"What country, friends, is this?"
"This is Illyria, lady."
- Shakespeare
The ancient historian, Appian, describes the Illyrians inhabiting the land beyond Macedon and Thrace (todays Macedonia and Bulgaria) from Chaonia and Thesprotia (northwestern Greece) to the Danube River (Serbia) and extending west to Pannonia (southern Hungaria) and the Adriatic Sea (see image).
However, the boundaries of Illyria were never clearly defined. Artifacts of Illyrian type have been found in what were once ancient Greece, Macedon, Thrace and the eastern coastal regions of Roman Italia (see Origins and Tribes).
Although the Roman province "Illyricum" was initially comparable in area to Illyria of Pre-Roman times, it eventually comprised regions far greater than Illyria commonly known to the Greeks, e.g. Epirus, Macedonia, Noricum, etc (see Boak, A History of Rome to 565 AD).
