The Duklja reference article from the English Wikipedia on 24-Apr-2004 (provided by Fixed Reference: snapshots of Wikipedia from wikipedia.org)

Duklja

Duklja (Latin: Doclea or Dioclea, after the town of Dioclea) was a small medieval state located in today's Montenegro and northern Albania including the city of Skadar.

"Doclea" the name of the region during the early period of the Roman Empire, was termed for an early Illyrian tribe. In later centuries, Romans "hyper-corrected" to "Dioclea" wrongly guessing that an "I" had been lost due to vulgar speech patterns. "Duklja" is the later Slavic version of that word.

It was one of the four southern Dalmatian Slavic duchies, other three being Narenta (Pagania), Zahumlje and Travunia that weren't united under either Croatia to the northwest or Rascia (Serbia) to the northeast.

One of the famous mentions of Duklja is the historical document known as Presbyter Diocleas: Libellus Gothorum or Ljetopis popa Dukljanina or Barski rodoslov which was written by a priest from Dioclea (Bar) around 1180-1196 and which includes valuable information about these and related territories.

Duklja was populated by Christians of the Latin Rite and was initially usually under the suzerainty of the Byzantium or of Bulgaria up to the 11th century when the dukes of Duklja started having noticeable success in their struggle for independence.

Starting in 1036, Dobroslav, also called Stephen Vojislav, who was a descendent of both Serbian (from Travunia) and Croatian royal families, liberated Duklja from the Bulgarians for a short period. Later his achievements were repeated by his descendents Mihail, Bodin, Vukan, Marko, Uroš I, Uroš II and finally Stefan Nemanja who later expanded Raška to include Duklja and other Catholic territories and became the first of the Nemanjić Serbian royal dynasty to be recognized by the Pope (1217).

Nemanja himself was initially baptized under Roman rite like the other rulers of Duklja, and later rebaptized under Byzantine Rite. He gave the rule over Duklja to his son Vukan Nemanjić, and due to the difference in religions the two ostensibly united territories were at odds. Eventually though the Serbian influence prevailed.

Duklja later also became known as Zeta. According to another interpretation, Duklja was composed of Zeta and Travunja (Travunja was roughly today's eastern Herzegovina and Konavle).

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