52 A RECENT VISIT TO THE DALMATIAN COAST. 
was especially venerated by Diocletian, and in whose honour he 
assumed the surname of Jovius. This temple is surrounded by a 
peristyle of its own, and has its original dome almost intact. It is 
now the Cathedral of Spalato. 
A great part of the old palace has now disappeared and given 
place to an irregularly built town with narrow streets. The 
houses are in fact built on the foundations of the rooms and offices 
of the palace, and in many parts modern work is so intermingled 
with the ancient as to become scarcely distinguishable from it. 
Fig. 2. 
This transformation of a house into a city commenced immediately 
after the destruction of the neighbouring city of Salona by the 
Avars in 639 A.D. Such of the unfortunate inhabitants as escaped 
destruction at the hands of the barbarians took refuge within the 
walls of this palace, then long-deserted, and after the lapse of 
nearly three hundred and fifty years already beginning to fall into 
decay. This was the commencement of the modern city of 
Spalato, which for many centuries afterwards found sufficient room 
for its requirements within the walls of the imperial palace—at 
Py 
