The Šubić were one of the twelve tribes which constituted Croatian statehood in the Middle Ages; they held the county of Bribir (Varvaria) in inland Dalmatia.

Today Bribir is an archaeological site in inland Dalmatia. It is located on a flat hill about fifteen kilometres northwest of Skradin, near the old Zadar road which goes through Benkovac. Under the steep rocks of its western side there is the source of the Bribirčica stream and from here the rich and fertile Bribir-Ostrovica field spreads out. The hill of Bribir, an ideal place to control the surrounding territory, was a perfect area to inhabit. The one who held it had control over all roads and approaches from the sea to the hinterland, making it an ideal settlement.

During the Roman period Bribir, known as Varvaria, had the status of municipium and was the centre of one of the fourteen Liburnian counties (Wilkes, 1969). The Byzantine emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus wrote in the 10th century about the Croats settling in Dalmatia in the 7th century and described how they had organised their country into eleven counties (zupanias) one of which was Breberi, centred on site of the old Varvaria (Moravcsik & Jenkins, eds. 1967). A line of hills separated it from the territory of Knin to the north and to the south it bordered on Skradin. It was held by a kindred that in coeval documents is referred to as nobiles, comites or principes Breberienses (Princes of Breber, "Knezovi Bribirski" in Croatian). These Breberienses belonged to the Šubić tribe, one of the twelve which composed Croatian statehood in the Middle Ages and one of the six from which the Ban, or viceroy, was chosen (Kukuljevic-Sakcinski, 1874).