The city of Pyrrha on the seismically…

The presence of the string of Greek colonies on Illyrian soil, dating from the eighth to the sixth centuries BCE, had brought the Illyrians, bearers of the Hallstatt culture, into contact with a more advanced civilization, which helped them to develop their own culture, while they in turn influenced the economic and political life of the colonies.

The colonies began to decline in the third century BCE and eventually perished.

The Illyrians are divided into tribes, each a self-governing community with a council of elders and a chosen leader.

Roughly parallel with the rise of Greek colonies, Illyrian tribes began to evolve politically from relatively small and simple entities into larger and more complex ones.

At first they formed temporary alliances with one another for defensive or offensive purposes, then federations and, still later, under strong tribal chieftains, kingdoms.

The most important of these kingdoms, which flourish from the fifth to the second century BCE, are those of the Enkalayes, the Taulantes, the Epirotes, and the Ardianes.

By the latter part of the third century BCE, the Ardian branch of the Illyrian people has developed a strong state with efficient armed forces and a fleet of warships, and Rome determines to curb the power of this vigorous neighbor.

One of the most important rulers of this last and best-known Illyrian kingdom, centered upon Scodra (modern Shkodër, Albania), is Agron, who, in alliance with Demetrius II of Macedonia in 231, defeats the Aetolians.

He dies suddenly, however, and during the minority of his son, his widow, Teuta, acts as regent.

Under Queen Teuta, Illyrians attack Sicily and the Greek colonies of the coast with part of the Illyrian navy.

The Epirote alliance, after the Aeacid monarchy ends in 232 BCE, transforms itself from a coalition of tribes into a federal state, the Epirote League, with a parliament (synedrion).

Epirus, although severely weakened by Pyrrhus’ expensive failures in Italy a few decades earlier, joins the Achaeans and Aetolians in 231 BCE against Macedon’s Demetrius II.

The Galatians had attacked Pergamon shortly before 230 BCE because Attalus had refused to pay them the customary tribute.

Attalus had crushed his enemy in a battle outside the walls of Pergamon, and, to mark the success, in 230 BCE takes the title of king-the first of the Attalids to do so—and the cult name Soter (“Preserver”).

Epigonus of Pergamon around 230 BCE creates a bronze statue, placed, with three other fallen figures, around a standing Gaul, who is in the act of killing himself and his wife to avoid capture and slavery.

The work, part of a monument commemorating the victory of King Attalus of Pergamon over the Gauls 241 BCE, is installed in the Sanctuary of Athena in Pergamon. (Now lost, it survives in marble as a Roman copy, known as the Dying Gaul in the Capitoline Museums, Rome.)

The Periplus of Pseudo-Scylax, dating from the mid-fourth century BCE, makes a clear distinction between the Chaonians (the northernmost of the three Epirote tribes) and the Illyrian tribes.

The Illyrians and Chaonians appear to have had—at least at times—a confrontational relationship; Polybius recounts a devastating raid mounted in 230 BCE by the Illyrians against Phoenice, the chief city of the Chaonians.

The incident has major political ramifications.

Many Italian traders who are in the town at the time of the sacking are killed or enslaved by the Illyrians, prompting the Roman Republic to launch the first of the two Illyrian Wars the following year.

Prusias I of Bithynia has formed a marriage alliance with Demetrius II of Macedon; he will eventually receive the latter's daughter, Apama III, as his wife.

His elder sister, born around 245 BCE, is married to the Seleucid prince Anthiochus Hierax.

Attalus follows his victory over the Gauls by defeating Antiochus Hierax, the rebellious Seleucid prince, in the first of three battles for primacy in Anatolia.

Rome, in response to the the robbery and murder of the Italian merchants in Phoenice by Illyrian pirates in 230 BCE, had sent ambassadors to the Adieaean kingdom’s queen Teuta, widow of Agros, and received a haughty reception from the militant queen.

The ambassadors had been ambushed and killed on their return through Illyria, causing the Senate to order vengeance against the Illyrians.

Greek allegations that the Illyrians are disrupting commerce and plundering coastal towns helps precipitate a Roman punitive strike in 229 BCE.

In the first action of the Illyrian War, the Romans relieve Corcyra, used as a port by Roman ships and currently besieged by the Illyrians, with little or no fighting.

The revolution in Epirus, which has substituted a republican league for the monarchy, has gravely weakened the position of Demetrius, who has hired Agron, king of the Ardiaean Kingdom of Illyria, for military aid against the advancing Aetolians.

His kingdom is not threatened by the Ardiaei, despite them having gathered the greatest force in their history, but Epirus needs some sort of force to deter them.

Demetrius must also defends his domain from the tribal peoples of the north.

Thus threatened, he is drawn northward by a Dardanian invasion, and after a defeat there, he dies in 229-228, leaving as his heir Philip, his son by Chryseis, still a child.

Upon Demetrius’ death, the War of Demetrius ends and a regency is established for his eight-year-old son under his cousin, Antigonus Doson.

Information regarding the life of Demetrius is drawn mainly from inscription as only Plutarch writes of him, in Life of Aratus; Polybius makes scarce mentions of him.

Aratus of Sicyon brings Argos into the Achaean League in 229 BCE and …

…helps liberate Athens from Macedonian rule.