ILLYRICUM ĭ lĭr’ ə kəm (̓Ιλλυρικόν, G2665). A Rom. province in the western portion of the Balkan peninsula N of Greece.

Now principally occupied by Yugoslavia and Albania, it was bounded in antiquity by the Adriatic, the Eastern Alps, the Danube, the Shar-Dagh and the Ceraunian mountains. According to Strabo (7:317), the seacoast boasted of good harbors and the coastal plains were sunny and fertile, but the interior was mountainous and cold. The Greeks were first attracted to the region because of the mines, but the ferocious and piratical nature of the people prevented extensive colonization.

In the second millennium b.c., it was occupied by Indo-European speaking people. The Greeks first colonized it in the 6th cent. b.c. The Macedonian kings warred against the tribes of Illyricum in the 4th cent., but it was not until the 3rd cent. that the kingdom of Scodra was established. Because of attacks on the Gr. colonies and acts of piracy against Gr. and Rom. shipping, the Romans fought two wars (229-228 and 219 b.c.) against the Illyrians led by Queen Teuta. After the defeat of Genthius in 167 it was divided into three parts and connected alternately with the administration of Italy, Macedonia, and Cisalpine Gaul. Caesar was proconsul there in 59. Octavian subdued a number of the tribes in 35-33. In 27 b.c., he made it a senatorial province. It became an imperial province in 11 b.c. because of outbreaks of violence among the Pannonii. At that time the province was extended to the Danube. The last revolt was put down in three years of fighting by Tiberius in a.d. 9 and it became a settled part of the empire.

Two references are made to Illyricum in the NT. In a somewhat obscure statement Paul remarked that “from Jerusalem and as far round as Illyricum I have fully preached the gospel of Christ” (Rom 15:19). It is not clear whether Paul meant that Illyricum was the western boundary of the Eastern world and that he preached up to it, or that he actually preached and established churches there. The phrase “in these regions” (v. 23) referring to the extent of Paul’s preaching, would suggest an area larger than Macedonia and prob. referred also to Illyricum. Furthermore, the remark in his second letter to Timothy (4:10) intimates that the Gospel was being preached there. It is well within the realm of possibility for Paul to have gone there. The Via Egnatia, which ran from the Hellespont to Dyrrhachium, a seaport on the Adriatic, made the southern portion of Illyricum readily accessible to him on the third missionary journey.

Bibliography S. Casson, Macedonia, Thrace and Illyria (1926), passim, Vulić in Pauly Wissowa s.v. “Illyricum”; Fluss in Pauly Wissowa suppl. V, s.v. “Illyrioi.”