Scerdilaidas

Unlike most other Illyrian kings of which there is only sparse data, Scerdilaidas is mentioned in the writings of the historian Appian, Livy and Polybius, and in their chronicles of the Roman and Greek wars.

Scerdilaidas chose a good position and prepared the army for battle against the Leagues the next day which he believed he would win.

[5] While still in Epirus Scerdilaidas led a fleet of lembi on the Ionian Sea and swept through Corfu and Onchesmos and intercepted and plundered some merchant vessels of Rome.

Soon the regency was taken over by Demetrius of Pharos, who married Pinnes' mother, Triteuta, the divorced wife of Scerdilaidas' brother Agron.

[8][9] On putting in at Naupactus, Scerdilaidas was encouraged by his brother-in-law Amynas, king of the Athamanes, to join them in the planned invasion of Achaea.

While Scerdilaidas collaborated with the Aetolians, Demetrius was persuaded to assist the Macedonian cause against Aetolia on his return via the Isthmus of Corinth.

In 217 BC, Scerdilaidas ceased his support for Philip V, maintaining that a promised subsidy was unpaid and long overdue.

In response, Philip prepared a strong naval force of twelve decked ships, eight open vessels and thirty hemioliae, which headed south at full speed to deal with Scerdilaidas.

Before the winter Philip had occupied the area of Lyncestis, cutting off the direct route from Illyria, and extended his power to Dassaretia.

He led his fleet around the Peloponnese into the Adriatic, gambling that Rome, deeply involved in the Hannibal crisis, would not intervene.

Keeping clear of the coast, he took the inland towns of Atintania and Dimale, and subdued the[16] tribe of the Dassaretii and the Illyrian Parthini[17] and the southern part of the Ardiaean State.

[18] Scerdilaidas, with his son Pleuratus III, Longarus of the Dardanian State and Epirus, together with the Aetolian League allied with each other in prepratiuon for Rome's response.