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TEUTA

Teuta (Illyrian: *Teutana, 'mistress of the people, queen'; Ancient Greek: Τεύτα; Latin: Teuta) was the queen regent[A] of the Ardiaei tribe in Illyria, who reigned approximately from 231 BC to 228/227 BC.

Following the death of her spouse Agron in 231 BC, she assumed the regency of the Ardiaean Kingdom for her stepson Pinnes, continuing Agron's policy of expansion in the Adriatic Sea, in the context of an ongoing conflict with the Roman Republic regarding the effects of Illyrian piracy on regional trade. 

The death of one of the Roman ambassadors at the hands of Illyrian pirates gave Rome the occasion to declare war against her in 229 BC. She surrendered after losing the First Illyrian War in 228. Teuta had to relinquish the southern parts of her territory and pay a tribute to Rome, but was eventually allowed to keep a realm confined to an area north of Lissus (modern Lezhë).

Biographical details on the life of Teuta are biased by the fact that surviving ancient sources, which were written by Greek and Roman authors, are generally hostile to Illyrians and their queen alike for political or misogynistic reasons.

Her name is known in Ancient Greek as Τεύτα (Teúta) and in Latin as Teuta, both used as a diminutive form of the Illyrian name Teuta(na) ('queen'; literally 'mistress of the people'). It stems from the Proto-Indo-European (PIE) root *teutéh₁- ('the people', perhaps 'the people under arms'), attached to the PIE suffix -nā ('mistress of'; masc. -nos). The Illyrian name Teuta(na) is cognate with the Gothic masculine form þiudans 'king' (derived from an earlier *teuto-nos 'master of the people').

After the death of her husband Agron (250–231 BC), the former king of the Ardiaei, she inherited his kingdom and acted as regent for her young stepson Pinnes. The exact extent of the kingdom of Agron and Teuta remains uncertain. From what we know, it stretched on the Adriatic coast-land from central Albania up to the Neretva river, and they must have controlled most of the Illyrian inland. 

According to Polybius, Teuta soon addressed the neighbouring states malevolently, ordering her commanders to treat all of them as enemies and supporting the piratical raids of her subjects, which eventually brought Roman forces to cross the Adriatic for the first time, since those activities increasingly interfered with their trade route in the Adriatic and the Ionian Sea.

War with Rome (229–228 BC)

In 229 BC, Rome declared war on Illyria and, for the first time, the Roman armies crossed the Adriatic Sea to set foot in the western Balkans. An army consisting of approximately 20,000 troops, 200 cavalry units and an entire Roman fleet of 200 ships, led by Gnaeus Fulvius Centumalus and Lucius Postumius Albinus, was sent to conquer Illyria.

The Roman attack seems to have caught up Teuta by surprise, since she had ordered a large naval expedition involving most of her ships against the Greek colony of Corcyra in the winter of 229. When the 200 Roman ships showed up at Corcyra, Teuta's governor Demetrius betrayed her and surrendered the city to the Romans, before turning into their advisor for the remaining time of the war. At the end of the conflict in 228 BC, the Romans awarded him the position of governor of Pharos and the adjacent coasts. In the meantime, the remainder of the Roman army landed further north at Apollonia.

The combined army and navy proceeded northward together. After subduing one town after another, they eventually besieged the capital, Scodra.[22] Teuta herself had retreated with a few followers to the fortified and strategically well-placed city of Rhizon, the principal base of the Illyrian fleet.

According to Polybius, she made a treaty in the early spring of 228 BC by which she consented to pay an annual tribute, to reign over a restricted and narrow region north of Lissus (modern Lezhë), and not to sail beyond Lissus with more than two unarmed ships. He also reports that they required her to acknowledge the final authority of Rome. According to Cassius Dio, she abdicated later in 227 BC.

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