Praevalitana (also Prevalitana, Prevaliana, Praevaliana or Prevalis) was an ancient Roman province. It included parts of present-day Albania, Montenegro and Serbia.
The Roman Empire conquered the region after the Third Illyrian War (168 BC), the Romans defeated Gentius, the last king of Illyria, at Scodra in 168 BC and captured him, bringing him to Rome in 165 BC. Four client-republics were set up, which were in fact ruled by Rome. Later, Illyricum was directly governed by Rome and organized as a province, with Scodra as its capital.
Illyricum was split into two divisions in 10 AD, Pannonia and Dalmatia. The province of Dalmatia spread inland to cover all of the Dinaric Alps and most of the eastern Adriatic coast, including all actual Montenegro. The historian Theodore Mommsen wrote (in his The Provinces of the Roman Empire) that all Dalmatia was fully romanized and Latin speaking by the 4th century.
After the Western Roman Empire collapsed in 476, with the beginning of the Migration Period, the region was ruled by the Goths up to 535, when Justinian I added all Dalmatia to the Byzantine Empire (Eastern Roman Empire).
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