Po redaktohet Albanoi

{{Short description|Illyrian tribe}}
[[File:Illyrians in the 1st-2nd centuries CE.png|thumb|250px|right|Illyrian tribes in the 1st-2nd centuries CE.]]
The '''Albanoi''' ({{lang-grc|Ἀλβανοί}}, ''Albanoi''; {{lang-la|Albani}}) were an [[Illyrian tribe]]. They were possibly first mentioned by [[Hecataeus of Miletus]] (550-476 BCE) under the name ''Abroi''. Ptolemy (200-118 BCE) is the first authors who mentions them under the name Albanoi. Their central settlement was called [[Albanopolis]] ({{lang|grc|Ἀλβανόπολις}}) and was located roughly between the [[Mat (river)|Mat]] and [[Shkumbin]] rivers, in central [[Albania]]. [[Zgërdhesh]] has been identified as the likely location of Albanopolis. Stephanus of Byzantium who reproduced Hecataeus added an entry for another settlement named Arbon in [[Illyria]] whose inhabitants were called Arbonioi or Arbonites. Another Arbon which may have been located in central Albania in the same region as Albanopolis was recorded by [[Polybius]]. [[John of Nikiû]] wrote in the 7th century CE about a people known as Arbanitai in the Greek translation of the manuscript, who have been identified as the same people as the Albanoi.

In the Middle Ages, the names Albanoi and Arbanitai/Albanitai referred to medieval [[Albanians]] as an ethnic group. The equivalent terms in Latin are ''Albanenses''/''Arbanenses'', in Slavic ''Arbanasi'' and later in Turkish [[Arnaut]]. These names reflect the Albanian ethnic endonym Arbëreshë/Arbëneshë, which itself derives from the Albanoi. In the archaeological record, the Albanoi are mentioned on a funeral inscription in [[Stobi]] and Albanopolis is mentioned on another funeral inscription near [[Scupi]]. Another ethnonym, Arbaios found in [[Phoenice]] is likely linked to them.

== Ancient and medieval literature ==

The Albanoi may have likely first appeared under the name [[Abroi]] in ancient literature.<ref name="Plasari10">{{harvnb|Plasari|2020|pp=10–11}}</ref> The Abroi may have been a constituent tribe of the larger group of the [[Taulantii]].{{sfn|Wilkes|1996|p=98}} They are first mentioned by [[Hecataeus of Miletus]] (550-476 BCE) in fragment 69 of ''Periodos Ges''. Hecataeus places them near the Taulanti who lived along the Adriatic and the [[Enchelei]]. In 19th century and 20th century cartographies, they are variously placed in the upper [[Devoll (river)|Devoll]] or the coastal area between [[Mat (river)|Mat]] and [[Shkumbin]] rivers. Their name may have actually been ''Arboi'' as ''Abroi'' may have been produced via a metathesis, another linguistic process or a common misassociation by Hecataeus of their name with the ancient Greek term [[wiktionary:ἁβρός|abros]] to better adapt it to Greek. The name ''Arboi'' directly connects them to the later ''Albanoi'' who lived in the same region.<ref name="Plasari10"/> [[Stephanus of Byzantium]] who copied much of the work of Hecataeus in the 6th century CE added another entry about a city named Arbon in [[Illyria]] per Polybius and identified its demonyms as ''Arbonios'' and ''Arbonitis''.{{sfn|Plasari|2020|p=22}}

[[Polybius]] (200-118 BCE) mentions a location named "Arbon" in his description of the [[Illyrian Wars]]. "Arbon" in a series of mistranslations has been named an "island" or a "city" even though Polybius never mentions it as such. The place has not been identified, and it is unlikely that it refers to the northern Adriatic island of Rab (attested for the first time as Arba by Pliny).{{sfn|Winnifrith|2021|p=70}} An interdisciplinary reading of the passage indicates that "Arbon" might actually have been in central Albania, roughly in the same location as the later [[Albanopolis]] ([[Ptolemy]]) and Arbanon ([[Anna Komnene]]). [[Wilhelm Tomaschek]] (1841-1901) considered ''Arbon'' to be the "first attestation of the modern name of Albania".{{sfn|Plasari|2020|p=15}}

[[Ptolemy]] (100-170 CE) is the first author who mentions the ethnonym of the Albanoi in ''Geographia''. The Albanoi are mentioned in the third book of Geographia. They were a people who lived in the region between Mat and Shkumbin and held the settlement Albanopolis. [[Johann Georg von Hahn]] first noted that the suffix -polis ("city") was probably added at a later date by other authors as in other editions it is mentioned as "Albanos polis" or "Albanos".{{sfn|Plasari|2020|p=18}} [[Zgërdhesh]] has been identified as the likely location of Albanopolis. It is not certain if its location corresponds to the region mentioned as [[Arbanon]] mentioned by [[Anna Komnene]] in the [[Alexiad]] about events related to the [[First Norman invasion of the Balkans]](1081). An indication of movement from higher altitudes in a much earlier period has been detected in the distribution of Albanian place names ending in ''-esh'', derives from the Latin ''-ensis'' ([[Vulgar Latin]] ''-ēsis''), between the [[Shkumbin]] and the [[Mat River|Mat]] rivers, with a concentration between [[Elbasan]] and [[Krujë]].{{sfn|Wilkes|1996|p=279}}

[[John of Nikiû]] (7th century), a Coptic bishop mentions in the French translation of a manuscript titled ''Chronicle'' that ''barbarians, foreign peoples and Illyrians, ravaged the cities of the Christians and took the inhabitants alive'' in the [[Byzantine Empire]]. [[Hermann Zotenberg]] who translated the Chronicle from [[Geʽez]] to French rendered with the term ''Illyrians'', a term which in the original manuscript corresponded to ''Alwerikon''. Alwerikon in the Byzantine Greek translation of the Chronicle corresponded to the term Albani(k/t)on (genitive of Albanitai). [[Constantine Sathas]] (1842-1912) who first recorded the discrepancy between different translations considered the mention of ''Alwerikon'' an attestation of the same population as the Illyrian Albanoi.{{sfn|Plasari|2020|p=27}}

[[Michael Attaleiates]] (1022-1080) mentions the term ''Albanoi'' twice and the term ''Arbanitai'' once. The term ''Albanoi'' is used first to describe the groups which rebelled in southern Italy and Sicily against the Byzantines in 1038-40. The second use of the term ''Albanoi'' is related to groups which supported the revolt of [[George Maniakes]] in 1042 and marched with him throughout the Balkans against the Byzantine capital, [[Constantinople]]. The term ''Arvanitai'' is used to describe a revolt of [[Bulgarians]] (Boulgaroi) and ''Arbanitai'' in the theme of [[Dyrrhachium (theme)|Dyrrhachium]] in 1078-79. It is generally accepted that ''Arbanitai'' refers to the ethnonym of medieval [[Albanians]]. As such, it is considered to be the first attestation of Albanians as an ethnic group in Byzantine historiography.<ref name="Plasari41">{{harvnb|Plasari|2020|p=41}}</ref> The use of the term ''Albanoi'' in 1038-49 and 1042 as an ethnonym related to Albanians have been a subject of debate. In what has been termed the "Vranoussi-Ducellier debate", Alain Ducellier proposed that both uses of the term referred to medieval Albanians. Era Vranoussi counter-suggested that the first use referred to [[Normans]], while the second didn't have an ethnic connotation necessarily and could be a reference to the Normans as "foreigners" ([[wiktionary:aubain|aubain]]) in [[Epirus (region)|Epirus]] which Maniakes and his army traversed.<ref name="Plasari41"/> This debate has never been resolved.{{sfn|Quanrud|2021|p=1}} A newer synthesis about the second use of the term ''Albanoi'' by Pëllumb Xhufi suggests that the term ''Albanoi'' may have referred to Albanians of the specific district of [[Arbanon]], while ''Arbanitai'' to Albanians in general regardless of the specific region they inhabited.{{sfn|Plasari|2020|p=43}} From thereon, in the next centuries, the term ''Albanoi'' is used extensively as the ethnonym for medieval Albanians in Byzantine literature. ''Albanoi'' is the formal term for Albanians in modern Greek and until the 20th century it was used interchangeably with the term ''Arbanitai'', which now in Greek refers exclusively to [[Arvanites]].{{sfn|Baltsiotis|2018|p=101}} These names reflect the Albanian endonym Arbër/n + esh which itself derives from the same root as the name of the Albanoi.{{sfn|Demiraj|2015|p=481}}

== Archaeology ==

[[File:Zgërdhesh map (en).png|thumb|Plan of Zgërdhesh]]

In the archaeological record, the Albanoi and Albanopolis have been directly attested on two funeral inscriptions. The toponym Albanopolis has been found on a funeral inscription in [[Gorno Sonje]], near the city of [[Skopje]] (ancient [[Scupi]]), present-day [[North Macedonia]].{{sfn|Plasari|2020|p=16}} It was excavated in 1931 by Nikola Vulić and its text was curated and published in 1982 by [[Borka Dragojević-Josifovska]]. The inscription in Latin reads "POSIS MESTYLU F[ILIUS] FL[AVIA] DELVS MVCATI F[ILIA] DOM[O] ALBANOP[OLI] IPSA DELVS" ("Posis Mestylu, son of Flavia Delus, daughter of Mucat, who comes from Albanopolis"). It dates to the end of the 1st century CE and the beginning of the 2nd century CE. Dragojević-Josifovska added two lines to the existing reading: VIVA P(OSUIT) SIBI/ ET VIRO SUO. Delus Mucati is an Illyrian name and his home region was Albanopolis (''domo Albanopoli''). Dragojević-Josifovska proposed that like others he had settled in Macedonia from southern Illyria.{{sfn|Dragojević-Josifovska|1982|p=32}}

The site of [[Zgërdhesh]], southwest of [[Krujë]] in central Albania, has been identified as the likely location of Albanopolis.{{sfn|Wilkes|1996|p=135}} The settlement covered 10ha at a hill-fort location. Excavations show that the site was abandoned shortly after the Roman conquest of southern Illyria ([[Third Illyrian War]]).{{sfn|Donev|2018|p=35}} As an Albanopolis did exist long after as the Scupi inscription highlights, it is possible that the inhabitants had relocated their settlement.{{sfn|Donev|2018|p=28}}

The ethnonym ''Albanos'' was found on a funeral inscription from ancient [[Stobi]], near [[Gradsko, North Macedonia|Gradsko]] about 90&nbsp;km to the southeast of Gorno Sonje. The inscription in ancient Greek reads "ΦΛ(ΑΒΙΩ) ΑΛΒΑΝΩ ΤΩ ΤΕΚΝΩ ΑΙΜΙΛΙΑΝΟΣ ΑΛΒΑΝΟ(Σ) ΜΝΗΜ(Η)Σ [ΧΑΡΗΝ]" ("In memory of Flavios Albanos, his son Aemilianos Albanos"). It dates to the 2nd/3rd century CE.{{sfn|Spasovska-Dimitrioska|2000|p=258}}

An inscription in ancient Greek in [[Phoenice]], southern Albania related to the liberation act of the slave Nikarchos Nikomachou Arbaios is linked to the Albanoi as Arbaios is an ethnonym which has the same root as that of the Albanoi and hasn't been attested anywhere else.{{sfn|Cabanes|1974|p=572}} Arbaios is considered to not have been a local of the city, but someone who had been moved there from more northern areas in central Albania.{{sfn|Plasari|2020|p=12}} The inscription was excavated in the 1920s by [[Luigi Ugolini]]. It dates to the 3rd/2nd century BCE.<ref name="Plasari10"/>

== See also ==
*[[List of Illyrian peoples and tribes]]
*[[Origin of Albanians]]
*[[Names of the Albanians and Albania]]

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== Sources==
{{Refbegin|30em|indent=yes}}
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*{{cite book|last=Cabanes|first=Pierre|title=L'Epire: de la mort de Pyrrhos à la conquête romaine (272-167)
|year=1974|location=Paris|publisher=Annales Littéraires de l'Université de Besancon|language=fr|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=A7UApoNdIc8C}}
*{{cite journal |last1=Baltsiotis |first1=Lambros |title=Greeks and Albanians in the 19th and 20th centuries: Consecutive and reversed perceptions |journal=Synchrona Themata |date=2018 |volume=2018/2019 |issue=143–144 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/343432059 |language=Greek}}
*{{cite book |last1=Demiraj |first1=Shaban |year= 2015 |editor1-last=Giacalone Ramat |editor1-first=Anna |title=The Indo-European Languages |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1134921874 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PLa5CAAAQBAJ |chapter=Albanian}}
*{{cite book |last1=Donev |first1=Damjan |editor1-last=Willet |editor1-first=Rinse |title=The Economics of Urbanism in the Roman East |date=2018 |publisher=Propylaeum |isbn=978-3-947450-96-1 |url=https://books.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/propylaeum/reader/download/571/571-30-90495-1-10-20201001.pdf |chapter=Aspects of Roman Urbanization in the Hellenistic Balkans}}
*{{cite book |last1=Dragojević-Josifovska |first1=Borka |title=Inscriptions de la Mésie supérieure, Scupi et la région de Kumanovo |date=1982 |publisher=Centre d'études épigraphiques et numismatiques de la Faculté de philosophie de l'Université de Beograd |isbn=8680269166 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=z0lmAAAAMAAJ}}
*{{cite journal |last1=Plasari |first1=Aurel |title=The Albanians in attestations from late antiquity until the early Middle Ages |journal=Albanian Studies |date=2020 |volume=2 |url=https://drive.google.com/file/d/1og8eP21jogwHXRdvgphXo-DyqpDWSz2E/view |publisher=Academy of Sciences of Albania}}
*{{cite book|last=Wilkes|first=John|title=The Illyrians|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4Nv6SPRKqs8C|year=1996|orig-year=1992|publisher=Wiley|isbn=978-0-631-19807-9}}
*{{cite book |first1=Gordana |last1=Spasovska-Dimitrioska |editor1-last=Chaniotis |editor1-first=Angelos |title=Supplementum epigraphicum graecum |date=2000 |publisher=J.C. Gieben |isbn=9789050632287 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KJ9fAAAAMAAJ}}
*{{cite journal |last1=Quanrud |first1=John |title=The Albanoi in Michael Attaleiates' History: revisiting the Vranoussi-Ducellier debate |journal=Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies |date=2021 |volume=45 |issue=2 |pages=149–165 |doi=10.1017/byz.2021.11 |s2cid=237424879 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/byzantine-and-modern-greek-studies/article/abs/albanoi-in-michael-attaleiates-history-revisiting-the-vranoussiducellier-debate/E134AA6C7CB77580151F6CFB6BB1C5E7#}}
*{{cite book |last=Winnifrith |first= Tom |title= Nobody's Kingdom: A History of Northern Albania |year= 2021 |publisher = Signal Books |isbn= 9781909930957 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UjQyEAAAQBAJ}}
{{Refend}}

{{Illyrians}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Albanoi}}
[[Category:Illyrian tribes]]
[[Category:Ancient tribes in Albania]]
[[Category:Illyrian Albania]]
[[Category:Tribes conquered by Rome]]
[[Category:Tribes conquered by the Roman Republic]]