80
SPALATO
buried in the mausoleum of the palace, but the fate of his sarcophagus is unknown. After Diocletian’s death there was no Imperial occupant of the great building. Tradition, probably accurate, has it that Galla Placidia, flying before the Gothic occupation of Ravenna, found shelter at Salona, or possibly in Spalato; and it is nearly certain that Nepos was murdered there. But the great halls were gradually allowed to decay, or were turned to other uses, such as that of a cloth factory. In 639 the Avar incursion ruined the neighbouring city of Salona, the remnant of whose inhabitants took refuge in the islands, whither the barbarians, unaccustomed to the sea, were afraid to follow them. When the worst terror was past, under the guidance of a certain Severus, they crawled back to the mainland, but not to Salona, which was a mere heap ot ruins. The great walls of Diocletian’s Palace, with only three gates to defend—for neither Slav nor Avar would venture on the sea—offered them f ready shelter; and so the villa-palace became a town. The lower chambers lodged the po0ier refugees; Diocletian’s own great halls harboured the richer sort; much was pulled down and divided up into small quarters of the town with narr°" alleys giving access to the houses, but the t'u