{"history":[],"article":{"id":"79092b7f-013b-4f45-a51d-e3fd22c4a277","title":"Dardani","slug":"dardani","content":":::summary\n![Dardani](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ec/Dardania///kingdom.png)\n**Image Caption:** By the 3rd century the location of the Dardani had resolved itself into the Kingdom of Dardania, which is shown in yellow. The solid lines give modern borders: Republic of Kosovo in the center, Serbia across the north, Macedonia across the south, Albania to the SW, and Montenegro to the NW. \n**Image Upright:** 1.5 \n**Languages:** Palaeo-Balkan language group \n:::\n\n# \nThe **Dardani** or **Dardani**ans were a [Paleo-Balkan](https://bliptext.com/articles/paleo-balkan-languages) people, who lived in a region that was named **Dardani**a after their settlement there.\nThey were among the oldest Balkan peoples, and their society was very complex.\nThe 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.\nAncient tradition considered the Dardani as an [Illyrian people](https://bliptext.com/articles/illyrians).\n [Strabo](https://bliptext.com/articles/strabo), in particular – also mentioning [Galabri](https://bliptext.com/articles/galabri) and [Thunatae](https://bliptext.com/articles/thunatae) as Dardanian tribes – describes the Dardani as one of the three strongest Illyrian peoples, the other two being the [Ardiaei](https://bliptext.com/articles/ardiaei) and [Autariatae](https://bliptext.com/articles/autariatae).\nAs [Dardania](https://bliptext.com/articles/kingdom-of-dardania)ns had followed their own peculiar geographical, social and political development in [Dardania](https://bliptext.com/articles/kingdom-of-dardania), some ancient sources also distinguish them from those Illyrians dwelling in the central and southern coast of the eastern [Adriatic Sea](https://bliptext.com/articles/adriatic-sea) and its hinterland, who had constituted their own socio-political formation, referred to as '[Illyrian kingdom](https://bliptext.com/articles/illyrian-kingdom)' by ancient authors.\nThe Dardani were also related to their [Thracian](https://bliptext.com/articles/thracians) neighbors.\nIn Roman times, there appear [Thracian](https://bliptext.com/articles/thracian-language) names in the eastern strip of Dardania, and several [Thracian](https://bliptext.com/articles/thracian-language) and [Dacian](https://bliptext.com/articles/dacians) placenames also appear there, such as [Dardapara](https://bliptext.com/articles/dardapara) and [Quemedava](https://bliptext.com/articles/quemedava), but Illyrian names dominated the rest.\nNevertheless, ancient authors have not identified Dardanians with Thracians, and Strabo explicitly makes a clear distinction between them.\nThe [Kingdom of Dardania](https://bliptext.com/articles/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](https://bliptext.com/articles/macedon) – until the 2nd century BC. The historian [Justin](https://bliptext.com/articles/justin-historian), a main source about the history of the [Macedon](https://bliptext.com/articles/macedon)ian 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](https://bliptext.com/articles/macedon), who won the conflict.\nAfter the [Celtic invasion of the Balkans](https://bliptext.com/articles/celtic-invasion-of-the-balkans) weakened the state of the [Macedonians](https://bliptext.com/articles/ancient-macedonians) and [Paeonians](https://bliptext.com/articles/paeonians), the political and military role of the Dardanians began to grow in the region.\nThey expanded their state to the area of [Paeonia](https://bliptext.com/articles/paeonia-kingdom) which definitively disappeared from history, and to some territories of the southern Illyrians.\nThe Dardanians strongly pressured the Macedonians, using every opportunity to attack them.\nHowever the Macedonians quickly recovered and consolidated their state, and the Dardanians lost their important political role.\nThe strengthening of the Illyrian ([Ardiaean](https://bliptext.com/articles/ardiaei)–[Labeatan](https://bliptext.com/articles/labeatae)) state on their western borders also contributed to the restriction of Dardanian warlike actions towards their neighbors.\nDardanians fought against [Roman](https://bliptext.com/articles/roman-republic) proconsuls, and were finally defeated probably by [Marcus Antonius](https://bliptext.com/articles/marcus-antonius) in 39 BC or by [Marcus Licinius Crassus](https://bliptext.com/articles/marcus-licinius-crassus-consul-30-bc) in 29/8 BC. They were included in the [Roman](https://bliptext.com/articles/roman-republic) province of [Moesia](https://bliptext.com/articles/moesia).\nAfter the Roman emperor [Domitian](https://bliptext.com/articles/domitian) divided the province of Moesia into [Moesia Superior](https://bliptext.com/articles/moesia-superior) and [Moesia Inferior](https://bliptext.com/articles/moesia-inferior) in 86 AD, the Dardani were located in southern [Moesia Superior](https://bliptext.com/articles/moesia-superior).\nA [Roman colony](https://bliptext.com/articles/roman-colony) was established at [Scupi](https://bliptext.com/articles/scupi) in Dardanian territory under the [Flavian dynasty](https://bliptext.com/articles/flavian-dynasty).\nIn the 2nd century AD Dardanians were still notorious as [brigands](https://bliptext.com/articles/brigandage) (latrones dardaniae).\nDuring the late [Imperial period](https://bliptext.com/articles/roman-empire) their territory was the homeland of many [Roman emperors](https://bliptext.com/articles/roman-emperors), notably [Constantine the Great](https://bliptext.com/articles/constantine-the-great) and [Justinian I](https://bliptext.com/articles/justinian-i).\n\n# Name\nThe ethnonym of the Dardani has been attested in ancient Greek literature as, and , and in Latin as Dardani.\nThe term used for their territory was (Δαρδανική).\nThe 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; Δερδιενις, name of Macedonian-Elimiot princes; Δερδια in [Thessaly](https://bliptext.com/articles/ancient-thessaly); Δερδενις in [Lesbos](https://bliptext.com/articles/lesbos); in ancient [Apulia](https://bliptext.com/articles/apulia) Dardi, a [Daunian](https://bliptext.com/articles/dauni) tribe, Derdensis a region and Δαρδανον, a [Daunian](https://bliptext.com/articles/dauni) settlement.\nThe suffix -ano in Dard- was common to many Indo-European languages.\nThe names of the two main Dardanian tribes – Galabri/Galabrioi and Thunatae/Thunatai – have been respectively connected to the [Messapic](https://bliptext.com/articles/messapic-language) [Kalabroi/Calabri](https://bliptext.com/articles/iapygians) and [Daunioi/Daunii](https://bliptext.com/articles/daunians) in [Apulia](https://bliptext.com/articles/apulia) (south-eastern [Italy](https://bliptext.com/articles/italy)), of Palaeo-Balkan provenance.\n\n## Etymology\nThe name Dardan- (ethnonym: Δάρδανοι/; toponym: Δαρδανική/) is traditionally connected to the same root as dardhë, the [Albanian](https://bliptext.com/articles/albanian-language) word for 'pear', as well as Alb.\ndardhán, dardán, 'farmer'.\nThe ethnonym [Pirustae](https://bliptext.com/articles/pirustae), which is attested since Roman times for a tribe close to the Dardani or living in Dardania, is considered to be the [Latin](https://bliptext.com/articles/latin) translation of Dardani (cf. [Latin](https://bliptext.com/articles/latin) pirus \"pear\"), which would confirm the link with the Albanian dardhë.\nIn 1854, [Johann Georg von Hahn](https://bliptext.com/articles/johann-georg-von-hahn) was the first to propose that the names Dardanoi and Dardania were related to the Albanian word dardhë (\"pear, pear-tree\").\nThis is suggested by the fact that toponyms related to fruits or animals are not unknown in the region (cf. Alb. dele, delmë \"sheep\" supposedly related to Dalmatia, [Ulcinj](https://bliptext.com/articles/ulcinj) in Montenegro < Alb. ujk, ulk \"wolf\" etc.).\nAlbanian 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).\nSeveral modern toponyms are found in various parts of [Albania](https://bliptext.com/articles/albania), including [Dardha](https://bliptext.com/articles/dardh) in [Berat](https://bliptext.com/articles/berat), [Dardha](https://bliptext.com/articles/dardh) in [Korça](https://bliptext.com/articles/kor-a), [Dardha](https://bliptext.com/articles/dardh) in [Librazhd](https://bliptext.com/articles/librazhd), [Dardha](https://bliptext.com/articles/dardh) in [Puka](https://bliptext.com/articles/puk), [Dardha](https://bliptext.com/articles/dardh)s in [Pogradec](https://bliptext.com/articles/pogradec), [Dardha](https://bliptext.com/articles/dardh)j in [Mirdita](https://bliptext.com/articles/mirdita), and Dardhës in [Përmet](https://bliptext.com/articles/p-rmet).\nDardha in Puka is recorded as Darda in a 1671 ecclesiastical report and on a 1688 map by a Venetian cartographer.\nDardha is also the name of an [Albanian tribe](https://bliptext.com/articles/albanian-tribes) in the northern part of the [District of Dibra](https://bliptext.com/articles/district-of-dibra).\nOpinions differ on the etymon of the root in [Proto-Albanian](https://bliptext.com/articles/proto-albanian-language), and eventually in [Proto-Indo-European](https://bliptext.com/articles/proto-indo-european-language).\nOn the basis of an alleged connection between Albanian dardhë and [Greek](https://bliptext.com/articles/greek-language) ἄχερδος, ἀχράς \"wild pear\", a common Indo-European root has been tentatively reconstructed by scholars: *ĝʰor-d- \"thorn bush\"; *(n)ĝʰ∂rdis; *ĝʰerzd⁽ʰ⁾- \"thorny, grain, barley\".\nHowever it has been suggested that this connection is only conceivable assuming an ancient common Balkano-Aegean substrate word for Albanian and Greek.\nA proposed Indo-European root *dʰeregh- \"a thorny plant\", with the Proto-Albanian form reconstructed as *dʰorĝʰ-eh₂-, is not clear.\nMore recently for the Albanian dardhë the [Proto-Albanian](https://bliptext.com/articles/proto-albanian) *dardā has been reconstructed, itself a derivative of derdh \"to tip out, pour, spill, secrete, cast (metals)\" < PAlb *derda.\nIn [Old Albanian](https://bliptext.com/articles/old-albanian) texts the root is recorded not [umlautized](https://bliptext.com/articles/umlaut-linguistics): dardh.\nIt continues Proto-Albanian *darda, which is close to onomatopoeic [Lithuanian](https://bliptext.com/articles/lithuanian-language) dardĕti \"to rattle\" [Latvian](https://bliptext.com/articles/latvian-language) dàrdêt \"to creak\", [Welsh](https://bliptext.com/articles/welsh-language) go-dyrddu \"to mumble, to gumble\" (the semantic development of \"pear\" that occurs in Albanian can also be seen in the [Slavic](https://bliptext.com/articles/slavic-languages) parallel gruša, kruša \"pear, pear tree\" < *grušiti, *krušiti \"to crumble, to break\", and also in the Indo-European parallel *peisom \"pear\" < *peis-).\nSlavic 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.\nOther roots have been connected to the name Dardan- by some scholars.\nIt 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 Orel 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](https://bliptext.com/articles/hesychius-of-alexandria) (5th century CE) and with aberrant semantics.\nAnother 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.\nThe 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](https://bliptext.com/articles/henbane)\".\nThis term was mentioned as a \"Thracian-Dacian\" phytonym by the Ancient Greek pharmacologist [Pedanius Dioscorides](https://bliptext.com/articles/pedanius-dioscorides) (1st century AD), and it has a clear etymological connection with the Albanian word diell \"sun\" (diellina \"[henbane](https://bliptext.com/articles/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\").\nThis phenomenon reflects the uncertainty of the Ancient Greek and Roman authors in transcribing the Proto-Albanian affricates, which were unfamiliar to them.\nIndeed, 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](https://bliptext.com/articles/eric-hamp)'s thesis about the Proto-[Albanoid](https://bliptext.com/articles/albanoid) dialects, spoken in the central-western Balkans including the historical regions of Dardania, Illyria proper, Paeonia, Upper Moesia, western Dacia and western Thrace.\n\n## The name in the ancient sources\nThe name of the Dardani is mentioned for the first time in the [Iliad](https://bliptext.com/articles/iliad) in the name of [Dardanus](https://bliptext.com/articles/dardanus-son-of-zeus) who founded [Dardanus](https://bliptext.com/articles/dardanus-son-of-zeus) on the Aegean coast of [Anatolia](https://bliptext.com/articles/anatolia) and his people the [Dardanoi](https://bliptext.com/articles/dardanoi), from which the toponym [Dardanelles](https://bliptext.com/articles/dardanelles) is derived.\nOther parallel ethnic names in the Balkans and Anatolia, respectively include: [Eneti](https://bliptext.com/articles/illyrian-eneti) and [Enetoi](https://bliptext.com/articles/paphlagonian-eneti), [Bryges](https://bliptext.com/articles/bryges) and [Phryges](https://bliptext.com/articles/phrygians).\nThese parallels indicate closer links than simply a correlation of names.\nAccording 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](https://bliptext.com/articles/bronze-age) (around 1200 BC), when the attacks of the '[Sea Peoples](https://bliptext.com/articles/sea-peoples)' afflicted some of the established powers around the eastern [Mediterranean](https://bliptext.com/articles/mediterranean).\nIn ancient historiography, the Dardani of the Balkans are mentioned as a people in the second century BCE by [Polybius](https://bliptext.com/articles/polybius) who describes their wars against [Macedon](https://bliptext.com/articles/macedon) in the third century BC. Historians of Hellenistic and Roman antiquity who mention the Dardanians are [Diodorus Siculus](https://bliptext.com/articles/diodorus-siculus), [Marcus Terentius Varro](https://bliptext.com/articles/marcus-terentius-varro), [Strabo](https://bliptext.com/articles/strabo), [Sallust](https://bliptext.com/articles/sallust), [Appian](https://bliptext.com/articles/appian), [Dionysius of Halicarnassus](https://bliptext.com/articles/dionysius-of-halicarnassus) and others.\nAccording to a mythological tradition reported by [Appian](https://bliptext.com/articles/appian) (2nd century AD), Dardanos (Δάρδανος), one of the sons of [Illyrius](https://bliptext.com/articles/illyrius) (Ἰλλυριός), was the [eponymous](https://bliptext.com/articles/eponymous) ancestor of the Dardanoi (Δάρδανοι).\nIn ancient sources the Dardani are mentioned as one of the [Illyrian people](https://bliptext.com/articles/illyrians) and/or as a distinct grouping in the region of Dardania.\nAs such, the Dardani were Illyrians from an ethno-linguistic perspective, but they had followed their own peculiar geographical, social and political development in [Dardania](https://bliptext.com/articles/kingdom-of-dardania).\nIn the late 1st century BCE, in Rome a new ideological discourse was formed.\nPropagated by poets like [Horace](https://bliptext.com/articles/horace) and [Ovid](https://bliptext.com/articles/ovid), it constructed a glorious Trojan past for the Romans, who were claimed to be descendants of Trojan Dardanians.\nIn 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.\nIn 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.\nThe 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.\nIn this context, the name of a people known as the [Moesi](https://bliptext.com/articles/moesi) appeared in Roman sources.\nThe Moesi are mentioned only in three ancient sources in the period after the death of Emperor Augustus in 14 CE.\nThe name itself was taken from the name of the [Mysians](https://bliptext.com/articles/mysians) in Asia Minor.\nThe choice seems to be related to the fact that the Trojan-era Mysians lived close to the Trojan-era Dardanians.\nAs 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.\nAfter the death of Augustus, their name in connection to the Balkans became a political problem.\nAfter the death of Augustus, the new emperor was [Tiberius](https://bliptext.com/articles/tiberius), his stepson and the most senior Roman general in the Balkans.\nAs 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.\nThus, the decision to create a new name for Dardania and the Dardani was made.\nDespite 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.\nThe name Dardania was not used for several hundred years after this period in an administrative context.\nIt was only recreated by Emperor [Diocletian](https://bliptext.com/articles/diocletian) in the 3rd century CE.\n\n# History\n\n## Emergence\nThe territory of present-day [Kosovo](https://bliptext.com/articles/kosovo) which formed the core area of the Dardani has been inhabited since the [Neolithic era](https://bliptext.com/articles/neolithic-europe).\n[Runik](https://bliptext.com/articles/runik) and [Vlashnjë](https://bliptext.com/articles/vlashnj) are two of the most significant sites in the Neolithic period.\nDuring the late 3rd millennium BCE, [Proto-Indo-European](https://bliptext.com/articles/proto-indo-europeans) tribes migrated and settled in the region alongside the existing Neolithic population.\nNew practices in agriculture and cattle breeding appear in this period and new settlements formed in Kosovo.\nCo-existence and intermingling of the Neolithic population and the PIE-speakers gave rise to the [material culture](https://bliptext.com/articles/copper-bronze-and-iron-age-sites-in-kosovo) which developed in the Bronze Age (2100-1100 BCE) in settlements including Vlashnjë, Korishë, Pogragjë, Bardhi i Madh and Topanicë.\nArchaeological research in the territory of Dardania greatly expanded since 2000.\nIn contemporary research, a periodization of four phases of development of pre-Roman Dardania is being utilized:\nIn the Iron Age habitation further developed with the emergence of the [Glasinac-Mat culture](https://bliptext.com/articles/glasinac-culture), an [Illyrian](https://bliptext.com/articles/illyrians) material culture which developed in the Iron Age western Balkans.\nThe Dardani - as they became known in classical antiquity - were one of the particular groups of the Glasinac-Mat culture.\nThe [Brnjica](https://bliptext.com/articles/brnjica-culture) cultural group was a Late Bronze Age cultural manifestation in what was to become Dardania, closely connected to the Balkan-Danubian complex.\nIt dates between the 14th and 10th centuries BCE, and appears in Kosovo, Morava valley, Sandzak, Macedonia and South-East Serbia.\nIn [Yugoslavian](https://bliptext.com/articles/yugoslavia) historiography, starting from Milutin Garašanin in the 1970s and 1980s, the Brnjica culture came to be interpreted as the \"[Daco-Moesian](https://bliptext.com/articles/daco-moesian)\" and non-\"[Illyrian](https://bliptext.com/articles/illyrian-language)\" linguistic component of the later Dardani.\nBefore that change, Yugoslavian scholars had regarded the Dardani as of Illyrian origin.\nThe 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.\n\n## Classical antiquity\nIn Dardania tribal aristocracy and pre-urban development emerged from the 6th–5th centuries BC. The contacts of the Dardanians with the [Mediterranean world](https://bliptext.com/articles/mediterranean-world) began early and intensified during the Iron Age.\nTrade connections with the [Ancient Greek world](https://bliptext.com/articles/ancient-greek-world) were created from the 7th century BC onwards.\nThe proto-urban development was followed by the creation of urban centers and the emergence of craftsmanship, and a Dardanian [polity](https://bliptext.com/articles/polity) began to develop from the 4th century BC. Material culture and accounts in classical sources suggest that Dardanian society reached an advanced phase of development.\nThe Dardani are referred to as one of the opponents of [Macedon](https://bliptext.com/articles/macedon) in the 4th century BC, clashing with [Philip II](https://bliptext.com/articles/philip-ii-of-macedonia) who managed to subdue them and their neighbors, probably during the early period of his reign.\nThe Dardani have remained quiet until Philip II's death, after which they were planning [defection](https://bliptext.com/articles/defection).\nHowever an open war have not been caused by their riots, since [Alexander the Great](https://bliptext.com/articles/alexander-the-great) managed to have the full control of the kingdom and its army after succeeding his father to the Macedonian throne.\nIndeed, the Dardani have not been mentioned in the ancient accounts concerning the events of [Alexander's Balkan campaign](https://bliptext.com/articles/alexander-s-balkan-campaign).\nIt appears that the Dardani evaded the Macedonian rule during the [Wars of the Diadochi](https://bliptext.com/articles/wars-of-the-diadochi) between 284 BC and 281 BC, at the time of [Lysimachus](https://bliptext.com/articles/lysimachus)'empire.\nThereafter the Dardani became a constant threat to Macedon on its northern borders.\nIn 279 BC, at the times of the [great Celtic invasion](https://bliptext.com/articles/celtic-settlement-of-eastern-europe), Dardania was raided by several Celtic tribes on their campaigns that were undertaken to plunder the treasuries of Greek temples.\nDuring 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](https://bliptext.com/articles/ptolemy-keraunos) who, underestimating the Celtic strength, died fighting them.\nOnly at the oracle of [Delphi](https://bliptext.com/articles/delphi) the Celts eventually arrested and were defeated.\nAfterwards they withdrew in the north passing through Dardania, however they were completely destroyed by the Dardani.\nFurther 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.\nAfter the Celtic invasion of the Balkans weakened the state of the Macedonians and [Paeonians](https://bliptext.com/articles/paeonians), the political and military role of the Dardanians began to grow in the region.\nThey expanded their state to the area of [Paeonia](https://bliptext.com/articles/paeonia-kingdom) which definitively disappeared from history.\nIn 230 the Dardani under [Longarus](https://bliptext.com/articles/longarus) captured [Bylazora](https://bliptext.com/articles/bylazora) from the Paeonians.\nTaking advantage of Macedonian weakness, in 229 the Dardani attacked Macedonia and defeated [Demetrius II](https://bliptext.com/articles/demetrius-ii-of-macedon) in an important battle.\nAfter obtaining a great victory over the Macedonian army the Dardani invaded Macedon proper.\nThe Dardanian expansion in Macedon, similar to the [Ardiaean](https://bliptext.com/articles/ardiaei) expansion in Epirus around the same years, may have been part of a general movement among the Illyrian peoples.\nIn this period Dardanian influence on the region grew and some other Illyrian tribes deserted [Teuta](https://bliptext.com/articles/teuta), joining the Dardani under Longarus and forcing [Teuta](https://bliptext.com/articles/teuta) to call off her expedition forces in Epirus.\nWhen [Philip V](https://bliptext.com/articles/philip-v-of-macedon) 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.\nIn 201 [Bato of Dardania](https://bliptext.com/articles/bato-of-dardania) along with Pleuratus the Illyrian and Amynander king of Athamania, cooperated with Roman consul Sulpicius in his expedition against [Philip V](https://bliptext.com/articles/philip-v-of-macedon). Being always under the menace of Dardanian attacks on Macedonia, around 183 BC [Philip V](https://bliptext.com/articles/philip-v-of-macedon) made an alliance with the [Bastarnae](https://bliptext.com/articles/bastarnae) and invited them to settle in Polog, the region of Dardania closest to Macedonia.\nA joint campaign of the Bastarnae and Macedonians against the Dardanians was organized, but Philip V died and his son [Perseus of Macedon](https://bliptext.com/articles/perseus-of-macedon) withdrew his forces from the campaign.\nThe Bastarnae crossed the Danube in huge numbers and although they didn't meet the Macedonians, they continued the campaign.\nSome 30,000 Bastarnae under the command of Clondicus seem to have defeated the Dardani.\nIn 179 BC, the [Bastarnae](https://bliptext.com/articles/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.\nMacedonia and Illyria became Roman protectorates in 168 BC. The [Scordisci](https://bliptext.com/articles/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.\n# [Illyrian tribes in the 7th–4th centuries BCE. | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/09/Illyrians///in///the///7th-4th///centuries///BC.png]\n# [Kingdom of the Dardanians, late 3rd century BC, prior to their conquest of Paeonia and Macedonia. | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/24/Dardanian///Kingdom///%28late///3rd///century///BC%29.png]\n\n## Roman era\nIllyria and Macedonia became Roman protectorates in 168 BC. In 97 BC, the Dardani are mentioned again, defeated by the Macedonian Roman army.\nIn 88 BC, the Dardani invaded the [Roman](https://bliptext.com/articles/roman-empire) province of [Macedonia](https://bliptext.com/articles/macedonia-roman-province) together with the [Scordisci](https://bliptext.com/articles/scordisci) and the [Maedi](https://bliptext.com/articles/maedi).\nThe Romans found an ancient formed economy in Dardania, based on agriculture and animal husbandry, mining and metallurgy, in different handicrafts and in trade.\nThe Romans focused especially in exploitation of mines, same as in other provinces, and in road construction.\nIt 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](https://bliptext.com/articles/augustus)' rule in 6 AD, when they were finally conquered by Rome.\nDardania was conquered by [Gaius Scribonius Curio](https://bliptext.com/articles/gaius-scribonius-curio-consul-76-bc) and the Latin language was soon adopted as the main language of the tribe as many other conquered and Romanized.\nAfter the Roman emperor [Domitian](https://bliptext.com/articles/domitian) divided the province of [Moesia](https://bliptext.com/articles/moesia) into [Moesia](https://bliptext.com/articles/moesia) Superior and [Moesia](https://bliptext.com/articles/moesia) Inferior in 86 AD, the Dardani were located in southern [Moesia](https://bliptext.com/articles/moesia) Superior.\nAt first, Dardania was not a separate Roman province, but became a region in the province of [Moesia Superior](https://bliptext.com/articles/moesia-superior) in 87 AD. Emperor [Diocletian](https://bliptext.com/articles/diocletian) later (284) made Dardania into a separate province with its capital at [Naissus](https://bliptext.com/articles/naissus) ([Niš](https://bliptext.com/articles/ni)).\nDuring the [Byzantine](https://bliptext.com/articles/byzantine) administration (in the 6th century), there was a [Byzantine](https://bliptext.com/articles/byzantine) province of Dardania that included cities of [Ulpiana](https://bliptext.com/articles/ulpiana), [Scupi](https://bliptext.com/articles/scupi), [Justiniana Prima](https://bliptext.com/articles/justiniana-prima), and others.\n# [After the division of Roman Moesia into two provinces in 86 AD, the Dardani were located in southern Moesia Superior. | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/89/Map///of///the///roman///province///of///Moesia///%28250%29.jpg]\n# [Dardania and the Balkans during the 6th century AD. | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0e/Balkans///6th///century.svg]\n\n# Polity\n\n## History of the tribal government\nA Dardanian [polity](https://bliptext.com/articles/polity) began to develop from the 4th century BC. The [Kingdom of Dardania](https://bliptext.com/articles/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](https://bliptext.com/articles/macedon) – until the 2nd century BC. The Dardanian kingdom was made up of many tribes and tribal groups, confirmed by [Strabo](https://bliptext.com/articles/strabo), who mentions the [Galabri](https://bliptext.com/articles/galabri) and [Thunatae](https://bliptext.com/articles/thunatae) as Dardanian tribes, and describes the Dardani as one of the three strongest Illyrian peoples, the other two being the [Ardiaei](https://bliptext.com/articles/ardiaei) and [Autariatae](https://bliptext.com/articles/autariatae).\nThe Dardanians, in all their history, always had separate domains from the rest of the [Illyrians](https://bliptext.com/articles/illyrians).\nThe term used for their territory was (Δαρδανική), while other tribal areas had more unspecified terms, such as Autariaton khora (Αὐταριατῶν χώρα), for the \"land of [Autariatae](https://bliptext.com/articles/autariatae).\"\nThe term was used to describe the Dardanian political status as a semi-independent country in the later [Roman Republic](https://bliptext.com/articles/roman-republic).\nLittle 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.\nAn unnamed Dardanian king is mentioned in ancient sources describing the events of the region of the early 3rd century BC. He offered the [Macedonian](https://bliptext.com/articles/macedon) king [Ptolemy Ceraunos](https://bliptext.com/articles/ptolemy-ceraunos) 20,000 soldiers to counteract the [invading Celts](https://bliptext.com/articles/celtic-settlement-of-southeast-europe), but Ceraunos declined the offer.\nTribal chiefs [Longarus](https://bliptext.com/articles/longarus) and his son [Bato](https://bliptext.com/articles/bato-dardanian-chieftain) took part in the wars against [Romans](https://bliptext.com/articles/ancient-rome) and [Macedonians](https://bliptext.com/articles/macedon).\n\n## Dardanian rulers\n[Etuta](https://bliptext.com/articles/etuta) (Etleva) was the daughter of [Monunius II](https://bliptext.com/articles/monunius-ii) of Dardania and the [illyrian queen](https://bliptext.com/articles/etuta) of [Ardiaei](https://bliptext.com/articles/ardiaei).\nSome scholars believe that Illyrian rulers [Bardylis](https://bliptext.com/articles/bardylis), [Audata](https://bliptext.com/articles/audata), [Cleitus](https://bliptext.com/articles/cleitus-dardania) (son of [Bardylis](https://bliptext.com/articles/bardylis)), [Bardylis](https://bliptext.com/articles/bardylis) II, [Bircenna](https://bliptext.com/articles/bircenna) (daughter of [Bardylis](https://bliptext.com/articles/bardylis) II), and [Monunios](https://bliptext.com/articles/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.\nNevertheless, [Bardylis](https://bliptext.com/articles/bardylis), if not Dardanian, probably had some kind of hegemony on Dardanians during his reign.\n\n# Foreign relations\n\n## Bad press\nUnlike their [Thracian](https://bliptext.com/articles/thracians) neighbors, in pre-Roman times the Dardani were not Hellenized.\nFrom the Greek point of view, they were barbarians.\nBecause of this prejudice they received some bad press in the Ancient Greek and Roman historiography.\nThe tribe was viewed of as \"extremely barbaric\".\n[Claudius Aelianus](https://bliptext.com/articles/claudius-aelianus) and other writers wrote that they bathed only three times in their lives.\nAt birth, when they were wed and after they died.\n[Strabo](https://bliptext.com/articles/strabo) refers to them as wild and dwelling in dirty caves under dung-hills.\nThis however may have had to do not with cleanliness, as bathing had to do with monetary status from the viewpoint of the [Greeks](https://bliptext.com/articles/ancient-greeks).\n\n## Enslavement\nDardanian slaves or freedmen at the time of the Roman conquest were clearly of [Paleo-Balkan](https://bliptext.com/articles/paleo-balkan-languages) origin, according to their personal names.\nIt has been noted that personal names were mostly of the \"Central-Dalmatian type\".\n\n# Culture\n\n## Language\nThe Dardanians had their own language.\nAn extensive study based on [onomastics](https://bliptext.com/articles/onomastics) of the Roman era has been undertaken by [Radoslav Katičić](https://bliptext.com/articles/radoslav-kati-i) 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).\nAnother 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.\nDana 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.\nSince the Dardani were neighbored to the east by the Thracians, the eastern parts of Dardania were at the Thraco-Illyrian contact zone.\nAs 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.\nThe 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.\nThe linguistic relationship between '[Illyrian](https://bliptext.com/articles/illyrian-language)' and '[Thracian](https://bliptext.com/articles/thracian-language)' 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](https://bliptext.com/articles/illyrian-language), and the same for [Thracian](https://bliptext.com/articles/thracian-language) except for a few short inscriptions of difficult interpretation.\nDardanian in the context of a distinct language is considered in recent decades as potentially significant for the history of the [Albanian language](https://bliptext.com/articles/albanian-language).\n\n## Religion\nGraves from the 6th and 5th centuries BCE in [Romajë](https://bliptext.com/articles/romaj) contain long iron bars which were placed in the tombs are a means of payment to the afterlife.\nThey 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](https://bliptext.com/articles/smir).\nThe weapons included double-edged axes ([Labrys](https://bliptext.com/articles/labrys)), which might have been used in a ritualistic manner related to [sun worship](https://bliptext.com/articles/sun-worship) which was prevalent in the northern Illyrian tribes\nAmong the characteristic Dardanian deities were [Andinus](https://bliptext.com/articles/andinus), considered to have been the indigenous god of [vegetation](https://bliptext.com/articles/vegetation-deity) and [soil fertility](https://bliptext.com/articles/soil-fertility), and [Dea Dardanica](https://bliptext.com/articles/dea-dardanica) (\"Dardanian Goddess\").\nThey are attested in votive inscriptions of the Roman period in Dardania.\nA monument representing a round labyrinth that was dedicated to the \"Dardanian Goddess\" was found in Smira.\nThis monument provides evidence for cosmogonic and cosmologic knowledges among the Dardani.\nThe labyrinth was realized based on the concept of the [trinity](https://bliptext.com/articles/trinity).\nThere 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.\nDardanian funerary stelae portray representations of their mourning practice, which accurately mirrors the Albanian traditional lamentation of the dead – [gjâma](https://bliptext.com/articles/gj-ma).\nThe 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.\n# [Dea Dardanica represented an ancient deity in Dardania | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/39/Arkeologji///-///Periudha///Romake///-///Kllokot.JPG]\n\n## Music\nStrabo writes that Dardanians cared about music, always using musical instruments, both of the [wind](https://bliptext.com/articles/wind-instruments) and [string](https://bliptext.com/articles/string-instruments) type.","current_revision":null,"created_by":"kACnuQmH5k9Nr5VNVEpVeg7XpvUmMctD","created_at":"2025-01-25T20:08:31.181Z","updated_at":"2025-01-25T20:08:31.181Z","search_vector":"'dardani':1","search_content":" \n \n**Image Caption:** By the 3rd century the location of the Dardani had resolved itself into the Kingdom of Dardania, which is shown in yellow. The solid lines give modern borders: Republic of Kosovo in the center, Serbia across the north, Macedonia across the south, Albania to the SW, and Montenegro to the NW. \n**Image Upright:** 1.5 \n**Languages:** Palaeo-Balkan language group \n \n\n# \nThe **Dardani** or **Dardani**ans were a [Paleo-Balkan](https://bliptext.com/articles/paleo-balkan-languages) people, who lived in a region that was named **Dardani**a after their settlement there.\nThey were among the oldest Balkan peoples, and their society was very complex.\nThe 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.\nAncient tradition considered the Dardani as an [Illyrian people](https://bliptext.com/articles/illyrians).\n [Strabo](https://bliptext.com/articles/strabo), in particular – also mentioning [Galabri](https://bliptext.com/articles/galabri) and [Thunatae](https://bliptext.com/articles/thunatae) as Dardanian tribes – describes the Dardani as one of the three strongest Illyrian peoples, the other two being the [Ardiaei](https://bliptext.com/articles/ardiaei) and [Autariatae](https://bliptext.com/articles/autariatae).\nAs [Dardania](https://bliptext.com/articles/kingdom-of-dardania)ns had followed their own peculiar geographical, social and political development in [Dardania](https://bliptext.com/articles/kingdom-of-dardania), some ancient sources also distinguish them from those Illyrians dwelling in the central and southern coast of the eastern [Adriatic Sea](https://bliptext.com/articles/adriatic-sea) and its hinterland, who had constituted their own socio-political formation, referred to as '[Illyrian kingdom](https://bliptext.com/articles/illyrian-kingdom)' by ancient authors.\nThe Dardani were also related to their [Thracian](https://bliptext.com/articles/thracians) neighbors.\nIn Roman times, there appear [Thracian](https://bliptext.com/articles/thracian-language) names in the eastern strip of Dardania, and several [Thracian](https://bliptext.com/articles/thracian-language) and [Dacian](https://bliptext.com/articles/dacians) placenames also appear there, such as [Dardapara](https://bliptext.com/articles/dardapara) and [Quemedava](https://bliptext.com/articles/quemedava), but Illyrian names dominated the rest.\nNevertheless, ancient authors have not identified Dardanians with Thracians, and Strabo explicitly makes a clear distinction between them.\nThe [Kingdom of Dardania](https://bliptext.com/articles/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](https://bliptext.com/articles/macedon) – until the 2nd century BC. The historian [Justin](https://bliptext.com/articles/justin-historian), a main source about the history of the [Macedon](https://bliptext.com/articles/macedon)ian 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](https://bliptext.com/articles/macedon), who won the conflict.\nAfter the [Celtic invasion of the Balkans](https://bliptext.com/articles/celtic-invasion-of-the-balkans) weakened the state of the [Macedonians](https://bliptext.com/articles/ancient-macedonians) and [Paeonians](https://bliptext.com/articles/paeonians), the political and military role of the Dardanians began to grow in the region.\nThey expanded their state to the area of [Paeonia](https://bliptext.com/articles/paeonia-kingdom) which definitively disappeared from history, and to some territories of the southern Illyrians.\nThe Dardanians strongly pressured the Macedonians, using every opportunity to attack them.\nHowever the Macedonians quickly recovered and consolidated their state, and the Dardanians lost their important political role.\nThe strengthening of the Illyrian ([Ardiaean](https://bliptext.com/articles/ardiaei)–[Labeatan](https://bliptext.com/articles/labeatae)) state on their western borders also contributed to the restriction of Dardanian warlike actions towards their neighbors.\nDardanians fought against [Roman](https://bliptext.com/articles/roman-republic) proconsuls, and were finally defeated probably by [Marcus Antonius](https://bliptext.com/articles/marcus-antonius) in 39 BC or by [Marcus Licinius Crassus](https://bliptext.com/articles/marcus-licinius-crassus-consul-30-bc) in 29/8 BC. They were included in the [Roman](https://bliptext.com/articles/roman-republic) province of [Moesia](https://bliptext.com/articles/moesia).\nAfter the Roman emperor [Domitian](https://bliptext.com/articles/domitian) divided the province of Moesia into [Moesia Superior](https://bliptext.com/articles/moesia-superior) and [Moesia Inferior](https://bliptext.com/articles/moesia-inferior) in 86 AD, the Dardani were located in southern [Moesia Superior](https://bliptext.com/articles/moesia-superior).\nA [Roman colony](https://bliptext.com/articles/roman-colony) was established at [Scupi](https://bliptext.com/articles/scupi) in Dardanian territory under the [Flavian dynasty](https://bliptext.com/articles/flavian-dynasty).\nIn the 2nd century AD Dardanians were still notorious as [brigands](https://bliptext.com/articles/brigandage) (latrones dardaniae).\nDuring the late [Imperial period](https://bliptext.com/articles/roman-empire) their territory was the homeland of many [Roman emperors](https://bliptext.com/articles/roman-emperors), notably [Constantine the Great](https://bliptext.com/articles/constantine-the-great) and [Justinian I](https://bliptext.com/articles/justinian-i).\n\n# Name\nThe ethnonym of the Dardani has been attested in ancient Greek literature as, and , and in Latin as Dardani.\nThe term used for their territory was (Δαρδανική).\nThe 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; Δερδιενις, name of Macedonian-Elimiot princes; Δερδια in [Thessaly](https://bliptext.com/articles/ancient-thessaly); Δερδενις in [Lesbos](https://bliptext.com/articles/lesbos); in ancient [Apulia](https://bliptext.com/articles/apulia) Dardi, a [Daunian](https://bliptext.com/articles/dauni) tribe, Derdensis a region and Δαρδανον, a [Daunian](https://bliptext.com/articles/dauni) settlement.\nThe suffix -ano in Dard- was common to many Indo-European languages.\nThe names of the two main Dardanian tribes – Galabri/Galabrioi and Thunatae/Thunatai – have been respectively connected to the [Messapic](https://bliptext.com/articles/messapic-language) [Kalabroi/Calabri](https://bliptext.com/articles/iapygians) and [Daunioi/Daunii](https://bliptext.com/articles/daunians) in [Apulia](https://bliptext.com/articles/apulia) (south-eastern [Italy](https://bliptext.com/articles/italy)), of Palaeo-Balkan provenance.\n\n## Etymology\nThe name Dardan- (ethnonym: Δάρδανοι/; toponym: Δαρδανική/) is traditionally connected to the same root as dardhë, the [Albanian](https://bliptext.com/articles/albanian-language) word for 'pear', as well as Alb.\ndardhán, dardán, 'farmer'.\nThe ethnonym [Pirustae](https://bliptext.com/articles/pirustae), which is attested since Roman times for a tribe close to the Dardani or living in Dardania, is considered to be the [Latin](https://bliptext.com/articles/latin) translation of Dardani (cf. [Latin](https://bliptext.com/articles/latin) pirus \"pear\"), which would confirm the link with the Albanian dardhë.\nIn 1854, [Johann Georg von Hahn](https://bliptext.com/articles/johann-georg-von-hahn) was the first to propose that the names Dardanoi and Dardania were related to the Albanian word dardhë (\"pear, pear-tree\").\nThis is suggested by the fact that toponyms related to fruits or animals are not unknown in the region (cf. Alb. dele, delmë \"sheep\" supposedly related to Dalmatia, [Ulcinj](https://bliptext.com/articles/ulcinj) in Montenegro ȷ́ [dʑ] > dz > dð > dh/d: Alb. dielli < PAlb. *dðiella < *dziella- < EPAlb. *ȷ́élu̯a- < PIE *ǵʰélh₃u̯o- \"yellow, golden, bright/shiny\").\nThis phenomenon reflects the uncertainty of the Ancient Greek and Roman authors in transcribing the Proto-Albanian affricates, which were unfamiliar to them.\nIndeed, 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](https://bliptext.com/articles/eric-hamp)'s thesis about the Proto-[Albanoid](https://bliptext.com/articles/albanoid) dialects, spoken in the central-western Balkans including the historical regions of Dardania, Illyria proper, Paeonia, Upper Moesia, western Dacia and western Thrace.\n\n## The name in the ancient sources\nThe name of the Dardani is mentioned for the first time in the [Iliad](https://bliptext.com/articles/iliad) in the name of [[Dardanus](https://bliptext.com/articles/dardanus-city)](https://bliptext.com/articles/dardanus-son-of-zeus) who founded [[Dardanus](https://bliptext.com/articles/dardanus-city)](https://bliptext.com/articles/dardanus-son-of-zeus) on the Aegean coast of [Anatolia](https://bliptext.com/articles/anatolia) and his people the [Dardanoi](https://bliptext.com/articles/dardanoi), from which the toponym [Dardanelles](https://bliptext.com/articles/dardanelles) is derived.\nOther parallel ethnic names in the Balkans and Anatolia, respectively include: [Eneti](https://bliptext.com/articles/illyrian-eneti) and [Enetoi](https://bliptext.com/articles/paphlagonian-eneti), [Bryges](https://bliptext.com/articles/bryges) and [Phryges](https://bliptext.com/articles/phrygians).\nThese parallels indicate closer links than simply a correlation of names.\nAccording 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](https://bliptext.com/articles/bronze-age) (around 1200 BC), when the attacks of the '[Sea Peoples](https://bliptext.com/articles/sea-peoples)' afflicted some of the established powers around the eastern [Mediterranean](https://bliptext.com/articles/mediterranean).\nIn ancient historiography, the Dardani of the Balkans are mentioned as a people in the second century BCE by [Polybius](https://bliptext.com/articles/polybius) who describes their wars against [Macedon](https://bliptext.com/articles/macedon) in the third century BC. Historians of Hellenistic and Roman antiquity who mention the Dardanians are [Diodorus Siculus](https://bliptext.com/articles/diodorus-siculus), [Marcus Terentius Varro](https://bliptext.com/articles/marcus-terentius-varro), [Strabo](https://bliptext.com/articles/strabo), [Sallust](https://bliptext.com/articles/sallust), [Appian](https://bliptext.com/articles/appian), [Dionysius of Halicarnassus](https://bliptext.com/articles/dionysius-of-halicarnassus) and others.\nAccording to a mythological tradition reported by [Appian](https://bliptext.com/articles/appian) (2nd century AD), Dardanos (Δάρδανος), one of the sons of [Illyrius](https://bliptext.com/articles/illyrius) (Ἰλλυριός), was the [eponymous](https://bliptext.com/articles/eponymous) ancestor of the Dardanoi (Δάρδανοι).\nIn ancient sources the Dardani are mentioned as one of the [Illyrian people](https://bliptext.com/articles/illyrians) and/or as a distinct grouping in the region of Dardania.\nAs such, the Dardani were Illyrians from an ethno-linguistic perspective, but they had followed their own peculiar geographical, social and political development in [Dardania](https://bliptext.com/articles/kingdom-of-dardania).\nIn the late 1st century BCE, in Rome a new ideological discourse was formed.\nPropagated by poets like [Horace](https://bliptext.com/articles/horace) and [Ovid](https://bliptext.com/articles/ovid), it constructed a glorious Trojan past for the Romans, who were claimed to be descendants of Trojan Dardanians.\nIn 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.\nIn 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.\nThe 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.\nIn this context, the name of a people known as the [Moesi](https://bliptext.com/articles/moesi) appeared in Roman sources.\nThe Moesi are mentioned only in three ancient sources in the period after the death of Emperor Augustus in 14 CE.\nThe name itself was taken from the name of the [Mysians](https://bliptext.com/articles/mysians) in Asia Minor.\nThe choice seems to be related to the fact that the Trojan-era Mysians lived close to the Trojan-era Dardanians.\nAs 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.\nAfter the death of Augustus, their name in connection to the Balkans became a political problem.\nAfter the death of Augustus, the new emperor was [Tiberius](https://bliptext.com/articles/tiberius), his stepson and the most senior Roman general in the Balkans.\nAs 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.\nThus, the decision to create a new name for Dardania and the Dardani was made.\nDespite 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.\nThe name Dardania was not used for several hundred years after this period in an administrative context.\nIt was only recreated by Emperor [Diocletian](https://bliptext.com/articles/diocletian) in the 3rd century CE.\n\n# History\n\n## Emergence\nThe territory of present-day [Kosovo](https://bliptext.com/articles/kosovo) which formed the core area of the Dardani has been inhabited since the [Neolithic era](https://bliptext.com/articles/neolithic-europe).\n[Runik](https://bliptext.com/articles/runik) and [Vlashnjë](https://bliptext.com/articles/vlashnj) are two of the most significant sites in the Neolithic period.\nDuring the late 3rd millennium BCE, [Proto-Indo-European](https://bliptext.com/articles/proto-indo-europeans) tribes migrated and settled in the region alongside the existing Neolithic population.\nNew practices in agriculture and cattle breeding appear in this period and new settlements formed in Kosovo.\nCo-existence and intermingling of the Neolithic population and the PIE-speakers gave rise to the [material culture](https://bliptext.com/articles/copper-bronze-and-iron-age-sites-in-kosovo) which developed in the Bronze Age (2100-1100 BCE) in settlements including Vlashnjë, Korishë, Pogragjë, Bardhi i Madh and Topanicë.\nArchaeological research in the territory of Dardania greatly expanded since 2000.\nIn contemporary research, a periodization of four phases of development of pre-Roman Dardania is being utilized:\nIn the Iron Age habitation further developed with the emergence of the [Glasinac-Mat culture](https://bliptext.com/articles/glasinac-culture), an [Illyrian](https://bliptext.com/articles/illyrians) material culture which developed in the Iron Age western Balkans.\nThe Dardani - as they became known in classical antiquity - were one of the particular groups of the Glasinac-Mat culture.\nThe [Brnjica](https://bliptext.com/articles/brnjica-culture) cultural group was a Late Bronze Age cultural manifestation in what was to become Dardania, closely connected to the Balkan-Danubian complex.\nIt dates between the 14th and 10th centuries BCE, and appears in Kosovo, Morava valley, Sandzak, Macedonia and South-East Serbia.\nIn [Yugoslavian](https://bliptext.com/articles/yugoslavia) historiography, starting from Milutin Garašanin in the 1970s and 1980s, the Brnjica culture came to be interpreted as the \"[Daco-Moesian](https://bliptext.com/articles/daco-moesian)\" and non-\"[Illyrian](https://bliptext.com/articles/illyrian-language)\" linguistic component of the later Dardani.\nBefore that change, Yugoslavian scholars had regarded the Dardani as of Illyrian origin.\nThe 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.\n\n## Classical antiquity\nIn Dardania tribal aristocracy and pre-urban development emerged from the 6th–5th centuries BC. The contacts of the Dardanians with the [Mediterranean world](https://bliptext.com/articles/mediterranean-world) began early and intensified during the Iron Age.\nTrade connections with the [Ancient Greek world](https://bliptext.com/articles/ancient-greek-world) were created from the 7th century BC onwards.\nThe proto-urban development was followed by the creation of urban centers and the emergence of craftsmanship, and a Dardanian [polity](https://bliptext.com/articles/polity) began to develop from the 4th century BC. Material culture and accounts in classical sources suggest that Dardanian society reached an advanced phase of development.\nThe Dardani are referred to as one of the opponents of [Macedon](https://bliptext.com/articles/macedon) in the 4th century BC, clashing with [Philip II](https://bliptext.com/articles/philip-ii-of-macedonia) who managed to subdue them and their neighbors, probably during the early period of his reign.\nThe Dardani have remained quiet until Philip II's death, after which they were planning [defection](https://bliptext.com/articles/defection).\nHowever an open war have not been caused by their riots, since [Alexander the Great](https://bliptext.com/articles/alexander-the-great) managed to have the full control of the kingdom and its army after succeeding his father to the Macedonian throne.\nIndeed, the Dardani have not been mentioned in the ancient accounts concerning the events of [Alexander's Balkan campaign](https://bliptext.com/articles/alexander-s-balkan-campaign).\nIt appears that the Dardani evaded the Macedonian rule during the [Wars of the Diadochi](https://bliptext.com/articles/wars-of-the-diadochi) between 284 BC and 281 BC, at the time of [Lysimachus](https://bliptext.com/articles/lysimachus)'empire.\nThereafter the Dardani became a constant threat to Macedon on its northern borders.\nIn 279 BC, at the times of the [great Celtic invasion](https://bliptext.com/articles/celtic-settlement-of-eastern-europe), Dardania was raided by several Celtic tribes on their campaigns that were undertaken to plunder the treasuries of Greek temples.\nDuring 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](https://bliptext.com/articles/ptolemy-keraunos) who, underestimating the Celtic strength, died fighting them.\nOnly at the oracle of [Delphi](https://bliptext.com/articles/delphi) the Celts eventually arrested and were defeated.\nAfterwards they withdrew in the north passing through Dardania, however they were completely destroyed by the Dardani.\nFurther 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.\nAfter the Celtic invasion of the Balkans weakened the state of the Macedonians and [Paeonians](https://bliptext.com/articles/paeonians), the political and military role of the Dardanians began to grow in the region.\nThey expanded their state to the area of [Paeonia](https://bliptext.com/articles/paeonia-kingdom) which definitively disappeared from history.\nIn 230 the Dardani under [Longarus](https://bliptext.com/articles/longarus) captured [Bylazora](https://bliptext.com/articles/bylazora) from the Paeonians.\nTaking advantage of Macedonian weakness, in 229 the Dardani attacked Macedonia and defeated [Demetrius II](https://bliptext.com/articles/demetrius-ii-of-macedon) in an important battle.\nAfter obtaining a great victory over the Macedonian army the Dardani invaded Macedon proper.\nThe Dardanian expansion in Macedon, similar to the [Ardiaean](https://bliptext.com/articles/ardiaei) expansion in Epirus around the same years, may have been part of a general movement among the Illyrian peoples.\nIn this period Dardanian influence on the region grew and some other Illyrian tribes deserted [Teuta](https://bliptext.com/articles/teuta), joining the Dardani under Longarus and forcing [Teuta](https://bliptext.com/articles/teuta) to call off her expedition forces in Epirus.\nWhen [Philip V](https://bliptext.com/articles/philip-v-of-macedon) 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.\nIn 201 [Bato of Dardania](https://bliptext.com/articles/bato-of-dardania) along with Pleuratus the Illyrian and Amynander king of Athamania, cooperated with Roman consul Sulpicius in his expedition against [Philip V](https://bliptext.com/articles/philip-v-of-macedon). Being always under the menace of Dardanian attacks on Macedonia, around 183 BC [Philip V](https://bliptext.com/articles/philip-v-of-macedon) made an alliance with the [Bastarnae](https://bliptext.com/articles/bastarnae) and invited them to settle in Polog, the region of Dardania closest to Macedonia.\nA joint campaign of the Bastarnae and Macedonians against the Dardanians was organized, but Philip V died and his son [Perseus of Macedon](https://bliptext.com/articles/perseus-of-macedon) withdrew his forces from the campaign.\nThe Bastarnae crossed the Danube in huge numbers and although they didn't meet the Macedonians, they continued the campaign.\nSome 30,000 Bastarnae under the command of Clondicus seem to have defeated the Dardani.\nIn 179 BC, the [Bastarnae](https://bliptext.com/articles/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.\nMacedonia and Illyria became Roman protectorates in 168 BC. The [Scordisci](https://bliptext.com/articles/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.\n# [Illyrian tribes in the 7th–4th centuries BCE. | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/09/Illyrians///in///the///7th-4th///centuries///BC.png]\n# [Kingdom of the Dardanians, late 3rd century BC, prior to their conquest of Paeonia and Macedonia. | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/24/Dardanian///Kingdom///%28late///3rd///century///BC%29.png]\n\n## Roman era\nIllyria and Macedonia became Roman protectorates in 168 BC. In 97 BC, the Dardani are mentioned again, defeated by the Macedonian Roman army.\nIn 88 BC, the Dardani invaded the [Roman](https://bliptext.com/articles/roman-empire) province of [Macedonia](https://bliptext.com/articles/macedonia-roman-province) together with the [Scordisci](https://bliptext.com/articles/scordisci) and the [Maedi](https://bliptext.com/articles/maedi).\nThe Romans found an ancient formed economy in Dardania, based on agriculture and animal husbandry, mining and metallurgy, in different handicrafts and in trade.\nThe Romans focused especially in exploitation of mines, same as in other provinces, and in road construction.\nIt 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](https://bliptext.com/articles/augustus)' rule in 6 AD, when they were finally conquered by Rome.\nDardania was conquered by [Gaius Scribonius Curio](https://bliptext.com/articles/gaius-scribonius-curio-consul-76-bc) and the Latin language was soon adopted as the main language of the tribe as many other conquered and Romanized.\nAfter the Roman emperor [Domitian](https://bliptext.com/articles/domitian) divided the province of [Moesia](https://bliptext.com/articles/moesia) into [Moesia](https://bliptext.com/articles/moesia) Superior and [Moesia](https://bliptext.com/articles/moesia) Inferior in 86 AD, the Dardani were located in southern [Moesia](https://bliptext.com/articles/moesia) Superior.\nAt first, Dardania was not a separate Roman province, but became a region in the province of [Moesia Superior](https://bliptext.com/articles/moesia-superior) in 87 AD. Emperor [Diocletian](https://bliptext.com/articles/diocletian) later (284) made Dardania into a separate province with its capital at [Naissus](https://bliptext.com/articles/naissus) ([Niš](https://bliptext.com/articles/ni)).\nDuring the [Byzantine](https://bliptext.com/articles/byzantine) administration (in the 6th century), there was a [Byzantine](https://bliptext.com/articles/byzantine) province of Dardania that included cities of [Ulpiana](https://bliptext.com/articles/ulpiana), [Scupi](https://bliptext.com/articles/scupi), [Justiniana Prima](https://bliptext.com/articles/justiniana-prima), and others.\n# [After the division of Roman Moesia into two provinces in 86 AD, the Dardani were located in southern Moesia Superior. | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/89/Map///of///the///roman///province///of///Moesia///%28250%29.jpg]\n# [Dardania and the Balkans during the 6th century AD. | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0e/Balkans///6th///century.svg]\n\n# Polity\n\n## History of the tribal government\nA Dardanian [polity](https://bliptext.com/articles/polity) began to develop from the 4th century BC. The [Kingdom of Dardania](https://bliptext.com/articles/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](https://bliptext.com/articles/macedon) – until the 2nd century BC. The Dardanian kingdom was made up of many tribes and tribal groups, confirmed by [Strabo](https://bliptext.com/articles/strabo), who mentions the [Galabri](https://bliptext.com/articles/galabri) and [Thunatae](https://bliptext.com/articles/thunatae) as Dardanian tribes, and describes the Dardani as one of the three strongest Illyrian peoples, the other two being the [Ardiaei](https://bliptext.com/articles/ardiaei) and [Autariatae](https://bliptext.com/articles/autariatae).\nThe Dardanians, in all their history, always had separate domains from the rest of the [Illyrians](https://bliptext.com/articles/illyrians).\nThe term used for their territory was (Δαρδανική), while other tribal areas had more unspecified terms, such as Autariaton khora (Αὐταριατῶν χώρα), for the \"land of [Autariatae](https://bliptext.com/articles/autariatae).\"\nThe term was used to describe the Dardanian political status as a semi-independent country in the later [Roman Republic](https://bliptext.com/articles/roman-republic).\nLittle 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.\nAn unnamed Dardanian king is mentioned in ancient sources describing the events of the region of the early 3rd century BC. He offered the [Macedonian](https://bliptext.com/articles/macedon) king [Ptolemy Ceraunos](https://bliptext.com/articles/ptolemy-ceraunos) 20,000 soldiers to counteract the [invading Celts](https://bliptext.com/articles/celtic-settlement-of-southeast-europe), but Ceraunos declined the offer.\nTribal chiefs [Longarus](https://bliptext.com/articles/longarus) and his son [Bato](https://bliptext.com/articles/bato-dardanian-chieftain) took part in the wars against [Romans](https://bliptext.com/articles/ancient-rome) and [Macedonians](https://bliptext.com/articles/macedon).\n\n## Dardanian rulers\n[Etuta](https://bliptext.com/articles/etuta) (Etleva) was the daughter of [Monunius II](https://bliptext.com/articles/monunius-ii) of Dardania and the [illyrian queen](https://bliptext.com/articles/etuta) of [Ardiaei](https://bliptext.com/articles/ardiaei).\nSome scholars believe that Illyrian rulers [Bardylis](https://bliptext.com/articles/bardylis), [Audata](https://bliptext.com/articles/audata), [Cleitus](https://bliptext.com/articles/cleitus-dardania) (son of [Bardylis](https://bliptext.com/articles/bardylis)), [Bardylis](https://bliptext.com/articles/bardylis) II, [Bircenna](https://bliptext.com/articles/bircenna) (daughter of [Bardylis](https://bliptext.com/articles/bardylis) II), and [Monunios](https://bliptext.com/articles/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.\nNevertheless, [Bardylis](https://bliptext.com/articles/bardylis), if not Dardanian, probably had some kind of hegemony on Dardanians during his reign.\n\n# Foreign relations\n\n## Bad press\nUnlike their [Thracian](https://bliptext.com/articles/thracians) neighbors, in pre-Roman times the Dardani were not Hellenized.\nFrom the Greek point of view, they were barbarians.\nBecause of this prejudice they received some bad press in the Ancient Greek and Roman historiography.\nThe tribe was viewed of as \"extremely barbaric\".\n[Claudius Aelianus](https://bliptext.com/articles/claudius-aelianus) and other writers wrote that they bathed only three times in their lives.\nAt birth, when they were wed and after they died.\n[Strabo](https://bliptext.com/articles/strabo) refers to them as wild and dwelling in dirty caves under dung-hills.\nThis however may have had to do not with cleanliness, as bathing had to do with monetary status from the viewpoint of the [Greeks](https://bliptext.com/articles/ancient-greeks).\n\n## Enslavement\nDardanian slaves or freedmen at the time of the Roman conquest were clearly of [Paleo-Balkan](https://bliptext.com/articles/paleo-balkan-languages) origin, according to their personal names.\nIt has been noted that personal names were mostly of the \"Central-Dalmatian type\".\n\n# Culture\n\n## Language\nThe Dardanians had their own language.\nAn extensive study based on [onomastics](https://bliptext.com/articles/onomastics) of the Roman era has been undertaken by [Radoslav Katičić](https://bliptext.com/articles/radoslav-kati-i) 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).\nAnother 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.\nDana 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.\nSince the Dardani were neighbored to the east by the Thracians, the eastern parts of Dardania were at the Thraco-Illyrian contact zone.\nAs 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.\nThe 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.\nThe linguistic relationship between '[Illyrian](https://bliptext.com/articles/illyrian-language)' and '[Thracian](https://bliptext.com/articles/thracian-language)' 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](https://bliptext.com/articles/illyrian-language), and the same for [Thracian](https://bliptext.com/articles/thracian-language) except for a few short inscriptions of difficult interpretation.\nDardanian in the context of a distinct language is considered in recent decades as potentially significant for the history of the [Albanian language](https://bliptext.com/articles/albanian-language).\n\n## Religion\nGraves from the 6th and 5th centuries BCE in [Romajë](https://bliptext.com/articles/romaj) contain long iron bars which were placed in the tombs are a means of payment to the afterlife.\nThey 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](https://bliptext.com/articles/smir).\nThe weapons included double-edged axes ([Labrys](https://bliptext.com/articles/labrys)), which might have been used in a ritualistic manner related to [sun worship](https://bliptext.com/articles/sun-worship) which was prevalent in the northern Illyrian tribes\nAmong the characteristic Dardanian deities were [Andinus](https://bliptext.com/articles/andinus), considered to have been the indigenous god of [vegetation](https://bliptext.com/articles/vegetation-deity) and [soil fertility](https://bliptext.com/articles/soil-fertility), and [Dea Dardanica](https://bliptext.com/articles/dea-dardanica) (\"Dardanian Goddess\").\nThey are attested in votive inscriptions of the Roman period in Dardania.\nA monument representing a round labyrinth that was dedicated to the \"Dardanian Goddess\" was found in Smira.\nThis monument provides evidence for cosmogonic and cosmologic knowledges among the Dardani.\nThe labyrinth was realized based on the concept of the [trinity](https://bliptext.com/articles/trinity).\nThere 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.\nDardanian funerary stelae portray representations of their mourning practice, which accurately mirrors the Albanian traditional lamentation of the dead – [gjâma](https://bliptext.com/articles/gj-ma).\nThe 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.\n# [Dea Dardanica represented an ancient deity in Dardania | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/39/Arkeologji///-///Periudha///Romake///-///Kllokot.JPG]\n\n## Music\nStrabo writes that Dardanians cared about music, always using musical instruments, both of the [wind](https://bliptext.com/articles/wind-instruments) and [string](https://bliptext.com/articles/string-instruments) type.","revisionCount":0},"hasMore":false,"nextCursor":null}