Researching the Morlachs and the Uskoks The Challenges of Writing about Marginal People from the Border Region of Dalmatia (Sixteenth Century)

This paper aims to present various types of documents referring directly or indirectly to the Morlachs and the Uskoks, in order to answer to questions such as which main activities these people developed, and how they influenced daily life in Dalmatia. A significant characteristic and paradox of both the Morlachs and Uskoks is that their names are conventions and denominations found mostly in external sources. Frequently mentioned in sixteenth-century Venetian documents, despite the little additional information provided, the archival material investigated nevertheless offers the opportunity to understand these very active, mobile and adaptable populations, especially with regard to their role as cross-cultural and transimperial subjects.

The 'full spectrum of interactions between Christians and Ottomans' can also involve entire social groups that could carry goods, information, cultural features, ideas or customs from one side to the other, or whose activities could influence the socio-political and economic life of an area of intersection. The Morlachs and Uskoks present in the border area of Venetian Dalmatia acted as smaller agents who were nevertheless equally important for the functioning of relations between the great powers. 4 The concept of border was understood as a larger area and not as a clearly defined frontier line; see MARIA PIA PEDANI, The Ottoman-Venetian Border (15th-18th Centuries) (Venice: Edizioni Ca' Foscari Digital Publishing, 2017). 5 NORA BEREND, At the Gate of Christendom: Jews, Muslims and 'Pagans' in Medieval Hungary, c.1000-c.1300 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001), 3: 'coexistence is not an attempt to refer to some golden age of harmonious tolerant interaction […] It subsumes both peaceful and hostile relations, until the eradication of the minorities, either by assimilation or expulsion.' the idea of transimperial 6 cross-border agency, one might feel tempted to focus firstly on the political/administrative figures who were in charge of maintaining the good relations established through peace agreements or other treaties (on commerce, ransoms, passages, etc.). However, similarly to many other border areas, 7 the rural hinterland of Dalmatia became a space where different types of agents assured exchanges across groups. 8 The resulting mixture 9 convinced eighteenth-century Western travellers to describe the province as the gate towards the wild Europe. 10 As immigrants, refugees, merchants, shepherds, criminals or soldiers, these others challenged locals and authorities to find solutions for their inclusion or removal, in order to avoid territorial losses and any complications to everyday life in the over-sea province of Venice. 11 Of the agents of coexistence in Dalmatia, the Morlachs and Uskoks were considered by far the most 'exotic' and curious. The chosen descriptive words (exotic and curious) are appropriate if we take into consideration that neither the large bibliography dedicated to them, nor the immense quantity of documents mentioning 6 E. NATALIE ROTHMAN, Brokering Empire: Trans-Imperial Subjects Between Venice and Istanbul (Ithaca, NY and London: Cornell University Press, 2012), 10-11. The explanation of 'trans-imperial subjects' offered by the author also applies to the case of the Morlachs and the Uskoks. Both these populations entered the Venetian space, became aware of the rules and functioning of the state, but only respected them insofar as they fulfilled their personal interests. 7  , 10-11: 'Societies promptly accommodated whichever state ruled over them, warriors crept back and forth across a divide that proved remarkably porous, and, surprisingly, that great segregator religion itself slipped into a latitudinarianism that facilitated borderland communication and even sometimes blurred the distinction between Christianity and Islam'; 18-19: 'rather than the government assuming the lead, Ottoman subjects and foreigners residing in Mediterranean port cities and along Balkan borderlands intensified their dialogues and carved out commercial and social enclaves along the Ottoman frontiers.' their names can answer the question of who they were. The present paper aims to emphasise some of the working hypotheses built up while researching sixteenthcentury Venetian documents. The analysis will highlight the diversity of sources and contexts which mention the Morlachs and Uskoks, discussed in relation to the Morlachs.

Traditional Definitions
The Morlachs of Dalmatia, as referred to in Venetian documents from the fifteenth century onwards, are usually defined as a heterogeneous and extremely mobile population of Vlach origin. Concerning the origin of their name, two theories are discussed. The first one is based on the explanations offered by Johannes Lucius 12 and the text of Presbiter Diocleatus 13 which he published and promoted. According to Lucius's text the name Morlach has its origins in Byzantium, in the Greek word Maurovlachus meaning 'the Black Latins.' The use of this name was explained as a choice made by the Venetians in order to differentiate them from the White Latins, who were thought to be inhabitants of the former Roman cities situated on the Adriatic coast. This theory is commonly used by scholars who understand the Morlachs as remnants of the Latinised/Romanised people from all over the Balkans. This theory has also had a strong echo in Romanian 14 historiography since it suggested the fact that the Byzantine term Maurovlachus was used to identify Vlachs akin to those living in historic Moldavia. 15  theory is, it should be questioned since new research has contested the authenticity of the text written by Presbiter Diocleatus. 16 The other theory regarding the origin of the Morlachs' name is a more regional one. According to it, the term 'Morlach' designated the Vlachs near the sea, as it resulted from joining the Serbo-Croatian words more (sea) and vlach. This theory can be suggested by the Croatian historiography of the previous centuries, supporting the argument that all the Romanic Vlachs had disappeared and all the remaining Vlachs were Slavic speakers. 17 The discussion of the historiography of the Morlach name could be a life-long research topic on its own, given the number of published studies and the passions it usually provokes. However, my intention is not to embark on such an endeavour, but to focus on new archival material limited to a short period of time (the middle of the sixteenth century, between the war of 1537-1540 and the War of Cyprus of 1570-1573) in order to understand what lay behind the activities developed by the Morlachs. 18 In the case of the Uskoks, the situation is a little clearer. Their name originates in the Serbo-Croatian word uskok meaning 'fugitive' ('the one who jumped in'; as well as the Croatian verb uskočiti, 'to jump from one side to another,' with the Latin equivalent scoco). 19 It is usually connected with their transfer, after the Ottoman conquest of Bosnia, from Ottoman lands towards Klis/Clissa, and later, in 1537, from Klis to Senj/Segnain in the North of Dalmatia. Over time, according to their activities, the name also came to be associated with words like: pirate, deserter, run-away, criminal, thief, merciless person, etc. Hence, its use strongly suggests that uskok was a term used to identify a social group composed of individuals of different geographic origin, political patronage and social condition. 20

The Sources
In the case of the Morlachs living in Dalmatia during the sixteenth century, approximating the number of sources mentioning them is a challenging task. The difficulty lies not only in the large number of documents kept in various archives around the Adriatic, and elsewhere, but also in the fact that they are scattered across various fonds in these archives. Hitherto in my research I have used published documents 21 and sources I found in the State Archives of Venice and the State Archives of Zadar. The cases in which the Morlachs could be found with the help of the indexes or other archival instruments were very few. Instead, most of the references were identified by reading page after page of the files from many of the archival collections relevant to the history of the Stato da Mar, Dalmatia and the activity of the Venetian ambassadors and other representatives. Hence, the collections in which I found mentions of the Morlachs are: Senato Deliberazioni Mar (both in the registers and the filze), 22 Senato Deliberazioni Secrete 23 (also in the registers and the filze), Bailo a Costantinopoli, 24 Lettere e scritture turchesche, 25 Capi de Consiglio de' Dieci, 26 Consiglio de' Dieci, Collegio. Lettere secrete, 27 Commemoriali, 28 Avogaria di Comun, 29 Senato Deliberazioni Costantinopoli (registers and filze), 30 and Miscellanea materie miste e notabile. 31 To these I added some files from the archives of Zadar: Opčina Trogir, 32 Opčina Šibenik, 33 Zadarski Knez, 34 and various other files of public notaries. Since the Uskoks are even more present in the Venetian documents than the Morlachs, in the current stage of the research I used the same archival fonds researched for the Morlachs. However, since the period of focus preceded the War of Cyprus (1570-1573) and the War of Gradisca, also known as the Uskok War (1615-1617), my aim was to analyse the relations between them and the Morlachs, but more importantly the outcomes of these relations on the Venetian-Ottoman collaboration on the Dalmatian border.
The analysed documents are mainly letters exchanged between the central and regional authorities, 35 complaints of Venetian subjects from Dalmatia and Istria, and official decisions taken by the Venetian Senate and sent for their application to its representatives in Dalmatia. Additionally, I identified some references in letters and agreements issued in various contexts regarding life on the border of Dalmatia and encounters with the Ottoman Empire. These documents were part of the correspondence among Venetian officials, whose main objective was to find solutions to the problems caused by the Morlachs or to answer some of their needs. In very few cases were these documents addressed directly to the Morlachs or written on their behalf. In these cases, a translation was mentioned, but without offering any details regarding the language from which it was made. Moreover, we lack sources issued by the Morlachs describing themselves or their origins. Given all these aspects, I chose to use the term 'Morlach' exclusively in line with the Venetian way of identifying them.
Therefore, out of 350 unpublished documents 36 transcribed from various archival collections covering the period between 1500 and 1600, only 167 explicitly contain the term 'Morlach' in either of its forms (Morlacchi or Murlachi). 37 The rest of the documents are relevant for different case studies in which a specific Morlach activity was the reason for the intervention of the Venetian authorities. Furthermore, from these 167 documents, 84 do not offer any explanation of the term 'Morlach,' appearing simply as an identifier for those involved in some dispute, commercial exchange or negotiations for the border. Morlachs as Ottoman subjects -morlacchi sudditi turchi -38 displaying the extent to which the Venetian authorities were also aware of the distinction between the Morlachs and other 'communities' present in Dalmatia. 39 Most of these documents make a clear distinction between the Morlachs and the Uskoks (even though in some cases, like the document from 1570, they are described as the same group), 40 the people of Dalmatia, Greeks, Gypsies 41 and others. The same documents also offer possibilities of identifying the Morlachs as Christians, foreigners, ancient Hungarian settlers 42 and in only one case as Vlachs. 43 The latter aspect, however, can be quickly explained: the term 'Vlachs' only appears in the Venetian documents when the document is a translation of an Ottoman one. Thus, the discussion revolves around the how the Ottoman authorities understood this term: was it ethnic or social? 44 As an example of a source for the Uskoks, it is worth adding a 56-page collection of 295 résumés of documents making reference to them. Kept in one of the registers of the Miscellanea 45 fonds in the Venetian archives, this collection brings together information from collections like Stato da Mar, Senato Secreta, Dispacci a Costantinopoli and Bailo a Costantinopoli, covering the time frame between 1529 and 1576. It proves to be a very useful tool when trying to follow the outcomes of decisions made by the Venetian central authorities, regional officials, the Sultan, the Ottoman provincial authorities and occasional ambassadors, all of which deal with damage caused by the Uskoks.
To all of these we can add numerous male and female names accompanied by

The Morlachs and Uskoks through Venetian Eyes
The arrival of the Ottomans in the proximity of Venetian Dalmatia (after the conquest of Bosnia in 1463) diversified the contexts in which the Morlachs crossed the border, by both increasing the number of immigrants and encouraging commercial exchanges between the subjects. The negotiations for the border between the Republic of Venice and the Ottoman Empire in the mountainous area of Dalmatia started after the end of the 1499-1503 war. 46 Since the powerful neighbour could not be driven away, the need to establish clear borders and rules to cross them became apparent. Before the beginning of a new war in 1537, Venice signed four agreements with the Ottomans. 47 Accordingly, they solved the border issue as follows 48 the subjects of the Sultan were forbidden to cross the border or to cause damage in the Venetian lands, and a similar prescription was valid for the Venetian subjects. This formulation was echoed in the regional officials' task to negotiate and draw the border, efforts carried on until the beginning of the Cyprus War and summed up in documents by the phrase per vicinar bene.
In this context, the Morlachs played a very important role, since they were the ones who kept the misunderstandings alive regarding the possession of some villages of mainland Dalmatia. The sources mention 33 villages in the hinterland of Šibenik and 3 in that of Trogir, inhabited by the Morlachs, 49 Ottoman subjects, even though the villages were in Venetian territory, according to previous documents. 50 A résumé of the negotiations for the borders and villages of Šibenik is contained in a description 51 written sometime between 1566 and 1568. The author, thought to be Francesco Difnico/Franjo Difnić, paid special attention to the villages from this hinterland occupied by the Morlachs after the Ottoman conquest of Skradin (1522). The villages, abandoned by the Venetian subjects 52 who were driven away by fear of the Turks, attracted Ottoman subjects willing to exploit their resources. The discontent of the rightful owners was obvious and discussions for the release of the lands could not be avoided, creating a situation that lasted at least until the beginning of the Cyprus War.
But the Morlachs were not only illegal settlers in Venetian villages. They also became immigrants and benefited from a special status in the Venetian lands, stimulating Venice to develop an official settlement policy. Usually, the main aim of this policy was to transfer the immigrants to Istria and grant them lands and some exemptions in exchange for populating and working these abandoned areas. The solution was administrative in nature, since Istria was being drained of its population, while Dalmatia had become too crowded with immigrants and individuals entering to plunder the place. This overpopulation of Dalmatia was solved by the transfer of people to Istria. Obviously, the decision was also influenced by the fact that the new arrivals did not respect the rules or laws of Venice or fulfil their status as guards of the border against the Ottomans, their former lords. When these inconveniences happened in Istria, it became a matter of internal administration. 53 Over time, as the higher stability of Istria managed to influence the Morlachs, some changes could be seen. Without a direct Ottoman influence, and having agricultural fields, markets to sell their products and authorities to assure their protection, the Morlachs began to act as subjects of the Venetian state.
The same evolution was not enjoyed by the morlacchi istriani, 54 the name we find in the sources for the Morlachs who settled in the hinterland of Zadar during the war of 1537-1540. This case study offers a singular example concerning the Dalmatian hinterland and Venetian involvement in convincing the Morlachs to settle in its jurisdiction and including them in the provinces' administrative system. The evolution of this community during the sixteenth century opens the possibility of analysing a set of features which allow an understanding of the Morlachs' transformation from an ethnic group into a social one. This transformation took place without excluding features specific to the ethnic groups and indeed occasionally they could be observed inside the larger social group. As subjects of the Serenissima and new settlers, they enjoyed various privileges and exemptions. Three decades after their settlement in the Venetian lands, in 1569, 55 the benefits they had received in 1538 were reconfirmed and their exclusion from service on the galleys was extended. However, the Morlachs wished to be included among the troops active in Dalmatia and to receive a salary for defending the lands from thieves and the incursions of the Ottoman soldiers. In the beginning, the Senate refused their request, since all the privileges they had received were granted to them in order to cultivate the lands and to defend the inner parts of Dalmatia. However, their inclusion in a more organised system of defence seemed to be a good idea. Accordingly, the official decision was to hire two Morlachs in larger companies of Croatian soldiers, and one in the smaller ones, with the possibility of hiring more once positions became available. The salary was similar to that paid to the Croatian soldiers. Interestingly enough, in their request, recapitulated and presented in Venetian dialect by the regional Venetian officials, the Morlachs asked to receive the same status and salary as was granted to the Levantines, since they too were loyal subjects who left their houses and lands and chose to live in the shadow of the Serenissima. It shows their awareness of their advanced stage of assimilation within the rules and practices of the Venetian state.
However, the Morlachs of Dalmatia continued to cross the Venetian-Ottoman border the way for which they were best known: as shepherds. Shepherding and a semi-nomadic transhumance practice were specific activities that came with an implicit lifestyle, connected through many common elements with the shepherding traditionally attributed to the Vlachs spread all over the Balkan Peninsula, and to the north up to southern Poland. 56 Nevertheless, the role played by transhumant shepherding in the survival of an ethnic group in the Balkans has to be questioned. The research required for a history of the Morlach shepherds has to be, in first place, linked to the socio-political changes of the areas they roamed and then the ethnicity this practice might suggest.
Unfortunately, the Venetian sources neither allow us to establish whether the Morlachs were exclusively shepherds, nor argue that all the Morlach shepherds were exclusively Vlachs, even though they are nevertheless connected with the Vlach shepherds from the inner Balkans. In Dalmatia, the Morlach shepherds could be encountered during the winter months, between November and April. For these six months the Morlachs used the fields of the locals to feed and water their flocks. Since no mention of reserves of hay is found in the documents, it is clear that the public or rented pasture lands, or those situated far from the towns were not enough to feed the flocks. The case of the water sources was similar. Also, in the months spent in Dalmatia, the Morlach shepherds used to conclude commercial collaborations or rent land, thus creating bridges for cultural exchanges, if necessary. 57 Pastoral transhumance proved to be another element that allowed the Morlachs to adapt to different political systems. The transformations caused in Dalmatia by the Venetian-Ottoman neighbourliness regime at the same time facilitated the survival of a traditional way of life and increased their integration in Dalmatian society.
While far from being a predominantly mercantile 'community,' 58 the Morlachs nevertheless developed some dynamic commercial activities in Dalmatia. They crossed areas difficult to cross and connected communities from both sides of the mountains. This trade involved skilful individuals familiar with the opportunities granted by the different geographic spaces. It can be assumed that the involvement of Morlachs in these commercial activities might testify to the presence of a richer stratum of these people, much more open to assimilation in the lowland communities. Since these journeys from the inner Balkans towards the coastal towns were quite frequent, it can be concluded that the Morlachs were familiar with the customs and rules of the markets. Accordingly, they had to respect them in order to exploit the opportunities for their own interests.
These aspects are mostly visible when analysing the commerce of cereals brought from the Ottoman territories. This commerce was a constant part of the Morlachs' trade, although it easily became subject to smuggling especially after the Sultan's decision to stop exports. 59 Nevertheless, the Morlach caravans carrying cereals into the Dalmatian towns and buying salt were emblematic in identifying their traditional role. identification as the main providers of significant quantities of cheese, 60 wool, sheep, lambs and leathers. This traditional practice developed in a context where the demand for subsistence products increased in Dalmatia, while Venice, on the other hand, did not show a direct interest in the Morlachs' goods (they were only sent to Venice through the mediation of local merchants who used to sell Dalmatian products together with other local items). As a result, the Morlach trade became an advantageous activity for all the parties involved without monopolising the economic life of Dalmatia.
Nevertheless, the Morlachs were far better known as malefactors, merciless cold-blooded outlaws and public enemies. A narrow province under constant pressure of war and populated by many different 'out-comers' forced the authorities to solve each case of criminality in order to avoid an escalation of the conflict. The Morlach outlaws can be only considered examples of banditismo up to a certain point, 61 especially since their actions did not emerge from some form of sanguine malevolence, but as a solution for survival in merciless conditions. However, there were many aspects that might convince us to speak about the sixteenth-century Morlachs as bandits. Suffice it to mention the highway thefts, killings, kidnappings that fed the slave markets, rapes and animal stealing, together with cases of complicity with local authorities, traditional forms of justice (the vendetta) and close ties with their milieu of origin (i.e., the community to which the leader belonged). 62 In fact, when discussing crimes involving the Morlachs some important distinctions can be observed between the outlaw inhabitants of the Venetian lands and the malefactors arriving from the Ottoman territories. This distinction is relevant because it justified the different measures applied by Venice in order to react to or stop disruptive events. It can be noticed that when the outlaw Morlach was a Venetian subject (a colonised subject in a settlement under Venetian administration), his punishment involved a public announcement to appear before a court of justice. 63 If a number of days passed and he did not arrive, then he was banished from all Venetian territories and ships, with an attractive reward for those willing to offer information about the criminal. This form of punishment, the banishment of a criminal, was defined by Venetian laws under the term of bando (Medieval Latin bannum). It can be found among the capital punishments, together with the death penalty, life sentence or forced service as a rower on the Venetian galleys for a specific amount of time. 64 On the other hand, when the Morlach offender was an Ottoman subject, his punishment was negotiated with the Ottoman representative who had the right to judge him. 65 It appears there was a clear distinction drawn between incursions for plunder and occasional incidents caused by the Morlachs. Venice had to deal with Morlach criminality in a different way and to find specific solutions in order to transform the damage into advantages or at least to diminish it. The mentioned differences emphasise the specifics of the Morlach communities (always ready to fight but attached to the family) as well as the ways followed by Venice to protect the border and to solve the demographic challenges. 66 The settlement of a few thousand Morlachs 67 for the entire time frame of my research is a clear answer to these permanent problems of Venetian Dalmatia.
As suggested at the beginning, the sources mentioning the Morlachs are rather short and lacking in detail. They are almost exclusively Venetian and record the Morlachs' activities in contexts that challenge the good administration of the province. While the peace agreements between the bigger actors may have settled the ideal relationships, the everyday encounters at the local level were more about threatening the desired peaceful coexistence. In a region like Dalmatia, threatened by the Ottoman military offensive towards the Adriatic, the Morlachs appeared as nothing more than another potential reason for conflict. Therefore, from the Venetian perspective, the Morlachs were those people who arrived in Dalmatia from beyond the mainland border; they were shepherds, merchants, malefactors, immigrants, colonists, soldiers, etc. While a Morlach or a group of Morlachs could engage in one or more of these activities, what was certain is that they originated from beyond the border of Dalmatia. Aspects like religion, language and ethnicity (in a modern sense) cannot be derived from the analysed sources, which are mainly administrative in nature and grant no significance to such details.
In addition to all of these already complicated aspects of the Morlachs' identity, we have to mention their relations with the Uskoks. They are relevant mainly because they give even more emphasis to the status of the Morlachs as inhabitants of the border, or marginal people. As Ottoman subjects, and tolerated by the Venetians, the Morlachs became easy victims of the Uskoks, who were in charge of sabotaging the Ottoman offensive. By attacking, kidnapping, killing or robbing the Morlachs, the Uskoks threatened the Venetian-Ottoman relations 68 and affected the commercial agreements and border negotiations.
Officially in charge of protecting the Habsburg border in the south of Dalmatia, after 1537 the Uskoks settled in Senj/Segna and its hinterland. Having fought against the Ottomans, the Uskoks became a constant source of tension and conflict between Venice and the Sublime Porte in spite of their agreements regarding the rule of the Adriatic. The piracy or corsair activities of the Uskoks increased in frequency over the sixteenth century and challenged the task of Venice to protect the sea and the maritime commercial routes, as established in the Venetian-Ottoman agreement from 1540. 69 However, the Uskoks' attacks were also organised in the inner parts of the Venetian over-sea province, especially but not exclusively in Northern Dalmatia. From this point of view, an investigation into the Uskok raids on Ottoman subjects crossing the border region of Dalmatia opens new research directions regarding the relations between the regional and central authorities of the three states involved. Moreover, it creates the opportunity to examine new elements defining the various social groups present in the rural hinterland of Dalmatia.
A very important aspect of this Morlach-Uskok relationship is shaped by the dynamism of their interaction. In most Venetian documents, the Morlachs appear as victims of the Uskoks, 70 even though they were equally protected by the Venetians and the Ottomans. 71 The Uskoks were depicted as the main enemies of the Ottomans, Morlachs and Venetians. However, certain sources reveal that the Morlachs, and others besides, 72 frequently helped the Uskoks in organising plundering raids and received a share of the loot. Morlachs also left the Venetian lands and chose the Uskok lifestyle, especially to flee Venetian justice or to enjoy an easier life based on plunder. In all these cases, the Venetian authorities had to intervene in order to recover the Morlachs or their goods, to catch Uskoks who had killed Morlachs, or to protect the Morlach caravans from Uskok raids in Venetian lands. 73 It is clear why the Venetians resented their presence and denounced the actions of the Uskoks, usually referring to them with aggressive words.
The Uskoks found a place in the history of the Balkan world as a social group on which the ruling state did not apply any coercive measures, instead exploiting their 'abilities' to secure a fragment of the border with the Ottomans. The Habsburg masters granted them military freedom in exchange for the defence of a triple border 74 in a high mountain area. Like the Morlachs present in the Venetian territories who were tolerated, encouraged and hardly punished for their misconducts, the Uskoks who settled in the Habsburg lands appear as a marginal autonomous people who were in fact a useful instrument in the hands of the state. Two aspects of a world marked by war, the Morlachs and the Uskoks are relevant examples of marginal people managing to carry on a traditional lifestyle while developing strong connections with the ruling powers.

Conclusions
In the sixteenth century, the hinterland of Venetian Dalmatia became a place where 'the others' -that is, refugees from the territories affected by war 75 -had to adapt to the rules of the locals and to find ways to maintain their specific cultural traits. At the formal level the Venetian administration made it clear that the border had to be respected; but, at the ground level, they did not exclude the coexistence of different subjects with the expressed intention to respect the pact of neighbourliness (buona vicinanza) and friendship with the Ottomans. The continuous immigrant waves caused the officials to find ways to integrate the newcomers and use this human resource to repopulate the region, to protect the borders and to revitalise agriculture in the areas affected by depopulation and Ottoman raids. In turn, the immigrants welcomed the opportunities offered: lands for houses and agriculture, exemptions from taxes and military duties, and the possibility of practising commercial activities in the region. They combined this new stability with their own lifestyle and created autonomous communities, with certain fiscal and military obligations.
Researching the Morlachs and their relations with other marginal populations, especially with the Uskoks, enhances our knowledge about these border people in the early modern period. Communities which are defined by great ethnic and professional diversity but offer scarce information about themselves demand historical research which delves into a large number of sources of various provenances. Nevertheless, they are a crucial source of information on border regions, often inhabited by lesser-known groups of people who have their own specific strategies for survival and adaptation. For certain situations, the analysed sources suggest a three-state approach when discussing these cross-border subjects. This is the case of the Morlach caravans that were protected by the Venetian strattioti while present in the Venetian hinterland and immediately attacked by the Uskoks after they entered the Ottoman territory. The same idea applies for those cases when the Morlachs or other Ottoman subjects chose to become Uskoks and to move to Habsburg territory. For this reason, while emphasising the relations between the Morlachs and the Uskoks in the Dalmatian hinterland, one should not ignore the role of diplomacy (regional and central) as it developed between Venice and the Ottoman Empire. Together with other factors of coexistence on the common border, the presence of the Uskoks and their interactions with the Morlachs (mainly Ottoman subjects) contributed to shaping the 'neighbourliness' policy. Therefore, research into these very active, mobile people extends the perspectives on Venetian-Ottoman relations by strengthening the visibility of some 'small actors' as true cross-cultural and transimperial agents.