Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
History
Slovenia is as old as the hills and as new as to-
morrow. Slovenia the
narod
(nation of people)
can trace its origins back at least a millennium
and a half. But Slovenia the
nacija
, or nation-
state, is a much more recent entity.
As elsewhere in Europe, Slovenia's begin-
nings involved the mass migration of a nomadic
people, the wandering Celts, the subjugation by and - it must be said - the civilising influ-
ence of the Romans, followed by the arrival of the Slavic tribes, who would unite and look
after themselves for a brief time. But by the late 13th century the rich and powerful Habs-
burgs would move in and not vacate the premises for more than six centuries. Slovenia
would enjoy a certain amount of autonomy as part of the kingdom and later the Socialist
Republic of Yugoslavia. But it would not be not until June 1991 that the nation's 'new day'
as an independent republic would arrive.
A primitive bone flute discovered in 1995 in a cave
at Divje Babe, near the town of Cerknica in Primor-
ska, dates back some 35,000 years and is thought to
be the world's oldest known musical instrument.
The Romans
When the Romans arrived in what is now Slovenia in the 2nd century BC they were not the
region's first 'visitors'. During the Bronze Age (around 2000 to 900 BC), marsh dwellers
farmed and raised cattle in the area south of present-day Ljubljana and at Lake Cerknica.
But around 700 BC, these marsh people were overwhelmed by Illyrian tribes from the
south who brought iron tools and weapons. They themselves were subdued a century and a
half later by Celtic tribes pushing down from the north towards the Balkans. They estab-
lished the Noric kingdom, the first 'state' on Slovenian soil.
In 181 BC the Romans set up the colony of Aquileia (Oglej in Slovene) on the Gulf of
Trieste in order to protect the empire from such tribal incursions. In the next century, the
Romans annexed the Noric kingdom and moved into the rest of Slovenia and Istria. From
their military settlements the important towns of Emona (Ljubljana), Celeia (Celje) and Po-
etovio (Ptuj) developed.
