Amantini

This article is about the tribe in northern Illyria. For the southern tribe, see Amantes (tribe).

The Amantini (Ancient Greek: Ἄμαντες; Latin: Amantinii) was the name of a Pannonian Illyrian tribe.[1][2][3]

The Amantini lived between the rivers Drava and Sava close to Sirmium .[4][5] They remained outside the Roman sphere of influence before the Pannonian War (12-9 BCE) in which they fought against the Romans in alliance with other Illyrian peoples of Dalmatia and Pannonia. After the war and the Bellum Batonianum (6-9 CE) many of the youths of the leading Amantini families were taken hostages and many young males were sold as slaves in Italy.[6] An inscription found in Bassianae which mentions the death of the ten-year old boy Scemaes is the only inscription which directly refers to the Amantini. Scemaes, son of Liccaus from the Undia family of the Amantini has been taken hostage by the Romans most probably during the Pannonian War. Young Scemaes drowned in a river near Emona by accident. His father Liccaus and his kinsmen Loriqus and Licaios dedicated an inscription and a cenotaph to his memory.[7]

  1. ^ Wilkes 1992, p. 218: "Except for the Latobici and Varciani, whose names are Celtic, the civitates of Colapiani, Jasi, Breuci, Amantini and Scordisci were Illyrian."
  2. ^ Mesihović & Šačić 2015, p. 207.
  3. ^ Dalmatia Tome 2 of History of the provinces of the Roman Empire by J. J. Wilkes, 1969, page 534
  4. ^ Šašel Kos 2005, p. 456.
  5. ^ Wilkes 1992, p. 81: "...the Breuci with Scilus Bato, Blaedarus, Dasmenus, Dasius, Surco, Sassaius, Liccaius and Lensus, and the Amantini and Scordisci around Sirmium with Terco and Precio, Dases and Dasmenus..."
  6. ^ Wilkes 1992, p. 207: "The war was a savage affair and the main resistance to the Romans came from the Breuci and Amantini in the Sava valley. The young males were rounded up and sold as slaves in Italy, a quite exceptional action..."
  7. ^ Parat 2020, pp. 65–66.