Teuta (queen)

Fictional representation of Teuta with her stepson Pinnes in the Albanian capital Tirana

Teuta's domain (230-228 BC)

Teuta was an Illyrian queen. She followed her husband Agron from the tribe of Labeaten in the rule gradually reigned 230-228 v. Chr.

After Agron's death, Teuta took over rule on behalf of her underage stepson, Pinnes . The queen launched attacks with her fleet on the Greek cities of Epidamnos and Phoinike on the Illyrian coast, but could not take them.

Meanwhile, Teuta also had to repel a Dardan attack from the interior.

During their raids in the sea area between Butrint and Corfu, Teuta's pirates also damaged Roman merchants and thus provoked the intervention of the Senate. The latter had already become aware of the Illyrians because in the time of King Agron the Greeks of Issa had turned to the Romans with a request for support . In the meantime Demetrius , a Teuta fleet commander, had even been able to occupy Corfu in 229 . The Senate sent two envoys to Teuta in Shkodra to demand redress for the damaged merchants and the cessation of pirate activities. The Queen replied that she had no legal means to forbid the Illyrian seafarers to plunder. (In fact, she probably neither had the power to do so, nor was it in her interest, because on the one hand she exercised only a weak supremacy over various Illyrian tribes, and on the other hand she collected taxes from the pirates.) After one of the envoys with the military intervention of the Threatening Romans, Teuta had him killed.

Then Rome began in 229 BC. The war against Teuta ( First Illyrian War ), and for the first time a Roman army was sent to Illyria. It was under the command of the two consuls Gnaeus Fulvius Centumalus and Lucius Postumius Albinus . The Roman fleet of 200 ships went first to Corfu, which Demetrius surrendered without a fight. He switched to the Roman side and was now allowed to administer the island in the name of the new masters.

The Romans then landed at Apollonia and pushed north. Before Shkodra, the queen was finally defeated. You had to 228 BC Let dictate harsh peace conditions. All that remained was the rule of Shkodra, and she had to pay tribute to the Romans. The kingdom of the Labeates was eliminated; his area in what is now Albania was now under Roman control. The sources are silent about the further fate of Teuta.

Others

Teuta is depicted on the reverse of the Albanian 100 lek coin. There is also a replica of her on the Banka Kombëtare Tregtare in Durrës .

literature

• Teuta . In: William Smith (Ed.): Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology . tape 3 : Oarses-Zygia and Zygius . Little, Brown and Company, Boston 1870, p. 1014 (English, Textarchiv - Internet Archive ).
• Another perspective of the same historical declaration ( albanisches-institut.ch PDF).
• Pierre Cabanes: Les Illyriens de Bardylis à Genthios (IVe - IIe siècles avant J.-C.). (= Regards sur l'histoire. 65). Paris 1988, ISBN 2-7181-3841-6 .

The Croatian poet Dimitrije Demeter published a tragedy Teuta in 1868 . New edition:

• Dimitrije Demeter: Teuta. Zagreb 1995, ISBN 953-192-011-7 .