Kingdom of Dardania Regnum Dardaniae | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4th century BC–28 BC | |||||||
.png) Approximate extent of the Kingdom of the Dardanians, late 3rd century BC, prior to their conquest ofPaeonia. | |||||||
| Religion | Dardanian Polytheism | ||||||
| Demonyms | Dardanian, Dardani | ||||||
| Government | Monarchy | ||||||
| King | |||||||
• c. 231 – c. 206 BC | Longarus | ||||||
• c. 206 BC – c. 176 BC | Bato | ||||||
• c. 176 – c. 167 BC | Monunius | ||||||
| Historical era | Classical antiquity | ||||||
• Founded | 4th century BC | ||||||
• Roman conquest | 28 BC | ||||||
| |||||||
| Today part of | Kosovo Albania North Macedonia Serbia Montenegro | ||||||
TheKingdom of Dardania (Latin:Regnum Dardaniae) was a polity in the centralBalkans in the region of Dardania duringclassical antiquity. It is named after theDardani, a Paleo-Balkan tribe that formed the core of the Dardanian polity. Dardania was centered around present-dayKosovo, but also included parts ofNorth Macedonia (northwestern area) andAlbania (Kukës,Tropoja,Has).[1] The eastern parts of Dardania were at theThraco-Illyrian contact zone.Marcus Licinius Crassus, grandson of the triumvirMarcus Crassus, officially annexed the kingdom in 28 BC while on campaign against theDacians andBastarnae.[2] The region was subsequently incorporated into the province ofMoesia in 15 BC, and later in 293 AD, as theprovince of Dardania.
Tribal aristocracy and pre-urban development first emerged in Dardania from the 6th–5th centuries BC. This proto-urban development was followed by the creation of urban centers and the emergence of craftsmanship, and a Dardanianpolity began to develop from the fourth century.[3] Moreover, Dardani contact with theMediterranean world began early and intensified during the Iron Age. Trade connections with theAncient Greek world developed from the seventh century onwards. Material culture and accounts in classical sources suggest that Dardanian society reached an advanced phase of development.[4][5]
The first written references to the Dardani are as opponents of Macedon in the fourth century, clashing withPhilip II who managed to subdue them and their neighbors in 345. However, Philip took no new territory and ended Macedon's borders near the Danube watershed inPaeonia.[6] The Dardani then remained quiet until Philip's assassination in 336, after which they began planning to revolt alongside theIllyrians and theThracians. The first century historianPompey Trogue reports that thesebarbarous nations...were of wavering faith and perfidious dispositions and that onlyAlexander III's smooth succession averted disaster.[7] Indeed, the Dardani are not mentioned in any ancient accounts of Alexander's Balkan campaign in 335.[8] They remain absent from our sources until 284 whenLysimachus seized Paeonia, which had revolted earlier in 322, forcing her prince Ariston to flee to Dardania.[9] It appears that the Dardani escaped the Macedonian yoke entirely during theWars of the Diadochi as they again began to freely raid Upper Greece under the reign of Lysimachus. Thereafter the Dardani became a constant threat to Macedonia's northern borders.[10]
In 279, during aCeltic incursion of the Balkans,Dardania itself began to be raided by several tribes on their way to plunder Greece.[10] In that same year an unnamed Dardanian king offered 20,000 warriors to the Macedonian kingPtolemy Ceraunus to stop the invading Celts. Ptolemy found this offer insulting and rudely refused the embassy by saying that
the Macedonians were in a sad condition if, after having subdued the whole east without assistance, they now required aid from the Dardanians to defend their country; and that he had for soldiers the sons of those who had served under Alexander the Great, and had been victorious throughout the world.[11]
Underestimating the Celtic strength, Ptolemy was later captured in battle and subsequently decapitated by their Gallic leaderBolgios.[12][13] The tribes then pushed on towards Southern Greece, but were permanently turned back atDelphi by the Greeks. The remainder withdrew north through Dardania where they were, according toDiodorous, subsequently destroyed by the Dardani.[14] They then disappear from the written historical record until the 230s BC when a constant series of wars, raids, and counter-raids began against the Macedonians.[15]
Following the Celtic invasion, and the consequent diminishment in power of the Macedonians, the influence of Dardania began to grow in the region. In 230, the Dardani underLongarus captured the strategic city ofBylazora in Paeonia.[16] At some point in 230–229 in an unknown location in north-west Macedonia, they defeated the Antigonid kingDemetrius II who died shortly the next spring.[17] The Dardanian expansion into Macedonia, similar to theArdiaean expansion into Epirus in the same period, may have been part of a broader movement among the Illyrian peoples.[18]
Groups of Illyrians began to desert the Ardiaen queenTeuta at around the same time and join the Dardani, forcing her to end an expedition intoPhoenice.[19] WhenPhilip V rose to the Macedonian throne, skirmishing with Dardania began in 220-219 and he managed to recapture Bylazora from them in 217. Skirmishes continued in 211 and in 209 when a force of Dardani under Aeropus, probably a pretender to the Macedonian throne, capturedLychnidus and looted Macedonia taking 20.000 prisoners and retreating before Philip's forces could reach them.[20]
In 201,Bato of Dardania (along withPleuratus III the Illyrian andAmynander of Athamania cooperated withRoman consulSulpicius Galba Maximus in his expedition against Philip V. Always being under the menace of Dardanian attacks on Macedonia,Philip V made an alliance with theBastarnae at around 183 and invited them to settle inPolog, the region of Dardania closest to Macedonia. A joint campaign of the Bastarnae and Macedonians against the Dardanians was organized, but Philip V died and his sonPerseus of Macedon withdrew his forces from the campaign. The Bastarnae crossed the Danube in huge numbers and although they didn't meet the Macedonians, they continued the campaign. Some 30,000 Bastarnae under the command of Clondicus seem to have defeated the Dardani. In 179, theBastarnae conquered the Dardani, who later in 174 pushed them out, in a war which proved catastrophic, with a few years later, in 170, the Macedonians defeating the Dardani. Macedonia and Illyria became protectorates of theRoman Republic in 168. The Dardanian Kingdom retained its sovereignty until 28 BC, when theRoman Empire underAugustus conquered the region.[21][22]
The Romans createdthe province ofMoesia from parts of Dardania, but later made ita separate province called Dardania.
The eastern parts of the region were at theThraco-Illyrian contact zone. In archaeological research, Illyrian names are predominant in western Dardania (present-day Kosovo), while Thracian names are mostly found in eastern Dardania (present-day south-eastern Serbia). Thracian names are absent in western Dardania; some Illyrian names appear in the eastern parts.[31][32] The correspondence of Illyrian names, including those of the ruling elite, in Dardania with those of the southern Illyrians suggests a "thracianization" of parts of Dardania.[33][34]Strabo in hisgeographica mentions them as one of the three strongestIllyrian peoples, the other two being theArdiaei andAutariatae.[35]
According to a historical reconstruction the first attested Dardanian king wasBardylis, who during the expansion of his dominion included the region ofDassaretis in his realm, but this is considered an old fallacy because it is unsupported by any ancient source, while some facts and ancient geographical locations go squarely against it. Most scholars hold that the Illyrian kingdom that was established by Bardylis was centered alongLake Ohrid and east to thePrespa Lakes, which was calledDassaretis later inRoman times, located on the border betweenMacedon andEpirus.
the Dardanians ... living in the frontiers of the Illyrian and theThracian worlds retained their individuality and, alone among the peoples of that region, succeeded in maintaining themselves as an ethnic unity even when they were militarily and politically subjected by the Roman arms [...] and when, towards the end of the ancient world, the Balkans were involved in far-reaching ethnic perturbations, the Dardanians, of all the Central Balkan tribes, played the greatest part in the genesis of the new peoples.
According to ancient sources, the Dardani, variously grouped but probably Illyrians, lived west of present-day Belgrade in present-day Serbia and Montenegro in the third century B.C.E, their homeland in the ancient region of Thrace (and possibly there since the eight century B.C.E).
Whether the Dardanians were an Illyrian or a Thracian people has been much debated and one view suggests that the area was originally populated with Thracians who then exposed to direct contact with Illyrians over a long period. [..] The meaning of this state of affairs has been variously interpreted, ranging from notions of Thracianization' (in part) of an existing Illyrian population to the precise opposite. In favour of the latter may be the close correspondence of Illyrian names in Dardania with those of the southern 'real' lllyrians to their west, including the names of Dardanian rulers, Longarus, Bato, Monunius and Etuta, and those on later epitaphs, Epicadus, Scerviaedus, Tuta, Times and Cinna.
... including the names of Dardanian rulers, Longarus, Bato, Monunius and Etuta, and those on later epitaphs, Epicadus, Scerviaedus, Tuta, Times and Cinna. Other Dardanian names are linked with...
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