Demetrius of Pharos - Revival of Power

Revival of Power

The decade after 229 BC witnessed a revival of Illyrian power under Demetrius who succeeded Teuta. Following the war, Demetrius married Triteuta in or around 222 BC, Agron's first wife and mother of Pinnes which consolidated his position. His marriage to Triteuta mean that Demetrius formally took over the regency of the Ardiaean Kingdom. Demetrius' own influence was thereby greatly extended, and the fundamental weakness of the Ardiaean Kingdom after 229 BC, that there was no competent regent for Pinnes was relieved. The king began to renew traditional Illyrian ties with Macedonia. In 222 BC an Illyrian corps of 1600 fought with distinction under the command of Demetrius at Sellasia, where the Macedonians won a conclusive victory over the Spartans. After Sellasia, Demetrius began attempting to extend his control over Illyria at the expense of Rome.

Before then, when Rome was preoccupied with a war against the Celtic peoples of the Po valley in northern Italy from 225-222 BC, Demetrius detached the Illyrian Atintani from their Roman alliance. In addition, he sailed south of Lissus, Lezhë in present day Albania, and engaged in piracy in contravention of the settlement in 228 BC. In 221 BC Demetrius also created an alliance with the Illyrian Histri at the head of the Adriatic, who were interfering with Roman supply ships. A Roman fleet soon attacked the Histri. Early in the summer of 221 BC, when tension was rising in Greece as Macedonia made an alliance with the Achaean League against the Aetolian League, the Illyrian attacked in their traditional manner.

In 220 BC Demetrius and the Illyrian commander, Scerdilaidas sailed south of Lissus with ninety lembi. After an assault on Pylos in the western Peloponnese had failed they separated their forces, Demetrius taking his chances in plundering the Cyclades while Scerdilaidas returned north. On putting in at Naupactus with forty ships Scerdilaidas was encouraged by his broth-in-law Amynas, king of the Athamanes, to join the Aetolians in their planned invasion of Achaea. With help from Cynaethan traitors, they attacked, seized and burned Cynaetha, a town in the north of Arcadia, located on the northern slope of the Aroanian Mountains. They also attacked but failed to take Cleitor. Meanwhile Demetrius continued on into the Aegean with 50 ships. He sailed to the Cyclades, where he extorted tribute from some of the islands and plundered the others. Chased by Rhodian warships, Demetrius put into Cenchreae, a town on the Aegean coast of Greece near Corinth. At the same time the Macedonian representative in Achaea, Taurion, learned of Scerdilaidas' and the Aetolians' invasion. Taking his cue from the Aetolians, Taurion agreed to drag Demetrius' ships across the Isthmus to bring them into play in the Aegean, in return for Demetrius' assistance against the Aetolians. Although Demetrius conducted a few raids on the Aetolian coast, he was too late to hinder the Aetolians' return from Achaea.

After returning to the Ardiaean Kingdom, Demetrius continued operations during the following winter, attacking and seizing Roman allied cities and communities in southern Illyria. The Romans who hithero ignored the activities of their former ally, decided that the harbors on the coast of the Ardiaean Kingdom had now to be made secure, in view of the threat of another war with Carthage. These events precipitated the Second Illyrian War.