The Carolingian south-eastern frontier

Carolingian influences on the east of Istria and Carniola can be traced since the beginning of the wars against the Avars and the conflict with Byzantium. Papal undertakings in Dalmatia, regarding the revival of ecclesiastical organisation, should not be seen to have been a result of a cooperation between Rome and Charlemagne, but as an independent action by Pope Hadrian. After a successful victory against the khanate and the Treaty of Aachen, Dalmatia ( excluding the remaining Byzantine possessions) as well as the parts held by the Serbs and Pannonia to the south of the Drava river were incorporated into the march of Friuli under their own dukes. At the beginning, their position towards Cividale might have been the same as the position of Istria, but the latter became integrated into the western Empire, while Croatia and southern Pannonia remained outside its borders. Such a development prevented the evolution of a Barbarian identity in both Istria and Lower Pannonia, which remained outside the Empire, but was more integrated into its frontier structures than Croatia. Since the time of Trpimir, Croats were only loosely linked with the Carolingian governing structures, that resulted in their gradual creation of their own identity. We might guess that the growing influence of Byzantium on Croatian rulers played its part, as had the Hungarian invasion for Pannonia.