Byllis

Byllis (Ancient Greek: Βύλλις) or Bullis or Boullis (Βουλλίς) was an ancient city located in the region of Illyria. The remains of Byllis are situated north-east of Vlorë, 25 kilometers from the sea in Hekal, Fier County, Albania.

Byllis
Bylis (in Albanian)
Βύλλις or Βουλλίς (in Greek)
Ruins of Old Bylis
Shown within Albania
LocationHekal, Fier County, Albania
RegionIllyria
Coordinates40.5403°N 19.7375°E / 40.5403; 19.7375
TypeSettlement
History
PeriodsHellenistic, Roman, Byzantine
CulturesIllyrian, Greek, Roman, Byzantine
Site notes
Excavation dates1978–1991, 2000-present
ArchaeologistsCamillo Prashniker, Neritan Ceka, Skënder Muçaj, Jean-Pierre Sodini, Pascale Chevalier, Nicolas Beaudry
OwnershipPublic
Cultural Monument of Albania

Stephanus of Byzantium mentions Byllis as a seaside city in Illyria and its foundation legend, according to which the city was built by Myrmidons under Neoptolemus, returning from the Trojan War, a tradition confirmed by numismatics.[1]

The city, although a Greek speaking settlement[2] was located on the territory of the Illyrian tribe of Bylliones. The latter were first attested in the mid-4th century BC, in the description of the geographer Pseudo-Scylax,[3] and also asking the oracle of Dodona to which god they should sacrifice in order to ensure the safety of their possessions. The archaeological attestation of the city is possible as far back as the second half of the 4th century BC and was later conquered by Pyrrhus.[4] According to another view, Byllis was founded by king Pyrrhus of Epirus.

Byllis received sacred Greek envoys, known as theoroi during the early 2nd century BC, indicator of the city's Greek character.[5]

The city

Byllis, being a Greek-speaking city,[2] on the borders of Illyria and Epirus, had its own stadium and theatre during the Hellenistic era.[6] Other scholars such as Neritan Ceka argue, based on Pseudo-Scylax and Pliny, that Byllis was Illyrian but there were also Greek speaking collonists in the city. [7] About its foundation it has been suggested that Byllis was founded by Greek settlers,[8] though the fact that it had a mixed population is attested by the Illyrian names of officials.[9] The city had its own coinage which was different from that of the tribe of the Bylliones.[10] M. B. Hatzopoulos believes that Byllis is the northernmost non-colonian Greek city in the region.[11]

The walls of Byllis were 2,200m long, enclosing 30 hectares of a plain atop a hill 524m above sea level. There were 6 gates in the city walls. The road coming from Apollonia passed through two of them, crossing Byllis in the direction of the narrows of gorges of the Vjosa river on the way to Macedonia or those of Antigonia in the direction of Epirus. In 2011 during a road reconstruction near the archaeological park found in the site a statue of the Hellenistic era, which may depict an Illyrian soldier or a war deity, was discovered.[12] However, there is little point in proposing an Illyrian label for city in which language, institutions, officials, onomastics, city-planning and fortifications were Greek.[13]

Epirus in antiquity.
Image of the ancient site of Byllis and the river Vjosa in the distance.

League of the Bylliones

The League (Koinon) of the Illyrian tribe of the Bylliones (Ancient Greek: Κοινὸν Βυλλίων), which had been hellenized to a degree and was bilingual,[14] was a coalition of one or two poleis,[15] as attested after 232 BC.[16] The league was restricted to Byllis and Nikaea,[17] and Byllis considered Nikaia as one of its demes.[15] Nikaia was a member of the league, as a 2nd-century BC inscription indicates.[18] The only attestation of the city as polis is in the work of Stephanus of Byzantium in the 6th century.[19] On the other hand, the citizens of Byllis were called Byllideis (Greek: Βυλλιδεῖς).[13]

Roman and Byzantine period

Under the Roman Empire, Byllis became part of the province of Epirus Nova. Its name often occurs at the time of the civil wars.[20] In the time of Pliny the Elder, it was a Roman colony, and was called Colonia Bullidensis.[21] Its territory is called Bylliake (Βυλλιακή) by Strabo.[22] The walls of Byllis carry more than four inscriptions with details regarding their construction by the engineer Victorinus, as ordered by Emperor Justinian I (483-565).[23][24]

Association with see of Apollonia

One of the participants in the Council of Ephesus in 431 was a Felix who signed once as Bishop of Apollonia and Byllis, at another time as Bishop of Apollonia. Some assume that the two towns formed a single episcopal see, others suppose he was, strictly speaking, Bishop only of Apollonia, but was temporarily in charge also of Byllis during a vacancy of that see. At the Council of Chalcedon in 451, Eusebius subscribes simply as Bishop of Apollonia. In the letter of the bishops of Epirus Nova to the Byzantine Emperor Leo I in 458, Philocharis subscribed as Bishop of what the manuscripts call "Vallidus", and which editors think should be corrected to "Byllis". Whether Philocharis is to be considered Bishop also of Apollonia depends on the interpretation of the position of Felix in 431.[25][26][27]

The Annuario Pontificio lists Apollonia as a titular see, thus recognizing that it was once a residential diocese, a suffragan of the archbishopric of Dyrrachium.[28] It grants no such recognition to Byllis.[29]

See also

References

Citations
  1. Ceka and Mucau (2005). Byllis. Tirana: Migjeni. p. 11. ISBN 99943-672-7-7.
  2. Tom Winnifrith. Perspectives on Albania. Macmillan, 1992. ISBN 978-0-333-51282-1, p. 37
  3. Pseudo-Scylax. Periplus, 27.
  4. Pyrrhus King of Epirus Petros Garouphalias
  5. Peter Allan Hansen. Carmina epigraphica Graeca. Novus Eboracus, 1983. ISBN 978-3-11-008387-3, p. 295.
  6. Tom Winnifrith. Badlands, borderlands: a history of Northern Epirus/Southern Albania. Duckworth, 2002. ISBN 978-0-7156-3201-7, p. 58
  7. Ceka and Mucau (2005). Byllis. Tirana: Migjeni. ISBN 99943-672-7-7.
  8. Hammond 1989, p. 19
  9. Ceka & Muçaj 2005
  10. Hammond 1989, p. 18
  11. M. B. Hatzopoulos. The Borders of Hellenism in Epirus during Antiquity. Epirus: Ekdotike Athenon, p. 145, 1997.
  12. Fier: Ancient statue discovered in Byllis Archived 2016-03-04 at the Wayback Machine
  13. Hammond 1989, p. 17
  14. Marjeta Šašel Kos. Appian and Illyricum. Narodni muzej Slovenije, 2005, p. 226
  15. Pleket, H. W. Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum, Volume XXXIX: 1989.
  16. Wilkes 1995, p. 97
  17. Robert, L. "Discours inaugaural", L' Illyrie méridionale et L'Épire dans l'Antiquité, Actes du colloque international de Clermont-Ferrand. Clermont-Ferrand, 1984 , p. 14.
  18. Hansen & Nielsen 2004, p. 346
  19. Bowden 2003
  20. e.g., Cicero, Phil. 11.11; Julius Caesar B.C. 3.40. et alii
  21. Pliny. Naturalis Historia. 4.10.17.
  22. Strabo. Geographica. vii. p.316. Page numbers refer to those of Isaac Casaubon's edition.
  23. Bowden 2003.
  24. Ceka and Mucaj (2005). Byllis. Migjeni. pp. 108–109. ISBN 99943-672-7-7.
  25. Daniele Farlati-Jacopo Coleti, Illyricum Sacrum, vol. VII, Venezia 1817, pp. 395-396
  26. Michel Lequien, Oriens christianus in quatuor Patriarchatus digestus, Parigi 1740, Vol. II, coll. 248-249
  27. Louis Petit, "Byllis" in Catholic Encyclopedia (New York 1908)
  28. Annuario Pontificio 2013 (Libreria Editrice Vaticana 2013 ISBN 978-88-209-9070-1), p. 835
  29. Annuario Pontificio 2013 (Libreria Editrice Vaticana 2013 ISBN 978-88-209-9070-1), "Sedi titolari", pp. 819-1013

Bibliography
  • Beaudry, Nicolas (2010). 'Një punishte për prodhimin e verës në Bylisi', Monumentet 28, pp. 41–50.
  • Beaudry, Nicolas, Chevalier, Pascale, & Muçaj, Skënder (2010). 'Le quartier épiscopal, campagne 2009, Byllis (Albanie)', Bulletin du Centre d’études médiévales d’Auxerre 14, pp. 57–60.
  • Beaudry, Nicolas, et al. (2003). 'Byllis (Albanie)', Bulletin de correspondance hellénique 126.2, pp. 659–684.
  • Bowden, William (2003). Epirus Vetus: The Archaeology of a Late Antique Province. Duckworth. ISBN 0-7156-3116-0.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Chevalier, Pascale, et al. (2003). 'Trois basiliques et un groupe épiscopal des Ve-VIe siècles réétudiés à Byllis (Albanie)', Hortus Artium Medievalium 9, pp. 155–165.
  • Ceka, Neritan; Muçaj, Skënder (2005). Byllis, its history and monuments. Tirana.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Chevalier, Pascale, et al. (2008). 'Byllis (Albanie), campagne 2007: le quartier épiscopal, la Basilique E et les carrières', Bulletin du Centre d’études médiévales d’Auxerre 13, pp. 73–76.
  • Chevalier, Pascale, Beaudry, Nicolas, & Muçaj, Skënder (2009). 'Le quartier épiscopal, campagne 2008, Byllis (Albanie)', Bulletin du Centre d’études médiévales d’Auxerre 13, pp. 73–76.
  • Hammond, N. G. L. (1989). "The Illyrian Atintani, the Epirotic Atintanes and the Roman Protectorate". The Journal of Roman Studies. 79: 11–25. JSTOR 301177.
  • Haxhimihali, Marin (2004). 'Byllis et sa région à la lumière des sources écrites du VIe siècle', L'Illyrie méridionale et l'Épire dans l'Antiquité IV, Paris, pp. 463–466.
  • Hansen, Mogens Herman; Nielsen, Thomas Heine (2004). An Inventory of Archaic and Classical Poleis. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-814099-3.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Hatzopoulos, M. B.; Sakellariou, M.; Loukopoulou, L. D. (1997). Epirus, Four Thousand Years of Greek History and Civilization. Ekdotike Athenon. ISBN 960-213-377-5.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Lewis, D. M.; Boardman, John (1994). The Cambridge Ancient History, Volume 6: The Fourth Century BC. ISBN 0-521-23348-8.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Wilkes, John (1995). The Illyrians. Wiley-Blackwell. ISBN 0-631-19807-5.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  •  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "article name needed". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
  •  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Smith, William, ed. (1854–1857). "Bullis". Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography. London: John Murray.
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