Dassaretii

The Dassaretii^[a] (Ancient Greek: Δασσαρῆται, Δασσαρήτιοι, Latin: Dassaretae, Dassaretii) were an Illyrian people that lived in the inlands of southern Illyria, between present-day south-eastern Albania and south-western North Macedonia.^[1] Their territory included the entire region between the rivers Asamus and Eordaicus (whose union forms the Apsus), the plateau of Korça locked by the fortress of Pelion and, towards the north it extended to Lake Lychnidus up to the Black Drin. They were directly in contact with the regions of Orestis and Lynkestis of Upper Macedonia.^[2] Their chief city was Lychnidos, located on the edge of the lake of the same name.^[3] One of the most important settlements in their territory was established at Selcë e Poshtme near the western shore of Lake Lychnidus, where the Illyrian Royal Tombs were built.^[4]

The Dassaretii were one of the most prominent peoples of southern Illyria, forming an ethnic state.^[5] They made up the ancient Illyrian kingdom that was established in this region.^[6] The weakening of the kingdom of the Enchelei presumably led to Enchelei's assimilation and inclusion into a newly established Illyrian realm at the latest in the 6th–5th centuries BC, marking the arising of the Dassaretii, who appear to have replaced the Enchelei in the lakeland area.^[7][8]

Most scholars hold that the Illyrian kingdom that was established in the early 4th century BC by the first attested Illyrian ruler – Bardylis – was centered along Lake Ohrid and east to the Prespa Lakes, which was called Dassaretis or Dassaretia later in Roman times, located on the border between Macedon and Epirus.^[9] Although Ohrid and Prespa are usually called "Dassaretan Lakes", only Ohrid remained part of Dassaretan territory, while the region of Prespa became part of Macedon when Philip II annexed it after his victories against the Illyrians.^[10][11]

During a campaign in Illyria in 335 BC, Alexander the Great undertook a victorious siege at Pelion, in Dassaretis, against Illyrians who revolted under the leadership of Cleitus, son of Bardylis, with the aid of Glaucias, king of the Taulantii.^[12] Bardylis II, who reigned in the early 3rd century BC and who is presumably considered Cleitus' son, might have succeeded Glaucias on the throne as the grandson of Bardylis, or alternatively he might have reigned independently after his father Cleitus somewhere in Dassaretia, in an area located nearer the Macedonian border.^[13]

From the 3rd century BC onwards the Dassaretii have been attested as one of the largest Illyrian tribes of the region, and in different periods they changed their rulers, being alternatively under the Illyrian (Ardiaean/Labeatan) kingdom, the Madedonian kingdom and the Roman Republic.^[14] In Hellenistic times the Dassaretii minted coins bearing the inscription of their ethnicon.^[15] As Roman allies, in 167 BC the Romans declared Dassaretii and their region Dassaretia independent.^[16][17] Dassaretia remained part of the Roman protectorate in southern Illyricum outside the borders of Macedonia. From the middle of the 2nd century BC Dassaretia was included in the Roman province of Macedonia. The Dassaretii established autonomous political entities under the Roman protectorate. Centered at Lychnidus, Roman era inscriptions indicate that Dassaretia was an administrative unit with its own magistrates.^[16]

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