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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 Corfu until shortly after the settled the island, c. 730 BC.
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, a type of ship, and name for carriers of chair, and server on royal court.
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 Carthage 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 Vindelici 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 Vindelici were originally Liburnians – a non-Celtic Indo-European 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 Illyrians 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
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 Zadar 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. (2025). 9781593330255, Gorgias Press. ISBN 9781593330255
Throughout this time, Roman rule in Illyricum province, largely nominal, was concentrated in only a few cities on the eastern Adriatic coast, such as Zadar, Salona and Narona. Renewed Illyrian and Liburnian piracy motivated Augustus to organize a great military operation in Illyricum province in 35 BC, to finally stabilize Roman control of it. This action was first concentrated on the coastal Illyrian tribes to the east of Narona, then was expanded along the depth of Illyrian territory, where continental tribes gave much stronger resistance. After returning from the inland areas of Illyricum, Octavian destroyed the Illyrian pirate communities on the islands of Melita (Mljet) and Korkyra Nigra (Korčula), and continued to Liburnia, where he wiped out the last remnants of the Liburnian naval forces, thus resolving the problems of their renewed piratical activities in the bay of Kvarner ( sinus Flanaticus) and their attempt to secede from Rome. Octavian commandeered all the Liburnian ships. Very soon these galleys would play a decisive role in the battle near Actium.
Octavian made another expedition inland against the Iapodes from the Liburnian port of Senia (Senj), and conquered their most important positions in 34 BC. Over the next 2 years the Roman army, led by Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, fought hard battles with the Dalmatae. The Liburnians were not recorded as participants in this war, but their southernmost territories were surely involved. It is uncertain whether the Liburnians joined in the last Great Illyrian Revolt; this remains debatable, as the only evidence is a damaged inscription found in Verona, mentioning the Iapodes and Liburnians under an unknown leader.
Over the centuries, naval power was the most important aspect of warfare for the Liburni. After the empowered Roman forces defeated the Liburni, the region became part of the Roman province of Dalmatia, but it was considered marginal in a military sense. Burnum on the Krka river became a Roman military camp, while the plains of Liburnia proper inland from Iader, already urbanized, now became easily accessible to control by Roman rulers. However, Liburnian seafaring tradition was not extinguished; it rather acquired a more commercial character under the new circumstances as Liburnia's ports and cities thrived economically and culturally. Despite Romanization, especially in the larger cities, Liburnians retained their traditions, cults, burial customs (Liburnian cipus), names, etc., as attested by the archaeological evidence from that era.
Iutossica and Anzotica, the latter identified with Venus ( Venus Ansotica), Iicus ( Iuppiter Sabazios Iicus), Taranucus ( Iuppiter Taranucus) and so on were worshipped in Liburnia. Bindus, identified with Neptune, was worshiped among the Japodes as the guardian deity of springs and seas.
The Liburnians constructed different ship types; their galaia was an early prototype of transport galleys, lembus was a fishing shipH. Krahe, Griech. λέμβος, lat. lembus - eine illyrische Schiffsbezeichnung?, Gymnasium, 59/1952, H. 1, p. 79.L. Casson, Ships and Seamanship in the Ancient World, Princeton, 1971, pp. 141-142. continued by the present-day Croatian levut, and a drakoforos was apparently mounted with a dragonhead at the prow.
Remains of a 10 meter long ship from the 1st century BC were found in Zaton near Nin (Aenona in Liburnia proper), the ship keel with the bottom planking made of 6 rows of wooden boards on each side, joined together and sewn with resin cords and wooden wedges, testifying to the Liburnian shipbuilding tradition style known as " Serilia Liburnica". Deciduous trees (oak and beech) were used, while some climber was used for the cords.
A 10th-century AD ship of identical form and size, made with wooden fittings instead of sewn planking joints, was found in the same place, " Condura Croatica" used by the Medieval Croats. Condura could be the closest known vessel to the original "liburna" galley in form, only much smaller, with the features of a quick and agile galley, having a shallow bottom, very straightened but long, with one large Latin sail and a row of oars on each side.
Liburnae may have been shown in a naval battle scene carved on a stone tablet (Stele di Novilara) found near Antique Pisaurum (Pesaro) and dated to the 5th or 6th century BC. It depicts a legendary battle between the Liburnian and Picenum fleets. The liburna was presented as a light ship with one row of oars, one mast, one sail and a prow twisted outwards. Under the prow was a rostrum made for striking enemy ships under the sea.
In its original form, the liburna was similar to the Greek penteconter. It had one bench with 25 oars on each side. Later, in the time of the Roman Republic, it became a smaller version of a trireme, but with two banks of oars (a bireme), faster, lighter, and more agile than biremes and triremes. The liburnian design was adopted by the Romans and became a key part of the Roman Navy, possibly by way of the Macedonian navy, in the 2nd half of the 1st century BC. Liburnae ships played a crucial role in the naval battle of Actium in Greece, which lasted from August 31 to September 2 of 31 BC. Because of the liburna's maneuverability and the bravery of its Liburnian crews, these ships completely defeated much bigger and heavier eastern ships, quadriremes and penterames. The liburna was different from the battle triremes, and — not in terms of rowing, but rather in its specific construction.
It was long and wide with a draft. Two rows of oarsmen pulled 18 oars per side. The ship could make up to 14 knots under sail and more than 7 under oars. Such a vessel, used as a merchantman, might take on a passenger, as Lycinus relates in the 2nd-century dialogue, traditionally attributed to Lucian of Samosata: "I had a speedy vessel readied, the kind of bireme used above all by the Liburnians of the Ionian Gulf."
Once the Romans had adopted the liburna, they improved it. The benefits gained from the addition of rams and protection from missiles more than made up for the slight loss of speed. The ships also required that the regular Roman military unit be simplified in order to function more smoothly. Each ship operated as an individual entity, so the more complicated organization normally used was not necessary. Within the navy, there were probably liburnae of several varying sizes, all put to specific tasks such as scouting and patrolling Roman waters against piracy. The Romans made use of liburnae particularly in some provinces where they formed the bulk of the fleets, while they were included in smaller numbers in the fleets at Ravenna and Micenum where a large number of Illyrians were serving, especially Dalmatae, Liburnians and Pannonians.
Gradually liburna became a generic name for different types of Roman ships, attached also to cargo ships in later Antiquity. Tacitus and Suetonius were using it as a synonym for battle ship. In inscriptions it was mentioned as the last class of battle ships: hexeres, penteres, quadrieres, trieres, liburna.
In Medieval sources, "liburna" ships were often recorded in use by Croats and pirates and sailors, probably not always referring to ships of the same form.
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