The Meta-Encyclopedia

Illyria

Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)

ILLYRIS, or ILLYRI- CUM, a name anciently applied to all the countries on the east coast of the Adriatic. In the 4th century B. c., the n. portions of Illyria were visited by the Gauls, who expelled the natives, and drove them to the S. Philip II., King of Macedon, waged war with the Illyrians 359 B. c.; and the Romans sent an army against them, and compelled them to sue for peace, 232 B. C. The second Illyrian War commenced 229 B. c., and also terminated in favor of the Romans. The Dalmatæ revolted from the Illyrians 180 B. c., and formed the independent state of Dalmatia, and the remaining Roman country was reduced into a It beprovince by L. Anicius 168 b. c. Dalcame an imperial province 11 b. c. matia, Carniola, and some neighboring received the name of Illyrian countries, Provinces by a decree issued by Napoleon I., Oct. 14, 1809. In 1815, 815, these provinces were united as a kingdom to the Austrian empire, and some alterations were made in its boundaries, especially by the restoration to Hungary formerly belonged to it, and of what had the annexation of the whole of Carinthia instead. The kingdom was divided into the two governments of Laibach and Trieste, Laibach being the capital; which arrangement existed till 1849, when it was subdivided, for administrative purof Carinthia and poses, into the duchies Carniola, and into the coast district, containing the territory of Trieste, and the counties of Görz, Gradiska, and Istria. By the terms of the Treaty of St. Germain Carinthia remained to Austria, Carniola and Istria were given to Jugo- Slavia, while Trieste, Görz and Gradiska, now known as Gorizia and Gradisca, were assigned to Italy.

What Has Changed in the Last Century

Collier's ended in 1921 with the Treaty of Saint-Germain settlement: Carniola and Istria to "Jugo-Slavia", Trieste and Gorizia to Italy. Almost none of that survives. Trieste was fought over again after 1945, held as a Free Territory and finally split in 1954, with the city going to Italy and the Istrian hinterland to Yugoslavia; Yugoslavia itself broke up from 1991, and Laibach, the old Illyrian capital, is now Ljubljana, capital of independent Slovenia. Scholarship has moved too: the mid-20th-century habit of treating "Illyrian" as one great people and language family has largely been abandoned, since the language survives only in names and scattered words, and archaeologists now speak of many distinct Iron Age communities on the eastern Adriatic.

Written for this edition, 2026.