things at my hostel before going to Kupalište Kašjuni, a small beach where I spent the rest of the day swimming in the sea.

I ended my day with an influx of Goluzarije’s Dalmatian Handmade and cooed over the many cats which pad through the town.

Split was a wonderful place to visit. I felt refreshed and engaged during my entire visit. Once again, I neglected to sleep somewhat, struggling to keep my feet during my daily wanderings.

With my time visiting Split now complete, I’m back on a bus. In a couple of short hours, I’ll be in the famed walled city of Dubrovnik.

Until then,

Best regards and excellent trails,

Old Sean

Written August 28th, 2018

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