Albanopolis

Albanopolis (Ancient Greek: Ἀλβανόπολις, tr. Albanópolis)[1][2] was a city in ancient Roman Macedon specifically in Epirus Nova, the city of the Albanoi, an Illyrian tribe. The editors of the Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World locate Albanopolis at the modern-day village of Zgërdhesh, near Krujë, Albania.[3][4] The ancient city may correspond with later mentions of the settlement called Arbanon and Albanon during the Middle Ages, although it is not certain this was the same place.[5] The city appears at 150 AD almost 300 years after Roman conquest of the region.

Albanopolis

Ἀλβανόπολις
City
Location of the Albani
CountryRoman Macedon
CityEpirus Nova

Zgërdhesh hypothesis

The first scholar to advance the idea that Zgërdhesh was the site of the ancient Albanopolis was Austrian diplomat Johann Georg von Hahn. Zgërdhesh was also visited during World War I by Camillo Praschniker, an Austrian archaeologist, but his visit was short and he did not have time to draw any conclusions. According to historian Selim Islami, Hahn's hypothesis is not conclusive, but may have merit, and deserves to be pursued in the future.[6]

See also

References
  1. Ptolemy. "III.13(12).23". Geography (in Greek).
  2. Smith, William, ed. (1854). "ILLYRICUM: 4. Race and National Character". Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography. Ptolemy is the earliest writer in whose works the name of the Albanians has been distinctly recognised. He mentions (3.13.23) a tribe called ALBANI (Ἀλβανοί) and a town ALBANOPOLIS (Ἀλβανόπολις), in the region lying to the E. of the Ionian sea; and from the names of places with which Albanopolis is connected, it appears clearly to have been in the S. part of the Illyrian territory, and in modern Albania. There are no means of forming a conjecture how the name of this obscure tribe came to be extended to so considerable a nation.
  3. Richard Talbert, Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World, (ISBN 0-691-03169-X), Map 49 & notes.
  4. "Albanopolis". shqiperia.com. Archived from the original on 16 July 2011. Retrieved 29 March 2010.
  5. Wilkes, J. J. (1992). The Illyrians. p. 279. ISBN 0-631-19807-5. We cannot be certain that the Arbanon of Anna Comnena is the same as Albanopolis of the Albani, a place located on the map of Ptolemy.
  6. Islami, Selim (1975). Monumente te Kultures ne Shqiperi Volume I. 8 Nentori. pp. 11–14.
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