The Liburnians or Liburni ()Scyl. 21 ; Strabo vi. p. 407, vii. p. 484; Appian, Ill. 12; Stephanus Byzantinus; Scholia ad Nicander 607; ; . were an ancient tribe inhabiting the district called Liburnia, a coastal region of the northeastern Adriatic between the rivers Arsia (Raša) and Titius (Krka) in what is now Croatia. According to Strabo's Geographica, they populated Kerkyra until shortly after the Corinthians settled the island, c. 730 BC. Their ethnic and linguistic origins are unknown.
Origins The Liburni's archaeological culture can be traced to the Late Bronze Age and "were settled since at least the tenth century BC in northern Dalmatia". Some Greek and Roman historians considered them to be of Asia Minor origin, while others claimed that were some common characteristics between them and Etruscans. Modern scholarship refutes both theories.
Appian considered them as "one of the Illyrian peoples", an "Illyrian tribe", aligning with Florus' designation of them as the first enemies of Rome during the Illyro-Roman Wars. However, although sometimes designated as Illyrian in historical sources and historiography they did not belong to Illyrii proprie dicti, nor to the Illyrian groups of Dalmatia and Pannonia, and Livy for example considered them "different people from the Illyrians".
As foreign sources probably mixed various data on ethnic and non-ethnic Illyrians, it is considered today on the basis of material and linguistic evidence that the Liburni belonged to broader term of "so-called Illyrian peoples", but were not ethnic Illyrians, ie being their closest relatives.
However, modern historiography questions the same scholarship's methodological identification of ethnicity with material culture, linguistic traces, deities and else which ignores anthropological exchange, and notes that prior 4th century BCE the name of Liburni and Illyrians could have been synonyms and the former was only later distinctively used in narrow sense for people of North Adriatic territory.
The Liburnian people, especially when were stationed in foreign land, identified themselves as "Liburnus" or "natione Liburnus", but the identity was also related to same-named administrative unit in Roman province of Illyricum, making the shared sense of ethnic and political identity prior to the 1st century BCE a matter of debate among modern scholars. The surnames Liburnus, Liburna and personal names Liburnius and Liburnia are not necessarily related to ethnic identity but rather Liburna, which can refer to a specific type of ship, a name for carriers of chair, and servers in royal courts.
History Classic age
The first account of the Liburni comes from Hecataeus of Miletus (6th century BCE) and Strabo ("referring to the eighth century BCE"). They reportedly were expelled from Korkyra by the Greeks, where Liburni previously expelled another Illyrian people Taulantii, during the period of foundation of Syracuse, Sicily. Appian also wrote that they possessed Epidamnus in Albania, but both accounts, although possibly anachronistic, don't seem impossible. They are probably a reflection of Illyrian southward migration during the Early Iron Age (c. 1000 BCE).
The fall of Liburnian domination in the Adriatic Sea and their final retreat to their ethnic region (Liburnia) were caused by the military and political activities of Dionysius the Elder of Syracuse (406 – 367 BC). The imperial power base of this Syracusan tyrant stemmed from a huge naval fleet of 300 tetreras and penteras. After he ended Carthaginian authority in Sicily, he turned against the Etruscans. He made use of the Celtic invasion of Italy, and the Celts became his allies in the Italian peninsula (386 - 385 BC). This alliance was crucial for his politics, then focusing on the Adriatic Sea, where the Liburnians still dominated. In light of this strategy, he established a few Syracusan colonies on the coasts of the Adriatic Sea: Adria at the mouth of Po river and Ancona at the western Adriatic coast, Issa on the outermost island of the central Adriatic archipelago (island of Vis) and others. Meanwhile, in 385-384 BC he helped colonists from the Greek island of Paros to establish Pharos (Starigrad) colony on the Liburnian island of Hvar, thus taking control of the important points and navigable routes in the southern, central and northern Adriatic.
The name of the Vindelician town of Cambodunum (today Kempten) is apparently derived from the Celtic cambo dunon: "fortified place at the river bend" .Cambodunum has obvious similarities to the Old Irish camb or camm "crooked" and dún "fort". One classical source, Servius' commentary on Virgil's Aeneid,Servius' commentary on Virgil's Aeneid i. 243. says on the contrary that the Vindelicians were originally Liburnians – a non-Celtic Indo-European-speaking people from the northeastern shores of the Adriatic (modern Croatia).
This caused a simultaneous Liburnian resistance on both coasts, whether in their ethnic domain or on the western coast, where their possessions or interests were in danger. A great naval battle was recorded a year after the establishment of Pharos colony, by a Greek inscription in Pharos (384 – 383 BC) and by the Greek historian Diodorus Siculus (80–29 BC), initiated by conflicts between the Greek colonists and the indigenous Hvar islanders, who asked their compatriots for support. 10,000 Liburnians sailed out from their capital Idassa (Zadar), led by the Iadasinoi (people of Zadar), and laid siege to Pharos. The Syracusan fleet positioned in Issa was informed in time, and Greek triremes attacked the siege fleet, taking victory in the end. According to Diodorus, the Greeks killed more than 5,000 and captured 2,000 prisoners, ran down or captured their ships, and burned their weapons in dedication to their god.
This battle meant the loss of the most important strategic Liburnian positions in the centre of the Adriatic, resulting in their final retreat to their main ethnic region, Liburnia, and their complete departure from the Italic coast, apart from Truentum (nowadays on the border between Marche and Abruzzo). Greek colonization, however, did not extend into Liburnia, which remained strongly held, and Syracusan dominance suddenly diminished upon the death of Dionysius the Elder. The Liburnians recovered and developed piracy to secure navigable routes in the Adriatic, as recorded by Livius for 302 BC.
The middle of the 3rd century BC was marked by the rise of an Illyrian kingdom in the south of the Adriatic, led by king Agron of the Ardiaei. Its piratical activities imperiled Greek and Roman interests in the Adriatic, and caused the first Roman intervention on the eastern coast in 229 BC; Florus in Epitome of Roman History noted the Liburnians as the Romans' enemies in this expedition, This section is also known as "Book II, 5" in four volume editions, according to Bill Thayer in while Appian (Bell. Civ., II, 39) noted liburnae as swift galleys the Romans first fought with when they entered the Adriatic. The Liburni were allies of their southern Illyrian compatriots, Ardiaei and the others, but from the lack of more records related to them in the 3rd century BC, it is assumed that they mostly stood aside in the subsequent Roman wars and conflicts with Pyrrhus, Carthage, Macedonia and the southern Illyrian state. Even though Liburnian territory was not involved in these confrontations, it seems that the Liburna warship was adopted by the Romans during the Punic Wars and in the Second Macedonian War.Livy xlii. 48
Hellenistic and Roman periods In 181 BC, the Romans established their colony at Aquileia and took control of all Venetia in the north, thus expanding towards the Illyrian area from the northwest. In 177 BC they conquered Istria to the north of the eastern Adriatic coast, settled by tribe of Histri, while the Iapodes, the northern neighbors of Liburnia, attacked Aquileia in 171 BC. These incidents did not involve Liburnian territory. The Liburnians probably avoided direct conflict with the Romans in order to safeguard their remaining naval activities. After their arrival to the west of Liburnia, Roman legions also appeared on its southern borders, defeating the southern Illyrians and finally king Gentius in 167 BC, and during wars against the tribe of Dalmatae in 156–155 BC. The first Roman appearance in Liburnian waters occurred in 129 BC, during the military expedition of the Roman consul Gaius Sempronius Tuditanus against the Iapodes, which ended with hard-won victories over the Iapodes, Carni, Taurisci and Liburnians.
In 84 BC, the Roman consuls enemies of Sulla mobilized an army in Italy and tried to use Liburnian territory, probably some outer island, to organize a military campaign back into Italy, against Sulla. This failed owing to bad weather and the low morale of the soldiers, who massively escaped to their homes in Italy, or refused to cross the sea to Liburnia. The Roman legions once again passed through Liburnian territory, probably by sea along the coast, in their next expedition against the Dalmatae (78–76 BC), started from the north, from Aquileia and Istria, to stabilize Roman control of the Dalmatian city Salona.
In 59 BC, Illyricum was assigned as a provincia (or zone of responsibility) to Julius Caesar, and the main Liburnian city of Iadera was nominally proclaimed a Roman municipium, but the real establishment of the Roman province occurred no earlier than 33 BC.
The Dalmatae soon recovered and entered into conflict with the Liburnians in 51 BC (probably over possession of the pasture grounds around the Krka river), taking their city Promona. The Liburnians were not strong enough to reconquer it alone, so they appealed to Caesar, then the Roman proconsul of Illyricum. However, the Liburnian army, strategically supported by the Romans, was heavily defeated by the Dalmatae.
The civil war between Caesar and Pompey in 49 BC affected all of the Roman Empire, as well as Liburnia. In that year, near the island of Krk, there was an important naval battle between the forces of Caesar and Pompey, involving local Liburnian support to both sides. Caesar was supported by the urban Liburnian centres, like Iader, Aenona and Curicum, while the rest of Liburnia supported Pompey, including the city of Issa where residents objected to Caesar's support for the Dalmatae in Salona. The "Navy of Iader" (Zadar) which may have included both Liburnian and Roman ships, confronted the "Liburnian navy" in service to Pompey, equipped with only Liburnians in their liburnae galleys.
Caesar rewarded his supporters in Liburnian Iader and Dalmatian Salona with the status of Roman colonies, but the battle was won by the Liburnian navy, prolonging the civil war, and ensuring control of the Adriatic to the side aligned with Pompey over the next 2 years until his final defeat in 48 BC. In the same year, Caesar sent his legions to take control of the rebellious Illyricum province, and took the fortress of Promona from Dalmatian hands, making them submit.