The Illyrian Wars

​The Greeks consider the Illyrians to be those who dwell beyond Macedonia and Thrace, from the Chaonians and Thesprotians to the river Ister. And this is the length of the country, while its width is from the Macedonians and the mountainous Thracians to the Paeonians, the Ionian Sea, and the foothills of the Alps. Its width is five days’ journey and its length thirty days’, as has also been stated by the Greeks. But according to the measurements made by the Romans, the length of the country is over six thousand stades, and its width is about one thousand two hundred.

​They say that the country received its name from Illyrius, the son of Polyphemus; for Celtus, Illyrius, and Galas, who were the children of Polyphemus the Cyclops and Galatea, set out from Sicily and ruled over the peoples who, because of them, are called Celts, Illyrians, and Galatians. And this story especially pleases me, though many others tell many different myths. To Illyrius were born as sons Encheleus, Autarieus, Dardanus, Maedus, Taulas, and Perraebus, and daughters Partho, Daortho, Dassaro, and others, from whom arose the Taulantians, Perraebians, Encheleans, Autariates, Dardanians, Parthenians, Dassaretians, and Daorsians. They believe that Pannonius, or Paeon, was born to Autarieus himself, and Scordiscus and Triballus to Paeon, after whom likewise the nations are named. But let these matters be left to the antiquarians, ​and there are many tribes of Illyrians, as is natural in so great a country. Even now, those of the Scordisci and Triballi, who occupy a large territory, are very famous; they destroyed each other in war to such an extent that if any remnant of the Triballi was left, it fled to the Getae beyond the Ister, and this tribe, which flourished until the times of Philip and Alexander, is now desolate and nameless to the people of those parts; while the Scordisci, having become extremely weak from this conflict, were later treated in the same way by the Romans and fled to the islands of the same river, but in time some returned and settled on the frontiers of the Paeonians, whence there is even now a tribe of Scordisci among the Paeonians. In the same manner, the Ardiaei also, who were the best at sea, though they inflicted many injuries upon the Autariates, who were the best on land, were nevertheless destroyed by them. After the Ardiaei, the Liburnians, another tribe of Illyrians, became a seafaring people, who plundered the Ionian Sea and the islands with swift and light vessels, whence even now the Romans call light and fast double-banked vessels Liburnians.