Liburnians
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The Liburnians or Liburni (
Origins and relation to Illyrians
Liburni's archaeological culture can be traced to the Late Bronze Age and "were settled since at least the tenth century BC in northern Dalmatia".
The Liburnian people, especially when were stationed in foreign land, identified themselves as "Liburnus" or "natione Liburnus",[18] but the identity was also related to same-named administrative unit in Roman province of Illyricum, making the shared sense of ethnic and political identity prior to the 1st century BCE a matter of debate among modern scholars.[19] The surnames Liburnus, Liburna and personal names Liburnius and Liburnia aren't necessarily related to ethnic identity but rather Liburna, a type of ship, and name for carriers of chair, and server on royal court.[20]
History
Classic age
The first account of the Liburni comes from
The fall of Liburnian domination in the
The name of the
This caused a simultaneous Liburnian resistance on both coasts, whether in their ethnic domain or on the western coast, where their possessions or interests were in danger. A great naval battle was recorded a year after the establishment of Pharos colony, by a Greek inscription in Pharos (384 – 383 BC) and by the Greek historian Diodorus Siculus (80 – 29 BC), initiated by conflicts between the Greek colonists and the indigenous Hvar islanders, who asked their compatriots for support. 10,000 Liburnians sailed out from their capital Idassa (Zadar), led by the Iadasinoi (people of Zadar), and laid siege to Pharos. The Syracusan fleet positioned in Issa was informed in time, and Greek triremes attacked the siege fleet, taking victory in the end. According to Diodorus, the Greeks killed more than 5,000 and captured 2,000 prisoners, ran down or captured their ships, and burned their weapons in dedication to their god.
This battle meant the loss of the most important strategic Liburnian positions in the centre of the Adriatic, resulting in their final retreat to their main ethnic region, Liburnia, and their complete departure from the Italic coast, apart from
The middle of the 3rd century BC was marked by the rise of an Illyrian kingdom in the south of the Adriatic, led by king Agron of the Ardiaei. Its piratical activities imperiled Greek and Roman interests in the Adriatic, and caused the first Roman intervention on the eastern coast in 229 BC; Florus in Epitome of Roman History noted the Liburnians as the Romans' enemies in this expedition,[2] while Appian (Bell. Civ., II, 39) noted liburnae as swift galleys the Romans first fought with when they entered the Adriatic. The Liburni were allies of their southern Illyrian compatriots, Ardiaei and the others, but from the lack of more records related to them in the 3rd century BC, it is assumed that they mostly stood aside in the subsequent Roman wars and conflicts with Pyrrhus, Carthage, Macedonia and the southern Illyrian state.[30] Even though Liburnian territory was not involved in these confrontations, it seems that the Liburna warship was adopted by the Romans during the Punic Wars[31] and in the Second Macedonian War.[32]
Hellenistic and Roman periods
In 181 BC, the Romans established their colony at
In 84 BC, the Roman consuls enemies of
In 59 BC, Illyricum was assigned as a provincia (or zone of responsibility) to Julius Caesar, and the main Liburnian city of Iadera was nominally proclaimed a Roman municipium, but the real establishment of the Roman province occurred no earlier than 33 BC.
The Dalmatae soon recovered and entered into conflict with the Liburnians in 51 BC (probably over possession of the pasture grounds around the Krka river), taking their city Promona. The Liburnians were not strong enough to reconquer it alone, so they appealed to Caesar, then the Roman proconsul of Illyricum. However, the Liburnian army, strategically supported by the Romans, was heavily defeated by the Dalmatae.[34]
The civil war between Caesar and
Caesar rewarded his supporters in Liburnian Iader and Dalmatian Salona with the status of Roman colonies, but the battle was won by the Liburnian navy, prolonging the civil war, and ensuring control of the Adriatic to the side aligned with Pompey over the next 2 years until his final defeat in 48 BC. In the same year, Caesar sent his legions to take control of the rebellious Illyricum province, and took the fortress of Promona from Dalmatian hands, making them submit.[35]
Throughout this time, Roman rule in Illyricum province, largely nominal, was concentrated in only a few cities on the eastern Adriatic coast, such as
Octavian made another expedition inland against the Iapodes from the Liburnian port of Senia (Senj), and conquered their most important positions in 34 BC. Over the next 2 years the Roman army, led by Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, fought hard battles with the Dalmatae. The Liburnians were not recorded as participants in this war, but their southernmost territories were surely involved.[36]
It is uncertain whether the Liburnians joined in the last
Over the centuries, naval power was the most important aspect of warfare for the Liburni. After the empowered Roman forces defeated the Liburni, the region became part of the Roman province of Dalmatia, but it was considered marginal in a military sense. Burnum on the Krka river became a Roman military camp, while the plains of Liburnia proper inland from Iader, already urbanized, now became easily accessible to control by Roman rulers. However, Liburnian seafaring tradition was not extinguished; it rather acquired a more commercial character under the new circumstances as Liburnia's ports and cities thrived economically and culturally. Despite Romanization, especially in the larger cities, Liburnians retained their traditions, cults, burial customs (Liburnian cipus), names, etc., as attested by the archaeological evidence from that era.[38]
Archaeology
The development of Liburnian culture can be divided into 3 main time periods:
- 11th and 10th centuries BC. Between two waves of Urnfield Culturethat spread in the Pannonian areas, in addition to the general changes caused by the Balkan-Pannonian migrations.
- 9th to the 5th centuries BC. Liburnian domination in the Iapodia. The lucrative exchange of materials with the opposite coast was continued in the 6th century BC, and its connection to Picenum remained strong, and links to Iapodes and Dalmatae have also been attested. In the 5th century BC, the Greeks undertook the leadership of trade in the Adriatic and considerable changes resulted, such as the importing of a wider range of Greek products.
- 5th to the 1st centuries BC. Decline of Liburnia's power; Liburnian culture was thoroughly under Hellenisticand Italic pottery, and other lesser influences, Liburnian cultural relations with other peoples were rather poor.
Settlements
The principal forms of settlements were forts (
Burial tradition
The Liburnians buried their dead in graves near or beneath settlements. It is known that they laid their dead on one side in a contracted position, mostly in chests of stone slabs.
Material culture
The transitory remains of culture are represented by various artifacts, mostly jewellery, pottery, and pieces of costume. Other forms are less common, such as weapons, tools etc. Especially numerous are
Religion
The mythology of the people of
Iutossica and Anzotica, the latter identified with
Economy
Liburnia's economy relied on its strength in the sectors of agriculture, stock breeding, crafts, trade, barter, seamanship, fishing, hunting, and food collecting. The Liburnians traded over the whole of the Adriatic, and into the Middle and Eastern Mediterranean and the northwestern Balkan peninsula. They exported mostly to the territories of the Iapodes and Dalmatae, and across the Adriatic to Picenum and southern Italy, especially the commodities of jewellery, cheese, clothing, etc., and they imported mostly from Italy, primarily pottery, and various adopted coins. Importation of amber from the Baltic cannot be proven, but acquisitions likely occurred in Liburnian territory.
Social relations
Insights into social relations are possible by means of cultural relics, Roman-era inscriptions, and the works of several authors. Mention of the special role of women in Liburnian society can be noted in their writings, but the idea about their matriarchy is scientifically rejected.[43][45] They describe the original division into several tribes and territorial communities, later fused into a union of tribes and a single ethnic community of Liburnians. Social relations were based on the structure of family and clan. Collections of tumuli correspond to this; there were up to 18 graves in a tumulus through several generations, or individual interments, with up to 8 bodies in each grave. Certain data suggest social division, stratification, and inequality, where the Liburnian aristocracy maintained many privileges, special status, and features of their culture under Roman rule.
Relations to other cultures
Liburnian culture mainly developed on the basis of inheritance and independent development, partly through foreign influence, particularly Italic and Hellenic, as well as through the imports of foreign goods. Links with the Pannonian basin were fewer than in Late Bronze Age. Much more important were links with the Iapodes, and especially with the Dalmatae. Histrian culture developed differently, and their links with the Liburnians were less general. The exchange with Italy was varied and important. The Liburnians had the most versatile relationships with Picenum and southern Italy because of Liburnian immigration. Trade with the Greeks was more meagre, except in the
Seafarers
The Liburnians were renowned seafarers, notorious for their raids in the Adriatic Sea, which they conducted in their swift galleys. The Romans knew them principally as a people addicted to piracy.
The Liburnians constructed different ship types; their galaia was an early prototype of transport galleys, lembus was a fishing ship[47][48][49] continued by the present-day Croatian levut, and a drakoforos was apparently mounted with a dragonhead at the prow.[citation needed]
Remains of a 10 meter long ship from the 1st century BC were found in
A 10th-century AD ship of identical form and size, made with wooden fittings instead of sewn planking joints, was found in the same place, "Condura Croatica" used by the Medieval Croats. Condura could be the closest known vessel to the original "liburna" galley in form, only much smaller, with the features of a quick and agile galley, having a shallow bottom, very straightened but long, with one large Latin sail and a row of oars on each side.
Liburna
The best known Liburnian ship was their oar-propelled warship, known as a libyrnis (λιβύρνις, λιβυρνίς) to the Greeks and a liburna to the Romans.
Liburnae may have been shown in a naval battle scene carved on a stone tablet (Stele di Novilara) found near Antique Pisaurum (Pesaro) and dated to the 5th or 6th century BC. It depicts a legendary battle between the Liburnian and Picenian fleets. The liburna was presented as a light ship with one row of oars, one mast, one sail and a prow twisted outwards. Under the prow was a rostrum made for striking enemy ships under the sea.
In its original form, the liburna was similar to the Greek
It was 109 ft (33 m) long and 16 ft (5 m) wide with a 3 ft (0.91 m) draft. Two rows of oarsmen pulled 18 oars per side. The ship could make up to 14 knots under sail and more than 7 under oars.
Once the Romans had adopted the liburna, they improved it. The benefits gained from the addition of rams and protection from missiles more than made up for the slight loss of speed.[54]: 170, 317 The ships also required that the regular Roman military unit be simplified in order to function more smoothly. Each ship operated as an individual entity, so the more complicated organization normally used was not necessary.[55]: 59 Within the navy, there were probably liburnae of several varying sizes, all put to specific tasks such as scouting and patrolling Roman waters against piracy.[54]: 317 The Romans made use of liburnae particularly in some provinces where they formed the bulk of the fleets,[56][55]: 54 [54]: 171 while they were included in smaller numbers in the fleets at Ravenna and Micenum where a large number of Illyrians were serving, especially Dalmatae, Liburnians and Pannonians.
Gradually liburna became a generic name for different types of Roman ships, attached also to cargo ships in later Antiquity. Tacitus and Suetonius were using it as a synonym for battle ship. In inscriptions it was mentioned as the last class of battle ships: hexeres, penteres, quadrieres, trieres, liburna.[clarification needed][57]
In Medieval sources, "liburna" ships were often recorded in use by Croatian and Dalmatian pirates and sailors, probably not always referring to ships of the same form.
Language
The Liburnian language is an extinct language which was spoken by the ancient Liburnians, who occupied
Archaeogenetics
Two
See also
References
- ^ Scyl. 21; Strabo vi. p. 407, vii. p. 484; Appian, Ill. 12; Stephanus Byzantinus; Scholia ad Nicander 607 ; Pomponius Mela, ii. § 49-50; Pliny the Elder, "25 Liburnia and Illyricum", The Natural History, vol. 3, p. 23.
- ^ Florus (1929). "XXI The Illyrian". Epitome of Roman History. Vol. Book I. Translated by Forster, E. S. (Loeb Classical Library ed.). This section is also known as "Book II, 5" in four volume editions, according to Bill Thayer in "Chapter and Section Numbering, Local Links".
- ISSN 0005-8114.
- OCLC 1034435.
- ^ Euratlas. "Euratlas Periodis Web - Map of Europe in Year 700". www.euratlas.net. Retrieved 2018-04-30.
- ^ Strabo, Geographica, vol. VI, p. 269
- ^ a b c d Šašel Kos 2005, pp. 183.
- ^ Kurilić 2012, pp. 173.
- ^ Barnett 2016, pp. 64.
- ^ Barnett 2016, pp. 79–80, 82–83.
- ^ Šašel Kos 2005, pp. 182–183, 187.
- ^ Wilkes 1996, pp. 39.
- ^ Kurilić 2012, pp. 180–181.
- ^ Šašel Kos 2005, pp. 187.
- ^ Suić 1992, pp. 55.
- ^ Kurilić 2012, pp. 181.
- ^ Barnett 2016, pp. 65–69, 73–76, 84–86, 89–91.
- ^ Kurilić 2012, pp. 178–180.
- ^ Barnett 2016, pp. 83–84.
- ^ Kurilić 2012, pp. 174, 180.
- ^ Kurilić 2012, pp. 172.
- ^ Wilkes 1996, pp. 100–101, 111.
- ^ Barnett 2016, pp. 72–73.
- ^ a b Šašel Kos 2005, pp. 184.
- ^ Barnett 2016, pp. 74.
- ^ Wilkes 1996, pp. 111.
- ^ Cambodunum has obvious similarities to the Old Irish camb or camm "crooked" and dún "fort".
- ^ Servius' commentary on Virgil's Aeneid i. 243.
- ^ Zaninović 1988, pp. 49–53.
- ^ Zaninović 1988, pp. 45, 53.
- ^ Wilkes 1996, p. 187"the Liburna, with its low freeboard had already been adopted by the Romans during the wars against Carthage"
- ^ Livy xlii. 48
- ^ Zaninović 1988, pp. 53–55.
- ^ Zaninović 1988, pp. 55, 56.
- ISBN 1-59333-025-1.
the Dalmatians, who had for a number of years been in arms against the Romans, were forced to submit after the fall of their fortress Promona
- ^ Zaninović 1988, pp. 57, 58.
- ^ Zaninović 1988, pp. 59.
- ^ Zaninović 1988, pp. 59, 60.
- ^ Wilkes 1996, pp. 245: "...Illyrian deities are named on monuments of the Roman era, some in equation with gods of the classical pantheon (see figure 34)."
- ^ Wilkes 1996"Unlike Celts, Dacians, Thracians or Scythians, there is no indication that Illyrians developed a uniform cosmology on which their religious practice was centred. An etymology of the Illyrian name linked with serpent would, if it is true, fit with the many representations of..."
- ^ Krahe 1946, p. 199.
- ^ Wilkes 1996, pp. 244–245.
- ^ a b Kurilić 2012, pp. 176.
- ^ Wilkes 1996, pp. 246.
- ^ Barnett 2016, pp. 70:Several sources note the special role of women in Liburnian society.35 Pseudo-Scylax even states that the Liburni were ruled by women.36 It is most probable that these statements should be taken to suggest that women had a prominent role in Liburnian society, rather than that the Liburni were indeed governed by women.37 As A. Kurilić has suggested, this is probably part of the barbarization of the "Other" in Greco-Roman literature. Here, gender roles are used to portray Liburnian society as opposed to Greco-Roman social norms.38
- ISBN 953-6419-50-5. UDC: 904 (398 Liburnija)
- OCLC 3221819.
- ^ H. Krahe, Griech. λέμβος, lat. lembus - eine illyrische Schiffsbezeichnung?, Gymnasium, 59/1952, H. 1, p. 79.
- ^ L. Casson, Ships and Seamanship in the Ancient World, Princeton, 1971, pp. 141-142.
- ^ Brusić, Z. (1968). "Istraživanje antičke luke kod Nina" [Research of the ancient port near Nino]. Diadora (in Croatian). 4: 206–209.
- ^ Starr, C. G. Jr. (1975). The Roman Imperial Navy 31 B.C. – A.D. 324. West-port, Connecticut: Greenwood Press. p. 54.
- ^ Zaninović 1988, pp. 46, 47.
- ^ Gabriel, Richard A. "Masters of the Mediterranean". Military History (December 2007).
- ^ a b c Morrison, J. S.; Coates, J. F. (1996). Greek and Roman Warships 399-30 B.C. Oxford: Oxbow Books.
- ^ a b Starr, C. G. (1993). The Roman Imperial Navy 31 BC-AD 324 (3rd ed.). Chicago: Ares Publishers.
- ^ Casson, L. (1971). Ships and Seamanship in the Ancient World. Princeton: Princeton University Press. p. 141.
- ^ Zaninović 1988, pp. 46.
- ^ Wilkes 1996, pp. 71.
- ^ Wilkes 1996, pp. 74–76, 78.
- S2CID 245509501.
- S2CID 251843620.
Sources
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- "Prilog klasifikaciji liburnskih nadgrobnih spomenika, tzv. liburnskih cipusa - sjeverna grupa nalaza," ["Contribution to classification of Liburnian gravestones, so called cipuses - northern group of findings"], Izdanja HAD-a, 13, Arheoloska istrazivanja na otocima Krku, Rabu i u Hrvatskom primorju, Zagreb, 1989, 51-59.
- "Aserijatska skupina liburnskih nadgrobnih spomenika, tzv. liburnskih cipusa," ["Asseriate group of Liburnian gravestones, so called cippi"], Diadora, 12: 209-299, Zadar, 1990; Diadora, 13, Zadar, 1991, 169-211.
- Barac, L. (2003). "Y-chromosomal heritage of Croatian population and its island isolates". S2CID 15822710.
- Barnett, Charles (2016). "Promišljanja o identitetu, etnicitetu i "helenizaciji" predrimske Liburnije" [Rethinking Identity, Ethnicity, and "Hellenization" in pre-Roman Liburnia]. Miscellanea Hadriatica et Mediterranea (in Croatian and English). 3: 63–98. .
- Batović, Šime (1962). Sepultures de la peuplade illyrienne des Liburnes (in French). Bonn: R. Habelt. OCLC 714943089.
- Batović, Šime (1965). "Die Eisenzeit auf dem Gebiet des illyrischen Stammes der Liburnen" [The Iron Age on the territory of the Illyrian tribe of the Liburnians]. Archaeologia Jugoslavica (in German). 6: 55.
- Brusic, Zdenko, Hellenistic and Roman Relief Pottery in Liburnia (December 8, 1999), 254 pages, 122 plates of drawings and photographs.
- (PDF) from the original on 2019-03-07.
- Kurilić, Anamarija (2012). "Nationes Liburnus - identitet naroda i pojedinca" [Nationes Liburnus - the identity of the nation and the individual]. Povijesni prilozi (in Croatian). 33 (44): 171–181.
- Suić, Mate (1992). "Liburnija i Liburni u vrijeme velikog ustanka u Iliriku od 6. do 9. god. poslije Krista (uz CIL V 3346)" [Liburnia and Liburni at the time of the great uprising in Illyricum from the 6th to the 9th year. after Christ (with CIL V 3346)]. Vjesnik Arheološkog muzeja u Zagrebu (in Croatian). 24–25 (1): 55–66.
- Šašel Kos, Marjeta (2005). Appian and Illyricum. Narodni muzej Slovenije. ISBN 961-6169-36-X – via Google Books.
- Tolk, H.V. et al., "MtDNA haplogroups in the populations of Croatian Adriatic Islands." Coll. Anthropologica 24: 267-279, 2000.
- OCLC 438825468.
- Zaninović, Marin (1988), "Liburnia Militaris", Opvscvla Archaeologica (in Croatian), 13 (1): 43–67, 904.930.2(497.13)