“In Servian times,” writes Prof. Jireček,[235] “this region, now so desolate, was in the most flourishing condition, and had a large population and numerous beautifully situated towns. Even in the sixteenth century Italian travellers who ascended the course of the Bojana compared this green land with its many villages to their own fair country. Large Latin and Oriental monasteries stood peacefully side by side. Servian, Albanian, and Italian were the principal languages spoken. The cities enjoyed important privileges, granted by the Servian Kings, Tsars, and Despots (later by the Balšići), and their citizens occupied important positions in the Government service; the ruling princes themselves often visited these districts. The ports plied a busy trade, for from hence goods were transported to the Byzantine districts of Macedonia and Thrace, as far as Bulgaria and the Mare Majus (_Mar Maggiore_) as the Italians in the Middle Ages called the Black Sea.” The chief city off the coast of Zedda was Antivari, situated about four miles from the sea, where the open bay of Volovica served as a harbour. Its government, like that of Ragusa and Cattaro, was an oligarchical constitution, in the hands of a numerous and active aristocracy, under privileges granted by the Servian Tsars. The citizens were of Latin origin, and Latin and Italian were the official languages, but the inhabitants of the surrounding country were Serbs. It was the centre of the archiepiscopal see of Northern Albania. After the Turkish conquest its importance was reduced to _nil_, and nearly all the noble families either died out or emigrated to Ragusa. It is not easy to realise that the actual Montenegrin village was once a busy commercial city. Nothing but a few escutcheons on some of the houses bear witness to its past magnificence.