Mazaei or Maezaei (

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic p ...

: Μαζαῖοι/Μαιζαῖοι) were a sub-tribe of the

Illyrians The Illyrians ( grc, Ἰλλυριοί, ''Illyrioi''; la, Illyrii) were a group of Indo-European-speaking peoples who inhabited the western Balkan Peninsula in ancient times. They constituted one of the three main Paleo-Balkan populations, a ...

, autochthonous to the interior of today's

Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sh, / , ), abbreviated BiH () or B&H, sometimes called Bosnia–Herzegovina and often known informally as Bosnia, is a country at the crossroads of south and southeast Europe, located in the Balkans. Bosnia and ...

, settled mainly in the

Sana Sana may refer to: Places * Sanaa, the capital of Yemen * Sana (river), a river in Bosnia and Herzegovina * Sana, Bhutan, a town in Bhutan * Sana, Haute-Garonne, a commune in France * Sana, Iran, a village in Iran * Sana, Mali, a commune in Mal ...

river basin, the middle course of Vrbas, and around the Vrbanja and Ugar rivers.

Overview

Mazaei were a sub-tribe of the

, settled in what later became

Roman province The Roman provinces (Latin: ''provincia'', pl. ''provinciae'') were the administrative regions of Ancient Rome outside Roman Italy that were controlled by the Romans under the Roman Republic and later the Roman Empire. Each province was rule ...

, the

Pannonia Pannonia (, ) was a province of the Roman Empire bounded on the north and east by the Danube, coterminous westward with Noricum and upper Italy, and southward with Dalmatia and upper Moesia. Pannonia was located in the territory that is now wes ...

.Wilkes, J. J. (1992): The Illyrians, . They settled in the

river basin, the middle course of Vrbas, and around the Vrbanja and Ugar rivers, and were bordered on the east by the

Dardans The Dardanoi ( el, Δάρδανοι; its anglicized modern terms being Dardanians or Dardans) were a legendary people of the Troad, located in northwestern Anatolia. The Dardanoi were the descendants of Dardanus, the mythical founder of Dard ...

, on the west by Iapodes, the Una river, Krka waterfalls, and Iasis, on the north by Sava –

Drava The Drava or Drave''Utrata Fachwörterbuch ...

–

Danube The Danube ( ; ) is a river that was once a long-standing frontier of the Roman Empire and today connects 10 European countries, running through their territories or being a border. Originating in Germany, the Danube flows southeast for , ...

, and on the south by

Liburni The Liburnians or Liburni ( grc, Λιβυρνοὶ) were an ancient tribe inhabiting the district called Liburnia, a coastal region of the northeastern Adriatic between the rivers ''Arsia'' ( Raša) and ''Titius'' ( Krka) in what is now Croatia ...

, Delmatae, and Breuci on the north-east. Like other Illyrians, Mazaei lived in fortified or semi-fortified settlements, subsisting on agriculture, hunting and fishing, and craftsmanship. Ancient writers like

Herodian Herodian or Herodianus ( el, Ἡρωδιανός) of Syria, sometimes referred to as "Herodian of Antioch" (c. 170 – c. 240), was a minor Roman civil servant who wrote a colourful history in Greek titled ''History of the Empire from the Death ...

Livy Titus Livius (; 59 BC – AD 17), known in English as Livy ( ), was a Roman historian. He wrote a monumental history of Rome and the Roman people, titled , covering the period from the earliest legends of Rome before the traditional founding in ...

, Pliny, Strabo,

Theophrastus Theophrastus (; grc-gre, Θεόφραστος ; c. 371c. 287 BC), a Greek philosopher and the successor to Aristotle in the Peripatetic school. He was a native of Eresos in Lesbos.Gavin Hardy and Laurence Totelin, ''Ancient Botany'', Routle ...

and others described the Illyrians as tall, strong warriors, and heavy drinkers. And they lived in patriarchal communities. Every eight years they divided their lands according to each other's struggles and resistance to the enemy. Mazaei had 269 judges. In 10 AD Roman administrators divided the province of Illyricum into the new provinces:

in the north and

Dalmatia Dalmatia (; hr, Dalmacija ; it, Dalmazia; see names in other languages) is one of the four historical regions of Croatia, alongside Croatia proper, Slavonia, and Istria. Dalmatia is a narrow belt of the east shore of the Adriatic Sea, stre ...

in the south. The term

Illyria In classical antiquity, Illyria (; grc, Ἰλλυρία, ''Illyría'' or , ''Illyrís''; la, Illyria, ''Illyricum'') was a region in the western part of the Balkan Peninsula inhabited by numerous tribes of people collectively known as the Illyr ...

remained in use in Late Latin and throughout the medieval period.

References

{{Illyrians Ancient tribes in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Overview

See also

References