Dardani

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}}{{#invoke:Check for unknown parameters|check|unknown=Template:Main other|preview=Page using Template:Infobox ethnic group with unknown parameter "_VALUE_"|ignoreblank=y | caption | flag |flag_alt | flag_border | flag_caption | flag_upright | footnotes | genealogy | group | image |image_alt | image_caption | image_upright | langs | languages | native_name | native_name_lang | pop | pop_embed | pop1 | pop10 | pop11 | pop12 | pop13 | pop14 | pop15 | pop16 | pop17 | pop18 | pop19 | pop2 | pop20 | pop21 | pop22 | pop23 | pop24 | pop25 | pop26 | pop27 | pop28 | pop29 | pop3 | pop30 | pop31 | pop32 | pop33 | pop34 | pop35 | pop36 | pop37 | pop38 | pop39 | pop4 | pop40 | pop41 | pop42 | pop43 | pop44 | pop45 | pop46 | pop47 | pop48 | pop49 | pop5 | pop50 | pop6 | pop7 | pop8 | pop9 | popplace | population | rawimage | ref1 | ref10 | ref11 | ref12 | ref13 | ref14 | ref15 | ref16 | ref17 | ref18 | ref19 | ref2 | ref20 | ref21 | ref22 | ref23 | ref24 | ref25 | ref26 | ref27 | ref28 | ref29 | ref3 | ref30 | ref31 | ref32 | ref33 | ref34 | ref35 | ref36 | ref37 | ref38 | ref39 | ref4 | ref40 | ref41 | ref42 | ref43 | ref44 | ref45 | ref46 | ref47 | ref48 | ref49 | ref5 | ref50 | ref6 | ref7 | ref8 | ref9 | region1 | region10 | region11 | region12 | region13 | region14 | region15 | region16 | region17 | region18 | region19 | region2 | region20 | region21 | region22 | region23 | region24 | region25 | region26 | region27 | region28 | region29 | region3 | region30 | region31 | region32 | region33 | region34 | region35 | region36 | region37 | region38 | region39 | region4 | region40 | region41 | region42 | region43 | region44 | region45 | region46 | region47 | region48 | region49 | region5 | region50 | region6 | region7 | region8 | region9 | regions | related | related_groups | related-c | religions | rels | tablehdr | total | total_ref | total_source | total_year | total1 | total1_ref | total1_source | total1_year | total2 | total2_ref | total2_source | total2_year | total3 | total3_ref | total3_source | total3_year }}Template:Main other The Dardani (Template:IPAc-en; Template:Langx; Template:Langx) or Dardanians were a Paleo-Balkan people, who lived in a region that was named Dardania after their settlement there.<ref>"Δαρδάνιοι, Δάρδανοι, Δαρδανίωνες" Dardanioi, Georg Autenrieth, "A Homeric Dictionary", at Perseus</ref><ref>Latin Dictionary</ref> They were among the oldest Balkan peoples, and their society was very complex.Template:Sfn The Dardani were the most stable and conservative ethnic element among the peoples of the central Balkans, retaining an enduring presence in the region for several centuries.Template:Sfn<ref name="Papazoglu131"/>

Ancient tradition considered the Dardani as an Illyrian people.<ref>Strabo's geography - Illyria - 'The Bessi live in huts and lead a wretched life; and their country borders on Mount Rhodope, on the country of the Paeonians, and on that of two Illyrian peoples — the Autariatae, and the Dardanians'</ref><ref>Strabo: The Geography - Illyria - 'The Ardiaei were called by the men of later times "Vardiaei." Because they pestered the sea through their piratical bands, the Romans pushed them back from it into the interior and forced them to till the soil. But the country is rough and poor and not suited to a farming population, and therefore the tribe has been utterly ruined and in fact has almost been obliterated. And this is what befell the rest of the peoples in that part of the world; for those who were most powerful in earlier times were utterly humbled or were obliterated, as, for example, among the Galatae the Boii and the Scordistae, and among the Illyrians the Autariatae, Ardiaei, and Dardanii, and among the Thracians the Triballi; 316that is, they were reduced in warfare by one another at first and then later by the Macedonians and the Romans'</ref><ref name=Papazoglu218>Template:Harvnb</ref><ref name=Zahariade>Template:Harvnb</ref><ref name=Malcolm>Kosovo: A Short History p. 363 'As Papazoglu notes, most ancient sources classify Dardanians as Illyrians. Her reasons for rejecting this identification in a later essay, ‘Les Royaumes’, are obscure. There were Thracian names in the eastern strip of Dardania, but Illyrian names dominated the rest; Katicic has shown that these belong with two other Illyrian "‘onomastic provinces’ (see his summary in Ancient Languages, pp. 179-81, and the evidence in Papazoglu, ‘Dardanska onomastika’).'</ref><ref name=Wilkes>Template:Harvnb</ref><ref name="Vujcic2021">Template:Harvnb</ref> Strabo, in particular – also mentioning Galabri and Thunatae as Dardanian tribes – describes the Dardani as one of the three strongest Illyrian peoples, the other two being the Ardiaei and Autariatae.<ref name="perseus.tufts.edu">Strabo's geography - http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0239</ref>Template:Sfn As Dardanians had followed their own peculiar geographical, social and political development in Dardania, some ancient sources also distinguish them from those Illyrians dwelling in the central and southern coast of the eastern Adriatic Sea and its hinterland, who had constituted their own socio-political formation, referred to as 'Illyrian kingdom' by ancient authors.<ref name="Vujcic2021"/><ref name=Papazoglu218/>Template:Sfn The Dardani were also related to their Thracian neighbors.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Template:Sfn In Roman times, there appear Thracian names in the eastern strip of Dardania, and several Thracian and Dacian placenames also appear there, such as Dardapara and Quemedava,<ref>Vladimir Georgiev (Gheorghiev), Raporturile dintre limbile dacă, tracă şi frigiană, "Studii Clasice" Journal, II, 1960, 39-58.</ref> but Illyrian names dominated the rest.<ref>Kosovo: A Short History p. 363 'As Papazoglu notes, most ancient sources classify Dardanians as Illyrians. Her reasons for rejecting this identification in a later essay, ‘Les Royaumes’, are obscure. There were Thracian names in the eastern strip of Dardania, but Illyrian names dominated the rest; Katicic has shown that these belong with two other Illyrian "‘onomastic provinces’ (see his summary in Ancient Languages, pp. 179-81, and the evidence in Papazoglu, ‘Dardanska onomastika’).'</ref> Nevertheless, ancient authors have not identified Dardanians with Thracians, and Strabo explicitly makes a clear distinction between them.Template:Sfn<ref>Strabo: The Geography - Illyria - 'The Ardiaei were called by the men of later times "Vardiaei." Because they pestered the sea through their piratical bands, the Romans pushed them back from it into the interior and forced them to till the soil. But the country is rough and poor and not suited to a farming population, and therefore the tribe has been utterly ruined and in fact has almost been obliterated. And this is what befell the rest of the peoples in that part of the world; for those who were most powerful in earlier times were utterly humbled or were obliterated, as, for example, among the Galatae the Boii and the Scordistae, and among the Illyrians the Autariatae, Ardiaei, and Dardanii, and among the Thracians the Triballi; 316that is, they were reduced in warfare by one another at first and then later by the Macedonians and the Romans'</ref>

The Kingdom of Dardania was attested since the 4th century BC in ancient sources reporting the wars the Dardanians waged against their south-eastern neighbor – Macedon – until the 2nd century BC.Template:Sfn The historian Justin, a main source about the history of the Macedonian kings, refers to an 'lllyrian war' between 346 and the end of 343 BC, fought by 'Dardani and other neighbouring peoples' against Philip II of Macedon, who won the conflict.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn After the Celtic invasion of the Balkans weakened the state of the Macedonians and Paeonians, the political and military role of the Dardanians began to grow in the region. They expanded their state to the area of Paeonia which definitively disappeared from history, and to some territories of the southern Illyrians. The Dardanians strongly pressured the Macedonians, using every opportunity to attack them. However the Macedonians quickly recovered and consolidated their state, and the Dardanians lost their important political role. The strengthening of the Illyrian (Ardiaean–Labeatan) state on their western borders also contributed to the restriction of Dardanian warlike actions towards their neighbors.Template:Sfn

Dardanians fought against Roman proconsuls, and were finally defeated probably by Marcus Antonius in 39 BC or by Marcus Licinius Crassus in 29/8 BC.Template:Sfn They were included in the Roman province of Moesia. After the Roman emperor Domitian divided the province of Moesia into Moesia Superior and Moesia Inferior in 86 AD, the Dardani were located in southern Moesia Superior.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn A Roman colony was established at Scupi in Dardanian territory under the Flavian dynasty. In the 2nd century AD Dardanians were still notorious as brigands (latrones dardaniae). During the late Imperial period their territory was the homeland of many Roman emperors, notably Constantine the Great and Justinian I.Template:Sfn

NameEdit

The ethnonym of the Dardani has been attested in ancient Greek literature as Template:Transliteration, Template:Transliteration and Template:Transliteration, and in Latin as Dardani.Template:Sfn The term used for their territory was Template:Transliteration ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}}).<ref name="Papazoglu 1978 523">Template:Harvnb</ref> The root Dard- is attested outside the Dardanian region and the Trojan-Dardanian area in several other ancient ethnonyms, personal names, and toponyms: Dardas, an opraetor epiratrum; {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, name of Macedonian-Elimiot princes; {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} in Thessaly; {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} in Lesbos; in ancient Apulia Dardi, a Daunian tribe, Derdensis a region and {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, a Daunian settlement. The suffix -ano in Dard- was common to many Indo-European languages.Template:Sfn

The names of the two main Dardanian tribes – Galabri/Galabrioi and Thunatae/Thunatai – have been respectively connected to the Messapic Kalabroi/Calabri and Daunioi/Daunii in Apulia (south-eastern Italy), of Palaeo-Balkan provenance.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn

EtymologyEdit

The name Dardan- (ethnonym: {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}/Template:Transliteration; toponym: {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}/Template:Transliteration) is traditionally connected to the same root as {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, the Albanian word for 'pear',Template:Sfn Template:Sfn as well as Alb. {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, 'farmer'.Template:Sfn The ethnonym Pirustae, which is attested since Roman times for a tribe close to the Dardani or living in Dardania, is considered to be the Latin translation of Dardani (cf. Latin pirus "pear"),Template:Sfn which would confirm the link with the Albanian {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}.Template:Sfn

In 1854, Johann Georg von Hahn was the first to propose that the names Dardanoi and Dardania were related to the Albanian word {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} ("pear, pear-tree"). This is suggested by the fact that toponyms related to fruits or animals are not unknown in the region (cf. Alb. {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} "sheep" supposedly related to Dalmatia, Ulcinj in Montenegro < Alb. {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} "wolf" etc.).<ref name="Wilkes244">Template:Cite book "Names of individuals peoples may have been formed in a similar fashion, Taulantii from 'swallow' (cf. the Albanian tallandushe) or Erchelei the 'eel-men' and Chelidoni the 'snail-men'. The name of the Delmatae appears connected with the Albanian word for 'sheep' delmë) and the Dardanians with for 'pear' (dardhë)."</ref>Template:Sfn Albanian typical toponyms formed with the same root as dardhë have been attested: Dardhan-i (in 1467 CE), Dardhanesh-i (1431), Dardhasi (1431), Dardas (1467), Dardhë-a (1417), Darda, Dardhicë-a (1431).Template:Sfn Several modern toponyms are found in various parts of Albania, including Dardha in Berat, Dardha in Korça, Dardha in Librazhd, Dardha in Puka, Dardhas in Pogradec, Dardhaj in Mirdita, and Dardhës in Përmet. Dardha in Puka is recorded as Darda in a 1671 ecclesiastical report and on a 1688 map by a Venetian cartographer. Dardha is also the name of an Albanian tribe in the northern part of the District of Dibra.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn

Opinions differ on the etymon of the root in Proto-Albanian, and eventually in Proto-Indo-European. On the basis of an alleged connection between Albanian dardhë and Greek {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} "wild pear", a common Indo-European root has been tentatively reconstructed by scholars: {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} "thorn bush"; {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}; {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} "thorny, grain, barley". However it has been suggested that this connection is only conceivable assuming an ancient common Balkano-Aegean substrate word for Albanian and Greek.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Template:Sfn A proposed Indo-European root {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} "a thorny plant", with the Proto-Albanian form reconstructed as {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, is not clear.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn More recently for the Albanian dardhë the Proto-Albanian {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} has been reconstructed, itself a derivative of {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} "to tip out, pour, spill, secrete, cast (metals)" < PAlb {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}. In Old Albanian texts the root is recorded not umlautized: {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}. It continues Proto-Albanian {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, which is close to onomatopoeic Lithuanian {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} "to rattle" Latvian {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} "to creak", Welsh {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} "to mumble, to gumble" (the semantic development of "pear" that occurs in Albanian can also be seen in the Slavic parallel {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} "pear, pear tree" < {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} "to crumble, to break", and also in the Indo-European parallel {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} "pear" < {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}).Template:Sfn Slavic toponyms with "Kruševo" (from Proto-Slavic kruša, "pear") and other related toponyms particularly found in the area of the ancient Dardani have been proposed as South Slavic translations of Darda- toponyms.<ref>Baliu, Begzad (2012). Onomastika e Kosoves: Ndermjet miteve dhe identiteteve [Onomastics of Kosovo: Between Myth and Identity] (PDF). Era. p. 73. ISBN 978-9951040556.</ref>

Other roots have been connected to the name Dardan- by some scholars. It has been proposed a possible link to darda "bee", maybe originally with the meaning of "noise", "chatter", compared with Sanskrit dardurá- "frog", "pipe", Lithuanian dardėt́i "to rattle", "chatter" (which however is regarded by OrelTemplate:Sfn as an onomatopoeic form connected to Albanian derdh, hence to dardhë, see above), Gkreek δάρδα · μέλισσα "bee", sometimes interpreted as μόλυσμα "stain", δαρδαίνει · μολύνει "to stain", both late antique attestations from Hesychius (5th century CE) and with aberrant semantics.Template:Sfn Another link has been made with the PIE root *dhereĝh- "to hold", "strong", which would have evolved to dard- in consistency with the phonetic change of voiced palatal velars that are a characteristic trait of Albanian.Template:Sfn

The opinion criticising the etymologies based on roots that originally included *g̑h because in the earliest form of Albanian PIE *g̑h turned into *dʑ and correspondingly later into *dz, which should have been spelled in Greek/Latin documents with /z/, /s/, or a similar letter, instead of /d/, is refutable by the attestation of the Proto-Albanoid term diellina "henbane".Template:Sfn This term was mentioned as a "Thracian-Dacian" phytonym by the Ancient Greek pharmacologist Pedanius Dioscorides (1st century AD), and it has a clear etymological connection with the Albanian word diell "sun" (diellina "henbane" belongs to the genus called solanum with the Latin root sol "sun", being so named because of its yellow leaves), displaying a characteristic Albanian phonetic change in which the voiced palatal velar *ĝ(h)- turned into the interdental dh or the dental d, passing through intermediate stages represented by the palato-alveolar affricate voiced ȷ́ [dʑ], dental affricate dz and further through a final stage dð (i.e. *ĝ(h)- > ȷ́ [dʑ] > dz > dð > dh/d: Alb. dielli < PAlb. *dðiella < *dziella- < EPAlb. *ȷ́élu̯a- < PIE *ǵʰélh₃u̯o- "yellow, golden, bright/shiny").Template:Sfn This phenomenon reflects the uncertainty of the Ancient Greek and Roman authors in transcribing the Proto-Albanian affricates, which were unfamiliar to them. Indeed, many similar examples of Palaeo-Balkan names with alternating spellings in ancient literature using both dentals and sibilants can be connected to an earlier stage of Albanian and furthermore provide strong support for Eric Hamp's thesis about the Proto-Albanoid dialects, spoken in the central-western Balkans including the historical regions of Dardania, Illyria proper, Paeonia, Upper Moesia, western Dacia and western Thrace.Template:Sfn

The name in the ancient sourcesEdit

The name of the Dardani is mentioned for the first time in the Iliad in the name of Dardanus who founded Dardanus on the Aegean coast of Anatolia and his people the Dardanoi, from which the toponym Dardanelles is derived. Other parallel ethnic names in the Balkans and Anatolia, respectively include: Eneti and Enetoi, Bryges and Phryges. These parallels indicate closer links than simply a correlation of names. According to a current explanation, the connection is likely related to the large-scale movement of peoples that occurred at the end of the Bronze Age (around 1200 BC), when the attacks of the 'Sea Peoples' afflicted some of the established powers around the eastern Mediterranean.<ref>Template:Harvnb; Template:Harvnb; Template:Harvnb; Template:Harvnb.</ref>

In ancient historiography, the Dardani of the Balkans are mentioned as a people in the second century BCE by Polybius who describes their wars against Macedon in the third century BC.Template:Sfn Historians of Hellenistic and Roman antiquity who mention the Dardanians are Diodorus Siculus, Marcus Terentius Varro, Strabo, Sallust, Appian, Dionysius of Halicarnassus and others.Template:Sfn According to a mythological tradition reported by Appian (2nd century AD), Dardanos (Δάρδανος), one of the sons of Illyrius (Ἰλλυριός), was the eponymous ancestor of the Dardanoi (Δάρδανοι).Template:Sfn In ancient sources the Dardani are mentioned as one of the Illyrian people and/or as a distinct grouping in the region of Dardania. As such, the Dardani were Illyrians from an ethno-linguistic perspective, but they had followed their own peculiar geographical, social and political development in Dardania.Template:Sfn

In the late 1st century BCE, in Rome a new ideological discourse was formed. Propagated by poets like Horace and Ovid, it constructed a glorious Trojan past for the Romans, who were claimed to be descendants of Trojan Dardanians. In the years before the Trojan origin story became the official Roman narrative about their origins, the Romans came into conflict in the Balkans with the Dardani.Template:Sfn In public discourse this created the problem that the Roman army could be seen as fighting against a people who could be related to the ancestors of the Romans. The image of the historical Dardani in the 1st century BC was that of Illyrian barbarians who raided their Macedonian frontier and had to be dealt with. In this context, the name of a people known as the Moesi appeared in Roman sources. The Moesi are mentioned only in three ancient sources in the period after the death of Emperor Augustus in 14 CE. The name itself was taken from the name of the Mysians in Asia Minor.<ref name="Boteva411">Template:Harvnb</ref> The choice seems to be related to the fact that the Trojan-era Mysians lived close to the Trojan-era Dardanians. As the name of the Dardani in Roman discourse became linked to the ancestors of the Romans, the actual Dardani began to be covered in Roman literature by other names. After the death of Augustus, their name in connection to the Balkans became a political problem. After the death of Augustus, the new emperor was Tiberius, his stepson and the most senior Roman general in the Balkans. As Tiberius had played a key role in the Roman conquest of the Balkans, as emperor he couldn't be portrayed as the conqueror of Dardanians, whose name had been constructed as the name of the mythical progenitors of the Romans. Thus, the decision to create a new name for Dardania and the Dardani was made. Despite this decision and the administrative use of the names Moesia and Moesi for the Dardani and Dardania, the original use of the name persisted by authors like Appian.<ref name="Boteva411"/> The name Dardania was not used for several hundred years after this period in an administrative context. It was only recreated by Emperor Diocletian in the 3rd century CE.Template:Sfn

HistoryEdit

EmergenceEdit

The territory of present-day Kosovo which formed the core area of the Dardani has been inhabited since the Neolithic era. Runik and Vlashnjë are two of the most significant sites in the Neolithic period. During the late 3rd millennium BCE, Proto-Indo-European tribes migrated and settled in the region alongside the existing Neolithic population. New practices in agriculture and cattle breeding appear in this period and new settlements formed in Kosovo. Co-existence and intermingling of the Neolithic population and the PIE-speakers gave rise to the material culture which developed in the Bronze Age (2100-1100 BCE) in settlements including Vlashnjë, Korishë, Pogragjë, Bardhi i Madh and Topanicë.

Archaeological research in the territory of Dardania greatly expanded since 2000. In contemporary research, a periodization of four phases of development of pre-Roman Dardania is being utilized:Template:Sfn

11th-9th century BCE, a transitory period between the Bronze and the Iron Age
8th-7th century BCE, Iron Age I phase
6th-4th century BCE, Iron Age II phase, during which contacts with the Mediterranean and imports from Greece increase
4th-1st century BCE, Hellenistic period.

In the Iron Age habitation further developed with the emergence of the Glasinac-Mat culture, an Illyrian material culture which developed in the Iron Age western Balkans.Template:Sfn The Dardani - as they became known in classical antiquity - were one of the particular groups of the Glasinac-Mat culture.<ref name="Alaj15">Template:Harvnb</ref>

The Brnjica cultural group was a Late Bronze Age cultural manifestation in what was to become Dardania, closely connected to the Balkan-Danubian complex.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn<ref name="SCIN">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> It dates between the 14th and 10th centuries BCE,Template:Sfn and appears in Kosovo, Morava valley, Sandzak, Macedonia and South-East Serbia.<ref>REGIONAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BRNJICA CULTURAL GROUP MILORAD STOJI] Institute of Archaeology, Belgrade</ref> In Yugoslavian historiography, starting from Milutin Garašanin in the 1970s and 1980s, the Brnjica culture came to be interpreted as the "Daco-Moesian" and non-"Illyrian" linguistic component of the later Dardani.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Before that change, Yugoslavian scholars had regarded the Dardani as of Illyrian origin. The narrative of a distinct "Daco-Moesian" concept developed as a response to Albanian and Bulgarian researchers, and especially to changes inside Yugoslavia due to increasing local nationalisms.Template:Sfn

Classical antiquityEdit

File:Illyrians in the 7th-4th centuries BC.png

Illyrian tribes in the 7th–4th centuries BCE.

In Dardania tribal aristocracy and pre-urban development emerged from the 6th–5th centuries BC. The contacts of the Dardanians with the Mediterranean world began early and intensified during the Iron Age. Trade connections with the Ancient Greek world were created from the 7th century BC onwards.Template:Sfn The proto-urban development was followed by the creation of urban centers and the emergence of craftsmanship, and a Dardanian polity began to develop from the 4th century BC.Template:Sfn Material culture and accounts in classical sources suggest that Dardanian society reached an advanced phase of development.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn

The Dardani are referred to as one of the opponents of Macedon in the 4th century BC, clashing with Philip II who managed to subdue them and their neighbors, probably during the early period of his reign.Template:Sfn The Dardani have remained quiet until Philip II's death, after which they were planning defection. However an open war have not been caused by their riots, since Alexander the Great managed to have the full control of the kingdom and its army after succeeding his father to the Macedonian throne. Indeed, the Dardani have not been mentioned in the ancient accounts concerning the events of Alexander's Balkan campaign.Template:Sfn It appears that the Dardani evaded the Macedonian rule during the Wars of the Diadochi between 284 BC and 281 BC, at the time of Lysimachus'empire. Thereafter the Dardani became a constant threat to Macedon on its northern borders.Template:Sfn

In 279 BC, at the times of the great Celtic invasion, Dardania was raided by several Celtic tribes on their campaigns that were undertaken to plunder the treasuries of Greek temples.Template:Sfn During these events an unnamed Dardanian king offered to help the Macedonians with 20,000 soldiers to counteract the invading Celts, but it was refused by the Macedonian king Ptolemy Keraunos who, underestimating the Celtic strength, died fighting them.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Harvnb</ref>Template:Sfn Only at the oracle of Delphi the Celts eventually arrested and were defeated. Afterwards they withdrew in the north passing through Dardania, however they were completely destroyed by the Dardani.Template:Sfn Further references to the Dardani are provided in the ancient sources describing Dardanian constant wars against Macedonians from the second half of the 3rd century BC.Template:Sfn

File:Dardanian Kingdom (late 3rd century BC).png

Kingdom of the Dardanians, late 3rd century BC, prior to their conquest of Paeonia and Macedonia.

After the Celtic invasion of the Balkans weakened the state of the Macedonians and Paeonians, the political and military role of the Dardanians began to grow in the region. They expanded their state to the area of Paeonia which definitively disappeared from history.Template:Sfn In 230 the Dardani under Longarus<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref> captured Bylazora from the Paeonians.Template:Sfn Taking advantage of Macedonian weakness, in 229 the Dardani attacked Macedonia and defeated Demetrius II in an important battle.<ref>A history of Macedonia Volume 5 of Hellenistic culture and society, Robert Malcolm Errington, University of California Press, 1990, Template:ISBN, Template:ISBN p. 174</ref> After obtaining a great victory over the Macedonian army the Dardani invaded Macedon proper. The Dardanian expansion in Macedon, similar to the Ardiaean expansion in Epirus around the same years, may have been part of a general movement among the Illyrian peoples.Template:Sfn

In this period Dardanian influence on the region grew and some other Illyrian tribes deserted Teuta, joining the Dardani under Longarus and forcing Teuta to call off her expedition forces in Epirus.<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref> When Philip V rose to the Macedonian throne, skirmishing with Dardani began in 220-219 BC and he managed to capture Bylazora from them in 217 BC. Skirmishes continued in 211 and in 209 when a force of Dardani under Aeropus, probably a pretender to the Macedonian throne, captured Lychnidus and looted Macedonia taking 20.000 prisoners and retreating before Philip's forces could reach them.<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref>

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In 201 Bato of Dardania along with Pleuratus the Illyrian and Amynander king of Athamania, cooperated with Roman consul Sulpicius in his expedition against Philip V.<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref> Being always under the menace of Dardanian attacks on Macedonia, around 183 BC Philip V made an alliance with the Bastarnae and invited them to settle in Polog, the region of Dardania closest to Macedonia.<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref> A joint campaign of the Bastarnae and Macedonians against the Dardanians was organized, but Philip V died and his son Perseus 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.<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref> In 179 BC, the Bastarnae conquered the Dardani, who later in 174 pushed them out, in a war which proved catastrophic, with a few years later, in 170 BC, the Macedonians defeating the Dardani.Template:Sfn Macedonia and Illyria became Roman protectorates in 168 BC.Template:Sfn The Scordisci, a tribe of Celtic origin, most likely subdued the Dardani in the mid-2nd century BC, after which there was no mention of the Dardani for a long time.Template:Sfn

Roman eraEdit

File:Map of the roman province of Moesia (250).jpg

After the division of Roman Moesia into two provinces in 86 AD, the Dardani were located in southern Moesia Superior.

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Illyria and Macedonia became Roman protectorates in 168 BC.Template:Sfn In 97 BC, the Dardani are mentioned again, defeated by the Macedonian Roman army.Template:Sfn In 88 BC, the Dardani invaded the Roman province of Macedonia together with the Scordisci and the Maedi.<ref>Template:Harvnb <templatestyles src="Template:Blockquote/styles.css" />

... Autariatae at the expense of the Triballi until, as Strabo remarks, they in their turn were overcome by the Celtic Scordisci in the early third century{{#if:|{{#if:|}}
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The Romans found an ancient formed economy in Dardania, based on agriculture and animal husbandry, mining and metallurgy, in different handicrafts and in trade. The Romans focused especially in exploitation of mines, same as in other provinces, and in road construction.<ref>Michael Rostovtzeff, The Social and Economic History of the Roman Empire (Oxford 1957), 242-243</ref><ref name=":0">Prehistory and Antique History of Kosova, Edi Shukriu, p. 18</ref>

It seems quite probable that the Dardani actually lost independence in 28 BC thus, the final occupation of Dardania by Rome has been connected with the beginnings of Augustus' rule in 6 AD, when they were finally conquered by Rome. Dardania was conquered by Gaius Scribonius Curio and the Latin language was soon adopted as the main language of the tribe as many other conquered and Romanized.<ref name="balkaninstitut.com">http://www.balkaninstitut.com/pdf/izdanja/B_XXXVII_2007.pdf Template:Bare URL PDF</ref> After the Roman emperor Domitian divided the province of Moesia into Moesia Superior and Moesia Inferior in 86 AD, the Dardani were located in southern Moesia Superior.Template:Sfn

File:Balkans 6th century.svg

Dardania and the Balkans during the 6th century AD.

At first, Dardania was not a separate Roman province, but became a region in the province of Moesia Superior in 87 AD.<ref name="Wilkes-1992-210">Template:Harvnb <templatestyles src="Template:Blockquote/styles.css" />

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... 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){{#if:|{{#if:|}}
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{{#invoke:Check for unknown parameters|check|unknown=Template:Main other|preview=Page using Template:Blockquote with unknown parameter "_VALUE_"|ignoreblank=y| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | author | by | char | character | cite | class | content | multiline | personquoted | publication | quote | quotesource | quotetext | sign | source | style | text | title | ts }}</ref> Emperor Diocletian later (284) made Dardania into a separate<ref name="Wilkes-1992-210"/> province with its capital at Naissus (Niš). During the Byzantine administration (in the 6th century), there was a Byzantine province of Dardania that included cities of Ulpiana, Scupi, Justiniana Prima, and others.

PolityEdit

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History of the tribal governmentEdit

A Dardanian polity began to develop from the 4th century BC.Template:Sfn The Kingdom of Dardania was attested since the 4th century BC in ancient sources reporting the wars the Dardanians waged against their south-eastern neighbor – Macedon – until the 2nd century BC.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn The Dardanian kingdom was made up of many tribes and tribal groups, confirmed by Strabo,<ref>Template:Harvnb <templatestyles src="Template:Blockquote/styles.css" />

The assumption that the Dardanian kingdom was composed of a considerable number of tribes and tribal groups, finds confirmation in Strabo's statement about{{#if:|{{#if:|}}
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The Dardanians always had separate domains from the rest of the Illyrians.<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref> The term used for their territory was ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}}),<ref name="Papazoglu 1978 523"/> while other tribal areas had more unspecified terms, such as Autariaton khora ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}}), for the "land of Autariatae." The term was used to describe the Dardanian political status as a semi-independent country in the later Roman Republic.Template:Sfn Little data exists about the territory of the Dardani prior to Roman conquest, especially on its southern extent which has been contested with Macedon, so scholars use information provided in Roman times to define the bounds of Dardanian territory.<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref>

An unnamed Dardanian king is mentioned in ancient sources describing the events of the region of the early 3rd century BC. He offered the Macedonian king Ptolemy Ceraunos 20,000 soldiers to counteract the invading Celts, but Ceraunos declined the offer.Template:Sfn Tribal chiefs Longarus and his son Bato took part in the wars against Romans and Macedonians.<ref name="Wilkes-1992-85">Template:Harvnb <templatestyles src="Template:Blockquote/styles.css" />

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.{{#if:|{{#if:|}}
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Dardanian rulersEdit

Unnamed Dardanian king (early 3rd century BC), who offered the Macedonian king Ptolemy Ceraunos 20,000 soldiers to counteract the invading Celts, but Ceraunos declined the offer.Template:Sfn
Longarus;<ref name="Wilkes-1992-86">Template:Harvnb <templatestyles src="Template:Blockquote/styles.css" />
... 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...{{#if:|{{#if:|}}

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- Bato<ref name="Wilkes-1992-86"/>
- Monunius II

Etuta (Etleva)Template:Sfn was the daughter of Monunius II of Dardania and the illyrian queen of Ardiaei.Template:Sfn Some scholars believe that Illyrian rulers Bardylis,<ref name="Harding-1985-93">Template:Cite book</ref> Audata,<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref> Cleitus (son of Bardylis),<ref name="Wilkes 1996 120">Template:Harvnb</ref> Bardylis II,<ref name=Heckel86>Template:Harvnb</ref> Bircenna (daughter of Bardylis II),<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref> and Monunios were Dardanian, however 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.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Nevertheless, Bardylis, if not Dardanian, probably had some kind of hegemony on Dardanians during his reign.Template:Sfn<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Foreign relationsEdit

Before Roman conquestEdit

Unlike their Thracian neighbors, in pre-Roman times the Dardani were not Hellenized.Template:Sfn From the Greek point of view, they were barbarians. Because of this, they are mentioned unfavorably in Ancient Greek and Roman sources. The tribe was viewed as "extremely barbaric".<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>Template:Page needed<ref name="Papazoglu-1978-517">Template:Harvnb <templatestyles src="Template:Blockquote/styles.css" />

There must have been some reason why it was said of the Dardanians, and not of any other people, that they only bathed three times in their lives ...like the Dardanians', which was applied not to dirty folk, as might be expected, but to the miserly (ἐπὶ τῶν φειδωλῶν)! For the Greeks, obviously, to bathe or not was only a question of expense and financial means.{{#if:|{{#if:|}}
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{{#invoke:Check for unknown parameters|check|unknown=Template:Main other|preview=Page using Template:Blockquote with unknown parameter "_VALUE_"|ignoreblank=y| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | author | by | char | character | cite | class | content | multiline | personquoted | publication | quote | quotesource | quotetext | sign | source | style | text | title | ts }}</ref> Claudius Aelianus and other writersTemplate:Who wrote that they bathed only three<ref>Dictionary of Classical Antiquities (1898) "...whence it is said of the Dardanians, an Illyrian people, that they bathe only thrice in their lives—at birth, marriage, and after death."</ref> times in their lives. At birth, when they were wed, and after they died. Strabo refers to them as wild<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> and dwelling in dirty caves under dung-hills.<ref name=Strabo>Strabo,7.5, "The Dardanians are so utterly wild that they dig caves beneath their dung-hills and live there, but still they care for music, always making use of musical instruments, both flutes and stringed instruments"</ref> This however may have had to do not with cleanliness, as bathing had to do with monetary<ref name="Papazoglu-1978-517"/> status from the viewpoint of the Greeks.

After Roman conquestEdit

Dardanian slaves or freedmen at the time of the Roman conquest were clearly of Paleo-Balkan origin, according to their personal names.Template:Sfn It has been noted that personal names were mostly of the "Central-Dalmatian type".Template:Sfn

CultureEdit

LanguageEdit

{{#invoke:Infobox|infobox}}Template:Template other Template:Main other

The Dardanians had their own language.Template:Sfn An extensive study based on onomastics of the Roman era has been undertaken by Radoslav Katičić which puts the Dardanian language area in the Central Illyrian area ("Central Illyrian" consisting of most of former Yugoslavia, north of southern Montenegro to the west of Morava, excepting ancient Liburnia in the northwest, but perhaps extending into Pannonia in the north).<ref>Katičić, Radoslav (1964b) "Die neuesten Forschungen über die einhemiche Sprachschist in den Illyrischen Provinzen" in Benac (1964a) 9-58 Katičić, Radoslav (1965b) "Zur frage der keltischen und panonischen Namengebieten im römischen Dalmatien" ANUBiH 3 GCBI 1, 53-76</ref><ref>Katičić, Radoslav. Ancient languages of the Balkans. The Hague - Paris (1976)</ref> Another extensive study based on onomastics in Thrace, eastern Macedonia, Moesia, Dacia and Bithynia has been carried out by Dan Dana in the 2010s, also taking into consideration current Balkan historical linguistics. Dana concludes that the Illyrian character of Dardanian onomastics is unquestionable and that it is appropriate to definitively rule out the idea of a Thracian origin or participation (at least appreciable) in the ethnogenesis of the Dardani.Template:Sfn Since the Dardani were neighbored to the east by the Thracians, the eastern parts of Dardania were at the Thraco-Illyrian contact zone. As shown by archaeological research Illyrian names are predominant in western Dardania (present-day Kosovo), and occasionally appear in eastern Dardania (present-day south-eastern Serbia), while Thracian names are found in the eastern parts, but are absent from the western parts.<ref name="Vujcic2021"/><ref name=Malcolm/><ref name=Zahariade/><ref name="Papazoglu131">Template:Harvnb <templatestyles src="Template:Blockquote/styles.css" />

the Dardanians ... 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, 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 who took the place of the old{{#if:|{{#if:|}}
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{{#invoke:Check for unknown parameters|check|unknown=Template:Main other|preview=Page using Template:Blockquote with unknown parameter "_VALUE_"|ignoreblank=y| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | author | by | char | character | cite | class | content | multiline | personquoted | publication | quote | quotesource | quotetext | sign | source | style | text | title | ts }}</ref> The correspondence of Illyrian onomastics in Dardania – including those of the Dardanian ruling dynasty – with those of the southern Illyrians suggests "thracianization" of parts of Dardania at a later date.<ref name=Zahariade/><ref name="RoismanWorthington2011">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Wilkes-1992-85"/> The linguistic relationship between 'Illyrian' and 'Thracian' is uncertain due to the paucity of the available written material of those languages, consisting only of onomastic and toponymic evidence in the case of Illyrian, and the same for Thracian except for a few short inscriptions of difficult interpretation. Dardanian in the context of a distinct language is considered in recent decades as potentially significant for the history of the Albanian language.Template:Sfn

ReligionEdit

Graves from the 6th and 5th centuries BCE in Romajë contain long iron bars which were placed in the tombs are a means of payment to the afterlife. They indicate that the tribe of the Dardani had developed a concept about the afterlife as shown later in other archaeological material like the votive monument of Smirë.Template:Sfn The weapons included double-edged axes (Labrys), which might have been used in a ritualistic manner related to sun worship which was prevalent in the northern Illyrian tribesTemplate:Sfn

Among the characteristic Dardanian deities were Andinus, considered to have been the indigenous god of vegetation and soil fertility,Template:Sfn Template:Sfn and Dea Dardanica ("Dardanian Goddess"). They are attested in votive inscriptions of the Roman period in Dardania.

File:Arkeologji - Periudha Romake - Kllokot.JPG

Dea Dardanica represented an ancient deity in Dardania<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

A monument representing a round labyrinth that was dedicated to the "Dardanian Goddess" was found in Smira. This monument provides evidence for cosmogonic and cosmologic knowledges among the Dardani.Template:Sfn The labyrinth was realized based on the concept of the trinity. There is used a numerological and geometric approach through a multidimensional holographic field, which illustrates the Dardanian perception of the cosmic order and the interconnection between the material world and the higher realm.Template:Sfn

Dardanian funerary stelae portray representations of their mourning practice, which accurately mirrors the Albanian traditional lamentation of the dead – gjâma. The lamentation of the dead is represented on the stelae through the depiction of the mourners with raised hands, grabbing their heads and beating their chests.Template:Sfn