Dassaretae

The Dassaretae, or Dexaroi (Greek: Δασσαρῆται or Δεξάροι), were an ancient Greek tribe of Epirus living from Mount Amyron (Mount Tomorr) to Lake Lychnitis (Lake Ohrid) on the border with Illyria.[1] They were the northernmost tribe that belonged to the Chaonian group, one of the three major tribes in Epirus.[2] In Roman antiquity their territory was considered as part of Upper Macedonia.[3]

This article is about the ancient Greek tribe. For the Illyrian tribe "Dassareti", see Dassaretii.
Epirus and its environs.

Classification and organisation

Dassaretae initially recorded as Dexari were the northern-most subtribe (Greek: έθνος ethnos) of the Chaonians, based on the testimony of the ancient Greek geographer Hecataeus of Miletus, which is accepted by the modern scholars G.F. Edson, Wilkes, Sakellariou, Hammond, T. Winnifrith and the Oxford Classical Dictionary.[4][5][6][7][8][2]

The Dessaretae were initially recorded as Dexaroi (Δεξάροι) by Hecataeus of Miletus in the 6th century BC. He describes them as the most northern tribe of the Chaonians, as a Greek-speaking people residing next to the Illyrian tribe of the Encheleae.[9] The term Dexaroi is an variant form of Dessaroi (Δεσσάροι) since the x (ξ) is the phonetic equivalent of ss (σσ) in ancient Greek literature. The stem Dassa/Dessa- is also found in the name Dassaretae.[10] The name Dexari retains more archaic features compared to Dassaretae in Greek spelling.[11] The clearest sources provided by ancient authors for the variant Dassaretae date to the period of Roman conquest.[12][13]

It appears that the chief magistrate of the Dassaretae bore the title "Strategos", a title typically given to the chief magistrates of northern Greek tribes during Roman antiquity.[14] As for their administrative structure an inscription of the Dassaretae epigrammatically lists the main organs of their state Δασσαρητίων άρχοντες, βουλή και δήμος (The archons, the boule and the demos of the Dassaretae).[15] The name Dassaretae is connected to Greek: Διός όρος-ορείται (Dios oros-oreitai Mountain of Zeus) with a certain degree of barbarization.[16]

History

The Dassaretae were initially part of the wider tribal state of the Chaonians during the 6th century BC.[17] The burials of Tumulis II in Kuci zi in the Korce-Maliq plain that time belonged to their leaders.[5] At a later period the Dassaretae formed their own independent association.[17]

It is likely that before the reign of Philip II of Macedon, Illyrian tribes had occupied Dassaretis since no more information about Dexari is recorded and the siege of Pelium (335 B.C) was described as a campaign of Alexander in Illyria.[18] During the reign of Philip II (359–336 BC) the Macedonians managed to terminate the Dardanian rule in the land of the Dassaretae. As such the Dassaretae became not only independent again but Philip also managed to create a Macedonian buffer zone on their northern border with the Dardanians.[19] The destruction of Pelium in 335 BC by Dardanian Cleitus came probably due to the fact that the local Dassaratean inhabitants were not friendly towards the Dardanian raiders.[20] Macedonian control was re-established in Dassaretis that year and remained as such during the era of Macedonian domination.[21] In 319-317 B.C an Epirote army under Polyperchon and Olympias marched against the local settlement of Euia during their struggle against Cassander of Macedon.[22]

Antipatrea (modern Berat) was founded by the regent of Macedon, Antipater.[21] During the reign of Pyrrhus of Epirus (306–302, 297–272 BC) Dassaretis came possibly into Epirote control.[21] In 217 BC Illyrian Scerdilaidas advanced against Philip V of Macedonia through the region of Pelagonia and the Dassaretian territory capturing Antipatreia, Chrysondyon, and Gertus.[23] He penetrated further with raids into the nearby Macedonian areas like Orestis. However, before the end of autumn of the same year, Philip V recaptured the three Dassaretian cities and expelled the Illyrian raiders from Dassaretis.[24][25] Military interventions as well as relations with Macedon from 217 B.C to 199 B.C kept the area under Dassaretean control and the borders of the Dassaretae controlled area reached their greatest extent.[24] In 199 B.C. a Roman expedition under Servius Sulpicius Galba was harassing the Dassaretae population and pillaging their stored grain and harvest.[26]

Geography

The area inhabited by the Dassaretae was called Dassaretis.[27] This area remained the same in terms of geography from the period of Hecateus (6th century B.C.) to the Roman conquest.[10] In terms of Roman-era geography recent research accepts that Dassaretis was part of Upper Macedonia.[3]

They inhabited a region that stretched from mount Amyron (Tomorr) up to the southern coast of lake Lychnitis (Lake Ohrid)[7], and they also lived around Korçë[28] and around modern Berat (Antipatreia) and Dassaretis stretching from modern Skrapar to the southwest shores of Ohrid.[29] According to Ptolemy, the city of Lychnidos (modern Ohrid), on the northern part of lake Ohrid, was also a Dassaretae town for a time though it appears that Dassaretae control was not permanent there. However the territory around this city is recorded as at least a marginal territory of Dassaretis.[30]

Their cities were Pellion, Antipatrea, Chrysondyon, Gertus (or Gerous), Creonion,[2] Kellion, Euia and Megara.[31] The main river in the area was the Eordaikos (modern Devoll).[31]

The Encheles neighboured with the Dassaretae in the area directly south of Ohrid.[27] They also neighboured the Orestae tribe of the Molossian group,[11] while the regions of Chaonia and Parrhaeuaea were located on their southern border.[32]

Strategic value

Dassaretis, being economically poor, could not be the centre for a strong polity, but at the same time it was strategically valuable. Any military operations in what is now central Albania would hinge on hilly Dassaretis, because the coastal plains were swampy. It was also important for Macedonia, because the Tsangon pass allowed access between the plain of Florina and Lake Ohrid. Local states at their height of power tended to control the area, as did Bardylis' Illyrian kingdom, Pyrrhus' Molossian kingdom, and Philip II's Macedon.[21]

In Greek mythology

Illyrius, according to Appian of Alexandria, had a daughter called Dassaro, from whom sprang the Illyrian tribe of Dassaretae (or Dasaretii).[33][34] This genealogy is probably associated with a tribe that lived further north from the Chaonian Dassaretae of the Korce-Maliq region and bore a similar name with the later.[35] In general various accounts about the Dassaretae by ancient authors were supposedly based on prehistorical events and mythical allusions.[36]

Tribes of similar names

According to N. G. L. Hammond an Illyrian tribe of the same or similar name laid further north between the Dardani and the Ardiaei and next to the Dalmatian coast, which is often confused with that of the Dassaretae of the (Greek) Chaonian group.[37][38] Moreover, Livy keeps a clear distinction between those tribes.[39] It has been also argued that a similar spelling is shared in the names of two Illyrian tribes (Dassaretae/-ii and Dassarensis).[40] A possible Illyrian link of the Dassaretae faces many allegedly impenetrable issues in terms of epigraphic and archaeological evidence.[12] Roman era historians Strabo, Livy and Polybius make a clear distinction between the Dexari/Dassaretae and the Illyrians.[41]

See also

References

Citations
  1. Hammond 1994, p. 423; Hammond 1982, p. 265.
  2. Wilkes 1995, p. 98.
  3. Chatzinikolaou Kalliopi, Locating Sanctuaries in Upper Macedonia According to Archaeological Data. ISSN 0776-3824. , p. 195
  4. Hornblower, Simon; Spawforth, Antony; Eidinow, Esther (2012). The Oxford Classical Dictionary. OUP Oxford. ISBN 978-0-19-954556-8. Chanoes, name of a tribel state... in north Epirus which extented from the Dexari, probably near Berat
  5. Edson, Charles Farwell (1981). Ancient Macedonian Studies in Honor of Charles F. Edson. Institute for Balkan Studies. Dassaretae, whose country "Dassaretis" included the Malik-Koritsa plain. It was then the rulers of the Dexari, who were buried at Kuci zi in Tumulus II, and the Dexari themselves were the most northerly of the Chaonian group of tribes,
  6. Hammond 1994, p. 432 "The Chaones... were a group of Greek-speaking tribes, and the Dexari or as they were called later the Dassaretae, were the most northerly member of the group..."
  7. Sakellariou 1997, p. 55 "...Hekataios stated that the Dexaroi of the Chaonian group were next to the Encheleis and the implication is that the Encheleis were not Chaonians is borne by the later labelling of them as Illyrians. Thus the Dexaroi, living on Mt. Amyron (the beautiful Mt Tomorr) and extending up to the southern end of Lake Lychnitis were the northernmost tribe of the Chaonian group..."
  8. Winnifrith, Tom (1992). Perspectives On Albania. Springer. p. 35. ISBN 978-1-349-22050-2. They were neighbours of Greek-speaking tribes, grouped under the common name Chaones, of whom the most northerly, the Dassaretae, extended into the lakeland south of Lake Ochrid.; Winnifrith, Tom (2002). Badlands, Borderlands: A History of Northern Epirus/Southern Albania. Springer. p. 35. ISBN 9781349220502. the Bylliones, reaching the north bank of the Aous. They were neighbours of Greek-speaking tribes, grouped under the common name Chaones, of whom the most northerly, the Dassaretae, extended into the lakeland south of Lake Ochrid. We owe our knowledge to the earliest Greek geographer, Hecataeus...
  9. Hammond 1994, p. 423 (Hecataeus, FGrH I F 103).
  10. Weber 1989, pp. 83–84: "Like the Taulantii the Dassaretae first appear in a fragment of Hecataeus and are known throughout a long tradition that survived to Livy's day and beyond. According to Stephanus of Byzantium, Hecataeus wrote of the Δεξάροι, Έθνος Ξαόνων, who live υπό Άμυρον όρος. The ξ is the phonetic equivalent of ss, so Hecataeus' Δεξάροι is the equivalent of Δεσσάροι, which has a stem identical to Dassaretae... The area is virtually the same territory assigned to the Dassaretae by Pliny, H.N. 4.1.3. He located the Dassaretae along the northern boundary of Epirus. The best documentation of the Dassaretae and their homeland comes from the period of the Roman conquest, the years between the first Roman incursion into Illyricum in 228 B.C. and the settlement of 167 B.C."
  11. Hammond, N. G. L. (2000). "The Ethne in Epirus and Upper Macedonia". The Annual of the British School at Athens. 95: 347. doi:10.1017/S0068245400004718. ISSN 0068-2454. JSTOR 30103439.
  12. Proeva 2006, p. 561:"The Engelanes / Encheleis, the oldest attested tribe in north-western ancient Macedonia, dwelled near the present-day Ohrid. In the nearly same territorial span – from the Ohrid region in the south, up to Polog in the north – but much later, beginning from the second century BC, our extant ancient sources mention the Dassaretae. The question of their ethnic stock has often absorbed fellow scholars, resulting in several differing theories on their ethnicity... Until the 1950s, the interpretation advocating the Illyrian origin of the Encheleis and the Dassaretai gained the widest acceptance; this interpretation stood well until scholars, faced with many allegedly impenetrable problems of a similar kind, began to pay doser attention to the epigraphic and archaeological evidence.
  13. Weber 1989, pp. 84, 86: "Hecataeus placed Mt. Amuron between the Encheleans, who lived around Lake Lychnidus, and Dodona. The area is virtually the same territory assigned to the Dassaretae by Pliny, H.N. 4.1.3. He located the Dassaretae along the northern boundary of Epirus. The best documentation of the Dassaretae and their homeland comes from the period of the Roman conquest, the years between the first Roman incursion into Illyricum in 228 B.C. and the settlement of 167 B.C. Sources dealing with this period derive chiefly from Polybius, who first refers to the Dassaretae in his account of the split between the Illyrian dynast Scerdilaidas and Philip V of Macedonia in 217 B.C. ...It is to the west of the area in which Livy, drawing on Polybius, places the Dassaretae in 199 B.C.,...through the land of the Dassaretae directly to Lyncus, the western section of Macedonia. [...] As part of his description of the Dardanian location, Strabo mentions the Dassaretae. The Dardanians and the Dassaretae, along with other peoples, are situated inland along the path of the Drilo River, the modern Drin"
  14. Chatzopoulos, 1996, p. 82: "strategos was the title given to the chief magistrate of the other minor northern Greek ethne liberated "by the Romans at the same time as the Orestans, and in particular of the Magnetes and the Perrhaiboi (cf. Busolt II 1492-95); it seems that the chief magistrate of the Dassaretans was also a strategos..."
  15. Chatzopoulos, 1996, p. 104: "a Council in both cases complete the main organs of the state, which, in an inscription from Dassaretis, the transitional area between Upper Macedonia, Epeiros and Illyria, are epigrammatically enumerated as Δασσαρητίων άρχοντες, βουλή και δήμος"
  16. Keramopoullos, Anton (1953). About the Trebenista tombs and the people of the Lychnidos region. Makedonika. p. 490. Retrieved 26 May 2020. Ώστε ή περί τήν Λυχνιδύν χώρα ήτο μέν ποτέ Δασσαρητική κα! εκράτησε και έπειτα τό δνομα τούτο, δπερ ήχεΐ ώς βαρβαρική παραφθορά εκ του Λιοσορειτική (Διός δρος-δρεΐται),
  17. HAMMOND, N. G. L. (1991). "The "Koina" of Epirus and Macedonia". Illinois Classical Studies. 16 (1/2): 183–192. ISSN 0363-1923. JSTOR 23064357.
  18. Hammond, N. G. L. “The Kingdoms in Illyria circa 400-167 B.C.” The Annual of the British School at Athens, vol. 61, 1966, pp. 239–253. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/30103175. Accessed 15 May 2020. Page 247: "It is likely that Illyrian tribes occupied Dassaretis before the time of Philip II, because the Dexari disappeared and Alexander's campaign at Pelium was described as a campaign in Illyria"
  19. Edson, Charles Farwell (1981). Ancient Macedonian Studies in Honor of Charles F. Edson. Institute for Balkan Studies. p. 215. the victor was in a position to take over all the lands of which he had dispossessed Bardylis. Instead he left the Encheleae and the Atintani of Lychnis independent, and he not only liberated the Dassaretii but placed himself as a buffer between the Dassaretii and their former masters, the Dardanians.
  20. Hammond, Nicholas Geoffrey Lemprière; Griffith, Guy Thompson; Walbank, Frank William (1972). A History of Macedonia. Clarendon Press. p. 47. ISBN 978-0-19-814815-9. Cleitus burnt Pelium (perhaps the Dassaretian inhabitants has shown themselves less than friendly to the Dardanian raiders)
  21. Hammond, N. G. L. “The Kingdoms in Illyria circa 400-167 B.C.” The Annual of the British School at Athens, vol. 61, 1966, pp. 239–253. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/30103175. Accessed 15 May 2020. Page 248.
  22. Winthrop Lindsay-Adams, Cassander and the Greek City-States (319-317B.C., Balkan Studies, p. 210-211
  23. Weber 1989, p. 84.
  24. Norton, 2007, p. 58"In 199 BC it would appear that all of this territory was under Dassaretian control due to their relationship with Macedonia; Macedonia's military interventions in this area since 217 BC kept the Dassaretian borders at their greatest extent... Macedonian military takeover of the Dassaretii in 217 BC."
  25. Cabanes 2002, pp. 157–188.
  26. Norton, 2007, p. 92
  27. Hammond, N. G. L. “The Kingdoms in Illyria circa 400-167 B.C.” The Annual of the British School at Athens, vol. 61, 1966, pp. 239–253. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/30103175. Accessed 15 May 2020. Page 247. "The Dexari lay to the south of the Enchelees and were thus in Dassaretis, an area to which it seems they gave their name"
  28. Winnifrith, Tom (2002). Badlands, Borderlands: A History of Northern Epirus/Southern Albania. Duckworth. p. 46. ISBN 978-0-7156-3201-7. In Southern Albania the only Epirote tribes named by him apart from the Chaonians are the Athamanes, living in the middle course of the Vjoses river and associated with Amantia. In an independent fragment Hecataeus mentions the Dexari living around Korce
  29. Hammond, N. G. L. “The Kingdoms in Illyria circa 400-167 B.C.” The Annual of the British School at Athens, vol. 61, 1966, pp. 239–253. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/30103175. Accessed 15 May 2020. Page 240: figure 1.
  30. Weber 1989, pp. 83-84: "Ptolemy 3 . 12 also attests that Lychnidus was at some time a possession of the Dassaretae . And, while the city itself may not have always been in the hands of the Dassaretae, the area around it does appear in various authors as at least a marginal part of Dassaretia."
  31. Chatzopoulos, 1996, p. 95, 100
  32. Hammond, Griffith, 1972, p. 95
  33. Appian. History of Rome, "The Illyrian Wars", §2.
  34. Wilkes 1995, p. 92.
  35. Edson, Charles Farwell (1981). Ancient Macedonian Studies in Honor of Charles F. Edson. Institute for Balkan Studies. p. 211. The names of Perrhaebus and another daughter Dassaro were probably associated with tribes farther north, which had names similar to the Perrhaebi of northern Thessaly and the Dassaretae of the Malik-Koritsa basin
  36. Weber 1989, pp. 81: "They ostensibly refer to a group, the Dasserentii, of which tirusta is a specific part... Variant spellings of Dassaretae appear as Dassaretae in Pliny H.N. 3.145 and 4.3 and Pomponius Mela 2.5 ; Δασσαρήτοι in Stephanus Byzantius, Δασσαρήτιοι, , in Appian Ill 2, Ptolemy 3.12.29, Strabo 7.5.7 ; along with the territorial designation Δασσαρήτις in Polybius 5.108.2. These writers gleaned their information from sources dating from prehistoric, mythical allusions such as those in Appian and the Hecataean-style periplus of Strabo - the late third-century B.C. record in Polybius, and the citation from the early empire in Pliny."
  37. Hammond 1994, p. 423
  38. Hammond, 1989, p. 11-25: "...Illyrian Dassaretii on the Dalmatian coast and Dassaretae between Macedonia and Epirus".
  39. Hammond, 1966, p. 253
  40. Weber 1989, pp. 81: "DASSERENTIORUM TIRUSTA The Codex Vindobonensis XV records this tribe as dassarentiorum tirusta. The title appears to be a combination of two proper names, one genitive in case and pluralin number, the other nominative and singular. They ostensibly refer to a group, the Dasserentii, of which tirusta is a specific part (o). So, to understand Livy's meaning it is necessary to identify both names. The spelling of Dassarentii resembles two known Illyrian names, Dassaretae and Daesitiates. Of the two, Dassaretaeis probably the tribe Livy meant to describe (o). Each time he uses a similarly spelled name it is in an account ofan event in Illyricum between 200 and 170 B.C. This is long before any event involving the Daesitiates. Then too, the manuscript reproduces several names with stems similar to the initial D-A-S-S-A-R of Dassaretae but none with the D-A-E-S-I-Tof Daesitiates. For example 42.36.9, a description of events from 171, contains the spelling Dassaratiorum ; 43.9.7, the happenings of 170, has the name Dassaretiorum, and 45.26.14, the statement of Illyrian tribute to be paid to Rome, has Dassarensis. On the other hand, all of the references to Daesitiates date from early imperial sources describing incidents from the age of Augustus or later. And it is clear that Daesitiates is not a later mutation of Dassaretae. Strabo, Pliny, and Appian differentiate between the two names and locate the homeland of each in different places (*). (55)... and Desitiaties in CIL DX, 2564. (58)
  41. Hammond, 1989, p. 11-25: "It follows from Strabo's statement that the other tribes south of the line and extending down to the Ambraciote Gulf were Epirotic. Of these the most northerly near the coast were the 'Abantes' or 'Amantes' or 'Amantoi', since all these forms occur, and the farthest inland the Dassaretae, known to Hecataeus as the 'Dexaroi, a tribe of the Chaonians, next to the Encheleae' (FGrH i F Io3; and for the Encheleae see Strabo 326).40 The distinction between Illyrians and Dassaretii is seen also in Livy 42. 36. 9 (following Polybius), 'ad occupanda Dassaretiorum et Illyriorum castella'."

Sources
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