Dardani

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Dardania in the Roman empire as part of the province of Moesia Superior.
Dardania in the Roman empire as part of the province of Moesia Superior.

The Dardani (Ancient Greek:"Δαρδάνιοι") were a Thraco-Illyrian tribe.[1]

In the 1st century BC, they invaded the Roman province of Macedonia together with the Scordisci and the Maedi. In AD 6, they were conquered by Rome and became part of the province of Moesia Superior.

According to Strabo, they were divided into two sub-groups, the Galabri and the Thunaki. [2]

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[edit] Name and etymology

Living on the border between Thracian and Illyrian influence, the Dardani appear to have been a prototypically "balkanized" Thraco-Illyrian tribe.[3]

Beginning with Johann Georg von Hahn in 1854, 19th century historical linguistics speculated that Dardanoi and Dardania may be related to a proto-Albanian word meaning pear tree (dardhë in modern Albanian). Opinions differ whether the ultimate etymon of this word in Proto-Indo-European was *g'hord- (which would make it related also to Greek achrás 'wild pear'), or *dheregh-.[4].

The distribution of ancient names found inscribed in Dardania are one of the main evidences that support the idea that the Dardani were Illyrians commingled with Thracians. Thracian names are found mostly in eastern Dardania, from Scupi to Naissus and Remesiana, although some Illyrian names occur. Illyrian names are dominant in the western areas, where Thracian names are not found[5].

[edit] Greek mythology

In Greek mythology "Δάρδανος" (Dardanus), one of the sons of Illyrius (the others being Enchelus, Autarieus, Maedus, Taulas, and Perrhaebus) was the eponymous ancestor of the "Δάρδανοι" (Dardanoi) .[6]

Some Roman writers proposed a connection between these Dardani of the Balkans and the Dardans (Trojans) of the Troad, the popular version of the story being that a group of Dardan colonists had settled in the Balkans and had degenerated in their new Balkan home to a state of barbarism[7], becoming the Dardani.[8].

[edit] History

Accuracy dispute
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The Dardani were an Thraco-Illyrian tribe. They seem to have often been a threat to the Greeks in the kingdom of Macedon. Dardania's largest towns were those of Ulpiana (Pristina), Naissus (Niš), Therranda (Prizren), Vicianum (Vučitrn), Skopi [9] (Stoc, Skopje), and its capital was Damastioni.

List of the rulers of Dardania:

Dardania was conquered into the Roman Empire in 6 AD by Gaius Scribonius Curio, and became part of the province of Moesia Superior[11][12] in 87 AD. Emperor Diocletian later c. 284 made Dardania into a separate[13] province with its capital at Naissus (Niš).

[edit] References

  1. ^ The Thracians by Ralph F. Hoddinott,1981,ISBN 050002099X,Chapter "The Odrysian state",section "The Roman intervention",page 223,"An invasion of the Thraco-Illyrian Dardanians"
  2. ^ Strabo: Books 1‑7, 15‑17 in English translation, ed. H. L. Jones (1924), at LacusCurtius
  3. ^ "Not one of the peoples with whom we have to deal in this book has such a claim to the epithet "Balkan" as the Dardanians... because they appear as the most stable and the most conservative ethnic element in the area where everything was exposed to constant change, and also because they, with their roots in the distant prehomeric age, and living in the frontiers of the Illyrian and the Thracian 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 at 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 who took the place of the old" Papazoglu, Central Balkan Tribes, p.131
  4. ^ Elsie, Robert (1998): "Dendronymica Albanica: A survey of Albanian tree and shrub names". Zeitschrift für Balkanologie 34: 163-200 online paper
  5. ^ Durham, M. Edith, Dardania and Some Balkan Place-Names, Man, Vol. 23 (Mar., 1923), pp. 39-42
  6. ^ Appian, The Foreign Wars, III, 1.2
  7. ^ The Illyrians by J. J. Wilkes, 1992, ISBN 0631198075,page 220,"... Leaving aside Strabo's comment on the dirty habits of the Dardanians, there is little on which to judge the general health of the Illyrian population. ..."
  8. ^ Macurdy, Grace Harriet, The Wanderings of Dardanus and the Dardani, Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association, Vol. 46 (1915), pp. 119-128
  9. ^ The Illyrians by J. J. Wilkes, 1992, ISBN 0631198075,Page 49,"... historic Lychnitis around Ohrid and in Dardania around Skopje in the upper Vardar basin. Among the many tumuli surviving in Pelagonia only Visoi has so far been ..."
  10. ^ The Illyrians by J. J. Wilkes,1992,ISBN 0631198075,Page 86,"... 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 ..."
  11. ^ The Illyrians by J. J. Wilkes, 1992, ISBN 0631198075,,page 210,"... Here the old name of Dardania appears as a new province formed out of Moesia, along with Moesia Prima, Dacia (not Trajan's old province but a ..."
  12. ^ The Illyrians by J. J. Wilkes,1992,ISBN 0631198075,page 210, "... 210 Roman Illyrians Skopje. Though its line is far from certain there seems little doubt that most of the Dardanians were excluded from Illyricum and were to become a part of the province of Moesia organized in the reign of ...
  13. ^ The Illyrians by J. J. Wilkes, 1992, ISBN 0631198075,,page 210,"... Here the old name of Dardania appears as a new province formed out of Moesia, along with Moesia Prima, Dacia (not Trajan's old province but a ..."
  • Grace Harriet Macurdy. The Wanderings of Dardanus and the Dardani, Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association, Vol. 46 (1915), pp. 119-128
  • András Mócsy, Sheppard Frere, Pannonia and Upper Moesia: A History of the Middle Danube Provinces of the Roman Empire, Routledge (1974), ISBN 0710077149.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links