When the Celts entered the western Balkans during the third century BC, it profoundly changed the culture of the people who lived in those areas. The Celts introduced the pottery wheel into the western Balkans, as well as new weapons and tools. They also introduced their La Tène culture to Illyria, which gave the Illyrians new art and new styles.59
As I’ve stated before, there is no such thing as ‘Illyrian culture’; that is to say that there was no single unifying dominant culture that existed throughout this whole area. Different regions of Illyria could have radically different practices and customs. I have stated previously that in Roman times there were two main Illyrian culture groups: the Dalmatians and the Pannonians. Within these two main spheres, there were several smaller localized culture areas. Archaeologists and anthropologists have determined that there are several regions within Illyria that show signs of having been culturally distinct. In the south in what is now Bulgaria and southern Albania, there was the ‘Trebenište Culture’, which lasted from the twelfth to the mid-fourth centuries BC, with its high point during the sixth century BC. Based upon the dates of its existence, we can attribute the collapse of the Trebenište Culture with the rise of Alexander the Great and his conquest of the Illyrians that bordered his realm. This society was long extinct by the time that the Great Illyrian Revolt took place during the reign of Caesar Augustus. The people who lived here were heavily Hellenized, especially from the sixth or fifth century BC onwards.60 In northern Albania and stretching to the Morava and Drina Rivers deep into Serbia and eastern Bosnia, there was the ‘Glasinac Culture’. Of all the Illyrian or proto-Illyrian cultures that existed, this one appears to have lasted the longest, while other people changed their cultural practices depending on circumstances.61 The Alpine areas of western Illyria tend to have more cultural zones, smaller in area and tightly packed together. In mountainous landscapes where travel and cultural interaction is difficult, societies which may only be a few miles apart can be radically different from one another. At least three cultural regions have been identified: the Sveta Lucija, Notranjska and Dolenjska Cultures. Many of these are similar to the Etruscans and other northern Italic groups.62 To the north in what the Romans would have considered southern Pannonia was the ‘Dalj Culture’. It is named after Dalj, located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube Rivers, where a large ancient cemetery was discovered. It appears to have been a further development of the ‘ash urn culture’ that was located here during the Bronze Age.63
The Illyrian Tribes
The Illyrians may seem sophisticated to us, but to the ancient Greeks and Romans they were nothing more than barbarians. The word comes from the ancient Greek word barbaros, which means ‘foreigner’ or ‘outsider’. As such, ‘barbarian’ is merely a generalized term for anyone who wasn’t Greek, regardless of how advanced or primitive they were. This is different from the word xenos, meaning ‘stranger’ or ‘unknown person’, from which we get our word xenophobia. Reputation has it that the word ‘barbarian’ comes from the Greeks’ perception of the various languages that foreign peoples spoke; it sounded like ‘ba-ba-ba’.
The Romans had a more exact definition of what the word ‘barbarian’ meant, and this is the definition that has permeated the English language to this day. To the Romans, ‘barbarians’ were people that were primitive, dirty, hairy, animal-like, bloodthirsty, uncultured and uncivilized. They only lived in small villages. They could neither read nor write. They had no laws or morals. They had no logic or reason and acted without restraint. They had no high culture or art, music or philosophy. They were either naked, semi-naked or clothed themselves in animal skins. They were inferior in every way to the advanced Mediterranean civilizations of Egypt, Greece, and Rome, fit only to be conquered.
By these Roman perceptions, the Illyrians were not barbarians. The historical records from both Greece and Rome state that the Illyrians lived in cities; not villages or towns but full-fledged cities, usually built atop mountains and heavily fortified with stone walls and towers, turning their cities into nearly impregnable fortresses. They had fleets of modern warships that were the equals and possible superiors to any ships used at that time by the Greeks or Romans. Their warriors, although not professional full-time soldiers like the Roman legionnaires, were nevertheless disciplined and professionally-equipped with metal body armour, shields and weapons, and they fought in tactical cohesive formations rather than simply charging in one massive horde. Illyrian armies frequently gave the Greeks and Macedonians a run for their money, and many times the professional hoplite phalanxes were butchered by these warriors. They also traded goods throughout large portions of the Mediterranean and became wealthy. The Illyrians were no push-overs: they were a serious power in the region, an entity to be reckoned with.
However, as impressive as they were, there was a great flaw in their culture, a flaw unfortunately common to many ‘barbarians’ like the Celts, Germans and others: the Illyrians never united to become a single nation. The Greeks, Macedonians and Romans must have been very grateful for that. The individual Illyrian tribes – and the ancient sources collectively name almost sixty of them – were powerful enough as they were. Had they joined together to form a single country ruled by a single king, then they might have become one of the great civilizations of ancient times, and the histories of Greece, Macedon, and Rome might have been drastically altered. The kingdom of Macedon might have been destroyed long before Alexander the Great was born, Greece might have been reduced to a second-rate power, possibly even becoming vassals to the Illyrians and forced to pay regular tributes, and Rome might never have expanded into central and eastern Europe. One is led to wonder about what possible cultural contributions such a nation could have made to the western world. It is more than probable that if a single Illyrian kingdom existed, modern-day historians and scholars might speak of their grand artwork, architecture and writings. We might speak of great kings, courageous generals, wise philosophers and gifted artists and poets. Yet it was not to be. One can only imagine ‘What if?’
Although the Illyrians were not united into a single nation, it appeared that they were coming close to doing so. The Romans recognized fairly early on that the Illyrians were divided into two main culture groups; northern Illyrians were culturally different from southern Illyrians. Outsiders like the Romans gave these culture groups names, usually based upon the dominant tribe within that group. Northern Illyrians were generically called ‘Pannonians’. The name actually referred to just one tribe, the most powerful one, but since the other tribes shared the same culture as the powerful Pannonian tribe, all of the tribes were called by that name, the Pannonian culture group. Southern Illyrians were referred to as Dalmatians because that was the name of the dominant tribe in that area.
Since we are unaware of any surviving Illyrian texts aside from a few fragmentary inscriptions, all that we know about the Illyrians comes from what the Greeks and Romans wrote about them. Since both the Greeks and Romans tended to look down upon anyone who was considered to be non-Greek or non-Roman, and since the Illyrians were often at war with the Greeks and Romans, one can surmise that the written accounts are not exactly unbiased, but there are a few notable exceptions. An unknown Greek writer who was ascribed the name ‘Scymnus’ or ‘Pseudo- Scymnus’ by modern scholars wrote about the Illyrians in a work entitled Periodos to Nicomedes written in the late second century BC. This work is known as a periegesis, meaning ‘being shown around’ in ancient Greek; essentially, it’s a geography and travel guide. He portrays the Illyrians as the stereotypical ‘noble savages’, rather comparable to Tacitus’ analysis of the ancient Germanic tribes in his landmark ethnographic work Germania. However, such Romanticized views are just as invalid as the prejudiced accounts written by other ancient historians.64
At Most Na Soci, the remains of 2,730 skeletons were found. Of these, 770 were those of children, indicating that between one-quarter and one-third of Illyrian children never made it to adulthood. In Romanera Il
lyricum, life expectancies varied from region to region. In the south, the average life expectancy for a man was 39 and for a woman it was 36, while in the northern territories, men had an average life expectancy of 43 and women 44.65
The first record of the various tribes that lived along the Adriatic coast of the Balkans comes from Hecataeus of Miletus, written sometime in the sixth century BC. Unfortunately, only fragments of his work survive. Among the tribes listed are the Kaulikoi, Liburnoi (Liburnians), Mentores, Sypioi, Hythmitai and the Iapygians who would establish settlements in southern Italy. However, Hecataeus merely mentions their names and goes little into cultural studies. Periplus, written by Pseudo- Scylax of Caryanda around 330 BC, mentions the names of various tribes including the Liburnoi, Hierastamnai, Boulinoi, Hylloi, Nestoi, Manioi, Autariatai, Enchelleis, Taulantioi and, most importantly, the Illyrioi. This shows that the name ‘Illyrian’ was originally the name of one particular tribe, but this name eventually became ascribed to the whole ethnic group. Periodos to Nicomedes, written by Pseudo-Scymnus around 110 BC, lists the Ismenoi, Mentores, Pelagoni, Liburnoi, Boulinoi and Illyrioi.66 This last piece of information shows that even in the late second century BC, when the name ‘Illyria’ was already commonly used by both Greeks and Romans to refer to an entire geographic region, the name ‘Illyrian’ was still being used to refer to just one specific tribe that existed within that region.
If you were to look at an ethnic map of Illyria in the third century BC, you’d soon see that it was not populated exclusively by Illyrians. There were Venetics in the west, Illyrians throughout, Celtic tribes scattered in isolated pockets here and there, and Thracians pushing in from the east. Even back then, the western Balkans possessed a mixed multi-ethnic population.
In Italy’s north-east were the Venetic-speaking peoples, coastal orientated tribes whose life depended upon the sea. The most prominent of these were the Veneti, who occupied the northern tip of the Adriatic Sea and who would become the founders of the city of Venice. However, there were more of these ‘Venetic people’, such as the Catali and Secusses. Slightly further to the east were the Istrians or Histrians, located in eastern Italy, Slovenia and western Croatia. They gave their name to Croatia’s Istrian Peninsula, where many of them lived.67 Strabo states that the Istrians were the first people to inhabit the Balkan coast, that they were of Italian ethnicity and it is due to their heritage that Rome’s rulers had redrawn the boundaries of the imperial province of Italia to include the Istrian Peninsula.68
The Istrians’ immediate eastern neighbours living along the coast of the Balkan Adriatic were the Liburnians. Their lands stretched from the Istrian Peninsula eastwards to the Krka River, called the Titus River in Roman times. The Liburnians’ ethnic identity is questionable. Some historians and anthropologists classify them as Illyrian, but others consider them to be Venetic. Even the ancients were unsure of how to classify them.69 Regardless of their exact ethnicity, the Liburnians were the naval power in the Adriatic. They commanded vast fleets of ships of all sorts, including warships. Their claim to fame was one specific kind of ship, a small light craft named after them called the ‘liburnus’ or ‘liburna’, which the Romans enthusiastically copied for their own navy. Many Greeks and Romans equated the Illyrians in general with pirates, but the Liburnians in particular seem to have been associated with this label. Their maritime superiority over the Adriatic led to them exerting intense control over travel and trade, and this made them very rich. Pseudo-Scylax comments that they were a strong powerful people who possessed many cities along the coast. Liburnian domination of the Adriatic eventually led to them spreading beyond their traditional tribal borders, including taking possession of the entire island of Corfu (in ancient times, both this island and its main city were called Corcyra), and even setting up small outposts within Italian territory.70 Although the Liburnians are commonly associated with the sea and probably got a great deal of their food from fishing, the ancient writers tell us that they were also pastoralists raising flocks of sheep.71 Both Greek and Roman writers recorded the sensational aspects of Liburnian culture with the goal to shock their audiences with their supposed cruelty and immorality. Pseudo-Scylax states that the Liburnians were ruled over by powerful sexually promiscuous queens who used their power to take any man that they fancied into their beds, even slaves – a far cry from the ideal image of the dutiful stay-at-home Roman matron.72 The Roman historian Marcus Terrentius Varro states that both women and children were held in common, and that once a boy reached 8 years old, he would be allotted to a man who bore the closest physical resemblance to him, who would then act as the boy’s father.73
North of the Istrians and Liburnians were the Japodes, the first people that we can definitely identify as Illyrian. They were either a single large tribe or a collection of small culturally-similar tribes. The Japodes inhabited the eastern Alps in areas that now cover Slovenia, western Croatia, north-eastern Italy and possibly southern Austria. Strabo states that the Japodes were a perfect fusion between Celtic and Illyrian cultures; as examples of this, he comments that they wore Celtic-style armour and covered their bodies with tattoos ‘like the rest of the Illyrians and the Thracians’.74 Their main settlement was Metulum (modern-day Josipodol, Croatia), 75 and Strabo lists other Japode settlements such as Arupini (Auersberg), Monetium (Mottnig) and Vendo (Crkvinje Kampolje). In the mountain valleys, they grew spelt and millet, but making a living was hard. In many places where abundance cannot be obtained, people are reduced to raiding to get what they need, and the Japodes appear to have fallen into this category. Strabo calls the Japodes ‘a war-mad people’76 and Appianus describes them as ‘a strong and savage tribe’.77 Their domain lay upon or near important trade routes. Strabo states that on the perimeter of Japode territory was the town of Segestica (which was originally a settlement of the Illyrian Segestani tribe), and that both waggons on main roads and cargo ships travelling on the rivers leading to this town brought in goods from all locations.78 These economic hubs became targets for Japode attacks. Appianus states that they had defeated the Romans twice within the span of twenty years, and had even taken and sacked the Roman towns of Aquileia and Tergestus.79 The Roman military historian Sextus Frontinus describes how on one occasion a group of Japode warriors joined forces with the Romans, only to use the opportunity to massacre a large number of legionnaires:
Under pretence of surrender, the Iapydes [the Japodes] handed over some of their to [sic] best men to Publius Licinius, the Roman proconsul. These were received and placed in the last line, whereupon they cut to pieces the Romans who were bringing up the rear.80
Directly east of the Japodes in what is now western Hungary, northern Croatia and northern Serbia were a large number of tribes that the Romans referred to collectively as ‘Pannonians’. Cassius Dio comments that the name ‘Pannonia’ comes from the clothing that they wore: sleeved tunics made by sewing together strips of cloth called panni which were cut from old clothes.81 It isn’t too much of a stretch of the imagination to envision the Pannonians wearing striped clothes of various colours, similar to the ‘coat of many colours’ worn by Joseph in the Bible. Strabo lists the Pannonian tribes as being the Andizetes, Breuci, Daesitiatae, 82 Ditiones, Mazaei, Peirustae ‘and also other small tribes of less significance’ which he does not name.83
Appianus describes the Pannonian Illyrians (referred to incorrectly as Paeones, who actually lived just east of Macedonia) as a vast nation living south of the Danube River, with their lands stretching from the Japodes in the west to the Dardani in the east. Their country was thickly forested, and the Pannonians themselves did not live in towns or cities but in isolated villages scattered throughout the land. They were divided up into many tribes totalling 100,000 warriors, but they had no single ruler. The Pannonians occupied high mountainous terrain, difficult to access, with only narrow paths that were hard to climb, and had managed to preserve their independence purely due to the remoteness and ruggedness of their homeland, and anyone
who wanted to pass through had to pay a toll.84 The Roman author Publius Florus, writing during the reign of Emperor Tiberius, said ‘The Pannonians are protected by two swiftly-flowing rivers, the Drave and the Save; after ravaging the territory of their neighbours, they used to withdraw behind the banks of these streams.’85
Appianus’ claims are corroborated to a slight extent by the Greco- Roman writer Cassius Dio, who describes the Pannonians as being very poor and unfortunate people ‘and lead the most miserable existence of all mankind’.86 In his words, the climate of their territory was dreary, their soil was unproductive for growing crops, they had no olives (something which was absolutely unheard-of for a Greek!), and they had hardly any grape vineyards and the little wine that they did produce was wretched. Their winters were harsh and brutal, and cold weather occupied a majority of the year, so their growing season was short. Their diet consisted mostly of barley and millet, which they ate as bread and drank as beer. However, as is the case with many societies in world history, a hard life breeds hard people, and Cassius Dio lauded the Pannonians as being the bravest men that the Romans had faced up to that point, bloodthirsty and full of high spirits. Cassius Dio knew all about the Pannonians because he had once been the Roman governor posted there. In fact, just to assuage any criticisms that could have appeared concerning his description of Pannonia and its people, Cassius Dio wrote ‘After my command in Africa and in Dalmatia (the latter position my father also held for a time) I was appointed to what is known as Upper Pannonia, and hence it is with exact knowledge of all conditions among them that I write.’87
One thing that Appianus definitely got wrong was his claim that the Pannonians didn’t live in towns or cities, because they assuredly did. The most prominent of their settlements was called Segestica, the centre of power for the Segestani tribe, which was a member of the Pannonian culture.88 Sometime after the Great Illyrian Revolt, possibly during the reign of Emperor Tiberius, the Romans changed the name of the city from Segestica to Siscia (the name ‘Siscia’ does not appear in the ancient sources until the reign of Tiberius), which serves as the basis for the town’s modern name, Sissek.89 Archaeology has shown that Segestica was surrounded by a wooden wall before and during the Great Illyrian Revolt of 6–9 AD. Either during the rebellion or just after it, the wooden walls were destroyed by fire. Replacing them would be a brick wall with a stone base.90 Were the wooden walls destroyed in an act of war, or were they deliberately set fire to as a way to clear the space for the construction of the brick walls that would replace them? Segestica was ideally suited for trade and military operations, as described by Strabo:
The Great Illyrian Revolt Page 5