PREFACE
"MYSTERIOUS country," "Land of Miracles," "Unknown Albania," "Darker than dark Africa"; here are only a few whimsical names that are given to the country which is inhabited by the oldest people in Southeastern Europe.
It was only some time ago that a well-meaning editor of a leading newspaper of New York crowned with the additional heading "The Riddle of Albania" the caption of an article on that country written by the author. On another and more interesting occasion, a letter addressed to the British Consulate of Scutari, the principal city of Northern Albania, was shipped across the ocean to Albany, N. Y.; the humorous postmaster of the latter city returned it with the note "Try Europe."
But it must be said that this incident took place some twelve years ago, and matters have considerably changed since. During the present decade people began to be more familiar with the name of Albania, as a result of the prominence she has won in our days in the field of international politics. Barely six years ago the Albanian problem threatened twice to precipitate an European war, and the outbreak of the last general conflagration had its indirect origin in the vicissitudes of the same problem. And there are signs that the end of complications has not been reached yet.
Still, the mystery enveloping Albania has not as yet been resolutely pierced through. Even to-day people are entertaining the most wild fancies about the actual conditions of Albania, and very hazy notions are prevalent about her existence. This is especially true to her history, past and present. About the middle of the last century, ethnologists and historians, of the caliber and reputation of Hahn, Muller, Meyer and others, devoted much of their time to researches in the interesting field of the origin of the Albanian race. But their erudite findings were speedily forgotten, and it was not till very recently that a lively interest has been manifested in the AIbanian question, owing, as it has been already said, to the preponderant rôle played by Albania in international politics.
Yet, there is no doubt to-day that the Albanian is the oldest race in the Balkans. But, as Mr. J. D. Bourchier puts it in the Encyclopedia Britannica, "the determination with which this remarkable race has maintained its mountain strongholds through a long series of ages has hitherto met with scant appreciation in the outside world." When the Albanian question came up for settlement in 1912, as a result of the first Balkan war, there were people who denied even the existence of such a question. Yet that year marked the advent of Albania in the world politics with all the complications that it engendered. Even so, the problem of Albania is a closed book, not only to the general public, but also to people who are keenly interested in it.
This ignorance of the affairs of Albania is due not to any lack of interest in them, in our own days at least, but to the want of a comprehensive and handy treatise on Albania. It is true that there is a great number of books relating to her, but they are either written by amateur writers who are wont to speculate on things they know very little about, or they are only monographs and sketches which fail to satisfy the desire for general information. This is particularly true with regard to books on Albania in both English and French, while the German and Italian treatises on the same subject leave very little to be desired. Another serious handicap to obtaining general information about Albania is that the respective writings are scattered in a great number of books which a layman is not expected to be able to handle systematically.
The idea of writing this book on Albania has been first suggested to the writer by his instructors of the Department of History at Harvard University, in especial by Prof. A. C. Coolidge, Lecturer on the Eastern Question, who deeply lamented the lack of such a treatise in the English language. In the course of his studies at the said Institution, the writer had an occasion to write a number of theses and reports on what is the terra incognita of the history of Albania, her contemporary history and actual conditions. It is, therefore, fair to say that this book is largely based on those theses and reports, so far as the present decade is concerned.
Chapters I to VI are based mainly on the researches of Dr. Johann Georg von Hahn, the foremost Albanologist, as set forth in his admirable "Albanische Studien," and on the excellent book "Albania" of Eugenio Barbarich. We, nevertheless, give also the original sources in the References, which cover entirely the field of discussion.
A part of Chapter VI and Chapter VII are founded on original work done by the writer. They constitute a part of the terra incognita of the Albanian history.
Part II constitutes the personal experiences of the writer who was living in Albania at the time the events described therein took place. They are strongly supported by the periodical articles written on the occasion by well-known European publicists. Certain sections of this part are bitterly controverted, and the writer feels it to be his duty to recommend the reader to pay especial attention to the collateral sources as given in the References. For the angry contest in regard to Southern Albania or "Northern Epirus" and the respective Albanian and Greek claims, the writings of Messrs. H. N. Brailsford, H. Charles Woods, and M. L�on Lamouche are authoritative. The history of Albania during this period is given for the first time in a systematic way which covers the most interesting events relating to the making and unmaking of the Albanian State. They constitute the high-water mark of the pre-war European diplomacy.
Of Part III, the first three chapters are based on the references as given therein, with a good deal of personal observations resulting from inside information, while the subject-matter of Chapter XVII has never been touched upon before.
We hope that this modest book will satisfy to some extent the daily manifested desire for general information about this "mysterious" and "unknown" Albania, with special reference to the people of Great Britain among whom she is regarded as somewhat of a pet nation, according to Sir Thomas Holdich's statement in his" Boundaries in Europe and the Near East," despite the fact that very little is known about her.
The writer feels the necessity of excusing himself for not having produced something better and for the literary shortcomings that may be discovered in the text. But if one takes into consideration the nature of the enterprise, on the one hand, and the fact that the writer could not have possibly mastered the English language during the four years he has been in the United States, there would be ample reason for his being excused.
Acknowledgment of thanks should be made to Prof. J. B. Moore for the kind assistance he has given to the writer, and to Mr. H. F. Munro, Lecturer on European and American Diplomacy at Columbia University, for the helpful suggestions he has made in going over the manuscripts.
IN the general readjustment of the world which constitutes the work of the Conference of Paris the problem of the future of Albania necessarily has its place. That question cannot be ignored nor can it be postponed as it is inextricably involved with questions of such commanding and insistent importance as those of the future of the Adriatic, the future of the Balkans. It is a question that cannot be evaded and that must be answered in one way or another. But apart from its connection with the interlocking elements of the politics of southeastern Europe, apart from its intimate filiation with the future of Greece and Jugoslavia and Italy, apart from the fact that the destinies of each are intertwined with the destinies of all, it also remains true that Albania has a primary set of interests of her own which must be clearly comprehended and justly appreciated by the Powers assembled in Paris for the purpose of redrawing the map of Europe. And what the rights of Albania are must be learned not through the utterances of her neighbors and rivals and possible enemies but through a more direct and authoritative medium, the voice of her own citizens.
This is the chief merit of Mr. Chekrezi's book. It enables us to see Albania through the eyes of an Albanian. For many years the world has heard much about Albanian affairs but what it has heard has come almost exclusively from outside sources, from Greeks and Serbs and Montenegrins, and from the Great Powers which, for reasons of their own, created in 1912 and in London the state of Albania and handed it over to an unknown German prince, William of Wied. But no people can be the safe interpreter of the needs and wishes, the rights and aspirations of any other people, just as no individual can be an authoritative spokesman for any one but himself. It is therefore a satisfaction and a distinct advantage to have, at last, an interpretation of the Albanian people, an exposition of Albanian history, a presentation of Albanian claims, straight from the mind, and heart of a native of that country.
For this is, as far as I know, the first book by an Albanian on Albania, that has appeared in the English language. As such it throws light upon matters not too well known to the English-reading public, and may furnish, in many particulars, a corrective to views more or less widespread. The author is, of course, alone responsible for his statements and opinions, but that he adds to our knowledge concerning a subject on which we are none too well informed, is the opinion of the one who writes this introduction.
Mr. Chekrezi graduated in 1909 from the Gymnasium of Korcha. Later he studied law for a short time at the University of Athens and then became a journalist. When Albania was made an independent state in 1912 he was appointed Interpreter and later Secretary to the International Commission of Control for Albania, created by the London Conference of Ambassadors. He came to the United States in November, 1914, and has in the meantime studied at Harvard College, from which he graduated in 1918, receiving the degree of Bachelor of Arts.
The Albanians first brought the claims of their nationality before Europe at the Congress of Berlin in 1878. They were roughly and summarily handled, Bismarck bluntly declaring that "There is no Albanian nationality." This was one of Bismarck's numerous errors, as he was to find out the following year at the hands of the Albanians themselves. Albanian nationalism has been as true and genuine an historic growth as Greek nationalism, or Serb, or Roumanian, or Bulgarian. Albania is merely the last of the Balkan States to emerge from the blight of five centuries of unconscionable Turkish oppression. Mr. Chekrezi's description of the evolution of this sense of nationality since the Congress of Berlin and his account of the creation in 1912 of the independent principality of Albania and of its brief and troubled history are particularly instructive and illuminating.
Whether Albania is to be restored and if so, whether she is to be completely independent or to be under the control, more or less disguised, of Italy or of other powers, whether she will include within her borders all those of Albanian nationality and race or only a part of them, are matters to be decided at Paris. But unless the decisions are right and just, it will not conduce to peace in the Balkan peninsula nor will it be likely to prove permanent, whatever may be the pronouncements or pretentions of a league of nations. Acts of injustice or unreason may destroy a league as they, have destroyed in the past many an imposing empire.
HISTORY OF ALBANIA
(To the Year 1912)
ALBANIA, PAST AND PRESENT
CHAPTER I
ORIGIN OF THE ALBANIAN PEOPLE
I. THE EARLIEST SETTLERS OF ALBANIA
THE question of the origin of the Albanians is still a matter of controversy among the ethnologists. A great many theories have been propounded in solution of the problem relative to the place from which the original settlers of Albania proceeded to their present home. The existence of another Albania in the Caucasus, the mystery in which the derivation of the name "Albania" is enshrouded, and which name, on the other hand, is unknown to her people, and the fact that history and legend afford no record of the arrival of the Albanians in the Balkan Peninsula, have rendered the question of their origin a particularly difficult one.
But, however that may be, it is generally recognized to-day that the Albanians are the most ancient race in southeastern Europe. All indications point to the fact that they are the descendants of the earliest Aryan immigrants who were represented in historical times by the kindred Illyrians, Macedonians, and Epirots. According to the opinion of Dr. Hahn, the noted German ethnologist and linguist, who has made the most extensive research on the subject of the origin of the Albanians, the Macedonians and Epirots formed the core of the pre-Hellenic, Tyrrheno-Pelasgian population, which inhabited the southern portion of the Peninsula and extended its limits to Thrace and Italy. The Illyrians were also Pelasgians, but in a wider sense. Moreover, Hahn also thinks that of these cognate races, which are described by the ancient Greek writers as "barbarous" and "non-Hellenic," the Illyrians were the progenitors of the Ghegs, or northern Albanians, and the Epirots the progenitors of the Tosks, or southern AIbanians.1 This opinion of Dr. Hahn is borne out by the statement of Strabo2 that the Via Egnatia or �gitana, which he describes as forming the boundary between the Illyrians and the Epirots, practically corresponds with the course of the river Shkumbi, which now separates the Ghegs from the Tosks. The same geographer states that the Epirots were also called Pelasgians.3 The Pelasgian Zeus, whose memory survives even to-day in the appellation of God as "Zot'' by the modern Albanians, was worshiped at Dodona, where the most famous oracle of ancient times was situated. The neighborhood of the sanctuary was called Pelasgia.4
On a cursory examination of the terms "Gheg" and "Tosk," it would appear that the name "Tosk" is possibly identical with "Truscus, Etruscus," while the form "Tyrrhenus" perhaps survives in Tirana, the principal city of Central Albania, for which no other current explanation exists.
These findings of the ethnologists are, moreover, strengthened by the unbroken traditions of the natives, who regard themselves, and with pride, as the descendants of the aboriginal settlers of the Balkan Peninsula. They, therefore, think that they have the best claims on it. It is also on the strength of these traditions that the Albanian looks upon the other Balkan nationalities as mere intruders who have expropriated him of much that was properly his own. Hence the constant border warfare which has gone on for centuries between the Albanian and his neighbors.
A more concrete evidence of the Illyrian-Pelasgian origin of the Albanians is supplied by the study of the Albanian language.
Notwithstanding certain points of resemblance in structure and phonetics, the Albanian language is entirely distinct from the tongues spoken by the neighboring nationalities. This language is particularly interesting as the only surviving representative of the so-called Thraco-Illyrian group of languages, which formed the primitive speech of the inhabitants of the Balkan Peninsula. Its analysis presents, however, great difficulties, as, owing to the absence of early literary monuments, no certainty can be arrived at with regard to its earlier forms and later developments. The presence of a large number of foreign words makes it difficult to decide whether the mutilated and curtailed forms, now in use, represent adopted words or belong to the original vocabulary. Its groundwork, however, so far as it can be ascertained, and the grammar are distinetly Indo-European.
In the course of time the Albanian language has been impregnated, as it has already been said, by a large number of foreign words, mainly of ancient Greek and Latin, which are younger than the Albanian language, but there are certain indications that the primitive Illyrian language exerted a certain degree of influence on the grammatical development of the languages now spoken in the Balkan Peninsula.
There is, however, a very striking feature in this whole matter: that the Albanian language affords the only available means for a rational explanation of the meaning of the names of the ancient Greek gods as well as of the rest of the mythological creations, so as exactly to correspond with the faculties attributed to these deities by the men of those times. The explanations are so convincing as to confirm the opinion that the ancient Greek mythology had been borrowed, in its entirety, from the Illyrian-Pelasgians. We have already stated that the Zeus survives as "Zot" in the Albanian language. The invocation of his name is the common form of oath among the modern Albanians. Athena (the Latin Minerva), the goddess of wisdom as expressed in speech, would evidently owe its derivation to the Albanian "E thena," which simply means "speech." Thetis, the goddess of waters and seas, would seem to be but the Albanian "Det" which means "sea." It would be interesting to note that the word "Ulysses," whether in its Latin or the Greek form "Odysseus," means "traveler" in the Albanian language, according as the word "udhe," which stands for both "route" and "travel," is written with "d" or "l," both forms being in use in Albanian. Such examples may be supplied ad libitum. No such facility is, however, afforded by the ancient Greek language, unless the explanation be a forced and distorted one; but in many instances even such forced and distorted one is not available at all.
The Homeric poems, on the other hand, abound in words which survive only in the actually spoken Albanian language. Nay, entire phrases may be taken from Homer as typical Albanian expressions. It is to be regretted, indeed, that no attempt has been made as yet to interpret Homer in the light which may be thrown on the meaning of his writings with the aid of the Albanian language.5 Such a comparative study may do much toward overcoming many difficulties of interpretation, and, as the Albanian language is much older than the Greek, a great many things may be learned as to the influence of the former on the Homeric and subsequent Greek language.
In addition, we should not forget the fact that Zeus was a Pelasgian god, par excellence, his original place of worship being Dodona.
Still another interesting feature is that the principal legends of ancient Greece are still alive in the popular myths of the Albanian people. The Cyclops are as powerful as ever in the bedtime stories of the Albanian mothers and grandmothers.
It is estimated that of the actual stock of the AIbanian language, more than one third is of undisputed Illyrian origin, and the rest are disputed Illyrian-Pelasgian, ancient Greek and Latin, with a small admixture of Slavic, Italian (dating from the Venetian occupation of the seaboard), Turkish, and some Celtic words, too. Besides, the writer has discovered a number of Teutonic words which date, perhaps, from the Gothic invasion of Albania.
Albania abounds in ancient remains which as yet have been unexplored. The history of Albania cannot, therefore, be written in its proper and final form without reference to the precious relics the Albanian soil has jealously guarded for centuries. It is only when these arch�ological treasures come to light that a really scientific history of Albania can be written.
Fragments of Cyclopean structures, of the Cyclopean-Pelasgian period, were discovered by Hahn at Kretsunitsa, Arinishta, and other sites of the district of Arghyrocastro, which was called Pelasgia in ancient times. The walls, partly Cyclopean, of an ancient city (perhaps Bullis or Byllis) are visible at Gradishti on the picturesque Viosa River. Few traces remain of the once celebrated Dyrrhachium (the actual Durazzo, the Epidamnus of the Greeks). The most important and interesting remains, however, are those of Dodona where the celebrated oracle of ancient times was situated.
Of the medi�val ruins, those of Kroia or Croia, the stronghold of Scanderbeg, are the most interesting.
Central and Northern Albania abound in unexplored remains of the Illyrian period. The traces of the early Illyrian civilization lie still covered under the dust and ashes of nearly thirty centuries.
There are also abundant remains of the Roman and Greek period, but, in general, the remains of the classical epoch attest the influence of Roman rather than of Greek civilization. Greek influence may be traced only in the few Greek colonies which had been established along the coast, mainly by the Corinthians.
ADAMIDI, DR. GEORGES, Les P�lasges et leur descendants les Albanais--Bulletin de l'Institut Égyptien, 1902, pp. 6-15, 45-57.
DURUY, V., History of Rome, Translated by W. J. Clarke, Boston, 1890--The Pelasgians, Vol. I, Sect. 1, pp. 44-60.
FALLMERAYER, DR. J. PH., Das Albanesische Element in Griechenland--Abhandlungen des Historische Classe (Bavarian Academy), 1860, Vol. 8, pp. 49-487.
HAHN, DR. JOHANN GEORG VON, Albanische Studien, Wien, 1853 (Jena, 1854), Vol. I, pp. 211-279.
KARAPANOS, Dodone et ses ruines, Paris, 1878.
LEAKE, WILLIAM MARTIN, Of the Albanian Language (Researches in Greece) London, 1814, pp. 263-288.
NOPOSA, FRANZ BARON VON, Arch�ologisches aus Nordalbanien, Illustr., in Wissenschaftl. Mitteil. aus Bosnien und Hersegivina, Wien, 1909, Vol. II, pp. 82-90.
PATSCH, DR. CARL, Das Sandschak Berat in Albanien, Wien, 1904 (Antiquities).
1 See pp. 164-166 infra.
2 Strabo, Book VII, Fragm. 3.
3 Ibid., Book V, 2, 221. It is to be noted that the names "Epirus" and "Epirots" are of Greek origin. The meaning attached to them is purely geographical; they were attributed to the southern portion of Albania by the Greek colonists and writers in contradistinction to the insular position of the Ionian Islands. The name Epirus means simply "mainland" in Greek.
4 Herodotus, Book II, 56.
5 These remarks are based on personal observations made by the writer in an off-hand study of the Homeric poems with the assistance of the Albanian language. The writer has to confess, however, that he is not a linguist. He was merely struck by the peculiar resemblance of expression and phraseology which he encountered in reading Homer.
ANCIENT ALBANIA
I. EARLY PERIOD
In the course of her long history, Albania has been invaded by various civilized, half-civilized, and barbarian races. The Gauls, the Romans, the Goths, the Slavs, the Normans, the Venetians, and, finally, the Turks, successively set their foot on, and obtained temporary mastery over, the Albanian territory. But, in the course of time, the natives have gradually driven out or assimilated the invaders. So many invasions and influences have left hardly any appreciable traces, least of all on the national characteristics, traditions, customs, and language of the Albanian people. What the Roman and Greek writers have written about the Albanians centuries ago does singularly apply to their actual conditions in such a way as to make one imagine that the old writings are but contemporary history. A series of historical events, of momentous importance and superior to his own will, confined the Albanian within his inaccessible mountain fastnesses, and constrained him to cling with tenacity to his national traditions, language, and customs, far from the touch of, and contact with, higher degrees of civilization, apart from that of his immediate enemies and neighbors.
The Albanian people present, then, the unique and imposing phenomenon of a continuous national existence which extends from the remotest times down to our own days. Its beginnings may be traced only by going as far back as the Pelasgian and Illyrian period.
Of the early period of the Illyrians and, especially, of the Pelasgians we know almost nothing. Our history will, then, necessarily begin with the rise of the kingdoms of Illyria and Molossia which respectively represent during the historical times the Illyrians and Pelasgians.
(1225-167 B.C.)
In its beginning, the kingdom of Illyria comprised the actual territories of Dalmatia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, and Northern and Central Albania, with a large part of modern Serbia. But in the course of its development it extended all along the eastern litoral of the Adriatic Sea. Scutara was its capital, just as she is now the capital of Northern and Central Albania.
The earliest known king of Illyria was Hyllus (The Star) who is recorded to have died in the year 1225 B. C.
The kingdom, however, reached the zenith of its expansion and development in the fourth century B. C., when Bardhyllus (White Star), one of the most prominent of the Illyrian kings, united under his scepter the kingdoms of Illyria, Molossia or Epirus and a good part of Macedonia, so that his realm extended from the port of Trieste ("market-place" in Albanian) to the Ambracic Gulf. But its decay began under the same ruler as a result of the attacks made on it by Philip of Macedon, father of Alexander the Great. On the victorious conclusion of the war against Athens, the Macedonian General Parmenion attacked and defeated the Illyrian forces between the lakes of Prespa and Ochrida, in order to recover the part of Macedonia that had been annexed by Bardhyllus.
On succeeding his father, Alexander the Great set out to pursue the war against the Illyrian kings. The Illyrian troops were entrenched at Pelion, near the present city of Koritza (Korcha, in Albanian), under the command of King Kleitos, the son of Bardhyllus. Alexander attacked them and won a complete victory over them. As a result, the Illyrian king agreed to follow his great kinsman in his expedition against the Persians. The Illyrian troops formed a considerable part of the forces of the conqueror of the Persian Empire and shared in his triumph.
Upon the death of Alexander the Illyrian kings regained their liberty of action within their territories. In the year 232 B. C. the Illyrian throne was occupied by the enterprising Teuta, the celebrated Queen whom historians have called Catherine the Great of Illyria. It was she who brought the Romans in contact with the Balkans. The depredations of her thriving navy on the rising commercial development of the Republic forced the Roman Senate to declare war against the Queen. A huge army and navy under the Roman consuls Gaius Fulvius Santumalus and Lucius Postumius Alvinus attacked Central Albania, and, after two years of protracted warfare, Teuta was induced to sue for peace (227 B.C.).
The last king of Illyria was Gentius, of pathetic memory.6 In 165 B. C. he was defeated by the Romans and brought to Rome as a captive in order to adorn the triumph of the victor.
Henceforth, Illyria became a Roman dependency. She was carved out into three independent republics the capitals of which were respectively: Scutari, Dui razzo, and Dulcigno.
(1270-168. B.C.)
The Southern Albania of to-day was called "Epirus" by the ancient Greek writers, and was inhabited by the Pelasgians or Epirots.7 Theopompus states that Epirus was inhabited by the Chaonians, the Thesprotians and the Molossians, all of them being non-Hellenic.
The kings of the last branch, i.e., the Molossians, who ultimately extended their power over all Epirus, claimed, according to Plutarch, to be descended from Pyrrhus, the son of Achilles, who settled in the country after the fall of Troy, and transmitted his kingdom to his son, Molossus. The same biographer relates the significant fact that Achilles was known in this country under the name of "Aspetus,'' which in Albanian means "swift."
The interesting feature of kingship, as adopted in Molossia, is its elective form. The assembly of "wise men" elected annually the kings, in the fashion of the old German tribes.
The kingdom of Molossia shows a long record of rulers, but of all the numerous kings we shall mention only the most eminent of all, the famous Pyrrhus of Epirus (295-272), whose adventures were terminated by a brick with which a mourning old Greek woman struck him on the head. He was the first to bring the war against the Romans into Italian soil, wherein he won his celebrated "Pyrrhic victory."
Albanian tradition claims that the name "Shkypetar" (Sons of the Eagle), as the Albanians call themselves, the name Albanian being entirely unknown to them, originated with a statement made by Pyrrhus. When some one praised the swiftness of the movements of his troops, Pyrrhus proudly answered that this was natural, inasmuch as his soldiers were the Sons of the Eagle; their movements were, consequently, similar to the flight of the king of the birds.
Another important personage we should mention in connection with Epirus is the proud Olympias, sister of Alexander, the king of Molossia, and mother of Alexander the Great. When her son embarked on his campaign against the Persians, the Molossians felt constrained to join him, with the result that the united Illyrian-Molossian troops formed a considerable part of the triumphant army.
Space does not allow us to go into any more lengthy account of the warlike enterprises and peaceful achievements of the Molossian kings, some of whom did more to render their country famous than did the Illyrians.
On the death of Alexander the Great, the rulers of Molossia were once more freed of all shackles, but the fate of the kingdom was sealed at the battle of Pyana (168 B. C.), when Paulus Emilius defeated the allied Molossian-Macedonian forces. The country was subjected to a fearful devastation on the part of the Romans, because of the insubmissive character of its population, and, after it was pacified in this fashion, it shrunk to the position of a self-governing Roman province.
The subjection to Rome was not, however, to be consummated without intermittent hard struggles for independence. A complete submission to the conqueror has been alien to the national characteristics of the Albanian people. Rome had to pay dearly for the annexation of this indomitable race by making frequent expeditions across the Adriatic to quell the insurrections which had become chronic. But once the Romans got the upper hand the punishment inflicted on the insurgents was exemplary; witness the complete devastation of Southern Albania, a great part of whose population was deported to other lands.
Nonetheless, the subject country was able to preserve intact its ethnical characteristics, and both languages, the Roman as well as the Illyrian, were made use of in public acts.
During the civil war between C�sar and Pompey, Albania served as battlefield for the contest of supremacy in Rome, and in many instances the Albanians strove to convert the situation to their own benefit. The decisive battle between Octavius and Antony for the imperial throne was also fought on the Albanian seacoast, and in commemoration of his naval victory at Actium the future Augustus built the new city of Nicopolis on the southernmost part of the Albanian seaboard. The ruins of this city may be seen even to-day, but the place does not belong any longer to Albania.8
Albania, moreover, became now the passageway for the Roman legions on their way to Asia. They were embarked at Brindisi, which was the terminus of the Appian Way. Thence, after being transported to Durazzo, they proceeded on the Via �gitana or Egnatia the track of which has been preserved to the present day. During the greater part of Turkish domination that track has served as the only thoroughfare in Central Albania.
On the whole, Roman influence has not been of very great importance. Remains of Roman civilization and architecture may be seen throughout Albania, but their influence on the shaping of the course of her history and on her inhabitants is slight.
There are, however, two outstanding features of Roman influence:
In the first place, the Albanian language borrowed a great number of words, mostly religious and liturgical terms, owing to the fact that Albania was at first attached to the See of Rome, though the religion of Jesus was preached to the Albanians by St. Paul himself during a visit he made to Durazzo.
In the second place, the Romans have left a very enduring evidence of their passage through, and domination of, the Albanian territories in the presence of a new race, the so-called Kutso-Valachians, or Albanian-Valachians as they are commonly known in the places they inhabit. They are the offspring of Roman-Albanian marriages, and they have been kept apart from the main body of the nation. Their peculiar position affords another striking proof of the pride of race among the Albanians. The Kutso-Valachians, who are first cousins to the Roumanians, number about 100,000 souls scattered throughout Albania.
In return, the domination of Rome enabled Albania to make some very important contributions to her world-empire. Emperor Diocletian, the able organizer of the Roman Empire and promoter of efficiency in centralization, was a native of Dalmatia, which had always been a part of Illyria and of the Greater Albania.
To the newly instituted Christian Empire Albania contributed the man who instituted it, Constantine the Great, his contemporary Pope Sylvester, and St. Jerome, the translator of the Holy Scriptures from Greek into Latin. Constantine was native of the town of Nish, which at that time was Albanian just as a part of the actual Serbia was.
Moreover, the Albanians had more than their share in the election of the Roman Emperors during the turbulent period of the Empire, by virtue of the fact that the notorious Pr�torian Guard, the emperor-making power, consisted mainly of Illyrian troops.
BARBARICH, EUGENIO, Albania, Rome, 1905, pp. 155-168.
CASSIUS DIO, Rome, Books 8 and 10.
DIODORUS SCICULUS, Book XXVI.
DURUY, V., History of Rome, Vol. I, Sect. 2. pp. 590-593.
HAHN, DR. JOHANN GEORG VON, Albanische Studien, pp. 301-309 and Notes pp. 328-332.
PLINY (THE ELDER), Historia Naturalis, Book III, Ch. 22.
PLUTARCH, Parallel Lives -- Lives of Pyrrhus, Alexander, Demetrius, T. Quintius Flaminius, Paulus Emilius, Cicero, Pompey, Julius C�sar and Antony.
POLYBIOS, Book IV.
STRABO, Books VII and IX.
TIUS LIVIUS, 26-45.
6 Cassius Dio, Rome, Book 20, fragm. 24.
7 It has already been noted that the name "Epirus" means "mainland" in Greek, and was originally applied to the whole coast northward of the Corinthian Gulf, in contradistinction to the neighboring islands, Corcyra (Corfou), Leucas, etc., etc. In consequence, it has not any ethnical meaning, as modern Greeks are wont to think and proclaim. The name of Epirus, as applied to Southern Albania, is misleading, inasmuch as its Greek sound gives the idea that one is dealing with a Greek territory. This is due to the unfortunate fact that the principal sources of the history of this section of Albania are the writings of Greek historians whose mania for Hellenising foreign names is notorious. Yet, all the ancient Greek writers, including Theopompus, the veracious Thucydides, and the more modern Plutarch, are in full accord in stating that Epirus was exclusively inhabited by non-Hellenic barbarous populations.
As to the modern aspect of this question, see below pp. 94-100, 111-120.
8 The Conference of London of 1912, which recognized the establishment of the independent Albanian principality, assigned to Greece the greater part of the southern seacoast of Albania, from the Bay of Ftelia to Preveza. It is in the neighborhood of the latter town that the ruins of Nicopolis are situated.
by
Constantine A. Chekrezi
New York
The Macmillan Company
1919
First Internet Edition 1997
Rutgers University Libraries
DR701.S5C515A
Francisco López Rodríguez
[email protected]
[email protected]