Atintanes or Atintanians (Greek: Ἀτιντᾶνες, Atintánes or Ἀτιντᾶνιοι, Atintánioi, Latin: Atintanii) was an ancient tribe that dwelled in the borderlands between Epirus and Illyria, in an inland region which was called Atintania.
[11] According to Filos (2017), there is an overall consensus in scholarship that the Greek-speaking population of Epirus, including the Atintanes, spoke a Northwestern Doric variety similar to that spoken by several neighbouring peoples of central and western Greece.
[16][17] Thucydides (5th century BC), describing the Acarnanian campaign of 429 B.C., lists the Epirote forces; among them the Atintantes, as well as the Chaones, Thesprotians, Molossians, Paravaii, and Orestae, as "barbarians" living north-west from the Greek lands.
[23] The Periplus of Pseudo-Scylax (4th century BC) locates the Atintanes inland in contact with the Amantes and the Chaonians to their west and the area of Idonia (by some authors interpreted as Dodonia) to their south.
[24][25] The poem Alexandra by Lycophron (3rd century BC) locates the land of the Atintanes near the city of Amantia,[26] which corresponds to the hinterland of Apollonia.
[29] Appian (2nd century AD) is the only ancient author that specifically refers to the tribe of the Atintani (not Atintanes) using the ethnonym "Illyrian".
[30] Hatzopoulos states that this appears in reference to their political situation due to their annexation by Illyrian rulers as already explained by P. Cabanes (1986).
[31] Šašel Kos (2005) has argued that Appian may be in agreement with Pseudo-Scylax, who included the Atintanes among the Illyrian peoples, barbarians, located to the north of Chaonia.
[32] In the lexicon "Ethnika" of Stephanus of Byzantium (6th century AD), Atintania appears as a region of Macedonia, named after Atintan, a son of Makednos in the version of Lycaon.
[33] The tradition of an eponymous Atintan, as the son of Makednos, was probably created during the reign of Philip V of Macedon (238–179 BC) in order to tighten the connection between the Macedonian authorities and Atintanians.
[42] F. Papazoglou and Pierre Cabanes stated that there was only one tribe with the name Atintanians and that the area they inhabited was located in the mountain ranges between the Aous (Vjosë) and the Apsus (Osum) rivers.
[43][44] Cabanes (1988) located Atintania in a region between Byllis and Dassaretis, without the Drino valley, and considered them the southernmost Illyrian people, on the border with Epirus.
Hatzopoulos considers that to their north, and between them and the Parthini, Taulantians and the (Illyrian) Dassaretii, existed a mixed zone; though part of Illyria, according to him it was a cultural extension of Greek speaking Epirus.
[48] T. J. Winnifrith (2002) associated the diverse positions of Atintanes reported in ancient accounts with peaceful transhumans activity, but he also stated that two tribes with a similar name may have existed.
[49] Sasel Kos (2002) included the Atintanians among the most outstanding Illyrian peoples who conceivably were closely related with each other in terms of culture, institutions and language.
Castiglioni (2003) considered that the area suggested by Cabanes would seem in accordance with the data from Lycophron, and for a more in-depth analysis on the location she referred the reader to Hatzopoulos (1993).
[51] The collective work Index du bulletin épigraphique, 1987 - 2001 (2005) published by the Association des études grecques and Universite de Paris IV, Sorbonne classifies Atintantes as an Epirote tribe though their precise location is a matter of dispute.
[53] M. Dieterle (2007) considered that Atintania was part of Epirus, and together with Chaonia and Parauaea comprised the northern Epirote tribal region.
King (2017) considered the Atintani as an Illyrian tribe, and located Atintania alternatively in Illyria, Epirus or in Upper Macedonia (Macedon's westernmost meris around Lake Lycnhidos).
[66] Jaupaj (2019) lists the Atintanes among the southern Illyrian tribes that inhabited a large territory reached as far as the area of Dodona at some point.
Hatzopoulos (1993) did not accept Hammond's proposal of two distinct tribes, and he located the Atintanes on the upper and middle valley of the Aoos, stretching up to the confluence of this river with the Drino.
[14] A. J. Toynbee suggested the possibility that the Atintanes were connected with the Paeonian Tyntenoi that were pushed from the region of northern Macedonia towards the coastline.
[88] After this conflict, in 229-228 BC Rome set a protectorate on the conquered Illyrian lands, the Greek cities of Apollonia and Epidamnus, Corfu, as well as Atintanis.
after the Romans defeated the Macedonians at Pydna, they captured a total of seventy settlements of the Molossians and the Atintanians and sold 150,000 men into slavery.