It was founded around 600 BC by Greek colonists from Corinth and possibly Corcyra, who established a trading settlement on a largely abandoned coastal site by invitation of the local Illyrians.

[3] Corinthian colonial policy seems to have been relatively liberal, focused on resource extraction for the support of their homeland, rather than exploitation or expulsion of the local Illyrian population.

The city flourished in the Roman period, housing a renowned school of Greek philosophy, rhetoric, and military training which attracted students from across the empire.

A part of the grave finds of the Adriatic tumuli included locally produced violin idols which were influenced by trends observed in the Early Cycladic I (Grotta-Pelos) culture in southern Greece.

It has been conjectured that at the site of Apollonia, in particular, those early Greek seafarers encountered a deserted landscape with abandoned tumuli interpreting them as monuments to their Homeric ancestors.

[19] Archaeological evidence shows that in the hinterland of Apollonia the earliest Greek pottery dates from the middle of the 7th century BC and is solely Corinthian.

[20] A Corinthian Type A transport amphora that is dated to between the third and last quarter of the 7th century BC, also prior to the foundation of the colony, was discovered inside a tumulus, confirming pre-colonial interaction for the site of Apollonia.

Such a pattern appears to conform to a gently trodden landscape, which likely was occupied only seasonally by Illyrians, as one should expect from an area inhabited by people who were organized in tribes.

Hammond they established good relations with the local Illyrians founding a joint settlement with a riverine harbor on the Aoos/Vjosë, which emerged as an important trade center.

[41] Apollonia in Illyria developed to become one of the most important urban centres in the wider region and played a major role as a trade gateway to the central Balkans.

Apollonia, like Dyrrachium further north, became an important port on the Illyrian coast as the most convenient link between Brundusium and northern Greece, and as one of the western starting points of the Via Egnatia leading east to Thessaloniki and Byzantium in Thrace.

[42] It had its own mint, stamping coins showing a cow suckling her calf on the obverse and a double stellate pattern on the reverse,[43] which have been found as far away as the basin of the Danube.

[44] In c. 450 BC the territory of Apollonia was expanded towards the south after the victory of the Apollonians in Thronion on the borders of the land of the indigenous tribe of Amantes, in the coastal area of the Bay of Aulon.

[45][46][47] By conquering Thronion, the Apolloniates had achieved two goals: they had substantially enlarged their territory towards the Illyrian hinterland and had also acquired a profitable source of money.

[52][53][54] In this early era, Apollonia began to expand to the south of the Aous valley and incorporporated in the function of its economy other Greek colonists and natives who lived in this area.

The social hierarchy didn't change and both native Illyrians and the unprivileged colonists to the south of Aous joined the lower classes of the expanded territory of Apollonia.

[55] Herodotus and Conon relate an anecdote concerning a man named Evenius or Peithenius, who was tasked with guarding the sheep sacred to Helios, but wolves attacked and devoured the animals.

A famine then broke out as the earth ceased to bear fruit, because of Helios' wrath; the soil grew fertile again only after the Apollonians consulted the Oracle of Delphi and compensated the blinded man with property, while the gods gave him the gift of prophecy.

Aristotle considers (Aristotle:4.3.8) the Apollonian government as a narrow oligarchy, and that the polis consisted of citizens descended from original Greek colonists with power and offices filled by the local elite.

Contrary to nearby Epidamnus, Apollonia pursued xenelasia, the expulsion of foreigners deemed injurious to the public welfare, similar to that used in Lacedaemonian law.

In the Fourth Macedonian War, the praetor Lucius Anicius Gallus who led the Roman campaign to defeat the Illyrian ruler Gentius was based in Apollonia with Roman troops and 2,000 infantry and 200 cavalry from the Illyrian tribe of the Parthini led by tribal leaders Epicadus and Algalsus.a part of the captured fleet of Gentiues was presented to the people of Apollonia after the war.

[54] Another possible reason of admixture was Apollonia's growth and territorial expansion, with the incorporation of additional Greek colonists at a later era, though they probably did not enjoy full citizenship privileges.

The city received a series of privileges by Gaius Octavius which reaffirmed its oligarchic institutions, which were seen favorably by the emerging power structure in Rome.

[71] Its decline, however, began in the 3rd century AD, when an earthquake changed the path of the Aoös, causing the harbour to silt up and the inland area to become a malaria-ridden swamp.

[77] It replaced an older museum dating from 1985, and was funded by UNESCO's MDG-F Joint Programme "Culture and Heritage for Social and Economic Development".

[78] In August 2010, a French-Albanian team of archaeologists unearthed a bust of a Roman soldier, 50 years after the discoveries of other full body statues in the 1958–1960 period expeditions, led by Albanian scholar Selim Islami and Russian Professor Blavatski.

Some assume that the two towns formed a single episcopal see, others suppose he was, strictly speaking, Bishop only of Apollonia, but was temporarily in charge also of Byllis during a vacancy of that see (apostolic administrator).

One of the participants at a council held in Constantinople in 448 signed as Paulus Episcopus Apolloniada al. Apolloniatarum, civitatis sanctae ecclesiae, but it is uncertain whether he was associated with this Apollonia.

[81][82][83] The Annuario Pontificio lists Apollonia as a titular see, thus recognizing that it was once a residential diocese, a suffragan of the archbishopric of Dyrrachium,[84] It grants no such recognition to Byllis.

This tradition had developed in Epirus and southern Illyria in reference to mythological constructions which linked the foundation of settlements to Trojan migration in the area.