Dassaretii
The Dassaretii were an Illyrian people that lived in the inlands of southern Illyria. 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 omonym lake. 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 Illyrian tribes of southern Illyria, and one of the tribes forming the ancient Illyrian kingdom that was established in this region. According to a number of modern scholars the dynasty of Bardylis, which is the first attested Illyrian dynasty, was Dassaretan. In Hellenistic times the Dassaretii minted coins bearing the inscription of their ethnicon.
Name
The tribal name Dassaret- is of Illyrian origin. The name of the tribe stems 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 tribal name Sessarethes or Sesarethii mentioned for the first time by Hecataeus as an Illyrian tribe holding the city of Sesarethus in the territory of the Illyrian Taulantii seems to have been a variant of Dassaretes. The name Sesarethii is mentioned also by Strabo as an alternative name of the Enchelei. The tribal name Dexaroi, recorded as a Chaonian tribe by Stephanus of Byzantium citing Hecataeus, has likely the same root of the Illyrian Dassaretii. According to a mythological tradition reported by Appian, the Dassaretii were among the South-Illyrian tribes which 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.Geography
Territory
The territory inhabited by the Dassaretii has been documented in literary sources dating from the Roman period. 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 omonym city. The territory inhabited by Dassaretii was thus a central area of southern Illyria, directly in contact with the regions of Orestis and Lynkestis of Upper Macedonia.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 payed 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 Pirustae had various locations in different periods, the presence two homonym tribes or with a similar name, or by an unknown and hypothetical Dassaretii expansion to the north.
Settlements
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 city of Lychnidos located on the edge of the omonym lake, was the chief city of the Illyrian tribe of Dassaretii. The settlement of Hija e Korbit in the Korça plain at the Devoll river has 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 tribe of Dassaretii belonged to the southeastern Illyrian linguistic area.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.
Political organization
Illyrian Realm
Dassaretii were one of the tribes forming the ancient Illyrian kingdom that was established in the region of suthern Illyria. Ancient sources and modern scholars hold that one of the first kingdoms established in this region was that of the Enchelei. It seems that the weakening of the kingdom of Enchelae resulted in their assimilation and inclusion into a newly established Illyrian realm at the latest in the 5th century BC, marking the arising of the Dassaretii, who appear to have replaced the Encheleans in the lakeland area.According to a historical reconstruction, Bardylis founded a powerful Illyrian dynasty among the Dassaretii in the 5th century BC, and established a realm centered in their territory that comprised the area along Lychnidus and east to the Prespa Lakes, which was called "Dassaretis" later in Roman times. A fragment of Callisthenes which places Bardylis' realm between Molossis and Macedonia, well determines the position of that Illyrian kingdom in the area of Dassaretis. Bardylis' expansion in Upper Macedonia and Molossis, and his son Cleitus' revolt at Pelion in Dassaretis against Alexander the Great make this localization of the core of their realm even more plausible.
The establishment of a tribal realm centered in the rich region of the Illyrian Dassaretii seems supported also by numismatic and epigraphic evidence. The Illyrian Royal Tombs of Selca e Poshtme are located in the Illyrian Dassaretan region. The site of Selcë was in the past a flourishing economical centre more developed than the surroundings because it occupied a predominant position inside the region currently called Mokër, and because it controlled the road which led from the Adriatic coasts of Illyria to Macedonia.
A helmet reporting the inscription of the name of the Illyrian king Monunius was found in the area of lake Lychnidus in the territory of the Illyrian tribe of Dassaretii. It has been interpreted as a possible component of the equipment of a royal special force, suggesting also a financial activity of this king. Dating back to the 3rd century BC, the inscriptions of Monunius are considered the oldest known in the area.
Before the year 229 the Illyrian tribe of Dassaretii had been under the rule of the Illyrian kingdom of the Ardiaei, and they controlled the mountain passes eastwards over the Pindus on the border with Macedon. The retreat to the north and in later times the destruction of the Illyrian kingdom highlighted numerous communities in southern Illyria – including the Dassaretii – that were organized in koina, as evidenced by historical sources, coins and epigraphic material.
Illyrian dynasty
The following is a list of the members of Bardylis' Illyrian dynasty recorded as such in ancient sources, whose realm was centered in the territory of the Dassaretii as claimed by a number of modern scholars:- Bardylis I
- Cleitus, son of Bardylis I
- Bardylis II, son of Cleitus
Roman times institutions
Ancient historian Polybius describes peoples of Illyria, like the Dassaretae and the Ardiaei, using the term ethnos, with the meaning of "tribes" within wider national units.The Dassaretioi were mentioned in Imperial times in many inscriptions as either having an executive power or as dedicants. The official of the highest rank was, most likely, the strategos, whose seat seems to have been located in Lychnidos. However, the Dassaretioi were not mentioned in a single inscription together with the polis of Lychnidos. This indicates that from the Hellenistic period they seem to have been separate political entities. It has been suggested that the tribe of Dassaretioi and the city of Lychnidos might have formed some kind of political confederation based on the unification of various tribes or various towns and villages. This type of political organisation were quite widespread in the Balkans during the Classical and Hellenistic periods. Some of these confederations survived until Imperial times, such as that of the Bylliones. Like the Orestae, the Dassaretioi were declared independent after the Roman campaigns in Macedonia as Roman allies, therefore they organized autonomous political entities.
Stephanus of Byzantium describes the Dassaretai as an Illyrian ethnos and does not associate them with a city. He seems to have used the term ethnos to describe the Dassaretan community in conformation to Anthony Snodgrass' definition: “In its purest form the ethnos was no more than a survival of the tribal system into historical times: a population scattered thinly over a territory without urban centres, united politically and in customs and religion, normally governed by means of some periodical assembly at a single centre, and worshipping a tribal deity at a common religious centre”. Snodgrass presents indeed the ethnos as the prehistoric precursor of the polis describing it “no more than a survival of the tribal system into historical times”.