Note 17 — Chapter II · THE FOUNDATION AND EARLY HISTORY OF THE CITY (656-1204)

Constantine Porphyrogenitus says that the Slaves (whom he mixed up with the Avars) had destroyed τὸ κάστρον Πίταυρα, the inhabitants being mostly killed or captured. The survivors fled, and on an inaccessible rock founded the new city of Ῥαούσιον. In a Slavonic document quoted by Jireček (op. cit., p. 9, note 20) there is a native account of the foundation of Ragusa. The ancient Ragusa, it says, stood na Captate (at Cavtat), and possessed the whole župa of Canali; when the city fell and was destroyed, “the lords of Chum and Rascia” occupied this župa, and the inhabitants of the city took refuge on a strong place, where they founded the modern Ragusa. These are other more or less legendary accounts.