Dassaretae

The Dassareten (Greek Dassarítioi Δασσαρήτιοι ) were an ancient Illyrian tribes. Their settlement area Dassaretia ( Δασσαρήτια ) consisted geographically the mountainous country to the " dassaretischen lakes " ( Ohrid, Prespa, Small Prespa ) and extended to the southwest to the river Eordaikos ( Devoll ) in the triangle of Albania, Macedonia and Greece. Capital was Lychnidos (today Ohrid).

According to legend, the Dassareten of Dassaro came from, a daughter of Illyrios. In the south of their landscape bordered on the rest of the tribes of Epirus and to the southeast by the obermakedonischen landscapes Lynkestis and Orestis, they often fell in league with her ​​brother Illyrian tribes. In the north, the people of the Dardanians bordered on. In the 4th century BC it was conquered by Philip II Dassaretia and has since counted themselves to Upper Macedonia. With the frontier fortress of Pelion, situated at today's Korçë, this landscape was formed henceforth the extreme west of the Macedonian kingdom. In the year 335 BC defeated Alexander the Great during his Balkan campaign here Illyrian army. It was probably Cassander, the city Antipatreia founded in this region, today Berat.

After the Second Macedonian- Roman war Philip V had 196 BC Dassaretia cede to Rome, from which it was granted an autonomous status within the Illyricum.