In one part Solin originated from the remains of the ancient town Salona utilizing the benefit of the area located on a good place in relation to the roads and the protected port on the eastem side of the Bay of Kaštela. Even in the prehistoric time people occupied the area under the southem hills which is today named Kozjak. Today the river called Jadro and the mild coast of the bay are the reason for the uninterrupted living in this fertile valley since the oldest times till nowadays. The archaeological founds testify that the Delmatas, one of the Illyrian tribes, bere started to trade with the Greek colonists of the Adria. So the town was bom, named after the Latin word for the river Salon -Salona. Later the Salona area attracted Italic tradesman and also the Romans. Roman time Caesars victory in the civil war raised Salon to the level of a colony, and soon it became the seat of the govemor of the province Illyria, later Dalmatia. With the settlement ofthe veterans in the time of Caesar and Oktavius Augustus the old Delmatas Salona became a colony ofRoman citizens- colonia lulia (Martia) Salona. Salona was surrounded by walls which were built during centuries as the town developed in a few phases. In the urban development there are three main visible parts: middle or urbs antiqua, or urbs Graeca or urbs vetus, and two extensions, one to the west, urbs occidentalis and the second to the east, urbs orientalis. Salona experienced its first tlourish during the early empire (during the Julius-era), and later in the time of Trajan and Hadrijana, and even Antonino and especially at the endof the 3rd century under the emperor Diocletian. In that period it got the honourable name Valeria. The last three centuries of the history of Salona are characterized by a strong development of the Christian community inside the town and the raising of many sacral buildings. After some of them Salona is known throughout the world and in the archaeology (Oratorium, Basilika on Marusinac). The Salonitan bishop was the metropolit of Dalmatia, and the town was respected because of its martyrs the bishop Domnio (Dujam), Anastasius (Staš) and others but also because of the church councils in the first part ofthe 6th century. Salona stopped to exist as a town probably at the end of the 6th and the begin of the 7th century when the civil, military and church administration moved to the nearby Diocletian's palace. In that secure shelter continued the Salonitan urban tradition and a new centre was created in the civil and religious sense -the town Split. Salona has never again been renewed. The Croats settled at the beginning of the 9th century on the eastern periphery. A proof for this is the researching of old Christian complexes (Rižinice) and graveyards in Glaviina, Mravinci as well as of newer churches. Due to the fact that people did not continue to live the ancient Salona, the remains of the town inside the walls became one of the most worthy and richest archaeological sites in Croatia.