The following monarchs are mentioned only in the
Chronicle of the Priest of Duklja (CPD), written by a
Catholic monk of the
Cistercian order by the name of Roger (Rudger) at the request of Croatian Ban
Paul Šubić. It was written in two versions – the first one in
Split in 1298 while Roger was handling the
Archbishop of Split's finances, and the second ca. 1300, while he was the Archbishop of Antivari (Bar). The chronicle, built round a core written in
Slavonic, but added to by a bishop of Bar intent on demonstrating his diocese' superiority over that of
Split, is one of the oldest known written sources, but only
Latin redactions from the 16th and 17th centuries have been preserved. Historians have largely discounted it, though it contains material on the early history of the
South Slavs. The work describes the Slavs as a peaceful people imported by the monarchs of the
Goths, who invaded the area in the 5th century, but it doesn't attempt to elaborate on how and when this happened. Furthermore, it mentions
Bosnia (Bosnam) and
Rascia (Rassa) as the two Serbian lands, while describing the southern
Dalmatian
Zahumlje,
Travunia and
Duklja (most of today's
Herzegovina,
Montenegro, as well as parts of
Croatia and
Albania) as Croatian lands in the Early Middle Ages. These claims contradict the Byzantine work
De Administrando Imperio and other contemporary sources. Various inaccurate or simply false claims make it an unreliable source. This work is, as the majority of modern historians think, mainly fictional, or
wishful thinking, however, it does give us a unique insight into the whole era from the point of view of the indigenous Slavic population. One of the prime controversies of the
Chronicle, lies in the fact that the
Antivari archiepiscopate did not exist between 1142 and 1198 – and that is the time Rudger is supposed to have been the Archbishop. ==See also==