The Kingdoms in Illyria circa 400-167 B.C.

Author(s): N. G. L. Hammond
Source: The Annual of the British School at Athens, Vol. 61 (1966), pp. 239-253
Published by: British School at Athens
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THE KINGDOMS

IN ILLYRIA

CIRCA 400-167

B.C.*

THE positions and the extent of these kingdoms have been disputed in the past, especially by
Droysen, Zippel, Meyer, and Beloch, and they are the subject now of an interesting and welldocumented paper by F. Papazoglou, entitled 'Les origines et la destinde de l'6tat Illyrien:
Illyrii proprie dicti'.' His conclusions are that there was a specific political 'organization'
called oi 'i`Auplof;that almost all the known kings of Illyria-he gives fifteen of them between
400 and i67 B.c.-were rulers of this organization;2and that this organization was notthe one
and only tribal organization known by this specific name, the 'Illyrii proprie dicti' of Pliny,
HN iii. 144 and P. Mela ii. 55.3 In the course of the paper he does not mention any use of the
term 'lAAuploibefore 423 B.c.; he shows no knowledge of the topography of the areas and
little concern with topography; and he makes some statements which are erroneous, at least
in part, e.g. that when Glaucias took the title 'king of the Illyrians' the Taulantii disappeared
for ever from history4-yet he quotes from Livy the terms given to the Taulantii by Rome in
168 B.c. Moreover, his conclusions do not seem to me to be probable.s A further inquiry is
therefore needed, and in particular more consideration of the topographical issues which are
involved. These turn to a great extent on the terrain of central and southernAlbania, where
I have travelled fairly widely from Durazzo (Dyrrachium), Tirana, and the Shkumbi valley
as far as Elbasan in the north, to the Greek border of Epirus. I know western Macedonia up
to Kaliniki on the Yugoslav border, and the Dalmatian coast and Korcula (CorcyraNigra), and
I have been over the pass from Florina to Koritsa.6My paper is in three parts: A: the meaning
of 'The Illyrians'; B: the dynasties of Illyrian kingdoms; and C: the positions of the Illyrian
kingdoms.
A. The meaningof 'The Illyrians'
Two facts are abundantly clear from the evidence at our disposal. The firstis that o6'IAupIoi
was from early times a general name for the non-Greek neighbours of the Epirotes, the Macedonians, and the Greek colonists, a name used no doubt by them and adopted by all Greek
writers, so that Appian is correct in speaking of the Illyrians as oi voC36[1Evot
EIvalTroS'EAAalcnv
The
is
that
know
second
we
the
names
of
i.
although
many of-r&'IAAuplKa
'lAXuptoi(Illyr. 5, fin.).
used
and
T-rc
-ra
Strabo,
repeatedly by
e.g. C 321, 326, 332) or
iOvrl
'Evrl(phrases
'loAup$tav
and
in
the
names
of
the
most
i.
particular
powerful tribes, the
yvrl 'IAhupi'v (Appian, Illyr. 3),
* I am most grateful to Mr. G. T. Griffith who read
this paper and made very helpful suggestions.
In Historia xiv (1965) 143-79.
He gives the lists of kings on pp. 166 and 176, and
writes (176): 'je crois pouvoir conclure que les auteurs
antiques ne connaissaient, de la fin du Ve siecle 'a 168 avant
notre bre, qu'un seul royaume illyrien.' J. G. Droysen, G. d.
Hellenismusiii. 2 (1878) 42 ff., thought of one Illyrian kingdom formed by Bardylis and inherited 150 years later by
Agron; but he is very vague about the location of this kingdom, as F. Papazoglou points out. G. Zippel, Der rimische
Herrschaftin Illyrienbis aufAugustus(Leipzig, 1877), differed
from Droysen and regarded Bardylis as king of the Enchelii
and Agron as king of the Ardiaeai, two tribes which are
I
2

far apart, and his view was accepted by C. Schuitt, Untersuchungenz. Gesch.d. alt. Illyrier (Breslau, 19Io).
3 He discusses these
Illyrii at 177 and in n. 127.
4 'Les Taulantins disparurent ajamais de l'histoire' (i62).
s My reasons will appear in the course of the paper. It is
obvious enough that the vast number of Illyrian tribes were
never united into a single Illyrian state; but when Papazoglou talks of the 'Illyrian state' he is not so specific, and
his 'Illyrian state' seems to be an amorphous and even
chameleon-like entity.
6 I discuss some problems of topography in central
Albania in my forthcoming book Epirus (Oxford, 1967) and
in an article 'The Opening Campaigns and the Battle of the
Aoi Stena in the Second Macedonian War', which is due to
appear in JRS 1966.

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CO

RD

IS

CI

'A
M:T

ARDIUM

AUTARIATAE

AORSI
*Ni*

PHAROS

CORCYRANIGRA

RHIZONITAE
Adriatic

Se

RH/ZON

GULF

(Kotor)

T/S OO
L.LABEA

SAEONI
R. DRILON

(Drin)

nLLYRII
ABRI

_________________

"

Ca

DYRRACHIUM 5

PLGN
PELAGONlA'

-kA

L.LYCHN/TIS

A6

LYNCUS

R.APSUS

_(se

ENCHEES

DXARI
DEen

R.AOUS

iSi

10

Sle

Scale

o= loomiles
FIG. I.

Key to the numbers.

Antipatrea = Berat
Apollonia
Berat = Antipatrea
Byllis
Celetrum = Kastoria
Elbasan

9
I2
9
13
14
6

=CORCYR

as 4

EORDAEA

GulfQ

2154

CL

SOUTHERN ILLYRIA AND ITS NEIGHBOURS

Florina
Grevena
Kastoria = Celetrum
Koritsa = ? Pelium
Lissus
Lychnidus

II
15
14
1o

4
7

Monastir
Pelium = ? Koritsa
Scodra
Skoplje
Tirana
Ulcin

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8
Io
I
4
5

THE

KINGDOMS

OF ILLYRIA

CIRCA 400-167

B.C.

241

Autariatae, the Ardiaei, and the Dardani (Strabo, C 315), we do not hear of any specific Illyrian
tribe 'the Illyrii'-although on F. Papazoglou's theory it should have been the most powerful
of all the tribes-until we come to late Roman evidence in Pliny, HN iii. 144, and Pomponius
Mela ii. 55, where the 'Illyrii proprie dicti' are mentioned for the first time. They appear to be
north of the Taulantii, who were neighbours of Dyrrachium, and south of the Labeates, who
were by Scodra (the lake of Scodra being called Labeatis), that is to say somewhere on the
coast near the Mati valley.7 As regards the first fact it seems likely that we should look for the
origins of the name ol 'lkupioi in the Bronze Age, because there is much evidence of trade
in the Adriatic Sea, and objects of Minoan and Mycenaean origin are found in the tumuli of
the Mati valley, some of which have been excavated in recent years.8 The first fact and the
second fact are no doubt related. For just as the origin of the general names 'Graeci' and
'Hellenes' is to be traced to contacts with particular tribes, both of them small, I suggest that
the name 'Illyrians' was taken originally by Greeks of the Middle or Late Bronze Age from a
small tribe in the valley of the navigable river, the Mati, and was subsequently applied as a
general term to people of the same speech and manners. (It is probable that the name 'Albanians', which is not their own name for themselves today, has a similar origin. Hecataeus (FGrH
I F IoI) mentioned the tribe'Appol;Ptolemy iii. 1220 the tribe AApcavoi;and Anna Comnena,
Alex.xiii. 5, the district -r6 "Appavov.
Ptolemy's tribe is located by Osman Myderrizi between
the Mati valley and the Shkumbi valley.)9 The scope of the general term ol 'IAAvptoigrew
with experience. It began perhaps with 'Illyrians' on the coast of the Ionian Gulf; then
it extended up the Adriatic coast to 'Illyrians' as far north as Istria;Ioand finally it included
'Illyrians' in northern Italy." We see one stage of the development in Herodotus; for he mentions 'Illyrians' in CentralAlbania (ix. 43), in the region of Venice (i. 196), and at the source of
a tributary of the Danube (iv. 49. 2).
It follows from these facts that when a Greek author described a man as 'king of the Illyrians'
or as 'king of Illyrians' he was using the word 'Illyrians' in a general sense to indicate that he
ruled over some Illyrian tribes, and not in a specific sense to indicate that he ruled over one
particular tribe called 'Illyrian', that is the small tribe on the coast near the Mati valley, so
far as our evidence goes. Let us take as an example three descriptionsof Agron. Polybiusii. 2. 4:
X
a , bUV0v,
v VS'TrE3T'Iv
lV ILEV
UiS
PEYo-T11V
Kc
3acrtAEVJS
Aypcov0 Tr(Av
va'uTKlIv
vIS-Eupdrou
'I'uvplcOv
v
here
of
the
is
'The
Illyrians'
compared
king
coV
T'rpbcrro '3E3CxalAEUKIT
EiXECoVS
'ziAAupioi.
as he would be if, as F. Papazoglou supposes, there
not with previous 'kings of the Illyrians'
was only one 'kingdom of the Illyrians'I2--but with 'those who had ruled (anywhere) among
T S
ap TbVK6ArTOV
Illyrians'.13Appian, Illyr.vii:'Aypcov v cpacItE~iS
'RlAupltv[iApoVS
vpia
BOareurarl
he
ruled
that
mean
one
can
This
of
'I6viov.
thing,
only
passage
partI4 the Illyrian
TrXv
7 F. Papazoglou, 179, n. 127 sees that they are placed on
the coast between Lissus and Epidaurus and cites the agreement of R. Kati&idin Ziva Antikaxii-xiii (1964) 87 f.; but
for the purposes of his argument he places them somewhere in the hinterland ('quelque part dans l'hinterland...
il ne faut pas prendre 'a la lettre cette indication', i.e. of
Pliny).
8 The excavations are reported in Buletin pfr Shkencat
Shoqerorei (Tirana, I955) I I0 f. in Albanian with a resume'
in French; and a summary is given in Studia Albanica i
(Tirana, 1964) Ioi f. in French. I owe my knowledge of
Studia Albanicato Professor Frano Prendi, who kindly sent
me a copy.
9 In Buletini UniversitetitShteterort" Tiranis, SeriaShkencat
Shoqfrorei. (1963) 198 f.
C 3942
R

10 Hdt. i.
196, FGrH i15 F 129 = Strabo, C 317, and
C 314. Appian, Illyr.i. I, includes the area eastwards between
Thrace and the Danube.
"' Strabo, C 2o6.
12 'Il
n'y avait par consequence, 'a l'6poque dont parle
Polybe, qu'un seul 6tat auquel revenait l'6pithete "illyrien".'
13 We may compare Appian's phrase ApOi-ravpov
8' tv
'IR;uptois8wvvdcarv,a ruler among Illyrians (Mac. ii. 2) or
'en Illyrie' as F. Papazoglou (148) translates iv 'lMvuplois.
is missed in F. Papazoglou's
14 The point of
vppovS lui
comment: 'on voit qu'Appien
aussi, malgr6 son int6ret
ethnographique, n'a pu trouver d'autre ethnique pour
d6signer Agron et ses sujets que celui d'Illyriens.' Zonaras
did better.

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242

N. G. L. HAMMOND

tribes; it cannot mean 'he ruled part of the Illyrian state'. Zonaras viii. 19. I: "AypcovlTr<~
Tcv
Here we have a more precise statement: he was king of
XapStaicov pao~tEi, yEvouS'IRAUpIKOI.

the Ardiaei, an Illyrian tribe. It is acceptable, too, in view of the fact that the Ardiaei are
only one of the threestrongesttribeslisted by Strabo C 315-Autariatae, Ardiaei, and Dardaniwhich lived on the coast and excelled in seafaring. I conclude, then, that Agron was king of
the Ardiaei, that he extended his rule over other tribes, and that it was sufficient for Polybius
and Appian to refer to him as king of Illyria or in Illyria.'s
Whether a king such as Agron called himself 'king of the Illyrians' is another question
altogether. If Agron did so style himself c. 231 B.C., it was of regional significance only, because
no man united all the Illyrians, reaching as they did to the head of the Adriatic Sea. It is,
however, likely that he did not so style himself. The unit of Illyrian life was the tribe. A successful tribe such as the Ardiaei reduced some of its neighbours to serfdom, if we may judge from
the statement of Theopompus that the Ardiaei had 300,000 serfs (FGrH 115F 4o0=Ath. vi. 27I

and x. 443); the Dardani too had vast numbersof slaves who fought in war under their masters'
command (FGrH86 F 17). Other tribes were compelled by the Ardiaei to pay tribute. It does
not appear from these facts that the Ardiaei were founding a federal state of Illyrian tribes; but
rather it seems that a king was proud of his tribe and acquired serfs and dependants for it as
king of the Ardiaei or of the Dardani, as the case might be. The only Illyrian genealogy we
possessis obviously a Greek invention; for it makes Illyrius son of the Cyclops Polyphemus and
the nymph Galatea.'6 When we find the king Glaucias described sometimes in relation to the
Taulantii and sometimes in relation to the Illyrians (e.g. Arrian, Anab. i. 5. I:

T(aAavYv-ric'v
-rrpbsFAaUKiv
it is not correct to infer
-rOv paaoMla; Diod. Sic. xix. 67. 6-7:6 "-rCv 'l"?uptCOvpaactAVES)
that Glaucias changed his kingdom from that of the Taulantii to that of all the Illyrians
between 335 B.C. and 317 B.c. These are rather alternative ways of describing the same situapaoaida and i. 6: rrapa FaUKiLavES TOacUavTious;Plut. Pyrrh. 3: Eis 'lAuptos

'v

tion: Arrian, drawing on a more detailed source, gives us the particular tribe, but Plutarch
and Diodorus are content with a general term. Thus I do not accept the theory of
F. Papazoglou17that Glaucias began as king of the Taulantii, then acquired the kingdom of
Cleitus, a client king of Philip II, who had been expelled by Alexander the Great, and henceforth styled himself king of the Illyrians, a title supposedly held by Bardylis, the father of
Cleitus.
We have examples of kings in Illyria proclaiming their titles in Greek. This is not surprising;
for Strabo, C 327, remarked that some of the tribes in the area between Corcyra, Macedonia,
and he mentioned among the tribes of this
and the Via Egnatia were bilingual (8iyAco-rrot),
area the Bylliones and the Taulantii. The coins of the Bylliones,whose capital city lay south-east
of Apollonia, placed on their coins the Greek title BYAAIONQN.Two kings, Monunius and
Mytilius, whose names are Illyrian, placed on coins of Dyrrachium type the titles BAIlAEQX
MONOYNIOYAYPPA and BAlIAEQXMYTIAIOY.18
They seem to stress their sovereignty
over Dyrrachium and not the creation of a kingdom of 'the Illyrians'.
is I do not find the evidence of Zonaras and PolybiusAppian 'contraires' as F. Papazoglou does (072). He comments on Zonaras: 'on ne voit pas bien par quel d6tour
de la pens&e cet auteur a pu conclure qu'Agron fut un
Ardi6en.' Presumably his source supplied the information.
Diod. Sic. xii. 49. 2-3 also makes Agron and Teuta rulers
of the Ardiaei.
16 Appian, Illyr. i. 2; the sons and grandsons of Illyrius
are eponymous ancestors of well-known Illyrian tribes. We

may compare the sons of Neoptolemus, founder of the

Molossian dynasty (see S. I. Dakaris, 01 yEVEaCoyIKKOl
p0ot
-rov MohooaaCv
(Athens, 1964) 23).
17 16I ff.
~8 Head, HN2 316 and J. Brunimid, Die Inschriftenund
Miinzen der griechischenStddte Dalmatiens (Vienna, 1898)
54, n. 47. Both kings are mentioned as Illyrians in Trogus,
Prol. 24 and 25.

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THE

KINGDOMS

OF ILLYRIA

CIRCA 400-167

B.C.

243

B. The dynastiesof Illyriankingdoms

Although our knowledge of dynastic names among Illyrian tribes is scanty, there is a tendency
to repeat a name in every other generation, as in the dynasties of Macedonia and Molossia.'9
The following tree is that of the Ardiaei (also called Sardiaei by Zonarasviii. 19. I and Ouardiaei in later times according to Strabo, C
315).
fl. c. 340 Pleuratus (Didym. in D., col. 12. 64 f.) fought v. Philip II probably 344/343 B.C.
fl. c. 310
fl.

c. 280 Pleuratus(Plb. ii. 2. 4)

fl. c. 250 Agron died c. 230 = Teuta

Scerdilaidas

fl. c. 220 Pinnes

Pleuratus = Eurydice (Livy xliv. 30. 2)

fl. c. 190

Genthius, captured 168

Pleuratus
Plator vel sim. (Livy, ibid.)
fl. c. 16o
The tree of the royal house founded by Bardylis, himself a usurper, is known only as follows,
and we are not told which tribe he ruled. Bardylis was ninety years old when his army was
defeated by Philip II in 358 B.c., and Cleitus was evidently a son of his old age. I have put his
floruit on a backward reckoning from Birkenna.
fl. c. 385 Bardylis, but born c. 448, died c. 358
fl. c. 355 Cleitus, expelled in 335
fl. c. 325 Bardylis
fl. c. 295 Birkenna = Pyrrhusc. 295
Although the Lyncestae were not Illyrians but Macedonians (Thuc. ii. 99. 2), I give their
dynasty for purposes of comparison, and for the reason that they have been brought into
Papazoglou's argument. The royal house was not native to the Lyncestae but was a branch of
the Corinthian Bacchiadae, who had gone to Illyria and later took control of the Lyncestae
(Strabo, C 326). It is likely that Arrhabaeus, the grandfatherof Eurydice, was the Arrhabaeus
of Thuc. iv. 79. 2.
fl. c. 475 (Bromerus,not king of the Lyncestae)
fl. c. 44520Arrhabaeus, at war with Perdiccas 423
Sirras c. 430

fl. c. 415 daughter

fl. c. 385 Eurydice born c. 4IO = Amyntas c. 393

fl. c. 355 Alexander

Perdiccas

~9 See Beloch, GG iii. 2. 73, for the Macedonian royal

house and note the name, for instance, of Amyntas recurring.

Arrhabaeus (Arist. Pol. 1311b)

Philip II born 382

F. Geyer in HistorischeZeitschrift,Beiheft xix (1930), 8i,
put his floruit c. 430 (i.e. aged then about 30), but this does
not allow time for his daughter to reach marriageable age
20

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244

N. G. L. HAMMOND

Aristotle mentions a war between Archelaus of Macedon, who reigned c. 429 to 400/399 B.c.,
TrposXippv Kai Appci3ciov (Pol. I31Ib). It has been maintained that, while Arrhabaeus
was a member of the Lyncestidroyal house, Sirraswas a member of another royal house. Geyer,
for instance, placed him in the royal house of Elimiotis, Beloch in the royal house of Orestis,
and Papazoglou in the royal house of his supposed state 'The Illyrians'.zIBut there is no need
to go outside the Lyncestid royal house. Strabo, C. 326, mentions Sirraswhen he is writing of
foreign dynasties ruling over native tribes, and in this case the Bacchiadae ruling over the
Lyncestae: ol 6&AvyKrl-rcaiirrr'
yvous 6v-nrTro'rrou 8' ~v
~vyEvovTroT00 BcaKXla5C'v
SE
AppapcaicA,
)ti-rrou
euyacrptSifrfl
pi-rLpT7oiApov'rouEVpuGiKm,
l~ippa Ovydrrip.As Strabo is interestedin
the Bacchiad line and Amyntas is a Macedonian, it follows that this Sirras is a member of the
Bacchiad royal house. Herodotus v. 92 tells us that the Bacchiadae practised endogamy;
therefore I take it that the daughter of Arrhabaeus, perhaps then the heiress, was married to
a Bacchiad cousin, called Sirras. There is indeed no real alternative; for if Sirras had been an
Orestid or Illyrian prince, the mother of Eurydice would have entered the Orestid or Illyrian
royal house and her daughter, Eurydice, would have been an Orestid or Illyrian princess.Later,
when Amyntas as king of Macedon married the daughter of Sirras,it is evident that Sirraswas
either king or regent of the Lyncestae; for it was a dynastic match. If the younger Arrhabaeus
was a cousin or a younger brother of Eurydice, he was a minor in the years before 400 B.c.,
when Archelaus was king of Macedon and fought a war TrpbsXippaVKatiAppapaliov.The
order of the names makes it likely, then, that Sirraswas regent and Arrhabaeuswas the child
king of the Lyncestae at that time.22
In addition to the dynasties of Pleuratus and Bardylis a number of Illyrian kings are known.
A group of names is connected with the campaigns of Philip II of Macedon. In 358 B.c., having
killed 7,000 Illyrians in a great victory, Philip annexed territoryup to Lake Lychnitis (Ochrid)
and made peace with Bardylis (Diod. Sic. xvi. 4. 7 and 8. I).23 His next Illyrian enemy was
Grabus. The name is evidently a dynastic name in the royal house of the Grabaei, a tribe
mentioned by Pliny, HNiii. 144, between the Labeates and the 'propriedicti Illyrii et Taulantii';
thus they were, as we shall see later, in the vicinity of the Drilon or Mati valley. Grabus had
already been defeated by Philip before he entered the coalition which Athens raised against
Philip in the first half of the year 356 B.C. (Diod. Sic. xvi. 22. 3 TpoTi-r"TrpEVOi).24 He and his
colleagues, Lysippus of Paeonia and Cetriporis of Thrace, are described as neighbours of
Macedon at this time (Diod. Sic. ibid.: 6v-rES
6popot Tro!SMCsKE56),so that the realm of
Grabus presumably extended to the borders of Philip's enlarged
Macedonian kingdom by
Lake Lychnitis. Grabus was defeated by Parmenio 'in a great battle' (Plut. Alex. 3) and was
compelled to serve under Macedon (Diod. Sic. xvi. 22. 33 VlaYKcUElTpOeO-a0t TO1SMCaKE56tl).25
and then his grand-daughter to do likewise by c. 393 B.c.
He put the birth of Alexander to Eurydice in 392 B.C. (127).
21
Geyer, loc. cit.; Beloch, GG iii. 2. 74; and Papazoglou 151. Papazoglou leans heavily on the description in
Plutarch, de educ.puer. 14 b, of Eurydice as 'lAupi86o Kai
and echoes of this in Libanius viii, p. 6o6.
rpipappadpou,
I8 and the Suda s.v. Karanos. The source is likely to be
Theopompus who enjoyed scandalmongering about Philip's
family; and there is this point in the taunt that the Bacchiadae had been in Illyria for perhaps two centuries.
22
They may have been joint kings, like Neoptolemus and
Pyrrhus in Molossia, Scerdilaidas and Pleuratus in Ardiaea
(cf. Papazoglou 172), and Theodorus and Amynander in
Athamania.
f. and xxxii (1938)
23 I have argued in CQxxxi (1937) 79

137 f. that Diodorus was drawing on Ephorus xxvii, a

reliable source, for this account.
24 IG ii/iii2 i. 127 = Tod, GHIii, no. 157, givingthe date
of the ratification of an alliance already arranged by the
Athenian envoys; Grabus was in alliance with the Chalcidian League (TAPA lxix 44 f.), that is before winter 357/356
when the League made alliance with Philip. Had
B.c.
Grabus been the successor of Bardylis (so Tod, GHI, no. 157)
he could not have recovered so soon from the defeat of
358 B.c.
25 Beloch, GG iii
i. 23r, n. I, supposed Grabus to be a
king of the Penestae or the Dardani; C. Schuitt, Untersuchungenz. Gesch.d. alt. Illyrier41, a king of the Taulantii or
the Dardani; Schiifer, Demosthenesii. 2o, and Papazoglou,
155, a son of Bardylis. The connexion between Grabus and

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THE

KINGDOMS

OF ILLYRIA

CIRCA 400-167

B.C.

245

Philip was now approaching the area later held by the Ardiaei. His successes in Illyria were
mentioned by Demosthenes in Philippici. 48 (350 B.c.) and Olynthiaci. 13 (349 B.C.) and by
Isocrates, Philippus2'1;the last passage (quoted in the next paragraph) shows that he controlled
the area by the Ionian Gulf, i.e. up to the area of the Mati valley, but not that of the Ardiaei
on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. In 344/343 B.C. Philip invaded 'Illyris with a large force',
ravaged the territory,reduced many towns, and returned to Macedonia (Diod. Sic. xvi. 69. 7).
We learn more about this campaign from Didymus (in D. col. 12. 64); for among the wounds
sustained by Philip he mentions one during a campaign against the Triballi, which was in 339
B.C., and an earlier one during a campaign Fv 'lAuptoiS,which is to be identified with the
campaign of 344/343 B.c. Didymus relates that Philip was then pursuing Pleuratus the Illyrian
and that Amyntas' son Hippostratus was killed and one hundred and fifty Companions were
wounded. As Pleuratus is a dynastic name in the royal house of the Ardiaei, and as Philip's
reduction of the Grabaei had brought him close to the Ardiaean realm, it is clear that this
campaign was against the Ardiaei. In 339 B.C. he defeated the Triballi. The way was now open
towards the third of the three strongest Illyrian tribes listed by Strabo (C 315 fin.), the Autariatae.26In 337 B.C. Philip fought a battle against Pleurias, 'the king of the Illyrians' (Diod. Sic.
xvi. 93. 6), and this campaign may have been directed against the Autariatae.27For Philip was
concerned to strengthen his control of the Balkans before he set off on the war against Persia.
There is still the question when Philip reduced the kingdom of Bardylis' son, Cleitus, to
dependent status and where the kingdom lay. The statement of Isocrates, Philippus2I, written
in 346 B.c., T-ro ' 'I8Aupl"v
Kal
T&Av
EyKpaT-rT
-rrcp&-rv 'Apiav oiKOVTCOV
iA'rrAous rrATiv
is too vague for any precise deduction to be
KlplOs yEyOVEV,is too flattering and Tro0iTrAi0eovu
made. It merely suggests that the kingdom of Bardylis as the first that had impinged on
Macedonia was at peace with Philip when he advanced into Illyria. Now Justin (viii. 6. 3)
mentions a war which does not appear elsewhere: it concerns the storming of the Dardani
and other neighbouring peoples, who had been tricked by Philip ('Dardanos ceterosque
finitimosfraude captos expugnat'), and the trickingmay referto the treaty of peace which Philip
had made with Bardylisin 358 B.c. This war is placed by Justin between the collapse of Phocis
in 346 B.C.and the expulsion of Arybbas from Molossia in the winter of 343-342 B.c. Whether
it was before or after the defeat of Pleuratus, Philip's target is likely to have been the southern
Dardanians, who in the time of Philip V offered a threat to Pelagonia and Lyncus. It is possible
that these Dardanians formed the kingdom of Bardylis and his son Cleitus, who was now made
a client king and later rose against Alexander.z2If so, the Dardani were not mentioned as a
separate tribe in the passages of the fourth-centurysourceswhich have survived, but they were
the Grabaei was not made. The passages in Diodorus xvi.
22. 3 and 69. 7 are probably drawn from a short textbook
like Oxyr. Pap. I, no. xii; see my article in CQ xxxi (I937)
90-91.
26 Strabo says that the three tribes-Autariatae, Ardiaei,
and Dardani-were warred down first by one another and
then by Macedon and Rome; Philip II played a prominent
part in the Macedonian part of the process. We do not know
to which region (Plut. Alex. 9) or king of Illyria (Justin ix.
7) Alexander went after his quarrel with Philip.
27 The
entry in Diodorus is probably derived from
Diyllus, Syntaxis ii; see CQ xxxii. 150. Ed. Meyer, 'Isokrates' Zweiter Brief an Philipp und Demosthenes' Zweite
Philippika' in Sitzungsber.d. Preuss. Akad. Berlin (1909)
758 ff., followed by Papazoglou 156 f., conflated the two
campaigns into one; he then equated Pleuratus with

Pleurias, put the war in 344/343, and thought Pleurias might

have been a king in the region of Scodra. Schtitt, op. cit.
44 f., having accepted Meyer's equation, thought him
a Taulantian king; Droysen, G. d. Hell. i. I. I 15 n. I,
a Dardanian king; Lenschau in RE xxi. 239, equating
Pleuratus and Pleurias, supported Meyer's location of
Pleurias; Bengtson, GG2 (I960) 31o, accepted Meyer's
location but for Pleuratus. Papazoglou, 159, makes Grabus,
Pleuratus (he eliminates Pleurias), and Cleitus all sons of
Bardylis and claims that the activity of Philip could extend
only to the Illyrian regions 'limitrophes de la Mac6doine';
how pleased the other neighbours of Philip would have been
if he had followed such a policy in general!
28 When he rebelled, Cleitus captured Pelium (Arrian,
Anab. i. 5. 5); he was then raiding southwards, as Scerdilaidas did in the time of Philip V (Plb. v. Io8. 1-2).

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24b

N. G. L. HAMMOND

at that time included in the general term 'Illyrians' as distinct from the Paeonians (Dem.
Olynthiaci. 13; cf. Trogus, Prol. vii: 'Illyriorum et Paeonum origines') and the Triballians
(Dem. De Corona44).
Glaucias and his wife Beroea, a Molossian princess, ruled over the Taulantii and held
Dyrrachium before 314 B.c. and again after 312 B.C. Glaucias joined Cleitus, when Cleitus
rebelled against Alexander in 335 B.c., and he gave Cleitus sanctuary, after their joint forces
had been defeated and pursued by Alexander to the mountains of the Taulantii (Arrian, Anab.
i. 6. 11: (iXptTrrp6b
-r 6pr TlOvTauXav-ricov).In 317 B.c., when Aeacides fled from Molossia,
Glaucias received his infant son, Pyrrhus,who was related to him by marriage; in 314 B.c. he
was defeated by Cassander,who took possessionof Dyrrachium and also of Apollonia; and on
Cassander'swithdrawal he attacked Apollonia but without success. In 312 B.C.Corcyra gained
possessionof the two Greek cities and gave Dyrrachiumto Glaucias. In 307 B.c. Glaucias placed
Pyrrhus on the Molossian throne, and in 303 B.C. Pyrrhus attended the wedding of a son of
Glaucias. By this time Pyrrhuswas himself an adopted son of Glaucias.29His position in the
Taulantian royal house stood Pyrrhus in good stead when he attacked Macedonia, married the
daughter of Bardylis,son of the Cleitus who had been the ally of Glaucias, and then established
his own power in southern Illyria. But it was not so advantageousfor the Taulantian kingdom;
for it was evidently absorbed into the realm of Pyrrhus and his successors,who, according to
TS aX GiTS
Appian, Illyr. vii, held the area appi rbv Ki6A'Trrov
-r v '16vlov.This area included Dyrrachium3oand probably its hinterland too.
The next Illyrian king in our sources is Monunius. In 280 B.C. he joined Ptolemy, son of
Lysimachus, in an attack on Ptolemy Ceraunus, when he was proclaimed king of Macedon
(Trogus, Prol. xxiv); this suggests that Monunius had contact with Lysimachus' kingdom in
Thrace. A man of that name was a brother of the king of western Thrace, Cetriporis, who
fought against Philip II in 356 B.c. (Tod, GHI ii, no. 157). Another was the king of the Dardani
whose daughter Genthius married c. 180 B.C.It is possible that Monunius was a name which
was repeated in the dynasty of the Dardani, like Pleuratus in that of the Ardiaei. If this is so,
the Monunius of 280 B.C. was a Dardanian king; his tribe lay closer to Thrace than either the
Ardiaei or the Taulantii. In the same year, 280 B.c., the Gauls invaded Macedonia. Justin
xxiv. 4. 8 reports that a Dardanian embassy offered 20,000 armed men to Ptolemy Ceraunus;
that the offer was rejected; and that the Dardanian king prophesied the fall of Macedon. If the
offer was prompted by the common menace of the Gauls, its rejection is best explained by
supposing that the Dardanian king in question was Monunius and that his enmity earlier in
the year made Ptolemy Ceraunusdistrustful.3'The large number of troopswhich the Dardanian
embassy offered shows that the kingdom was a very large one. Ptolemy Ceraunuswas destroyed
by the Gauls in 279 B.C. It is perhaps to the aftermath of his defeat and death that we should
.IIAEQ...
attribute a coin of Macedonian type with the legend MONOYNIOY...
which
29 The sources are Plut. Pyrrhus;Justin xvii; and Diod.
Sic. xix. 67, 70, and 78 for these events. They do not support
the supposition, mentioned above, that Glaucias acquired
the large inland kingdom of the elder Bardylis.
30 This is a disputed point; see the summary of views in
P. Leveque, Pyrrhos(Paris, i957), 175 n. 4, who does not
come to a decision. The phrase of Appian implies that
Pyrrhus held Dyrrachium, as he says Agron did; for it is an
important place on the Ionian Gulf (cf. Zonaras ix. 25).
There is also an indication that Pyrrhus penetrated as far
at least as Scodra; for he took the capital of a tribe in Illyria
(Frontin. Strat. iii. 6. 3: 'civitatem quae caput gentis erat'),
which, if the Taulantii were on his side, lay north of their

territory and might well be Scodra, described by Livy xliv.

31. 2 as 'regni totius arcem' in the time of Genthius. Dio
fr. 40. 3 states that 'the rulers in Illyricum paid court to
Pyrrhus' (ol iv re 'I~XvptK(Swv&ratiE EpTp&rrEvov
Mirr6v);this
implies some authority north of Dyrrachium, as does his
marriage with the daughter of Bardylis.
31 I am here in agreement with Droysen but not with
Papazoglou 164 f., who supposes Monunius to have been a
son of Bardylis II or of Grabus and so one of the fifteen
kings of his 'Illyrian kingdom', nor with Beloch, GG iii. I.
260, and Schtitt, op. cit. 64, who suppose he succeeded
Glaucias as king of the Taulantii.

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CIRCA 400-167

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247

reveals Monunius' pretensions to the Macedonian throne.32We have already noted the coin
of Monunius with the legend BAXIAEG2MONOYNIOYAYPPAwhich shows that he held
Dyrrachium for a time either against Pyrrhus or, more probably, against the son of Pyrrhus,
Alexander.33
This Alexander fought an Illyrian war against Mytilus, which was of major rather than local
significance, as it is mentioned in Trogus, Prol. xxv. The name appears in the correct form
'Mytilius' on the coin of Dyrrachium type which we have already mentioned. It is probable
that Mytilius was a successor of Monunius34as king of the Dardani and not a king in the
immediate vicinity of Dyrrachium. In 229 B.C.Dyrrachium passed into the sphere of Rome.
The Taulantians supportedthe Roman cause; they do not appear among the tribes which were
in dispute between Rome and Macedon, and in the settlement of 168 B.C. they were rewarded
with a grant of freedom and with immunity from taxation (Livy xlv. 26.
I3)C. Thepositionsof thekingdomsin Illyria
The Bylliones were an Illyrian tribe (Strabo C 326) which occupied the district east and
south-east of Apollonia, and its capital city, Byllis, is identified by a rock-cut inscription of the
Roman period at Gradisht on the right bank of the Aous.3sWhen the Greek settlers came to
(Steph. Byz.
Apollonia c. 600 B.c., they found the site occupied by 'l uptol Kcr' 'E"rif8acPvov
s.v.). These Illyrians were not the Bylliones but the neighbours of Epidamnus, later called
Dyrrachium, which had been founded in 627 B.c. The founders of Epidamnus were called in
by the Taulantii, who had been expelled from the site by Liburnians, a maritime people of the
Adriatic coast (Appian, BC ii. 39). At the end of the seventh century, then, the Taulantii held
the coastal plains from Epidamnus to the site of Apollonia, and the Bylliones held the chalky
hill-country to the south-east of the latter. The Taulantii were a group of tribes each with its
own name, resembling in this respect the Chaones and Molossi of Epirus. One of its tribes in
the latter part of the sixth century B.C. was the Abri (FGrH I F IoI: A"ppoit~OvoSTp6S T<C~
they were then a border tribe of the Taulantian
XEXAloviols);
Aspia Tavcav-ricov,-rrpOaEXs
TroiS
on
the
held
a
and
coast, near the Mati river or the Drilon. In 435 B.c.
northerly position
group
the Taulantii were the neighbours of Epidamnus (Thuc. i. 24. I). Glaucias held the city twice
but failed to capture Apollonia.36The centre of his kingdom is likely to have been in the hinterland of Epidamnus, that is in the area of Tirana (the present capital of Albania), which forms
a natural centre. At the height of his power Glaucias controlled the rich coastal plain of
Myzeqe, the hinterland of Epidamnus, and perhaps some tribes, such as the Atintani who were
near by (Appian, Illyr. ii. 7, and Polyaen. iv. I I. 4) and the Parthini of the Shkumbi valley.
Inland of the coastal plain the Illyrians in the south bordered on the Chaones both in the
sixth century B.C.(FGrHI F 103) and later (Appian, Illyr.i. I). The most northerly tribe of the
Chaones was the Dexari; they were the neighbours of the Enchelees, according to Hecataeus
(F 103), an Illyrian tribe associated with Lake Lychnitis by the meaning of their name 'the
eel-men' and by Polybius v. Io8. 8. The Dexari lay to the south of the Enchelees and were thus
in Dassaretis, an area to which it seems they gave their name. It is likely that Illyrian tribes
occupied Dassaretis before the time of Philip II, because the Dexari disappeared and Alexander's campaign at Pelium was described as a campaign in Illyria (Arrian, Anab. i. 10. 3:
32 J. G. Droysen, Das dardanische
Fiirstentum79; see n. 52.
33 Excavations by Albanian archaeologists at Dyrrachium
have shown that a large Illyrian element was in the city in
the Hellenistic period; see Buletin pir ShkencatShoqerorei
(i957) 6I f.

34 Papazoglou 166 suggests that Mytilius was the son of

Monunius.
35 CIL iii 6oo.
36 Plut.
Pyrrh.iii. 5; Justin iii. 2I; Paus. I. I I. 5.

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248

N. G. L. HAMMOND

S'IAppti&v; cf. Diod. Sic. xvii. 8. I and Plut. Alex. I I), Pelium being somewherein south-east
Dassaretis.37The area known as Dassaretis was of great strategic value. Because the coastal
plains are swampy, any army operating in central Albania has to use the foothills to the east of
the plains, and these foothills are threatened by the holders of Dassaretis. An Illyrian king,
such as Bardylis, when he occupied northern Epirus for a time, and Pyrrhus the Molossian
king, when he held the coastal area of the Ionian Gulf by Apollonia and Dyrrachium, must
each have held Dassaretis for a period. It was no less important in relation to Macedonia; for
it has entries to the area of Lake Lychnitis (Ochrid) and via the Tsangon pass to the plain of
Florina. When Macedon was strong, she controlled Dassaretis. When Philip II annexed
territory up to Lake Lychnitis and campaigned later to the north-west, he must have secured
control of Dassaretis; Alexander re-establishedthat control in 335 B.C.; and Antipater founded
Antipatrea at Berat in the western part of the district.38Dassaretis was held by Philip V in
200 B.C., and the first campaigns of the Romans wrested the area from him.39
In the first half of the fourth century B.c. the power of the Illyrians vis-d-visEpirus and Macedonia was at its height and attracted the alliance of Dionysius of Syracuse. In 393/392 B.C.
the king of Macedon was driven out by the Illyrians (Diod. Sic. xiv. 92. 3) and perhaps again
in 383/382 B.C. (Diod. Sic. xv. 19. 2).40In 385/384 B.c. northern Epiruswas overrun and 15,000
Molossians were killed by Illyrians (Diod. Sic. xv. 13); it was probably at this time that
'Bardylis Illyricus' (reading 'Bardylidem' for 'Balalirem Illyricum') ruled 'a Molossis usque
Macedoniam', as we learn from Tertullian citing Callisthenes (FGrH 124 F 27). In 369 B.C.
(Justin vii. 5. I) and again later (Diod. Sic. xv. 2. 2) the king of Macedon paid tribute to them.
The Molossian king, Arybbas, faced c. 360 B.C. a large invasion of his territory by 'Bardylis
Illyrius'; he sent all movables to Aetolia and defeated the Illyrians by a surpriseattack (Frontin.
Strat.ii. 5. I9). In 359 B.C. the Illyrians killed the king of Macedon and 4,000 Macedonians in
battle and occupied some Macedonian towns (Diod. Sic. xvi. 2. 5 and 4. 4). The man who
founded the power of the Illyrians was Bardylis; Theopompus was evidently concerned with
(FGrH l 15
Bardylis when he described the acquisition of power by 6 TC'v 'lw.upicv
F 28),41and he referred to the enormous wealth of Bardylis (F 286).42Aspaaicub's
Bardylis was aged
ninety in 358 B.C.,his heyday was in the early fourth century B.C.There can be little doubt
that his authority ran in Dassaretis at this time. On the other hand Dassaretis is a poor area
economically, and it cannot have been the seat of a strong kingdom.
The area to the north of Dassaretisis characterizedby the valley of the Shkumbi, the ancient
Genusus, and by the town of Elbasan, which draws trade from much of central Albania; the
valley contains the best route eastwards towards Macedonia, the route followed by the Via
Egnatia. Pomponius Mela ii. 55 put the Parthini and the Dassaretae as the most southerly
Illyrians in his list, and Pliny, HNiii. 23, put them in proximity to one another: 'gentes Parthini
et a tergo eorum Dassaretae.' The Parthini evidently occupied the middle part of the Shkumbi
valley;43 they must have been dominated by any great power in southern Illyria, and they
joined Rome in 229 B.c. A more important area than the Shkumbi valley is the district beyond
37 The exact position of Pelium is uncertain. It was in
Dassaretis (Livy xxxi. 40. 4 'ab Celetro in Dassaretios processit urbemque Pelion vi cepit'); it was close to Macedonia
and convenient for raids into Macedonia (Livy xxxi. 4o).
It is usually placed in the plain of Koritsa (e.g. by A. J. B.
Wace in BSA xviii. i68). Pliny HN iv. I has Dassaretis 'a
tergo' in relation to Epirus.
38 FGrH 156 (Arrian) F 1.7 mentions Macedon's control
of Illyria at that time.
39 See my forthcoming article in JRS 1966.

40 Geyer, op. cit. I I I, thinks the two passages are a doublet

of a single incident, which Geyer puts in 393/392 B.C.
41 See also Trogus, Prol. 7, 'additae in excessu Illyriorum
et Paeonum origines'.
42 'Bardulis Illyrius latro ... magnas opes habuit.'
43 An
inscription from the monastery of St. John near
Elbasan has the name Parthinus; see Buletin i Universitetit
Shteterort Tiranis, Seria ShkencatShoquirorei (1961) 103 f.
In early times the Parthini may have held Dyrrachium
(Dio xli. 49. 2).

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KINGDOMS

OF ILLYRIA

CIRCA 400-167

B.C.

249

the head of the valley at the north end of Lake Ochrid. Here the passage from Central Albania
to Macedonia is most readily controlled. Moreover, it is the narrow point in a broad belt of
high country which lies between the watersheds of the Albanian rivers and the Macedonian
rivers, that is, in the north between the two Drins and the Erigon and in the south between the
Devoli and the Haliacmon; and it is this belt of high country which afforded a route for
raiding or invading forces from the north. The river which flows northwards from the lake,
the Black Drin, affords a route of entry towards Scodra and the Adriatic coast. The lake itself
is very rich in fish, which was salted in ancient times, and the surroundingland is fertile; the
royal graves at Trebenishte on the north side of the lake show the great wealth of the local
kings in the late sixth century B.C.,the kings probably of the Enchelees.44This vital area was of
the first importance to any ambitious power in the vicinity. Philip annexed it in 358 B.c. after
defeating Bardylisand capturing 'urbem nobilissimamLarissam'(Justin vii. 6. 7), a corruption
perhaps of 'Lychnidum', the chief city on the eastern side of the lake.
The strongestIllyrian tribes lived to the north of the areas we have described. They were the
Autariatae, the Ardiaei, and the Dardani, according to Strabo (C 315 fin.), and they were
'warred down' by one another, by Macedon, and by Rome. The Autariatae, he says, were
the strongest of the three; they expanded northwards,defeated the Triballi, ruled as far as the
Danube, and later were brokenup by the Scordisci and then by Rome. This tribe destroyed the
Ardiaei (Appian, Illyr. i. 3), probably in the latter part of the second century B.c. They were
not powerful in the time of Alexander the Great (Arrian, Anab.i. 5. 3), and their expansion
northwards carried them away from the Greek area. The Ardiaei, on the other hand, being
the most distinguishedseafaringtribe (Appian, Illyr. i. 3: Apmictol-rTxcAXdraaa
O6vTrES
apliroT),
expanded southwards, occupying the Adriatic coast and raiding the western coast of Greece
and even the Aegean area in the third century B.c., until the Romans intervened in 229 B.C.
and weakened their power by the settlement of 168 B.c. The beginnings of their expansion
along the coast can be set in the first half of the fourth century B.C.,because Theopompus
credited them with 300,000 serfs (FGrH 115 F 40); but their growth was arrestedby Philip II
of Macedon and their seapower was then contained within the Adriatic Sea. The Dardani,
also called Dardanii and Dardaneis, pressed more heavily on Macedonia than the Autariatae
and Ardiaei did in the third century B.C.We have mentioned the Dardanian embassyto Ptolemy
Ceraunusin 280 B.c. Their king, Longarus, fought a war against Demetrius, and his son, Bato,
was continually at war with the son of Demetrius, Philip V (Livy xxxi. 28. 2; cf. xxvi. 25. 3,
xxvii. 32. 9, xxxi. 43. 1-3, and xxxiii. 19). The great forces of the Dardani were a perpetual
menace to Macedonia (e.g. Plb. iv. 66. I), and they were rivals of the Ardiaei in gaining adherents among the Illyrian tribes (Plb. ii. 6. 4). Philip V tried to keep the Dardani at arm's
length by holding fortified towns at strategic points such as Bylazora in Paeonia (Plb. v. 97. I)
and Sintia (Livy xxvi. 25. 3)45and by creating a devastated area on one route of invasion. A
devastated area of a similar kind was made by the Scordisci (Strabo, C 318). Polybius (xxviii.
8. 2 f.) describes that made by PhilipV as follows: TigS pTIou Ka
ijv oOi
aXoulivri5'IAXXpi8oS,
851 T
avaaorarov rroirTIavMCaKE66VES
-TOt
rrohXoiSXp6voS avc')rEpov
U-roupyouS
roli-00at1
OViaVEiGPOX&ds.
AapSavEioaLt
Trs EiSrv 'IhAupi5aKci MIaKE
In the areas north of Lake Lychnitis (Ochrid) the most remarkablefeature is the course of
the Black Drin (Drin i zi). It flows northwardsfrom the lake, enters a deep valley, and turns
44 The mention of them by Hecataeus (FGrH I F Io03)and
the knowledge of the Enchelean kings' claim to descent
from the Cadmeans support this suggestion.
4s5BvAd3copa,IIEyiaT-lv
oO'aavrr6xilv-rfis -1atovia5Kai Aiav
TIS AapSavIKjS
EIS
Sia'XEiaoXa's iT5 rTTOr6
KEIIVIlVrrpbo
EoKaipOcOS

Bylazora is usually identified with Ktipriilti

MaKEBoviav.
south-east of Skoplje on the Vardar; see F. W. Walbank,
A Historical Commentaryon Polybius I, 626. J. V. A. Fine
puts Sintia in the northern part of the plain of Monastir
(JRS xxvi (1936) 25).

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250

N. G. L. HAMMOND

west to enter the sea near Scodra.46The lower course of the river is navigable. The best route
from Macedonia follows this valley; indeed it has been described as 'the Drin valley route from
the Adriatic to the Aegean',47but it seems to have been used more by armies than by merchants.
Thus when Philip II annexed the district by Lake Lychnitis in 358 B.C.,he was well placed to
advance either towards Scodra or towards Elbasan. The mountain to the west of the Black Drin
at its source was called Mt. Candavia ('montes Candaviae', Pliny, HN iii. 23, cf. Ptol. iii. 14;
Plb. xxxiv. 12. 5 and Strabo, C 323); the mountain range to the east of the course
Kavcoaovia,
of
the Black Drin was Mt. Scardos (Scordos in Livy xliv. 31. 3), and it is penetrated by the
White Drin (Drin i bardhe), which flows southwardsfrom Yugoslavia, keeping to the east of
the Albanian district of Kosove, and then enters the Black Drin (see Map II). The White
Drin makes the only breach through the mountains which separate north Albania from Yugoslavia.48The route northwards from Lake Lychnitis through Yugoslavia is also important; it
passes through the broad belt of high country between the watershedsof the Black Drin and the
Erigon, and it is a continuation of a route through the similar belt to the south which contains
the lakes.
Strabo, C 316, gives the boundary of Dardanian territory to the south-west, presumably at
the height of Dardanian power, since he hasjust named the Dardani as one of the three strongest
Illyrian tribes. The Drilon (Drin), he says,is navigable 'to the east as far as Dardanian territory,
which borders on the Macedonian tribes and the Paeonian tribes to the south'
(Apikdov
MXKEGOVIKOTS
i]
E0VEotI
TroTaposg&d~vrrTovv
EXCOV
TrpOb
~ECO pXpI TrilAapcSavlKgs",[
ovUvcX'TTE
TOgS
Dardanian territory then extended from somewhere near
TTpO pE~aPrlpiav).
xKaiTO
S 1-IOVIKOIS
the confluence of the White Drin with the Black Drin and included the course of the White

Drin itself. Since Strabo regarded the coast of Epirus from Cape Linguetta as running eastwards, his east is closer to SSE.; the Dardanian territory, then, had the Macedonian tribes
in Pelagonia, for instance, and the Paeonian tribes in the upper basin of the Vardar to its
SSE. So the Dardani held the strategically important area between the watersheds of the
Drin and the Erigon.49Thus Macedonia was endangered in 199 B.C.,when Perseus held the
passes into Pelagonia against the Dardani (Livy xxxi. 33. 3 and 34. 6). So was Western Illyria;
for the devastated area, called 'lXXupis
Eprlpo,made entry difficult for the Dardanians not only
into
into Macedonia but also
Illyria, that is, through the breach made by the White Drin.
I should therefore place the devastated area by the 'R' of DARDANIAOn FIG. I (north of

the Kaianik pass),s5that is, athwart the routes southwards to the lower Drin valley, to Lake
Lychnitis, and to the passes into Pelagonia. This area is shown as 'Illyris deserta' on FIG. 2.
When Perseussent envoys to Genthius and Pleuratus,they passed over Mt. Scardosthrough the
devastated area on their way to the realm of the Ardiaei (0irrrpTr6XKapOV 6poS 81 TiXSpijPOU
Plb. xxviii. 8. 3).
Kahoupvrqs'lXAupi8oS,
When the forces under Perseus were withdrawn from the passes into Pelagonia, the way
became open for the Ardiaeans under Pleuratus and for the Dardanians (Livy xxxi. 34. 6).
The Ardiaei were said by Strabo, C 317, to be neighbours of the Autariatae. They are also said
46 In ancient times the main channel of the Drin entered
the sea further north than it does today; see J. M. F. May in
JRS xxxvi (1946) 55 f.
47 So R. L. Beaumont in JHS Ivi (1936) 201.
48 Jire'ek, Die Heerstrassevon Belgrad nach Constantinopel,
23, took the course of the Roman road from Ulpiana
(Lipljan, near Prigtina, at the head of the river Ibar) to
Lissus through the valley of the White Drin; A. J. Evans in
Archaeologiaxlix (1885) 66 suggested a shorter route to the

north of the breach made by the White Drin. See FIG. 2.

49 See Patsch s.v. Dardaniin RE iv. 2156. In this position
they were literally above the Illyrians and the Macedoniarns
as Zonaras ix. 15 says
8'
Orrp TE 'luvpti6v K i
(oiKOOOaI ooTrot
0OripMaaKSe6VCov).
so See the excellent map in Archaeologiaxlix (1885) before
p. 5. Pliny HN iv. I placed the Dardani not far from
Dassaretis: 'Epiros . . . a tergo suo Dassaretas . . . mox
Dardanos habet.'

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1600
KIm
25

1651 1626

40
rd

Skoplje

20
I-

-9
15

metres
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1070

I0

WKaanik

Heiqhts
s

OF
o

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IISO1

oLipljan
p.1ne

,bar

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ILLYRIS

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POSITION

ILLYRIIS
DESERTA

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2.

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Cl

4..

II
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252

N. G. L. HAMMOND

by him (C 329, fr. 4) to have had a common frontier with Paeonia: rwposv6-rov5 TroS
ACrrapirx'raiS
KatAapbavicosKai'Apiatiois6 opEi.Here Strabo'ssouth is our SSW., and he seemsto
be enumerating the three tribes from north to south; it thereforeappears that at one time the
Ardiaei held the region in which the devastated area lay and had advanced at the expense
of the Dardani, depriving them of the valley of the White Drin. The name Ardiaei implies
that their original home was Mt. Ardium (Strabo, C 315 for MS. 'Abplov),that is the Dinaric
Alps according to Strabo's description of the mountain, but by the fourth century B.c. they
lived in the area of the river Naro, now Neretva, and their authority ran in the Hellenistic
period as far south as Scodra and up the valley of the White Drin, when they became neighbours
of Paeonia.s' Their leader Scerdilaidascarried his raids past Lake Lychnitis into Dassaretis in
217 B.C. (Plb. v. io8). It is clear from the expansion and the contraction of the Macedonian,
Dardanian, and Ardiaean realms at various times that the territory north of Lake Lychnitis
was of crucial importance.
It remains to put to the test our suggestion that the kingdom of Bardylis was a Dardanian
kingdom. The fact that Philip II, having killed 7,000 Illyrians under Bardylis in 358 B.C.,
annexed territory up to Lake Lychnitis and then made peace with Bardylis, shows the centre
of the kingdom of Bardylisto have lain at some considerabledistance from the lake. As we have
seen, it cannot have been to the south in Dassaretis, a poor area; nor to the west, where the
Taulantian kingdom was distinct from that of Bardylis' son Cleitus (Arrian, Anab.i. 5.
I);
nor to the north-west, if my connexion of Grabus with the Grabaei is correct. Therefore the
centre of Bardylis'kingdom lay to the north of Lake Lychnitis. This being so, Philip's possession
of Lychnidus now blocked the route of Bardylissouthwards.We can see the value of Lychidnus
and its vicinity from Livy xxvii. 32. 9; for in 208 B.C.Philip V hastened north from the Peloponnese on receiving the following report. 'Nuntius ex Macedonia venit Eropum quendam
corrupto arcis praesidiique praefecto Lychnidum cepisse, tenere et Dassaretiorum quosdam
vicos, et Dardanos etiam concire.' The defection of Lychnidus thus opened the way for the
Dardanians. They did in fact come south, passed through Dassaretis,entered Orestis (probably
through the Tsangon pass), and descended into the 'Argestaeus campus', that is, probably
towards lower Macedonia (Livy xxvii. 33. I). They thus followed the broad belt of high
country between the watersheds of the Albanian rivers and the Macedonian rivers. When
Cleitus rose against Alexander the Great and attacked Pelium, he probably followed the same
route and intended to raid Orestis.The centre of the kingdom of Bardylisand of his son, Cleitus,
seems thus to have been where the centre of the Dardanian kingdom lay in the third and second
centuries B.C. I thereforeconclude that Bardyliswas king of the Dardani.s2He was, in fact, king
of one of Strabo's three strongest Illyrian tribes.
The different areas in which powerful dynasties arose at different times were related to the
main currents of historical development. The fourth century was marked by the rise of inland
tribal states in Aetolia, Molossia, Macedonia, Dardania, Paeonia, and Thrace. The Greek
colonization of the Adriatic area in that century stimulated commercial enterprise and piracy
and prompted the expansion of the Ardiaei, which took full effect in the third century. Other
factors played a part. Bardylis created his empire c. 400-360 B.C. when Macedonia and Epirus
were relatively weak and disunited. Philip II and Alexander redressedthe balance. But during
onPolybius,
s5 See F. W. Walbank, A HistoricalCommentary
i. 153 and 163, and Tomaschek s.v. Ardiaeiin RE ii. 615;
J. M. F. May in JRS xxxvi (1946) 48 f.; and F. Papazoglou
in Recueildes travauxde la Facultddephilosophiede Belgradevii
(1963) 71 f.

s52 J. G. Droysen, 'Das dardanische Fiirstentum' in

KleineSchriftenzur alten Geschichte(I), regarded Bardylis as a
Dardanian king but did not investigate the geographical
aspect of the matter.

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THE

KINGDOMS

OF ILLYRIA

CIRCA 400-167

B.C.

253

the wars of the Successorsand the dynastic troubles of the Molossian royal house the Illyrian
kingdoms revived and the Taulantian kingdom of Glaucias reached its acme. Pyrrhus and his
successors made Epirus strong and displaced the Taulantian kingdom; but the Macedonian
kings failed to crush the Dardanian kingdom. When the power of Epirus declined with the fall
of the Molossian monarchy c. 232 B.c., and when the entry of Rome into the Balkan area
endangered the position of Macedonia, the Dardanian kingdom grew in strengths3and the
Ardiaean kingdom proceeded to expand by land and by sea.
The topography of Illyria is rendered difficult by the tendency of tribal names to occur in
similar formsin different regions, and by the fact that the large tribes were made up of constituent tribes and then incorporated other tribes as their sphere of influence expanded. Thus
we have Atintani and a district Atintanis within sight of Dyrrachium-probably the modern
x(ermenike-and Atintanes in the upper valley of the Drin in Epirus; Autariatae in Illyria and
in Thesprotia; Dassaretii between the Ardiaei and the Dardani (Strabo C 316 and 318); and
Dassaretae or Dassaretii of Dassaretis to the south-west of Lake Lychnitis.s4We gain some
insight into the Ardiaean kingdom from the terms of the Roman settlement in 168 B.C. (Livy
xlv. 26, 13-15).55 It included the Pirustae Dassaretiorum,the Rhizonitae, and the Olciniatae
who rebelled while the king, Genthius, was still secure; the Daorsi who changed over to the
Roman side; the Scodrenses, the Dassarenses,the Selepitani, and 'ceteri Illyrii' who had paid
C 315) were near the river
tribute to the king. Of these tribes the Daorsi (Strabo's
Aac6pp3oi,are
the Peirustae of Strabo
Naro opposite Pharos; the Pirustae lay north of the Ardiaei
(if they
C 314); the Rhizonitae were round the Gulf of Rhizon (now Kotor); the name of the Olciniatae survives in Ulcinj on the coast to the south-westof Scodra; the Scodrenses round Scodra
are separate evidently from the Labeates of Pomponius Mela ii. 55; and the Selepitani are
otherwise unknown. This scatter of tribes subject to Genthiusgives us some idea of the Ardiaean
kingdom in the period of its decline.

N. G. L. HAMMOND

53 Agatharchides, FGrH 86 F 17, stating that the Dardani

had companies of I,ooo slaves to one master and that these
served their masters in war, refers to the period of Philip V
in the opinion of Jacoby. Pausanias iv. 35. 4 associates the
Illyrian expansion with the fall of the Molossian monarchy.
54 Livy xlv. 26. I3-15 keeps the distinction between the
two tribes clear and used the slightly different names
'Dassaretii' and 'Dassarenses' at xlv. 26. 13-15, but at other
times he uses Dassaretii instead of Dassarenses, e.g. at
xxvii. 32. 9. The suggestion of F. Papazoglou, 175, n. 120,
that Livy's Dassaretii and Dassarenses at xlv. 26. 13-15 are

corruptions of one original name does not make sense in the

context; for Livy makes some Dassaretii free from tax and
the Dassarenses liable to tax, and one people cannot be both.
5s 'Non solum liberos, sed etiam immunes fore Issenses et
Taulantios, Dassaretiorum Pirustas, Rhizonitas, Olciniatas,
quod incolumi Gentio ad Romanos defecissent. Daorsis
quoque immunitatem dare, quod relicto Caravantio cum
armis ad Romanos transissent. Scodrensibus et Dassarensibus et Selepitanis ceterisque Illyriis vectigal dimidium
eius, quod regi pependissent, inpositum.' The people of
Issa and the Taulantii joined Rome in 229-228 B.C.

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