Taulantii

The Taulantians (also called Taulanter; Latin Taulanti; Albanian Taulantët ) was an Illyrian tribe, who spoke a dialect of the Illyrian language. Their settlement area lay on the coast of the Adriatic Sea between the river Aoös in the south and the Doric colony Epidamnos in the north.

History

The Taulantians were first mentioned in the 5th century BC by Hecataeus of Miletus. In the 4th and 3rd centuries BC, they exercised hegemony over a larger number of Illyrian tribes. They appeared in the successor to the further northeast -based Encheläer.

During the Balkan campaign of Alexander the Great in 335 BC by Alexander the Taulantians were the Great from the headwaters of the rivers Eordaikos and Apsos downstream sold and thus concentrated their power in the region that is now central Albania. 312 BC was the taulantische King Glaukias Epidamnos, taking the most important city on the eastern Adriatic coast, and also tried in tribal area location, rich commercial city of Apollonia to conquer, what but most failed to strong alliance between the Apollonian with the Macedonians.

To the Kingdom of the Taulantians the turn of the 4th to 3rd century BC was threatened by the tribes of Epirus. Their hegemon Pyrrhus I. was south of the river Genoúsos deprive them of the areas.

Others

For Albanians, the name Taulant is a popular boys name.