Illyria

Area comprising the eastern Adriatic coast and hinterland. It was inhabited by the an Indo-European Illyrians, a loosely united Balkan people. It was taken in the 1st century BCE by Rome after a long war and became a prefecture and then a province; during this period Illyricum enjoyed a great deal of prosperity. The Roman province stretched from the Drilon River (the Drin, in modern Albania) in the south to Istria (modern Slovenia and Croatia) in the north and to the Savus (Sava) River in the east; its administrative center was Salonae (near present-day Split) in Dalmatia. As the empire expanded along the Danube River valley, Illyricum was divided between the provinces of Dalmatia and Pannonia. Several of the most outstanding emperors of the late Roman Empire were of Illyrian origin, including Claudius II Gothicus, Aurelian, Diocletian, and Constantine the Great. When the Roman empire was divided in 395 CE, Illyria east of the Drinus River became part of the Eastern empire. By the end of the 7th century, invading Slavs had transformed the ethnic structure of all the Illyrian-speaking territories. Croatia, Serbia, Dalmatia, Bosnia, Montenegro, and parts of Macedonia lost their Illyrian language, so that the Albanians remain as the only direct descendants of the ancient Illyrians.