Asinius Pollio in Dalmatia: what happened in salona 39 BC

This paper re-examines the sources reporting on the campaigns of Asinius Pollio in 40/39 BC, and reviews the scholarly debate about the targets and aims of his campaigns. In the debate a new source is introduced, the passage on Pollio's conquest of Salona, from the medieval Historia Salonitana of Thomas the Archdeacon of Spalatum (Split). The analysis shows that the passage from Thomas does not correspond with any known source and it suggests that he used a more substantial report on the siege and capture of Salona, probably from the textual tradition of the Vergilian scholia, which sprung from the lost commentary of Aelius Donatus. The existence of this textual tradition about Pollio's campaign in central Dalmatia in the Vergilian scholia and the "Epitomes" of Florus, in conjunction with Horace's mention of Pollio's Dalmatian triumph, makes it more certain that Pollio campaigned in central Dalmatia.