Amantes (tribe)

This article is about the ancient tribe in modern southern Albania. For the northern Illyrian tribe, see Amantini.
A bronze coin bearing with the heads of Zeus and Dione on the obverse (left) and the legend ΑΜΑΝΤΩΝ (AMANTON) and a serpent on the reverse (right).

The Amantes (alternatively attested in primary sources, as Amantieis or Amantini) (Ancient Greek: Άμαντες or Αμαντιείς; Latin: Amantinii) were an ancient tribe located in the inland area of the Bay of Vlora north of the Ceraunian Mountains and south of Apollonia, in southern Illyria near the boundary with Epirus, nowadays modern Albania.[1][2][3] A site of their location has been identified with the archaeological settlement of Amantia, placed above the river Vjosë/Aoos.[4] Amantia is considered to have been their main settlement.[5] The Amantes also inhabited in the area of an ancient sanctuary of the eternal fire called Nymphaion.[2]

The Amantes firstly appear in ancient literature in the 4th century BCE in the Periplus of Pseudo-Skylax as an Illyrian tribe bordering the Epirote Chaonians.[6][7] In Hellenistic sources they are mentioned among the Epirotes.[8] In Roman-times literature they appear as barbarians.[8] In modern historiography a number of scholars regard the Amantes as Illyrians,[9] and others consider them as Epirotes.[10]

Although no definite evidence has been found to ensure the establishment of a political organisation of the Amantes as a koinon, its institution is indicated by archaeological findings in the area.[11] The tribal polity (perhaps a koinon) of the Amantes and the koinon of the Bylliones are today considered important examples of Illyrian koina, organized in a manned similar to the Koinon of the Epirotes.[12][11][13]

  1. ^ Green 2007, p. 382: "Amantes: Inhabitants of an area of Illyria south of Apollonia in the Keraunian mountains (the "Thunderers"), near the Kolchian foundation of Orikon (q.v.).
  2. ^ a b Bejko et al. 2015, p. 4.
  3. ^ Lippert & Matzinger 2021, pp. 99–100.
  4. ^ Elsie 2015, p. 2.
  5. ^ Lippert & Matzinger 2021, p. 100.
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference Shipley was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ Šašel Kos 2005, p. 276: "Appian specifically referred to the Atintani as an Illyrian people, which may be in accordance with the data in Pseudo-Scylax (...). The author of the Periplus distinguished between the Illyrian peoples, barbarians, to the north of Chaonia, i.e. the Bulini, ..., Atintanes, and Amantini, while others, i.e. the Chaones, ..., and Molossi, whom he did not identify in terms of their ethnicity, inhabited the regions to the south of Chaonia, were living in villages, while Greece began at the Greek polis of Ambracia (c. 33) . In the Periplous, the Atintanes were located in the regions extending above Oricum and reaching towards Dodona (c. 26).
  8. ^ a b Winnifrith 2002, p. 174.
  9. ^ Elsie 2015, p. 2; Counillon 2006, p. 27; Tzitzilis 2007, p. 745; Picard 2013, p. 79; Ceka 2012, p. 60; Mesihović 2014, p. 116; Jaupaj 2019, p. 449; Lippert & Matzinger 2021, pp. 13, 100.
  10. ^ Haensch 2012, p. 75; Warnecke 2014, pp. 307–308; Smoot 2015, p. 266; Dominguez 2020, p. 82.
  11. ^ a b Jaupaj 2019, pp. 450–453
  12. ^ Shpuza 2022, p. 13
  13. ^ Zindel et al. 2018, pp. 42–43