principality of Hlum, which, as we have seen, was originally joined to Doclea, and recognised Servian overlordship from about 1222 until some time between 1320 and 1330, when it was added to the Banat of Bosnia under Hungarian suzerainty. Hlum was divided into a number of _župe_, like the other Serb lands, under different feudal families. Stagno and the Punta was ruled by that of the Branivoj, with whom the Ragusans had hitherto lived on terms of friendship and commercial intercourse. The Republic sent them an annual gift of 100 _ipperperi_,[157] which may, however, have been blackmail to secure immunity from piracy, to which so many of the Slave tribes were addicted. It is probable that the Ragusans had had their eyes on this district for some time, and in 1320-21 they gladly obeyed the injunctions of the Venetian Senate to act against the pirates of Stagno and Cattaro.[158] About 1323, for some unrecorded reason,[159] a quarrel broke out between Ragusa and the Branivoj; and on April 8, 1325, instead of sending the usual gift, the Republic decreed warlike preparations against the lord Branivoj and his sons “qui fecerunt offensionis multas, depredationes, et rubarias contra comune et speciales personas civitatis Ragusii.” A few months later Ragusa sent envoys to Venice to request the Doge’s intervention on account of the King of Servia’s attitude, which appeared to be insincere.[160] Hostilities were commenced, and carried on with a barbarity unusual even for those times. The following year Braico, one of Branivoj’s sons, was captured at Sant’ Andrea in Pelago, and condemned to be exposed in a cage and starved to death. Some time afterwards his brother Grubaza or Grubeza was captured, and their mother, who had asked for Ragusan hospitality on her way to Bosnia, was detained as a hostage. The third brother, Branoe, was arrested by the King of Servia, who was now friendly towards the Ragusans. The latter requested him to hand the prisoner over to the commune of Cattaro, where he would have less chance of escaping. Uroš agreed, but the Republic was still unsatisfied, and private citizens offered rewards out of their own pockets for the heads of the surviving members of the Branivoj family. A certain Pasqua promised 500 _ipperperi_, and the Croce family 2000, to any one of the King’s barons who would kill Branoe on the way from Svezana (where he had been detained) to Cattaro![161] The Servian king apparently had another slight disagreement with the Ragusans about 1327; but when war broke out between him and the Bulgarian Tsar Michael, he required their help to obtain Italian mercenaries, and in return he favoured their projects on Stagno.[162] His successor, Stephen Dušan (1330-1355), was still more favourable, and through the two citizens of Cattaro, Trifone and Niccolò Bucchia, who held high positions at his court as Protospathar and Protovestiar, the Republic obtained his full support. Trifone was