Liburnian Thalassocracy
Navigable skills and mobility of the Liburnians on their swift ships, the Liburna allowed them to be present, very early, not only along the Eastern Adriatic coast, they reached also the opposite, western, Italic coast. This process started during great Pannonian-Adriatic movements and migrations at the end of the Bronze Age, from the 12th to 10th century BC. In the Iron Age, they were already in the Italic coast, establishing colonies in Apulia and especially in Picenum, where specific Iron Age cultures developed.
From the 9th to the 6th century BC there was certain koine – cultural unity in the Adriatic, with the general Liburninan seal, whose naval supremacy meant both political and economical authority through a several centuries. Some similar toponyms attested not only Liburnian but also other Illyrian migrations to the central and south Italy, respectively Apulia and Picenum.
In the 9th century BC their ruled the inner Adriatic sea and in the first half of the 8th century BC they expanded southwards. According to Strabo, the Liburnians became masters of island of Corcyra, making it their most southern outpost, by which they controlled the passage into the Adriatic Sea. In 735 BC, they abandoned it, under pressure of Corinthian ruler Hersikrates, during the period of Corinthian expansion to South Italy, Sicily and the Ionian Sea. However their position in the Adriatic Sea was still strong in the next few centuries. Corinth was the first that went up against the Liburnians. The Bacchiade expelled the Liburni and the Eretrians from Corcyra. About 625 BC, the Taulantii asked for the aid of Corinth and Corcyra against the Liburni. The Greeks were victorious.
Liburnian control of the Adriatic Sea coasts started to decrease in the 6th century BC. According to Pliny the Elder, the Liburnians lost supremacy in the Western Adriatic coast due to invasion of the Umbri and the Gauls, obviously caused by strengthening and expansion of the Etruscan union in the 6th century BC, whose rich material presence in the basin of Po river, undoubtedly meant weakening of the Liburnian thalassocracy influence in the north-west of Adriatic. Celtic breaks to the Italian peninsula, after 400 BC, significantly changed ethnic and political picture there, it directly imperiled remaining Liburnian possessions on the western coast.
Unlike at the western Adriatic coast, Celtic raids to the narrow Liburnian region at the eastern Adriatic coast were peripheral in geographical meaning. Despite of recorded material exchange, Celtic archaeological forms are marginal and secondary in regions settled by Histri, Iapodes, Dalmatae and are especially rare in Liburnian Iron Age heritage.
Read more about this topic: Illyrian Warfare