From the twelfth to the fourteenth century the great commercial route which led from the Adriatic at Ragusa to Nish and Byzantium passed through Sienitza and Novibazar. Prosperity never since equaled flowed with the commerce from Venetian cities and the Dalmatian coast to the Orient. The districts of the sanjak then boasted of denser and wealthier populations. The Turkish conquest, however, diverted this trade route into the Morava valley with the result that the erstwhile frequented sanjak became almost completely isolated and neglected. West of the Lim the sanjak has always been predominantly Serbian. East of this river the pure Serbian type is preserved in the districts of Stari Vlah, Novi Varosh and Berane. The region’s earliest inhabitants are found in the secluded gorges of the Tara and the Ograyevitza tableland. Albanian settlements are met in Peshtera and Roshai. Like Albania, Bosnia was originally peopled by Illyrians, a people of Alpine race whose living representatives are found among the Skipetars or rockmen of Albania. Although the land was conquered by the Romans, its inhabitants were never thoroughly Romanized. The mountainous character of Bosnia accounts for this failure of Latinism. Many traces of the Roman invasion are being continually discovered on the sites of ancient military camps and in inscriptional remains which are frequently unearthed in the territory comprised between the Adriatic and the Danube. Dalmatia and Pannonia were the two provinces into which the Romans had subdivided the region for administrative purposes. The Slavs who began to appear in the middle of the sixth century left a deep impress on the inhabitants. The influence of these latest comers is the only one that has prevailed to our day. The coming of Hungarians in Europe may be likened to a wedge driven into the mass of Slavic populations. The success of these Asiatics brought about the separation of the southern Slavs from their northern kinsmen. In the course of these adjustments Bosnia and its inhabitants became part of the kingdom of Croatia which originated in the valleys of the Drave and Save. The province was administered by a Ban, who, though a vassal of the Croatian crown, always managed to retain a certain measure of independence.[187] After the Hungarian conquest of Croatia, the Bans were allowed to maintain their rule. Their policy consisted in cultivating friendly relations with the ruling element and at the same time in drawing closer to the Serbian populations in the east. The intimate connection between Serbia and Bosnia dates from the end of the twelfth century. Two hundred years later Stephen Turtko, the son of Serbia’s greatest monarch, was crowned king of Serbia, Bosnia and the Littoral provinces at the shrine of Saint Sava. But the independence of Greater Serbia was short-lived. Hungarian arms were soon in the ascendant and Bosnia became a prey of feudal lords--a land divided against itself.