[2] The massive walls of Amantia were built before the end of the 4th century BC, and literary sources report them as an Illyrian rather than Epirote or Macedonian foundation.

The time duration that passed before Illyrian cities were documented on a list of theorodokoi clarifies that acculturation did take place in southern Illyria; however, it indicates that the process was gradual.

[5] Amantia occupied an important defensive position on a high hill 600m above sea level and overlooking the Aoos/Vjosë river valley to the east, and the road to the coast and the Bay of Aulon.

[14][3] It has been suggested that in terms of fortifications, masonry and general architecture, language and religion, Amantia shares the same features as the rest of the settlements of the Greek world of that time.

[13] A tradition reported by Pausanias (2nd century AD) alleges that the settlement was founded by Locrians from nearby Thronium and Abantes from Euboea.

[16] Stephanus Byzantius (based on Pausanias) mentions that Amantia was founded on Illyrian territory by the Euboean Abantes "returning from the Trojan war".

[17][18] According to another legend reported by Lycophron in his Alexandra, Elpenor (who actually died at Troy) and the Abantes from Euboea went to the island Othronos and were driven by swarms of snakes to the land of the Atintanes towards the city of Amantia.

[19][20] It has been suggested that the data from Pausanias is more in accordance with the settlement of the Euboean colony in Thronion in the coastal site of Triport in front of the Acroceraunian Mountains northwest of Aulon, not in Amantia.

[21][22] Pausanias' data have been compared with the information provided by an Apollonian commemorative monument, suggesting an "oppositional ethnicity" between the Greek colonial associations of the Bay of Aulon (i.e. the area called Abantis), and the barbarians of the hinterland.

[23] The earliest of the written sources that recorded the toponym Amantia is the Periplus of Pseudo-Skylax (4th century BC), mentioning it as a city in Illyria.

[1] In the second half of the 4th century Amantia received sacred theoroi ambassadors from Argos, southern Greece, indicating that the locals were treated as Greek.

[27] In 230 BC Amantia joined the Epirote League[4] and was among the main cities and tribal centres of Epirus during the Hellenistic period.

Amantia was invited by the Theorodokoi of Delphi to take part in the Delphic games in 220-189 BC, along with other important centres of Southern Illyria and Epirus.

In the middle of the 2nd century BC Amantia was in alliance with Apollonia, most probably as part of a united pro-Roman policy against various Illyrian states.

[38] Amantia's urban organization occurred at a period of wider evolution among the settlements of the broader area of Epirus as a result of the previous development among Molossian cities.

Hammond (1989),[56][15] Šašel Kos (1986),[57] Hatzopoulos (1997),[29] Rudolf Haensch (2012),[58] and as a Greek city in southern Illyria, in the territory of the Illyrian tribe of Amantes by Fanula Papazoglou (1986).

[62] Winnifrith considered the massive walls of Amantia as of Illyrian rather than Epirote or Macedonian foundation, and that the site later acquired the trappings of a Hellenistic city.

[55] A 2nd century AD bilingual inscription in Greek and Latin dating back to Imperial times is found above the fountain of Ploça village.

The bilingual inscription can also testify that in the ancient site of Ploça there was a Latin enclave and that the city prospered around 200 AD; it could also be the nature of the text that required the use of both languages.

At the time of Pyrrhus, his son Alexander II and his descendants, Greater Epirus was still strong and controlled both southern Illyria in the north and part of Acarnania in the south.

[67] The local official titles and institutions display typical names of a Greek settlement of that time, such as: prytanis (main magistrate).