Abstract
This article follows a previous publication dedicated to Venetic personal anthroponyms. In the present article, we investigate Illyrian personal anthroponyms from the Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum, a continuously updated Latin inscription catalogue covering the Roman Empire period and its provinces. The Illyrian anthroponyms appear deeply latinised and graecised and the meaning of their roots was identified by comparing each one of them with corresponding lexemes in the present surviving Slavic languages. The result is that the Illyrian personal anthroponyms having Slavic roots is 45.93%, which permits to estimate that during the Roman Empire period, i.e. about five cen., roughly 46% of the Illyrian population had Slavic ascendancies. This highlights that Slavs were already present in areas incorporated by the Roman Empire well before the VII cen. A.D. the date, according to the generally accepted theory, of the Slav late arrival in Europe. The logical consequence is that this theory is wrong and should be rejected.
Highlights
A great number of publications deal with the origins, the languages and the territories of the ancient Illyrians (I.)
We investigate Illyrian personal anthroponyms from the Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum, a continuously updated Latin inscription catalogue covering the Roman Empire period and its provinces
The result is that the Illyrian personal anthroponyms having Slavic roots is 45.93%, which permits to estimate that during the Roman Empire period, i.e. about five cen., roughly 46% of the Illyrian population had Slavic ascendancies
Summary
A great number of publications deal with the origins, the languages and the territories of the ancient Illyrians (I.). Because they did not left written documents, the conclusions of both classical and contemporary scholars concerning I. matters are normally divergent (Wilkes, 1992). Purpose of this article is to deepen the knowledge about the I. by considering the etymology of the I. personal anthroponyms. This article follows a similar one dedicated to the etymology of Venetic (V.) personal anthroponyms (Stein & Tomezzoli, 2020) and inter alia provides a reply to the question set out in a recent publication (Pigozzo, 2020): “the I. belonged to the paleo Slavic family and, were they related to the ancient V.?”
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