Illyricum
Illyricum refers to a historic region located in the northwestern part of the Balkan Peninsula, largely corresponding to present-day Croatia, Slovenia, and northern Albania. This area was originally inhabited by the Illyrians, a group characterized by a mixed heritage and an Indo-European language that was never documented in written form. Greek colonists settled along the coast, while the Illyrians navigated various external pressures, including invasions by Cimmerians and Thracians, and conflicts with Greek naval powers. By the third century BC, the Illyrians established a notable kingdom under King Agron, which faced subsequent challenges from the Roman Republic during the Illyrian Wars.
Following their conquest, the region was integrated into the Roman Empire, becoming a province that underwent various administrative reorganizations. Eventually, it was divided into Upper and Lower provinces, later known as Dalmatia and Pannonia. Under Emperor Diocletian, Illyricum was part of a larger administrative diocese that included several provinces. Notable cities like Salonae served as capitals, and the region was home to numerous rural estates, significant for their agricultural output. The legacy of Illyricum is intertwined with the broader narrative of Roman expansion and the complex cultural interactions in the Balkans.
Subject Terms
Illyricum
Illyria
The northwestern part of the Balkan peninsula (roughly corresponding with modern Yugoslavia and northern Albania), settled by Greek colonists on the coast but otherwise inhabited by the Illyrians, who were of mixed race but spoke an Indo-European tongue, though they never wrote it down.
Divided into seven groups of peoples, they were severely shaken by incursions of Cimmerians and Thracians (c 650 BC), and their fleets were driven back by the navies of Greek Corcyra and its mother city Corinth (c 625). After numerous further vicissitudes, however, the Illyrians created a strong (often piratical) kingdom of their own in the third century, under Agron of the Ardiaei, who from his capital at Scodra (Shkodër) controlled the greater part of the coast. His widow Teuta and Demetrius of Pharos (Hvar) clashed with Rome in the First and Second Illyrian Wars (229–219); so did Gentius (c 180–168), who allied himself with Perseus of Macedonia and shared his defeat by the Romans.
Although part of the eastern Dalmatian coast of the Adriatic now came under Roman control, sporadic operations continued at intervals to be conducted by consuls and proconsuls; no regular province seems to have been created until c 118. The composite province allocated to Julius Caesar in 59 included Illyricum, which became the scene of various military operations during his ensuing Civil War with Pompey the Great. Octavian (35–33) and his stepson Tiberius (13–9) fought hard campaigns in the country, resulting in the establishment of a much larger province extending from Istria to the river Drilo (Drin) and from the Adriatic to the Savus (Save), with its administrative capital at Salonae (Solin). After the extension, soon afterward, of the Roman empire to the Danube, Illyricum was subdivided into Upper and Lower provinces (later known as Dalmatia and Pannonia respectively). But the name of Illyricum continued to be loosely applied to a much wider area; thus under the reorganization of Diocletian, the administrative diocese of Illyricum (Pannoniae) included no less than seven provinces: Dalmatia, Pannonia Prima, Pannonia Secunda, Savia, Valeria, Noricum Ripense and Noricum Mediterraneum. Scodra became the capital of another province, Praevalitana. Furthermore, in later times, one of the great administrative divisions of the empire controlled by praetorian prefects—usually four in number—was the prefecture of Illyricum (originally united with the prefecture of Italy [including Africa], and forming part of the eastern empire from cAD 395). After the Pannonias had been overrun by the Germans in the fifth century, Dalmatia enjoyed for a time a peculiar, quasi-independent position.
Illyricum possessed a number of palatial country houses with farms attached (villae rusticae), notably Tasovčići—the estate of the Papian family in Dalmatia—and Ljušina (near Bosanska Krupa), which possessed two dozen rooms, including an apsidal chamber, round three sides of an open courtyard. See alsoDalmatia, Pannonia, Pharos, Salonae, Scodra.