Scerdilaidas

Scerdilaidas
King Scerdilaidas
Reign	218 BC - 206 BC
Predecessor	Demetrius of Pharos
Successor	Pleuratus III
Died	206 BC
Consort	Sister of Amynas
Illyrian	Skerdilaidi
Father	Pleuratus II

Scerdilaidas (Ancient Greek: Σκερδιλαΐδας; ruled 218–206 BC) was an Illyrian king of the Ardiaean Kingdom. Before taking the throne Scerdilaidas was commander of the Illyrian armies and played a major role in the Illyrian Wars against the Romans.^[1]

Scerdilaidas was one of the youngest brothers of Agron and father of Pleuratus III and grandfather of Gentius.^[2] Scerdilaids took part in many expeditions in the Ionian and Aegean with Demetrius and his brother-in-law Amynas of Athamania. During his early reign Scerdilaidas was an ally of Rome. In 217 BC Scerdilaidas later adopted Roman rule and became an enemy of Macedonia for parleying with Rome. With the Romans invested by Hannibal, Philip V of Macedon sought to take southern Illyria from Skerdilaidas and made several advancements into the Ardiaean State from 214 BC to 210 BC.^[3] In reaction, the Aetolian League and the Dardanians under Longarus joined with Skerdilaidas to defeat the Macedonians in 208 BC. With no chance of victory, Philip V accepted peace in 205 BC.

The Adriatic during the reign of Scerdilaidas

Unlike most other Illyrian kings of which there is only sparse data, Scerdilaidas is mentioned in the writings of the historian Appian, Livy and Polybius, and in their chronicles of the Roman and Greek wars.^[4]

Commander

Under Teuta

Scerdilaidas long before, one of the interior system leaders who determined Illyrian policy. He was the commander of the Illyrian army during the reign of his brother, Agron. Scerdilaidas also served under Teuta and even Demetrius of Pharos. He was one of the leading supporters of Queen Teuta when she took under the regency of Pinnes. He played a determining role in the plans of Teuta to create an Adriatic front against Rome. Under the reign of Teuta, Scerdilaidas was the commander a large land force of 5,000 during the Invasion of Epirus in 230 BC. Scerdilaidas marched south through the pass at Antigoneia to assist Teuta's forces at the Epirote capital of Phoenice. News that Scerdilaidas was on his way caused the Epirotes to send part of their forces north to secure the city. After Illyrian victory at the Battle of Phoenice, Epirus begged assistance from the Greek Leagues, while Teuta's army, having joined up with the force under Scerilaidas, marched inland to Halicranum deep in the heart of Epirus, in the plain of modern Ioannina. Scerdilaidas chose a good position and prepared the army for battle against the Leagues the next day which they believed would win. Orders to withdraw arrived from Teuta because some of the revolting Illyrians within the Ardiaean State had joined the influential Dardanian State under Longarus who wanted to invade the northern regions of Teuta's state. Scerdilaidas was forced to return backwards and secure the Araeian State's northern borders from Longarus. As Scerdilaidas marched north Teuta secured a peace treaty in favor of the Aradaeian State.^[5] While still in Epirus Scerdilaidas lead a fleet of lembi in the Ionian and swept through Corfu and Onchesmos and intercepted and plundered some merchant vessels of Rome.^[6]

After the defeat of Teuta during the First Illyrian War in 228 BC, young Pinnes, formally King of Illyria Teuta's regency, was confirmed to remain king of a limited Ardiaean State by the victorious Romanans. Soon the regency was taken over by Demetrius of Pharos, who married Pinnes's mother, Triteuta, the divorced wife of Scerdilaidas brother Agron. This happened most probably without consent of Rome, even if Demetrius was its ally.

Under Demetrius

In 220 BC Demetrius and Scerdilaidas made a joint expedition in down the Ionian coast to the Peloponnese with ninety lembi, and thus Demetrius violated the treaty with Rome by sailing south of the coastal city of Lissus. After an assault on Pylos in the western Peloponnese was successful, they separated their force.^[7] Demetrius with fifty ships sailed on a raiding expedition in the Aegean against the Cyclades, while Scerdilaiads with the remaining forty ships agreed to support the Aetolians in an invasion of the Achaean League.^[8][9] On putting in at Naupactus, Scerdilaidas was encouraged by his brother-in-law Amynas, king of the Athamanes, to join them in the planned invasion of Achaea. Scerdilaidas and his allies also attacked but failed to take Cleitor. While Scedilaidas collaborated with the Aetolians, Demetrius was persuaded to assist the Macedonian cause against Aetolia on his return via the Isthmus of Corinth.^[10] Demetrius returned to the Ardiaean State and began to revive Illyrian power however he was beaten by the Romans in 219 BC during the Second Illyrian War.

Relations with Macedon

After the Second Illyrian War Pinnes was again proclaimed the king. Pinnes was not favored among the Illyrians and in 218 BC Scerdilaidas took over his nephew's role and became king. Under pressure from the Carthaginians in Spain, the Romans did not intervene. In 220 BC Scerdialias entered into an alliance with Philip V of Macedon in that year. Scerdilaidas had aided Philip during the Social War against the Spartans but this produced little profit for him.^[11] Scerdilaidas' support for Macedon against the Aetolians was curtailed by 'plots and conflicts' caused by rulers of various cities.

In 217 BC, Scerdilaidas ceased his support of Philip V, maintaining that a promised subsidy was unpaid and long overdue. He dispatched 15 ships, ostensibly to collect and escort the payment, but at the island of Leucas south of Corcyra his forces killed two of Philip's Corinthian friends and seized their four ships.^[12] Scerdilaidas' fleet then sialed south and began to plunder shipping around Cape Malea in the southern Peloponnese. In response Philip prepared a strong naval force of twelve deched-ships, eight open vessels and thirty hemioliae, which headed south at full speed to deal with Scerdiliadas. This counterattck by Philip was too slow and missed its targets. Scerdilaidas went on to march into Dassaratia, taking several cities and invading parts of western Macedonia. He looted Pissaeum in Pelagonia and overran some frontier districts of Macedon. Before the winter Philip had occupied the area of Lyncestis, cutting off the direct route from Illyria, and extended his power to Dassaretia.^[7] Philip was planning an invasion of Illyria, however there he would face not only the lembi of Scerdilaidas, but also the heavier warships of the Roman navy.^[13]

First Macedonian War

Scerilaidas soon entered into an alliance with Rome. Influenced by Demetrius, Philip's first target was the Illyrian coast. In 216 BC he had built a fleet of one hundred light warships, using Illyrian shipwrights. He led his fleet around the Peloponnese into the Adriatic, gambling that Rome, deep in the Hannibal crisis, would not intervene.^[14] Scerdilaidas appealed for help and the Romans sent ten heavy quinqueremes from Sicily.^[15] Philip fled and the invasion of Illyria was avoided for the moment. Twice thwarted in attempts at invasion of Illyria by sea, and now constrained by Laevinus' fleet in the Adriatic, Philip spent the next two years 213–212 BC making advances in Illyria by land. Keeping clear of the coast, he took the inland towns of Atintania, and Dimale, and subdued the^[16] tribe of the Dassaretae and the Illyrian Parthini^[17] and the southern part of the Ardiaean State.^[18]

Scerdilaidas with his son Pleuratus III, Longarus of the Dardanian State and Epirus, together with the Aetolian League allied with each other in accordance to Rome's response.^[19] During the conflict, Scerdilaidas fought to recover the lands lost during First Illyrian War but the Treaty of Phoenice in 205 BC formally acknowledged the favorable position of Macedonia, including the capture of the southern Illyrian communities.

He died sometime before the treaty in 205 BC as only his son Pleuratus III is listed among those present at Phoenice.^[20]

See also

• Illyrian warfare
• List of rulers of Illyria

References

1. Wilkes, J. J. The Illyrians, 1992, ISBN 0-631-19807-5, Page 129, "... because no coins are known to have been issued by Illyrian rulers of a later period such as Agron, Teuta, Scerdilaidas, etc. ..."
2. Épire, Illyrie, Macédoine: mélanges offerts au professeur Pierre Cabanes by Danièle Berranger, Pierre Cabanes, Danièle Berranger-Auserve, page 133
3. http://www.ancientillyrians.com/kingdoms.html
4. bs:Scerdilaidas
5. John Wilkes pg.158-159
6. Wilkes 1995, p. 158.
7. The Hellenistic world and the coming of Rome, Volume 1 by Erich S. Gruen
8. Polybius 4.16, 6-8
9. Polybius 4.25.4
10. Polybius 4.19, 7-9
11. Rome and the Mediterranean to 133 B.C. by A. E. Astin, F. W. Walbank, M. W. Frederiksen, pg.95
12. Épire, Illyrie, Macédoine: mélanges offerts au professeur Pierre Cabanes by Danièle Berranger, Pierre Cabanes,Danièle Berranger-Auserve, page 130
13. Hammond 1968
14. Polybius 5.109.2
15. Polybius 5.110.8
16. Smith, William (2006). A New Classical Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography, Mythology and Geography. Whitefish, MT, USA: Kessinger Publishing, LLC, page 423.
17. Wilkes, J. J. The Illyrians, 1992, ISBN 0-631-19807-5, Page 98, "North of Dassaretis in the middle and upper valley of the Genusus was the territory of the Illyrian Parthini, likely to have been part of the Taulantii until they first appear as Roman allies late in the third century..."
18. Walbank p. 80; Livy, 27.30, 29.12.
19. Polybius 8.14-14b
20. Épire, Illyrie, Macédoine: mélanges offerts au professeur Pierre Cabanes by Danièle Berranger, Pierre Cabanes, Danièle Berranger-Auserve, page 137