This is a list of ancient tribes in the ancient territory of Illyria (Ancient Greek: Ἰλλυρία). The name Illyrians seems to be the name of one Illyrian tribe, which was the first to come in contact with the ancient Greeks, causing the name Illyrians to be applied to all people of similar language and customs. The locations of Illyrian tribes/peoples prior to Roman conquest are approximate as sometimes many wholly different locations are given by ancient writers and modern authors (as in the case of the Encheleans).
After the Great Illyrian Revolt the Romans deported, split, and resettled Illyrian tribes within Illyria itself and to Dacia, causing sometimes whole tribes to vanish and new ones to be formed from their remains, such as the Deraemestae and the Docleatae some of them mixed with Celtic ones (see Celticization). Many tribal names are known from Roman civitates and the number of their decuriae, formed of the dispersed tribes in Illyria.
Famous quotes containing the word tribes:
“A stranger came one night to Yussouf’s tent,
Saying, “Behold one outcast and in dread,
Against whose life the bow of power is bent,
Who flies, and hath not where to lay his head;
I come to thee for shelter and for food,
To Yussouf, called through all our tribes ‘he Good.’ “
“This tent is mine,” said Yussouf, “but no more
Than it is God’s; come in, and be at peace;”
—James Russell Lowell (1819–1891)