Dassaretii

The Dassaretii were an Illyrian people that lived in the inlands of southern Illyria, between present-day south-eastern Albania and south-western North Macedonia. Their territory included the entire region between the rivers Asamus and Eordaicus, 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. Their chief city was Lychnidos, located on the edge of the lake of the same name. 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.
The Dassaretii were one of the most prominent peoples of southern Illyria, forming an ethnic state. They made up the ancient Illyrian kingdom that was established in this region. 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.
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. 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.
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. 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.
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 kingdom, the Madedonian kingdom and the Roman Republic. In Hellenistic times the Dassaretii minted coins bearing the inscription of their ethnicon. As Roman allies, in 167 BC the Romans declared Dassaretii and their region Dassaretia independent. 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.

Name

The tribal name Dassaret- is of Illyrian origin, stemming from Illyrian *daksa/dassa attached to the suffix -ar. It is related to Illyrian personal names Dazos and Dassius and is also reflected in the toponym of Daksa island and the river Ardaxanos, which is mentioned by Polybius in the hinterland of modern Durrës and Lezhë. The name Dassaret- appears relatively late in ancient literature, being mentioned for the first time around 200 BC.
The tribal name Sesarethioi, mentioned for the first time by Hecataeus as an Illyrian tribe holding the city of Sesarethus in the territory of the Illyrian people of Taulantioi, is very close to Dassaretioi. The variant Sesarethioi is also mentioned by Strabo as an alternative name for the Enchelei. It has been suggested either that the name Sesarethii can't be considered as another name for the Enchelei, or that Dassaretii were probably known to the Greeks with the name Encheleoi, while their original name in Illyrian would have been Sesarethioi, indicating therefore a connection between them.
The name Dexaroi, mentioned by Hecataeus as a Chaonian tribe adjacent to the Enchelei, has likely the same root as the Illyrian Dassaretii. The hypothesis that equates the Dexaroi with the Dassaretii still remains uncertain. According to a mythological tradition reported by Appian, the Dassaretii were among the South-Illyrian tribes that took their names from the first generation of the descendants of Illyrius, the eponymous ancestor of all the Illyrian peoples. The Illyrian Dassaretii are often mentioned by Polybius and Livy in their accounts of the Illyrian Wars and Macedonian Wars. They are also mentioned by Strabo, Appian, Pomponius Mela, Pliny, Ptolemy and Stephanus of Byzantium. Their name appears also on coins of the Hellenistic period bearing the inscription ΔΑΣΣΑΡΗΤΙΩΝ, attesting their presence in the Lychnidus area.

Geography

The territory inhabited by the Dassaretii – Dassaretis or Dassaretia – has been documented in literary sources dating from the Roman period. It was a central area of southern Illyria, directly in contact with the regions of Orestis and Lynkestis of Upper Macedonia. The Dassaretii were located between the tribes of Parthini and Atintanes. The extent of the territory of Dassaretii seems to have been considerable, since it included the entire region between the rivers Asamus and Eordaicus, the plateau of Korça locked by the fortress of Pelion and, towards the north it extended to Lake Lychnidus up to the city of the same name.
Although Lake Ohrid and Lake 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. Upper Prespa was on the borderland between the Dassaretan tribes and the Paeones, who were located to the north-east of the lakes, while Lower Prespa was part of the Orestae. The inhabitants of the settlements that were concentrated in Upper Prespa have been under the dominion of the Dassaretan tribal confederation prior to being completely integrated into the Kingdom of Macedon.
Livy reports that following the victory of 167, the Roman Senate decided to give freedom to "Issenses et Taulantios, Dassaretiorum Pirustas, Rhizonitas, Olciniatas", rewarded because they abandoned the Illyrian kingdom of Gentius a little before his defeat. For a similar reason Daorsi too gained immunitas, while half of the tax had to be paid by "Scodrensibus et Dassarensibus et Selepitanis ceterisque Illyriis". Some scholars have suggested that Livy's material follows exclusively Polybius. However, it is contradicted by the fact that Lyvian texts reports Illyrian toponyms and ethnonyms principally located in the core of the Illyrian kingdom, north of Via Egnatia, except for Taulantii and Dassaretii, a situation different from that of the 2nd century BC. An evident relation between the Pirustae and Dassaretii appears in the text, but the Pirustae are thought to have been located much further north of Dassaretii. This could be explained by the possibility that the Pirustae had various locations in different periods, by the existence of two tribes with the same name or similar names, or by an unknown and hypothetical expansion of the Dassaretii to the north.

Settlements

The capital of the Illyrian tribe of Dassaretii was Lychnidos, a city located on the edge of the lake of the same name. Polybius mentions Pelion, Antipatreia, Chrysondyon, Gertous and Creonion as Dassaretan cities in the 2nd century BC. The precise location seems to have been found however only for Antipatreia, identified with modern Berat. The settlement of Hija e Korbit in the Korça plain at the Devoll river had been probably one of the relevant commercial and military sites of the Illyrian Dassaretii. One of the most prominent settlements in the region of Illyrian Dassaretii was established at Selcë e Poshtme, where the Illyrian Royal Tombs were built.

Culture

Language

The idiom spoken by the Dassaretii is included in the southern Illyrian onomastic province in modern linguistics. The territory they inhabited belongs to the area that is considered in current scholarship as the linguistic core of Illyrian. It has been suggested that the zone located to the south and west of the Dassareti, Parthini and Taulanti, before reaching the Chaones and Atintanes, was a mixed area generally considered as a part of Illyria, however it was a cultural extension of Greek-speaking Epirus. The Dassaretii were most likely one of the Illyrian peoples described as bilingual by Strabo. The region assigned by Strabo to this Illyrian tribe was subject to the phenomenon of admixture of Greek and non-Greek elements, the latter occasionally not belonging to Illyrian but to the strata of an earlier population. It has been suggested that there may have been a 'Brygian' substratum or a strong influence by the Brygi, as Dassaretia was one of the regions that was previously inhabited by this Paleo-Balkan people.

Religion

Several cult-objects with similar features are found in different Illyrian regions, including the territory of the Illyrian tribes of Dassaretii, Labeatae, Daorsi, and comprising also the Iapodes. In particular, a 3rd-century BC silvered bronze belt buckle, found inside the Illyrian Tombs of Selça e Poshtme near the western shore of Lake Lychnidus in Dassaretan territory, depicts a scene of warriors and horsemen in combat, with a giant serpent as a protector totem of one of the horsemen; a very similar belt was found also in the necropolis of Gostilj near the Lake Scutari in the territory of the Labeatae, indicating a common hero-cult practice in those regions. Modern scholars suggest that the iconographic representation of the same mythological event includes the Illyrian cults of the serpent, of Cadmus, and of the horseman, the latter being a common Paleo-Balkan hero.
The cult of Artemis under the epithet Άγρότα, Agrota was practiced in southern Illyria, in particular during the Hellenistic and Roman Imperial times. The worship of Artemis Agrota, "Artemis the Huntress", is considered an Illyrian indigenous cult since it was widespread only in southern Illyria, stretching from the Illyrian Dassaretan territory up to Dalmatia, including also the territory of Apollonia. In later Roman times, the cult of Diana Candaviensis, which has been interpreted as "Artemis the Huntress", was practiced up to the region north of Lake Shkodra, including also the territory of the Docleatae.