Republic of Ragusa

The Republic of Ragusa, or Republic of Dubrovnik, was a maritime republic centered on the city of Dubrovnik (Ragusa in Italian and Latin) in Dalmatia (today in southernmost Croatia), that existed from 1358 to 1808. It reached its commercial peak in the 15th and the 16th centuries, before being conquered by Napoleon's French Empire and formally annexed by the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy in 1808. It had a population of about 30,000 people, out of whom 5,000 lived within the city walls. Its motto was "Non bene pro toto libertas venditur auro", which translated from Latin means "Liberty is not well sold for all the gold".

Names

Originally named Communitas Ragusina (Latin for "Ragusan municipality" or "community"), in the 14th century it was renamed Respublica Ragusina, first mentioned in 1385, (lat. for Ragusan Republic). In Italian it is called Repubblica di Ragusa; in Croatian it is called Dubrovačka Republika (Croatian pronunciation: [dǔbroʋat͡ʃkaː repǔblika]). The name Ragusa owes its origins to the fugitive inhabitants of Epidaurum in Illyria, which was destroyed in the 6th century and it was in use back to that period of regional history.