Dimale or Dimallum was a town in southern Illyria in classical antiquity which was situated in the vicinity or within the territory of the Parthini, an Illyrian tribe. It was built on a hill of 450 m above sea level, in the hinterland of Apollonia, about 30 km from the eastern coast of the Adriatic. It is located in today Krotinë, Berat County, Albania. The settlement was fortified in the 4th century B.C. The town experienced its climax in the Hellenistic period between the 3rd and 2nd centuries B.C., during a phase marked by intense urban planning, including the construction of a new city wall and the building of a theater. Manufacturing and materials seem to witness an intense exchange with nearby Apollonia.
Name
The place name Dimallumbelongs to the southeast Dalmatian onomastic area of Illyrian. It is a compound of di + mal. The root mal – is reflected in many ancient Balkan toponyms such as Malontum, Maloventum, Malontina, Dacia Maluensis etc. The Illyrian toponym Dimallum is related to Albaniandi-male, meaning "two mountains", with the Proto-Albanian form reconstructed as mol-no.
History
At Dimale an Illyrian pre-urban and proto-urban settlement of the 5th-4th centuries BC is confirmed by pottery found in the site. However physical architectural remains of this period have not been preserved. The Illyrian settlement seems to have included initially only a small inhabited area on the hill, which was fortified in the 4th century B.C., representing one of the proto-urban centres that were established in the hinterland of southern Illyria, especially during the developed Iron Age. These proto-urban centres were fortified sites different to the small unwalled villages known as komai. The processes of the development of these proto-urban settlements are unclear to scholars, who also have not yet completely understood the role of these sites, whether they were hilltop shelters, towns or meeting centres of regional trading. The development and prosperity of the town occurred in the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC. During this period a new wall was built replacing the first fortification. The new wall comprised the whole hill of Dimale. The town made available sufficient financial resources to undertake a social and religious construction program. Several stoas, a temple, and a theater were built, showing a significant influence of the Ancient Greek culture on the local Illyrian inhabitants. According to N.G.L. Hammond, Dimale was possibly founded by King Pyrrhus of Epirus, or by settlers from the nearby Greek colony of Apollonia. Chiara Lasagni claims that Hammond's hypothesis is to be considered completely outdated. According to M. B. Hatzopoulos, the non-Greek name of the city, the lack of any Greek founding legends associated with it and the mixed onomastics of its inhabitants, suggest that Dimale had not a Greek character from the beginning, being originally a settlement of the Illyrian Parthini, which was Hellenized under the influence of the Epirote state and Apollonia. Although, the city is frequently linked with the Parthini in various ancient sources, it was never explicitly stated to be a city of that tribe.
Dimale appears in ancient sources of the Roman period that describes the wars involving the Roman Republic. During the Second Illyrian War in 219 BC, Demetrius of Pharos, after expelling all his opponents from Dimale, fortified the city against an imminent Roman attack and left to defend Pharos. In spite of the fortress of Dimale being considered impregnable, the Romans, under the command of L. Aemilius Paullus, captured the city in a seven-day siege with local Illyrian help. After Demetrius' complete defeat at Roman hands and ultimate flight to Macedonia, Dimale entered into a friendly relationship with Rome. During the First Macedonian war, in 213 or 212 BC, Philip V of Macedon managed to take control of the city but, after an unsuccessful Roman assault led by P. Sempronius Tuditanus in 205 B.C., the city was given up by Philip V in the peace treaty between Rome and Macedon in Phoenice the same year.
Findings and organization
The identification of the site with the ancient city became possible thanks to the discovery of ancient tiles stamped with the Greek word DIMALLITAN written in Northwestern or Doric Greek dialect. Epigraphy in Dimale mentions a number of Greek offices such as prytanis, grammateus and phylarchos as well as a single dedication to Phoebus. The city hosted a number of monuments, typical of the ancient Greekarchitectural style, such as a stoa.
