Pleuratus
2. King of Illyria, son of Scerdilaidas, and therefore probably a grandson of the preceding.
He appears to have been associated with his father in the sovereignty for some years before the death of the latter, whether as joint ruler, or as holding the separate command of some of the Illyrian tribes, is uncertain, but the last supposition seems the most probable. Livy, in one passage (26.24), calls him a Thracian prince, but this seems to be certainly a mistake. His name was included, together with that of Scerdilaidas in the treaty of alliance concluded by M. Valerius Laevinus with the Aetolians, B. C. 211, and the two were associated together on several occasions during the war with Philip, as well as in the peace concluded by P. Sempronius with that monarch in B. C. 204. (
Liv. 26.24,
27.30,
28.5,
29.12; Polyb 10.41.)
But after this period that of Pleuratus appears alone, and he seems to have become sole ruler. On the renewal of the war with Macedonia by the Romans (B. C. 201) he hastened to offer his assistance to the consul Sulpicius, but his services were declined for the moment, and were not subsequently called for.
But though he rendered no active assistance, his fidelity to the Roman cause was rewarded by Flamininus at the peace of 196, by the addition to his territories of Lychnidus and the Parthini, which had been previously subject to Macedonia. (
Liv. 31.28,
33.34;
Plb. 18.30,
21.9,
22.4.) During the war of M. Fulvius in Aetolia, B. C. 189, he again came to the assistance of the Romans with a fleet of 60 ships, with which he laid waste the coasts of Aetolia, but did not effect any thing of moment. (
Liv. 38.7.)
The date of his death is unknown, but it must have occurred previous to B. C. 180, at which time we find his son Gentius already on the throne. (Id. 40.42.)
