The most renowned, as it is the most beautiful, of Dalmatian towns,
Dubrovnik (Ragusa), was always more preoccupied with commerce and
letters than with warfare. It managed to maintain itself in glory for
a very long time, thanks to the astuteness of the citizens, who were
ever willing to give handsome tribute to a potential foe. On occasion
the Ragusans could be nobly firm, refusing to deliver a political
refugee to the Turks, and so forth. In such tempestuous times the
little State was forced to trim its sails; there was the gibe that
they were prepared to pay lip service to anyone, and that the letters
S.B. on the flag (for Sanctus Blasius, their patron saint) indicated
the seven flags, _sette bandiere_, which they were ready to fly. But
the Republic of Dubrovnik--a truly oligarchic republic, until the
great earthquake of 1667 made it necessary to raise a few other
families into the governing class--the republic can say, with truth,
that when darkness was over the other Yugoslavs it kept a lamp alight.
As yet the Serbian State was rising in prosperity and Dubrovnik made a
treaty of commerce with Stephen (1196-1224), who had succeeded his
father Nemania. During this reign St. Sava, the king's brother, came
back to Serbia and organized the national Church, founding also
numerous monasteries and churches, as well as schools. Of the
successors of Stephen we may mention Uro[vs], whose widow, a French
princess, Helen of Anjou, is venerated in Serbia for her good deeds
and has been canonized. King Milutine (1281-1321) made Serbia the most
united and the leading State in Eastern Europe; under Du[vs]an, who
has been called the Serbian Charlemagne, success followed success, and
under his sceptre he gathered most of the Serbian people, as well as
many Greeks and Albanians. He had the idea--and it was not beyond his
strength--to group together all the Serbian provinces.