List of ancient Illyrian peoples and tribes


The following is a list of ancient Illyrian peoples and tribes.

Background

The Illyrians were a group of Indo-European tribes in antiquity, who inhabited most part of the western Balkans.
Before Celtic expansion, starting roughly in the 7th and 6th centuries BC, the Pannonians, related to the Illyrians proper, lived in a larger range of land that included most part of the plains of the west Middle Danube river basin.
Before Roman expansion and conquest the Messapians, in southeast Italy, were possibly also a people of Illyrian affiliation and spoke Messapian.
Just before Roman conquest Illyrian peoples and tribes in most of the western Balkans remained culturally Illyrians and maintained their languages. Illyrian peoples and tribes were speakers of the Illyrian languages, a branch of the Indo-European language family, but in the centuries after the Roman conquest most of the Illyrians were included in the Roman civilization and Empire, shifted their ethnic identity to a Roman one and started speaking Latin in the process of Romanization.
However, they were some Illyrians that maintained their own cultural identity and these group of tribes are probably those that are the ancestors of most of the Albanian people.

List