This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Alex earlier account (talk | contribs) at 03:51, 26 November 2005. The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.
Revision as of 03:51, 26 November 2005 by Alex earlier account (talk | contribs)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)Illyrians has come to refer to a broad, ill-defined group of peoples who inhabited the western Balkans (from northern Epirus to southern Pannonia) and even perhaps parts of Southern Italy in ancient times into the Common era.
It is, however, unclear whether in reality there was such a broad group that identified as Illyrians, and some argue that the ethnonym Illyres came to be applied to this large group of tribes by the ancient Greeks, Illyres having perhaps originally designated only a single tribe that came to be widely known to the Greeks due to proximity. This tribe, the Illyres, are known to have occupied a small and well-defined part of the south Adriatic coast, around the Lake of Schodër astride the modern frontier between Albania and Montenegro.
Evidence for this idea may be found in Appian's Illyrike:
- The Greeks call those people Illyrian who dwell beyond Macedonia and Thrace, from Chaonia and Thesprotia to the river Danube. --Appian, Illyrike 1
Pliny in his Natural History speaks of Illyri proprie dictii ("Illyrians properly so-called") among the native communities in Roman Dalmatia.
Whatever the case, this article will use the terms Illyrian and Illyrians to refer to the greater body of tribes that have come to be regarded as Illyrian.
Origins
The Illyrians are considered to have spoken languages belonging to a branch of Indo-European known as Illyrian. The Illyrians may have appeared in the western part of the Balkan peninsula about 1000 BC, a period coinciding with the end of the Bronze age and the beginning of the Iron age. The Illyrians were not a unified body but a group of many different tribes. These tribes however had a common culture and spoke related languages.