Extract

The Roman name for the territory of the *Indo-European Illyrians beyond the *Adriatic Sea. Their attacks on shipping brought Roman intervention in the First and Second Illyrian Wars (229/8, 219 bce): see demetrius (6); teuta. During the Second Punic War the Illyrian kingdom acted as a buffer state between Rome and Macedon, and at the peace after *Cynoscephalae (197 bce) the Illyrians under Pleuratus II (206–180) were awarded some Macedonian territories. Under his successor Gentius (c.180–168), however, *piracy was revived and as an ally of *Perseus(2) of Macedon they were defeated by the praetor L. Anicius Gallus in 168 (Livy 44. 30–2). The settlement, by which the kingdom was divided into three parts, did not lead to a permanent Roman administration in Illyricum, and only sporadic campaigns by consuls or proconsuls are attested, chiefly against the Delmatae (see dalmatia).