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The Illyrian War of Octavian

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 September 2012

Extract

This important war has recently been the subject of several studies. None the less, opinions are still divided about the central problem—did Octavian occupy only a small portion of Roman Dalmatia, or did he conquer almost the whole of that region? That is the question, and there is as yet no final solution. The following pages are written in an attempt to make a solution easier.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Name of Author 1934

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References

1 Dobiás, J., ‘K Octavinovým výpravám illyr-skym r letech 35–33 pŕ Kr.’, Listy filologické, xlviii, 1921, pp. 65–75 and 213223Google Scholar, and Studie k Appianově knize Illyrské, Prague, 1930; Swoboda, E., Octavian und lllyricum, Vienna, 1932Google Scholar; Bersanetti, Bollettino di filologia classica, 1932, pp. 255–259; Syme, Ronald, JRS xxiii, 1933, pp. 6671Google Scholar. (The last two items are reviews of E. Swoboda's work.)

2 Op. cit., p. 70.

3 FOA, xvii.

4 It is not very probable that the tribes of the interior of Illyria were imperfectly known to the Romans in the time of Octavian. The excavations at Trebeniśte have proved the existence of a vigorous trade as early as the second half of the sixth century B.C. between Greece and the regions north of Lake Ochrida. An archaic Greek statuette was recently discovered even further north, at Tetovo. In the fifth century, Herodotus is aware that the country near the source of the Ibar is inhabited by Illyrians—that is to say, a region quite in the interior of Illyria.

5 Ill. 17, μάλιστα δ᾿ ἠνώχλησαν αὐτὸν Σαλασσοί τε καὶ Ἰάποδες οί πέραν Ἄλπεαν καὶ Σεγεστανοὶ καὶ Δαλμάται καὶ Δαισιτιᾶται καὶ Παίονες.

6 NH iii, 142 f.

7 On this subject see the observations of the present writer, Rivista di storia antica, 1903, p. 489; L' Acropole, 1932, p. 2, and, above all, Jahreshefte iv, 1901Google Scholar, Beiblatt, col. 160.