Illyrian warfare

The history of the Illyrians spans from the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC up to the 1st century AD in the region of Illyria and in southern Italy where the Iapygian civilization flourished.

Illyrian tribes were reluctant to help each other in times of war and even fought amongst each other and they sometimes allied with the neighbouring Romans[4] and Greeks:[5] These conflicts happened because of land, pastures and areas of natural substances such as iron and salt.

According to Pliny the Elder, the Liburnians lost supremacy in the Western Adriatic coast due to invasion of the Umbri and the Gauls, obviously caused by strengthening and expansion of the Etruscan union in the 6th century BC, whose rich material presence in the basin of Po river, undoubtedly meant weakening of the Liburnian thalassocracy influence in the north-west of Adriatic.

Celtic breaks to the Italian peninsula, after 400 BC, significantly changed ethnic and political picture there, it directly imperilled remaining Liburnian possessions on the western coast.

Despite the recorded material exchange, Celtic archaeological forms are marginal and secondary in regions settled by Histri, Iapodes, Dalmatae and are especially rare in Liburnian Iron Age heritage.

In 466 BC, Taranto was again defeated by the Iapyges; according to Aristotle,[27] who praises its government, there were so many aristocrats killed that the democratic party was able to get the power, to remove the monarchy, inaugurate a democracy, and expel the Pythagoreans.

Bardyllis succeeded in bringing various tribes into a single organisation and soon became a formidable power in the Balkans, resulting in a change of relations with Macedonia.

Using new war tactics in 393 BC the Illyrians won a decisive battle against Amyntas III, expelling him and ruling Macedonia through a puppet king.

In 358 BC Phillip of Macedon defeated Bardyllis, Diodorus Siculus[39] (1st century BC) writes this of the event; And at first for a long while the battle was evenly poised because of the exceeding gallantry displayed on both sides, and as many were slain and still more wounded, the fortune of battle vacillated first one way then the other, being constantly swayed by the valorous deeds of the combatants; but later as the horsemen pressed on from the flank and rear and Philip with the flower of his troops fought with true heroism, the mass of the Illyrians was compelled to take hastily to flight.

From the 4th century BC, Celtic groups pushed into the Carpathian region and the Danube basin, coinciding with their movement into Italy.

After continuing south and raiding the Delphi the Gallic army decided to return up north to their homeland but were all wiped out by the Dardanians, through which they had to pass.

[citation needed] Leading this fleet of 90 ships, Demetrius sailed south of Lissus, violating his earlier treaty and starting the war.

At risk was the strategic province of Illyricum, recently expanded to include the territory of the Pannonii, an indigenous communities inhabiting the region between the rivers Drava and Sava, who were subjugated by Rome in 12–9 BC.

[64] In addition, they were assisted by a large number of Thracian troops deployed by their King Rhoemetalces I, a Roman amicus ("ally") a grand total of some 100,000 men.

It took them three years of hard fighting to quell the revolt, which was described by the Roman historian Suetonius as the most difficult conflict faced by Rome since the Punic Wars two centuries earlier.

Unhappy with their payment of swampy and mountainous Pannonian lands for such harsh military service, and with abuses relating to their pay and conditions, Roman soldiers staged a mutiny in AD 14 demanding recompense.

Diodorus Siculus (1st century BC) writes of the Illyrian military formation in this battle that was an attempt for a coordinated stance by forming a square.

Their ships, which were relatively small were not capable of direct naval battle with the heavier war-ships of the Greeks and Romans and most of the time were defeated.

claim that the helmet has its origins in Illyria and that it was used up to the 2nd century BC, proven by depictions on Illyrian city coins of the time.

Perdiccas II of Macedon had hired Illyrian mercenaries in the 5th century BC but they betrayed him, allying with his enemy, Arrhabaeus of Lyncus.

In another incident, Lysimachus killed all of his 5,000 Illyrian mercenaries (of the Autariatae tribe) to the last man, because he was convinced that they would join the enemy.

Illyrians were not considered as reliable mercenaries, in the ancient world[79] but were at the same time acknowledged as a skilled fighting force The nobility had access to breastplates and greaves whilst the bulk of the army did not.

Remains of a 10 meters long ship from the 1st century BC, were found in Zaton near Nin (Aenona in Classical Liburnia), a ship keel with bottom planking made of 6 rows of the wooden boards on each side, specifically joined together, sewn with resin cords and wooden wedges, testifying the Liburnian shipbuilding tradition style, therefore named "Serilia Liburnica".

Their rugged broken coast with its screen of islands formed a perfect base from which their light and speedy little to attack unwary ships.

[90] The lembos (from Greek: λέμβος, "boat",[91] romanized as lembus), was an ancient Illyrian warship, with a single bank of oars and no sails.

Liburna ships played a key role in naval battle of Actium in Greece, which lasted from August 31 to September 2 of 31 BC.

They were constituted by one or more concentric series of walls, of rounded or elliptical shape in Istria and Venezia Giulia, or quadrangular in Friuli, within which was the inhabited area.

[112] This includes finds at Glasinac[112] (Bosnia and Herzegovina), Lake Ohrid[112] in North Macedonia, Lower Carniola in Slovenia[80] and various sites in Albania.

This ancient Greek symbol was prominent in Thessaly and Macedon,[120] appearing in the 10th century BC and had spread throughout southern Greece.

A typical adoption of the symbol in the Hellenistic period from Illyrians is seen on an iron round pelte with similar decorations and a diameter of 35 cm.