Dardani

The Dardan (Greek Dardánioi Δαρδάνιοι, Dárdanoi Δάρδανοι, Dardaníones Δαρδανίωνες; Latin Dardani ) were in ancient times, a tribe that lived on the southern Balkan Peninsula in the region named after them Dardania. In the east the Dardanian settlement area touched that of the Thracians, with whom they intermarried, and took up some elements of them into their culture. It is disputed whether this is a Illyrian tribe at the Dardani, but they are brought to the part in contact with them.

Settlement area

Dardania included the present-day Kosovo, handed the west to the valley of the Drin and closed the landscape with each Metohija. To the north it extended to beyond Niš and south also included the area around Scupi it. There verged Dardanian land to peonies and Dassaratia, regions that had become the 4th century BC provinces of the Macedonian kingdom.

Ethnogenesis

About the origins and ethnogenesis of Dardanians little is known. Even the ancient tradition came from a connection with the mythical people of Dardanians in Asia Minor, who fought to Homer on the side of the Trojans against the Greeks. This would argue for a membership of the Balkan Dardanians to the Thracians. Archaeological evidence does not exist, however. The excavated Dardanian artifacts, especially ceramics and fibulae have Illyrian forms as they are also known from Illyrian localities in Albania and on the central Adriatic coast in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. From the language of the Dardan is virtually nothing survived. Until the Roman conquest, they lived in a largely non-literate culture. Under Roman rule, they used the Latin and Greek languages, as many inscriptions show.

History

History and Hellenistic period

At the turn of the 6th and 5th century BC, the Dardan put on the first fortified settlements. A larger spaces comprehensive political organization did not exist at that time. Busy but that Dardanians exaggerated already trade with neighboring regions. In the tombs is found pottery from Corinth, Athens and Epidamnos (today Durrës ). The most important export the Dardan was silver. Chemical analyzes have shown that the Greek colonies of Apollonia and Epidamnos based most of the silver for their coinage from the mines of the Dardan. Around 400 BC, there was at least one urban center in Dardania. The city Damastion but is known only by their coinage and could not be located so far. To 385 BC founded Bardylis the first dynasty of the Dardan and ruled over a kingdom that included areas of many other tribes.

Politically, the Dardan first emerged in connection with the Celtic invasion in the Balkans around 280 BC in appearance. They beat the Macedonians before an alliance against the invaders, which was but of these rejected. The imperial historian Diodorus and Ptolemy know to report that the Dardanians were ruled by kings at that time. The name of rulers they do not call.

The Macedonian king Philip V ( 220-179 BC) led 211 and 199 BC war against the Dardan. 175 BC fought the Dardanians under their king Monunios from an invasion of Bastarni. Monunios married his daughter Etleva with the Illyrian king Genthius and both occurred at 170 BC an alliance with the Macedonians against the Romans. After the end of the Third Macedonian -Roman war in 167 BC the Roman consul Lucius Dardanians asked the Aemilius Paullus for peace. The south and west adjacent to Dardania countries on the Adriatic had now become Roman provinces. Over 50 years, the Romans took but no further forays into the interior.

Roman time

86 BC, Lucius Cornelius Sulla Felix went in front against the Dardan that deal with Mithridates VI. had allied and insurgent Greeks against Rome. A counter-attack led to the Dardanians to Delphi. Gaius Curio Scribonius, the consul of 76 BC, managed to beat the Thracians and Dardanians crucial during his subsequent governorship of Macedonia. As Gaius Julius Caesar 59 BC, proconsul of the Roman province Gallia ( Gaul ) and Illyricum ( Illyria ) was the Dardan had already been incorporated into the province of Illyria. After the Illyrian revolt (6-9 AD) Illyria was divided into several provinces. Dardania was part of the province of Moesia ( Moesia ).

The mountainous area of Dardans was for the Romans of little importance. Here no legions were stationed, and have long been established, no Roman colonies. Besides Naissus and Scupi (now municipium ) there were in the 1st century no other cities of importance. Correspondingly low was probably the degree of Romanization in the Dardani. Only the mining industry of the country was to be of national importance. In the Scupi responsible for this Roman officials resided with the title procurator Augusti Metallorum. Emperor Hadrian ( 117-138 AD) founded the colony Ulpiana ( at Lipjan in Kosovo ) as a third Muncipium in Dardania. Nearby you had encountered significant lead deposits; the metal was mainly required for the construction of water lines in large quantity.

Emperor Diocletian ( 284-305 AD) taught in his reorganization of the provincial administration of its own Moesia Superior ( Upper Moesia ) separated province of Dardania one. Since the end of the 3rd century AD, the country was again affected by the barbarian invasions from the north of the Danube. Therefore, the cities were now more attached and stationed troops in the province. Many Dardanians hired themselves out as soldiers in the Roman army. In the division of the kingdom of 395 Dardania was beaten to the Greek East. 441 AD Naissus was taken and plundered by Attila the Hun. After Emperor Zeno the Goths to Italy had been able to distract prevailed in Dardania end of the 5th century, a few decades of peace and the economy prospered again.