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C. Ravonius Celer was a sailor of the Misene fleet from Dalmatia.C. Ravonius Celer qui et Bato Scenobarbi (f.) from Naples (CIL 10.3618 = Dessau 2901):D(IS) M(ANIBUS) / C(AIUS) RAVONIUS CELER QUI ET BATO SCE / NOBARBI NATION(E) DAL[M(ATA)] / MANIP(U)L(ARIS) EX (TRIREME) ISID[E MIL(ITAVIT) ANN(IS)] XI VIXIT [ANN(IS) …] / P(UBLIUS) AELIUS V[…] I VENER[(E)…]This inscription from his tombstone provides important evidence about the process of construction of individual identities in the period of the early principate, for it reveals the parallel existence of Roman and indigenous identity in a funerary context, commemorating C. Ravonius Celer, who is also at the same time Bato, a son of Scenobarbus of the Dalmatian ‘nation’. This inscription records the two identities of C. Ravonius Celer/Bato, which were incorporated into his personality as an essential part of who he was, revealing both his private and public self.

Illyricum, in the western Balkan peninsula, was a strategically important area of the Roman Empire where the process of Roman imperialism began early and lasted for several centuries. Dzino here examines Roman political conduct in Illyricum; the development of Illyricum in Roman political discourse; and the beginning of the process that would integrate Illyricum into the Roman Empire and wider networks of the Mediterranean world. In addition, he also explores the different narrative histories, from the romanocentric narrative of power and Roman military conquest, which dominate the available sources, to other, earlier scholarly interpretations of events.

Développée probablement comme une généralisation ethnographique sur des étrangers associés à une ou des langues indigènes similaires, l’étiquette “Illyriens” a été utilisée dans différents contextes. Elle fait son apparition, de toute évidence, au VI e siècle av. J.-C., mais nos sources remontent à un siècle plus tard. Les perceptions ultérieures de cet ethnonyme dépendent de contextes politiques et territoriaux, d’abord de l’alliance politique avec le royaume illyrien à l’époque hellénistique, ensuite de l’usage qu’en firent les Romains dans le contexte de l’expansion impériale de la première heure.

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