LIBURNI
Eth.
LIBURNI (
Λιβυρνοί, Scyl. p. 7;
Strab. vi. p.269, vii. p. 317; Appian,
App. Ill. 12;
Steph. B. sub voce Schol.
ad Nicand. 607: Pomp. Mela, 2.3.12; Plin. iii,. 25;
Flor. 2.5), a people who occupied the N. part of Illyricum, or the district called LIBURNIA (
Λιβυρνὶς χώρα, Scyl. p. 7;
Λιβουρνία, Ptol. 2.16.8,
8.7.7; Plin.3.6, 23, 26;
Peut. Tab.; Orelli,
Inscr. n. 664). The Liburnians were an ancient people, who, together with the Siculians, had occupied the opposite coast of Picenum; they had a city there, Truentum, which had continued in existence amid all the changes of the population (
Plin. Nat. 3.18). Niebuhr (
Hist. of Rome, vol. i. p. 50, trans.) has conjectured that they were a Pelasgian race. However this may be, it is certain that at the time when the historical accounts of these coasts begin they were very extensively diffused. Corcyra, before the Greeks took possession of it, was peopled by them. (
Strab. vi. p.269.) So was Issa and the neighbouring islands. (Schol.
ad Apollon. 4.564.)
They were also considerably extended to the N., for Noricum, it is evident, had been previously in. habited by Liburnian tribes; for the Vindelicians were Liburnians (Serv.
ad Viry. Aen. 1.243), and Strabo (
iv. p.206) makes a distinction between them and the Breuni and Genauni, whom he calls Illyrians.
The words of Virgil (
l.c.), too, seem distinctly to term the Veneti Liburnians, for the “innermost realm of the Liburnians” must have been the goal at which Antenor is said to have arrived.
Driven out from the countries between Pannonia and the Veneti by the Gallic invasion, they were compressed within the district from the Titius to the Arsia, which assumed the title of Liburnia.
A wild and piratical race (
Liv. 10.2), they used privateers ( “lembi,” “naves Liburnicae” ) with one very large lateen sail, which, adopted by the Romans in their struggle with Carthage (
Eutrop. 2.22) and in the Second Macedonian War (
Liv. 42.48), supplanted gradually the high-bulwarked galleys which had formerly been in use. (Caes.
B.C. 3.5; Hor.
Epod. 1.1.) Liburnia was afterwards incorporated with the province of Dalmatia, and
IADERA its capital, was made a Roman colony. In A.D. 634 Heraclius invited the Chorvates or Chrobati, who lived on the N. side of the Carpathians, in what is now
S. Poland or
Gallicia, to occupy the province as vassals of the Empire (Const. Porph.
de Adm. Imp. 100.31).
This connection with the Byzantine Court, and their occupation of countries which had embraced Christianity in the Apostolic age (Titus was in Dalmatia in the time of St. Paul,
II. Ep. Tim. 4.10), naturally led to the conversion of these Slavonian strangers as early as the 7th century. (Comp. Schafarik,
Slav. Alt. vol. ii. pp. 277--309; Neigebaur,
Die Sud-Slaven, pp. 224--244.) Strabo (
vi. p.315) extends the coast-line of Liburnia as far as 1500 stadia; their chief cities were
IADERA and the “conventus” or congress of SCARDONA, at which the inhabitants of fourteen towns assembled (
Plin. Nat. 3.25). Besides these, Pliny (
l.c.) enumerates the following:--Alvona, Flanona, Tarsatica, Senia, Lopsica, Ortopula, Vegium, Argyruntum, Corinium, Aenona, and Civitas Pasini.
[
E.B.J]
