Bylliones

The Bylliones were an Illyrian tribe that lived near the Adriatic coast of southern Illyria (modern Albania), on the lower valley of the Vjosa river, in the hinterland of Apollonia.^[1] The Bylliones were firstly attested in epigraphic material from the oracle of Dodona dating back to the 4th century BC, and their koinon was firstly attested in a 3rd-century BC inscription from the same oracle.^[2] Their territory was trapezoidal on the right side of the rivers Luftinje and Vjosa, extending in the west to the Mallakastra mountains.^[3] The chief city of their koinon was Byllis. Another important centre of their koinon was Klos, an earlier Illyrian settlement later called Nikaia, as an inscription attests.^[4] The Bylliones also inhabited in the area of an ancient sanctuary of the eternal fire called Nymphaion.^[5]

Through contact with their Greek neighbours, in Hellenistic times the Bylliones acquired a certain degree of Hellenization and bilingualism, especially in the urban centres of their koinon.^[6][7][8][9] In Hellenistic times their koinon minted coins as attested by inscriptions reporting their ethnicon in Greek letters.^[10] The koinon of the Bylliones survived until Roman Imperial times.^[11] In the Roman era, the Bylliones reappear in the late 1st century CE when they are mentioned by Pliny the Elder in the Natural History (c. 79 CE) as one of the "barbarian" tribes which lived in the area of Nymphaeum.^[12][13] The koinon of the Bylliones and the koinon of the Amantes were the most notable Illyrian koina.^[14]