The
Ilienses or
Iolaes or
Ilians or
Iolai ();
[ Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), ilienses][ Strabo, Geography, 5.2][ Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), Iolai] later known as
Diagesbes (Διαγησβεῖς) or
Diagebres (Διαγηβρεῖς)
[Strabo, Geographica V, 2,7.] were an ancient Nuragic people who lived during the
Bronze Age and
in central-southern
Sardinia, as well as one of the three major groups among which the ancient
Sardinians considered themselves divided (along with the
Corsi people and the
Balares).
[ Motzo, Bacchisio Raimondo (1933). Iliensi in Enciclopedia Italiana, cited in Treccani][ Iliensi, Enciclopedia on line Treccani] After the
Sicilian Wars began with the Punic invasion in the sixth century BC, part of them retreated to the mountainous interior of the island, from which they opposed the foreign rule for centuries.
History
Mythological origins
According to the legend recorded by Greek historians, the etymology of their name (Iolaes) is to be traced back to
Iolaus, the hero who led the
Thespiades, sons of
Heracles and the daughters of
Thespius (king of the
Boeotian city-state of
Thespiae) in Sardinia, where he founded a colony. Another myth tell that the old inhabitants of Ilium, better known as
Troy, after the fall of the city established themselves in this part of Sardinia (where they mixed with the Iolaes), hence the name of Ilienses.
Pomponius Mela considered the Ilienses as the oldest people of the island.
.
Nuragic period
Despite the myth, they were most likely a tribal group indigenous to the island.
[ Motzo, Bacchisio Raimondo (1933). Iliensi in Enciclopedia Italiana, cited in Treccani][ Iliensi, Enciclopedia on line Treccani] According to the archaeologist Giovanni Ugas, the Ilienses were the most important population of Nuragic Sardinia and were connected with the
Sherden, one of the
Sea Peoples widely cited in
sources. This hypothesis has been, however, opposed by other archaeologists and historians.
[Stephen L. Dyson and Robert J. Rowland, Archaeology And History in Sardinia From The Stone Age to the Middle Ages: Shepherds, Sailors, & Conquerors (UPenn Museum of Archaeology, 2007: ), p. 101 (with refs).]
Eduardo Blasco Ferrer correlates their name with the Iberian language root *ili-, meaning settlement.[Eduardo Blasco Ferrer, Paleosardo. Le radici linguistiche della Sardegna neolitica, Berlin/New York (2010)] In the nuragic period their territory extended from the plain of Campidano (called in antiquity Iolean plain) to the Tirso river in north where began the territory of the Balares. They were probably divided into 40 tribes, each ruled by a king or chieftain. These rulers lived in the complex nuraghi, called "polilobates", such as Su Nuraxi of Barumini.
In what was once their territory, very important are the findings of Mycenaean Greece artifacts, confirming the wealth of exchanges between these two ancient populations. Of particular interest are also the Oxhide ingot, which perhaps came from Cyprus and was discovered in various locations, including the Cagliari area, in the province of Ogliastra and other central areas. Between 1300 and 1200 BC in central-southern Sardinia was produced a kind of gray pottery also called "gray Sardinian"; remains of this type of pottery have been found in Kommos, Crete, and at Cannatello near Agrigento, Sicily.[Ceramiche. Storia, linguaggio e prospettive in Sardegna, p.34]
Punic and Roman period
As witnessed by the ancient sources (
Diodorus Siculus,
Bibliotheca historica and Pausanias,
Description of Greece) since the sixth century BC this population opposed fiercely to the domination of
Carthage.
After the end of the First Punic War in 238 BC the Romans occupied the main strongholds of the Punic Sardinia, but the people of the interior opposed even to the new invaders.
In 227 BC, Corsica and Sardinia became the second Roman province (the first was Sicily). The outbreak of the Second Punic War and the victories of Hannibal in the Italian Peninsula provoked new stirrings of rebellion in Sardinia where, after the Roman defeat at the Battle of Cannae, the Sardinian-Punic landowner and military Hampsicora, helped by the Carthaginians and by Ilienses, organized a new uprising. In 215 BC the rebels were defeated and massacred in the battle of Decimomannu by Titus Manlius Torquatus and so Carthage lost the island definitively.
In Roman times the Ilienses and the Balares of the interior continued to resist, but in 177 BC they were heavily defeated by the consul Tiberius Gracchus who killed or enslaved about 80,000 Sardinians. However still in imperial time they were not completely subjugated by Rome and continued to live relatively independently in the central region called Barbagia.
Ilienses / Iolaes tribes (Iolei)
Source:
-
Acconites (Acconiti)
-
Aechilenenses / Aichilenses (Aichilensi) / Cornenses / Cornenses Pelliti
-
Aesaronenses / Aisaronenses (Esanorensi)
-
Alcitani (Alkitani)
-
Alticientes (Altikientes) / Altic(ienses)
-
Barbaricini (Barbarikini) (in the region later known as Barbagia)
-
Beronicenses (Beronikenses) (Beronicensi)
-
Bulgares (Ilienses Bulgares)
-
Campani (Patulcenses Campani)
-
Caralitani (Carales, today's Cagliari, was in their territory)
-
Carenses, they dwelt south of the Coracenses and north of the Salcitani and the Lucuidonenses.
-
Celsitani / Celsitani, they dwelt south of the Rucensi and north of the Scapitani and the Siculensi.
-
Corpicenses, they dwelt south of the Rucensi and north of the Scapitani and the Siculensi.
-
Cunusitani / Cunusitani, they dwelt south of the Coracenses and north of the Salcitani and the Lucuidonenses.
-
Euthychiani (Euthicani) (they were not a tribe of the Balares)
-
Fifenses
-
Galillenses (Galillesi)
-
Hypsitani
-
Ilienses Proprii (Ilienses Proprii) / Iolei (Iolei Proprii) / Pelliti / Sardi Pelliti
-
Lesitani
-
Maltamonenses
-
Martenses
-
Mauri (Paleo-Sardinian tribe) (Mauri Ilienses), in an area of far southwestern Sardinia (they may have been a tribe related to or of Mauri origin that was assimilated by the Ilienses (Iolei))
-
Moddol(...)
-
Muthon(enses)
-
Neapolitani, they dwelt north of the Sulcitani and the Noritani.
-
Noritani / Norenses, they dwelt at the extreme south part of the island, immediately south of the Neapolitani and the Valentini (not to be confused with the Nurritani or Nurrenses)
-
Nurrenses (Nurenses) (not to be confused with the Norenses or Noritani)
-
Parati tribe
-
Patulcenses (not to be confused with the Patulcii or Patulci)
-
Patulcii / Patulci (not to be confused with the Patulcenses)
-
Rubrenses / Rubri / Rubrinses
-
Rucenses (Rucensi), they dwelt south of the Æchilenenses (also called Cornenses) and north of the Celsitani and the Corpicenses
-
Salcitani (Salkitani), they dwelt south of the Carenses and the Cunusitani and north of the Æsaronenses.
-
Sarrapitani
-
Scapitani, they dwelt south of the Celsitani and the Corpicenses and north of the Neapolitani and the Valentini
-
Semilitenses (Semilitensi) / Maltamonenses (Maltamonensi)
-
Siculensi (Siculesi), they dwelt south of the Celsitani and the Corpicenses and north of the Neapolitani and the Valentini. (may have been a tribe of Sicels or Sicels origin assimilated by the Ilienses or Iolei)
-
Sossinates (Sossinati)
-
Sulcitani / Solcitani, they dwelt at the extreme south part of Sardinia, immediately south of the Neapolitani and the Valentini
-
Uterini
-
Uthicenses / Uthikenses / Othocenses
-
Valentini, they dwelt south of the Scapitani and the Siculensi and north of the Solcitani and the Noritani.
-
Vitenses
-
...rarri Numisiarum
See also
Bibliography
