Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/54

 33 ILLYRICUM. custom of one of their tribes, the Dulmiitians, to have a new division of their lands every eighth year (Strab. [. c), resembled the well-known practice of the Germans, only advanced somewhat further to- wards civilised life. The author of the rerii)lus ascribed to Scylax (/. c.) speaks of the great influence enjoyed by their women, whose lives, in consequence, he describes as highly licentious. The Illyrian, like the modern Albanian Skipetar, was always ready to fight for hire ; and rushed to battle, obeying only the instigation of his own love of fight- ing, or vengeance, or love of blood, or craving for booty. But as soon as the feeling was satisfied, or over- come by fear, his rapid and impetuous rush was suc- ceeded by an equally rapid retreat or flight. (Comp. Grote, Bist. of Greece, vol. vi. p. 609.) They did not fight in the phalanx, nor were they merely ^lAoi ; they rather formed an intermediate class between them and the phalanx. Their arms were short spears and light javelins and shields (" pel- tastae"); the chief weapon, however, was the fxaxaipa, or Albanian knife. Dr. Arnold has re- marked {Hut. of Rome, vol. i. p. 495), — " The eastern coast of the Adriatic is one of those ill-fated portions of the earth which, though placed in imme- diate contact with civilisation, have remained per- petually barbarian." But Scymnus of Chios (comp. Arnold, vol. iii. p. 477), writing of the Illyrians about a century before the Christian era, calls them " a religious people, just and kind to strangers, loving to be liberal, and desiring to live orderly and soberly." After the Roman conquest, and during its dominion, they were as civilised as most other peoples reclaimed from barbarism. The emj)eror Diocletian and St. Jerome were both Illyrians. And the palace at Spalato is the earliest existing spe- cimen of the legitimate combination of the round arch and the column; and the modern history of the eastern shores of the Adriatic begins with the rela- tions established by Heraclius with the Serbs or W. Slaves, wlio moved down from the Carpathians into the provinces between the Adriatic and the Danube. The states which they constituted were of considerable weight in the history of Europe, and the kingdoms, or bannats, of Croatia, Servia, Bosnia, Eascia, and Dalmatia, occupied for some centuries a political position very Hke that now held by the secondary monarchical states of the present day. The people of Narenta, who had a republican form of government, once disputed the sway of the Adriatic with the Venetians ; Eagusa, which sent her Argosies (Ragosies) to every coast, never once succumbed to the winged Lion of St. Mark; and for some time it seemed probable that the Servian colonies established by Heraclius were likely to take a prominent part in advancing the progress of Eu- ropean civilisation. (Comp. Finlay, Greece under the liomans, p. 409.) 5. History. — The Illyrians do not appear in history before the Peloponnesian War, when Brasidas and Perdiccas retreated before them, and the Illyrians, fur the first time, probably, had to encounter Grecian ti-oops. (Thuc. iv. 124 — 128.) Nothing is heard of these barbarians afterwards, till the time of Philip of Macedon, by whose vigour and energy their in- cursions were first repressed, and their country par- tially conquered. Their collision with the Mace- donians appears to have risen under the following circumstances. During the 4th century before Christ a large immigration of Gallic tribes from the west- wai'd was taking place, invading the territory of the ILLYRICUM. more northerly Illyrians, and driving them further to the south. Under Bardylis the Illyrians, who had formed themselves into a kingdom, the origin of which cannot be traced, had extended themselves over the towns, villages, and plains of W. Macedonia (Diod. svi. 4 ; Theojjomp. Fr. 3.5, «!. Didot. ; Cic. de Off. ii. 1 1 ; Phot. Bibl. p. 530, ed. Bekker; Liban. Orcit. xxviii. p. 632). As soon as the young Philip of Macedon came to the throne, he attacked tlicse hereditary enemies B.C. 360, and pushed his sui:- cesses so vigorously, as to reduce to subjection all the tribes to the E. of Lyclinidus. (Comp. Grote, Hist, of Greece, vol. xi. pp. 302 — 304.) A stale was formed the Kipital of which was probably near Ragusa, but the real Illyrian pirates with whom the Romans came in collision, must have occupied the N. of Dalmatia. Rhodes was still a maritime power; but by B.C. 233 the Illyrians had become foimidabie in the Adriatic, ravaging the coasts, and disturbing the navigation of the allies of the Romans. Envoys were sent to Teuta, the queen of the Illyrians, demanding reparation : she replied, that piracy wjis the habit of her people, and finally had the envoys murdered. (Polyb. ii. 8 ; Appian, Hlyr. 7 ; Zonar. viii. 19 ; comp. Plin. xxxiv. 11.) A Roman army for the first time crossed the Ionian gulf, and con- cluded a peace with the Illyrians upon honourable terms, while the Greek states of Corcyra, Apollonia, and Epidamnus, received their liberty as a gift from Rome. On the death of Teuta, the traitor Demetrius of Pharos made himself guardian of Pineus, son of Agron, and iLsurjjcd the chief authority in lllyri- cum : thinking that ■the Romans were too much en- gaged in the Gallic wars, he ventured on several piratical acts. This led to the Second Illyrian War, B.C. 219, which resulted in the submission of the whole of lUyricum. Demetrius fled to Macedonia, and Pineus was restored to his kingdom. (Polyb. iii. 16, 18 ; Liv. xxii. 33; App. Hlyr. 7, 8; Flor.'ii. 5 ; Dion Cass, xxxiv. 46, 151 ; Zonar. viii. 20.) Pineus Wits succeeded bj' his uncle Scerdilaidas, and Scerdilaidas by his son Pleuratus, who, for his fidelity to the Roman cause during the Macedonian War, was rewarded at the peace of 196 by the addi- tion to his territories of Lychnidus and the Parthini, which had before belonged to Macedonia (Polyb. xviii. 30, xxi. 9, xxii. 4; Liv. xxxi. 28, xxxii. 34.) In the reign of Gentius, the last king of Ulyricum, the Dalmatae revolted, B. c. 180 ; and the praetor L. Anicius, entering Ulyricum, finished the war within thirty days, by taking the capital Scodra {SciUari), into which Gentius had thrown himself, B.C. 168. (Polyb. xxx. 13; Liv. xliv. .30 — 32, xlv. 43; Appian, Jliyr. 9; Eutrop. iv. 6.) Ulyricum, which was divided into three parts, be- came annexed to Rome. (Liv. xlv. 26.) The his- tory of the Roman wars with Dalmatia, Iapydia, and Libuknia, is given under those heads. In B. c. 27 Ulyricum was under the rule of a proconsul appointed by the senate (Dion Cass. liii. 12): but the frequent attempts of the people to re- cover their hberty showed the necessity of main- taining a strong force in the country ; and in b. c. 1 1 (Dion Cass. liv. 34) it was made an imperial province, with P. Cornelius Dolabella for " legatus " (" leg. pro. pr.," Orelli, Inscr. no. 2365, comp. no. 3128; Tac. Hist. ii. 86; lI;irquardt, in Becker's Eoin. Alt. vol. iii. pt. i. pp. 110 — 115). A large region, extending far inland towards the valley of the Saveaad the Brave, cont;viiied bodies of soldiery,