Probably an ancient Greek settlement called Aspalathos. Emperor Diocletian constructed there around AD 300 a luxurious palace in which he resided until his death and where he was buried. After his death (AD 313) the Palace was used as a residence of expelled Roman emperors and their family members (Julius Nepos). When Salona was conquered around AD 614 by the Avars and Slavs, its citizens fled to find shelter within the walls of Diocletian's Palace. A new settlement soon developed; the former diocese of Solin was re-established already in the 7th century. Split acknowledged the supremacy of the Byzantine emperors from AD 812 to 1069 when it was annexed to Croatia by King Petar Kresimir IV. In 1105 the city acknowledged the nominal suzerainty of Hungarian-Croatian kings, having preserved its autonomy based on its ancient municipal rights.

From 1207 the citizens elected Croatian, Hum and Bosnian feudal lords for their priors and commissioners (Duke Domald, Petar of Hum, Grgur of Bribir, Pavao and Mladen Subic, Hrvoje Vukcic Hrvatinic). In 1420 Split acknowledged the protectorate of Venice which tried to strengthen its position in Dalmatia and restrict the rights of the cities.

In the 16th century Split was threatened by the Ottoman Turks, especially after the conquest of Klis (1573). Upon the end of the Candian and Morean Wars (second half of the 17th c.) the town gradually recuperated. On the fall of Venice in 1797, it fell together with the remaining Dalmatia under the power of Austria which ceded it in 1805, under the Treaty of Pressburg, to France. Between 1813 and 1918 it was again under the sovereignty of Austria. This was a period of economic stagnation but also of the revival of national consciousness. The 1882 elections in Split introduced Croatian administration. In the second half of the 19th century Split saw an economic recovery to become the most important port at the beginning of the 20th century.

Split has long represented an important cultural centre. Already in the 8th century there was an actuarial school. In the 13th century Thomas the Archdeacon (Toma Arhidakon) wrote a work titled Historia Salonitana, an important source of the mediaeval history of the Croats. At the end of the 15th century Split became a powerful humanistic centre, in which Marko Marulic, poet and polyhistorian, author of the first epic in the Croatian language (Judita), as well as several other humanistic writers, poets and historians lived and worked. Split leaves even today its special mark in the Croatian creation and culture.