Ardiaei

The Ardiaei[a] were an Illyrian people who resided in the territory of present-day Albania, Kosovo, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Croatia[2] between the Adriatic coast on the south, Konjic on the north, along the Neretva river and its right bank on the west, and extending to Lake Shkodra to the southeast.

Their inland location in older times can be inferred by the cause of war between them and the Autariatae – a long-running conflict over the possession of salt sources near their common border.

The territory of the Ardiaei and Autariatae must have met somewhere along the upper Naro valley near the 'Great Lake', which was attested in the Periplus and has been identified with Hutovo Blato.

During the 2nd century BC the Manioi disappeared from historical sources, being replaced in some of their former regions by the Ardiaei and Daorsi, while some of the earlier Autariatan territories were inhabited by the Narensii.

[citation needed] Their tribal name indicates that Narensii certainly inhabited some of the areas along the Naron river, and that they probably appeared in historical sources after the disintegration of the coalition that was dominated by the Autariatae.

[20] In the 3rd century BC, the Ardiaei attained political importance and conquered territories from the Autariatae until they acquired control of the entire Adriatic coast, from the region of the Daorsi at the mouth of the Naro river down to Labeatae around Lake Scodra.

[21] In Roman times the Ardiaei were attested in the area of southern Illyria that was centered around the Bay of Kotor, with Rhizon as a capital city, expanding from the Naro river in present-day Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia,[22][23] along the Adriatic coast southwards to Scodra (another capital of the Illyrian kingdom) in present-day Albania, as well as to the broad region of Lissus.

And this is what befell the rest of the peoples in that part of the world; for those who were most powerful in earlier times were utterly humbled or were obliterated, as, for example, among the Galatae the Boii and the Scordistae, and among the Illyrians the Autariatae, Ardiaei, and Dardanii, and among the Thracians the Triballi; that is, they were reduced in warfare by one another at first and then later by the Macedonians and the Romans.”King Agron, son of Pleuratus who belonged to the ruling house of the Ardiaei, disposed of the most powerful forces, both by land and sea, of any of the kings who had reigned in Illyria before him.