Note 315 — Chapter VIII · MOSTAR AND THE VALE OF NARENTA.

I venture to assume an etymologic connexion between the Dalmatian Narbona and the Narbo Martius of Southern Gaul. If we had not the testimony of ancient writers to the fact that there was a Celtic ingredient in ancient Illyria, we should surely be justified in assuming it from the names of some of the cities. Orange seems to repeat itself in the Illyrian Arauso; Anderida in Andretium; and Corinium gives us a Cirencester in the neighbourhood of Zara. Epulus, the name of an Illyrian king, is curiously suggestive of the Eppillus of British coins. This Narbona has certain analogies of position with its Gallic homonym. Of course the ancient name of the Narenta—Naro—is also connected with that of the city. This city is called Narbona by both Ptolemy and Polybius, but accounts of its origin differ. According to one it was a Phœnician colony; according to others its founders were Phrygian or Thracian. The chief authority on Narbona or Narona is Dr. Lanza, in his Saggio storico-statistico-medico sopra l’antica Città di Narona, Bologna, 1842, which I only know through the summary in Neigebaur’s Süd-Slaven. For the inscriptions of course the Illyrian volume of the Corpus Inscriptionum is now the authority; but in elucidating and first calling attention to these much credit is due to Dr. Lanza, Major Sabljur, and Sir Gardner Wilkinson, who gives fac-similes of thirty-three in his work on Dalmatia. Some Naronan inscriptions were published at Ragusa, in 1811, in the Marmora Macarensia.