First settlement, named Issa, was founded by Greek colonists from Syracuse in Sicily in 4. century BC. They, like all the later masters of Vis, were attracted by an excellent strategic position of the island from which they could control the maritime routes in the Adriatic and the spacious, well protected port. Ancient Issa has developed as an urban and economic center of this part of the Adriatic, and served as a basis for settling the Dalmatian mainland (Epetion / Stobrec and Tragurion / Trogir). Functioning as a polis (city-state), Issa has managed to preserve its independence until the first century BC when it became part of the Roman Empire. Then Vis loses it's significance, and only occasionally appears in medieval sources, sharing the fate of the rest of Dalmatia.