The Illyrian kingdom was founded by Hyllus around 1200 BC; the second king whose name we know is that of Bardyllis , who turned Illyria into a formidable local power in the 4th century BC . In 359 BC , King Perdiccas III of Macedonia was killed by attacking Illyrians. In 358 BC , however, Macedonia’s Philip II ,
the father of Alexander the Great , defeated the Illyrians and assumed control of their territory as far as Lake Ohrid . Alexander himself routed the forces of the Illyrian chieftain Cleitus in 335 BC , and Illyrian tribal leaders and soldiers accompanied Alexander on his conquest of Persia . After Alexander’s death in 323 BC , independent Illyrian kingdoms again arose. In 312 BC , King Glaukias expelled the Greeks from Epidamnus. By the end of the third century , an Illyrian kingdom based near what is now the Albanian city of Shkodër controlled parts of northern Albania, Montenegro , and Herzegovina . Under Queen Teuta , Illyrians attacked Roman merchant vessels plying the Adriatic Sea and gave Rome an excuse to invade the Balkans.
In the Illyrian Wars of 229 BC and 219 BC , Rome overran the Illyrian settlements in the Neretva river valley and
suppressed the piracy that had made the Adriatic unsafe. In 180 BC the Dalmatians declared themselves independent of the Illyrian king Gentius , who kept his capital at Skodra . The Romans defeated Gentius, the last king of Illyria, at Scodra in 168 BC and captured him, bringing him to Rome in 165 BC . Four client-republics were set up, which were in fact ruled by Rome. Later, the region would be directly governed by Rome and organized as a province .
Queen Teuta (also Queen Tefta), was an Illyrian queen and regent who reigned approximately from 231 BC to 228 BC .
After the death of Agron (250 BC ?-231 BC ) who established the first kingdom of Illyria , from which the Albanians are believed to descend, extending from Dalmatia on the north to the Aous (Vjosa river ) River on the south with Shkodër as its capital, his widow, Teuta, acted as regent for her young stepson Pinnes . Teuta’s first decision was to drive the Greek colonies off the Albanian coast. Attempting this, she found Durrës too well fortified but Finiq farther south surrendered. While her Illyrian ships were off the coast of Sarandë they intercepted and plundered some merchant vessels of Rome . Encouraged by this success, Teuta’s pirates extended their operations southward in the Ionian Sea , westward along the
coast of Italy , and were soon feared as the terror of the Adriatic .
The Roman Senate sent two ambassadors to the pirate lair at Shkodër to require reparations and demand an end to the piratical expeditions. Apparently she told the ambassadors that according to the law of the Illyrians, piracy was a lawful trade and that her government had no right to interfere with this as a private enterprise. One of the envoys is repored to have replied that in that case Rome would make it her business to introduce better law among the Illyrians. At any rate, one of the ambassadors addressed the queen so disrespectfully that her attendants killed him as he embarked for Rome.
According to John Wilkes, “With such a large repertoire of Illyrian names it is possible to consider etymologies and links with other Indo-European languages of which a fuller record survives. Thus it seems generally agreed that the name of the Illyrian queen Teuta of the third century BC derives from Teutana, which means queen.”This was too much for Rome to endure. In 229 BC , Rome declared war on Illyria and for the first time armies crossed the Adriatic to Illyria (the Balkan Peninsula in modern usage). The Roman fleet of 200 ships went first to Corcyra . Teuta’s governor, Demetrius had little alternative but to surrender, and the Romans awarded him a considerable part of Teuta’s holdings (228 BC ). The Roman army then landed farther north at Apollonia . The combined army and navy proceeded northward together, subduing one town after another and besieging Shkodra, the capital. Teuta finally surrendered in 227 BC , having to accept an ignominious peace. The Romans allowed her to continue her reign but restricted her to a narrow region around Shkodra, deprived her of all her other holdings, and forbade her to sail an armed ship below Lissus (Lezhë ) just south of the capital. They also required her to pay an annual tribute and to acknowledge the final authority of Rome. Thus the damage was done. Thanks to Queen Teuta the expanding empire of Rome had learned the military route to the Balkan peninsula.
The name Teuta is very popular among Albanians.