Taulantier
The Taulantier (also called Taulanter ; Latin Taulanti ; Albanian Taulantët ) were an Illyrian tribe who spoke a dialect of the Illyrian language . Their settlement area was on the coast of the Adriatic Sea between the Aoos river in the south and the Doric colony Epidamnos in the north.
It is assumed that the ethnonym Taulantier is in linguistic connection with the Albanian word dallëndyshe (best. Dallëndyshja , " swallow "). This thesis is supported by the ethnonym of the also Illyrian tribe of the Helidonians , which is to be understood as a Greek-language equivalent ( Greek χελιδών Chelidón , "swallow").
history
The Taulantier were first discovered in the 5th century BC. Mentioned by Hecataeus of Miletus . In the 4th and 3rd centuries BC They ruled over a large number of Illyrian tribes. They succeeded the Encheleans who lived further to the northeast .
During the Balkan campaign of Alexander the Great in 335 BC The Taulantier were driven by Alexander the Great from the upper reaches of the rivers Eordaikos and Apsos downstream and thus concentrated their power in the region of today's central Albania . 312 BC The Taulantic king Glaukias was able to take Epidamnos, the most important city on the eastern Adriatic coast, and also tried to conquer the rich trading city of Apollonia , which is located in the tribal area, but this failed because of the strong alliance of the Apollonians with the Macedonians .
At the turn of the 4th to the 3rd century BC The kingdom of the Taulantier was threatened by the Epirotian tribes. Their hegemon Pyrrhos I was able to wrest the areas south of the Genoúsos river from them.
Others
The name Taulant is a popular boy’s name among Albanians.
literature
- Cabanes, Pierre: Les Illyriens de Bardylis à Genthios (IVe - IIe siècles avant J.-C.). (= Regards sur l'histoire. 65). Paris 1988. ISBN 2-7181-3841-6 .