Taulantii or Taulantians ('swallow-men'; Ancient Greek: , or , ; ) were an Illyrian people that lived on the Adriatic coast of southern Illyria (modern Albania). They dominated at various times much of the plain between the rivers Drin (Drilon) and Vjosa (Aoös). Their central area was the hinterland of Epidamnos-Dyrrhachion, corresponding to present-day Tirana and the region between the valleys of Mat and Shkumbin (Genusus). The Taulantii are among the oldest attested Illyrian peoples, who established a powerful kingdom in southern Illyria. They are among the peoples who most marked Illyrian history, and thus found their place in the numerous works of historians in classical antiquity.
Name
The Taulantii, along with the Eneti, are the oldest attested peoples expressly considered Illyrian in early Greek historiography. The Taulantii were firstly recorded by ancient Greek writer Hecataeus of Miletus in the 6th century BC. The Taulantii are often reported in the works of ancient writers describing the numerous wars they waged against the Macedonians, the Epirotes, and the ancient Greek colonies on the Illyrian coast. They are mentioned, for instance, by Thucydides, Polybius, Diodorus Siculus, Titus Livius, Pliny the Elder and Appian.
The term taulantii is connected with the Albanian word dallëndyshe, or , meaning 'swallow'. The ethnonym Chelidonioi also reported by Hecateus as the name of a tribe neighboring the Taulantii is the translation of the name Taulantii as () means "swallow" in Ancient Greek. The name suggests the practice of animal totemism, which was widespread among Illyrian peoples.
Hecataeus reported that the tribe of Chelidonioi () lived to the north of the Sesarethioi (). Furthermore he reported that Sesarethos () was a Taulantian city, with Sesarethioi as its ethnicon. It has been suggested either that the name Chelidonioi might have been an exonym, and that Hecataeus wrongly differentiated two tribes misjudging the meaning of the name, or that after the name of the local tribe was translated from Illyrian by Greek colonists in Epidamnos, the ethnonym Chelidones might have adhered to the Taulantian people located in Epidamnos, while the ethnonym Taulantii continued to be used as the name of the neighboring Taulantian people.
According to a mythological tradition reported by Appian (2nd century AD), the Taulantii were among the South-Illyrian tribes that took their names from the first generation of the descendants of Illyrius, the eponymous ancestor of all the Illyrian peoples.
Geography
The Taulantii lived on the southeastern Adriatic coast of southern Illyria and the Ionian Sea(modern Albania), dominating at various times much of the plain between the rivers Drin and Aous. In earlier times the Taulantii inhabited the northern part of the Drin river; later they lived within and around the sites of Epidamnos-Dyrrhachion and Apollonia. Their territory was centered in the area of present-day Tirana, and its hinterland between the valleys of the Mat and Shkumbin rivers. In Roman times, their neighbours to the north were the Labeatae, to the east the Parthini, and to the south-east the Bylliones. The Parthini probably have been part of the Taulantian peoples before their first appearance as Roman allies in the late 3rd century BC, neighboring to the east the Dassareti, and to the north-east the Penestae. The Abri or Abroi, a tribe mentioned by Hecataeus (6th century BC) as neighbors of the Chelidonioi likely also have been part of the Taulantian peoples.
The extension of the Taulantii to the limits of the Apollonian territory is not very clear in the data provided by Pseudo-Skylax. The southern border of the Taulantii was likely the Vjosa while the northern border was marked by the Mat river. Livy and Pliny located them in the same place, but according to Ptolemy, Aulon (Vlorë) was in Taulantian territory, which implies an extension of this people towards the south including the territory of Apollonia. In Roman times such a southward extension was not possible before the end of the Roman civil wars, which involved this area.