by Joseph Dedvukaj
Abstract
This study presents a cumulative argument for Illyrian-Albanian continuity by integrating evidence from ancient geography, ethnonymy, and historical linguistics. Rather than proposing a simplistic model of direct and unbroken descent, it advances a more methodologically restrained framework based on the convergence of three lines of evidence. First, Greco-Roman authors such as Dionysius of Alexandria, Strabo, and Pliny the Elder preserve the southern Adriatic and adjacent inland corridor as a recognizable Illyrian region, allowing for a geographically bounded continuity zone.
Second, the ethnonymic link between the ancient Albanoi, recorded by Ptolemy, and later medieval and modern Alb- / Arb- forms supports a diachronic continuity of naming traditions in the western Balkans. Third, the Albanian language represents the sole surviving branch of the Indo-European family indigenous to the western Paleo-Balkan sphere, reinforcing the case for local continuity.
Additional support comes from Byzantine historiography, particularly the work of Michael Attaleiates, as reassessed by John Quanrud, which confirms the persistence of the Alb- ethnonym in the medieval Balkans. When these strands are considered together, the evidence supports a model of Albanian ethnogenesis rooted in a south central western Balkan population historically associated with Illyria in a narrower sense.
Scholars generally agree the evidence for Illyrian-Albanian continuity is cumulative rather than absolute.
It is strongest when arranged around three converging lines of evidence: first, the continued regional visibility of Illyria in Greco-Roman geography; second, the ethnonymic continuity of the Alb- / Arb- name-family in the western Balkans; and third, the linguistic continuity represented by Albanian as the only modern representative of a distinct Indo-European branch. Framed this way, the thesis becomes narrower, more methodologically disciplined, and more persuasive than any claim of simple, unbroken identity.
At the level of regional continuity, Dionysius of Alexandria is important because his Guide to the Inhabited World preserves the southern Adriatic as a still-intelligible Illyrian landscape in the second century CE. ToposText describes the work as “a didactic poem of about 125 CE.”
In the Adriatic section, Dionysius writes that “on the right-hand side there appears the Illyrian land,” showing that the eastern Adriatic littoral still circulated in imperial literary geography as a recognizable Illyrian zone. His value lies not in providing a direct genealogy of the Albanians, but in preserving the regional frame within which later ethnogenesis is to be sought.
Strabo sharpens that regional frame into a more precise historical corridor. In Geography 7.7, he states that the road from Apollonia and Epidamnus passes through Lychnidus to Pylon, “which marks the boundary between the Illyrian country and Macedonia.” In the same discussion he places the Bylliones, Taulantii, Parthini, and Brygi above Epidamnus and Apollonia as far as the Ceraunian Mountains.
This is methodologically crucial, because it narrows the continuity problem from the vast and shifting notion of Illyricum to a specific south-central western Balkan corridor, precisely the zone in which a serious Albanian ethnogenesis model is strongest.
Pliny the Elder adds the decisive Roman refinement. In Natural History 3, he preserves the phrase Illyrii proprie dicti, “the Illyrians properly so called.” That wording strongly suggests that Roman usage could distinguish between Illyria in a broad administrative-geographical sense and a narrower body of Illyrians in a more specific southern core.
This strengthens the continuity thesis by making it narrower: Albanian need not descend from every population ever labeled Illyrian across the whole of Roman Illyricum; the argument is already substantial if Albanian emerged from a southern western Balkan population historically connected with the Illyrians in the stricter sense.
Within that narrowed frame, Ptolemy remains the decisive ancient ethnonymic witness. ToposText’s text of Geography 3.12.20 reads: “Of the Albanians: Albanopolis.” Read together with Strabo’s southern corridor and Pliny’s narrower Illyrian core, the Albanoi no longer appear as an isolated lexical curiosity. They become the earliest secure textual anchor for the later Alb- / Arb- ethnonymic family. 
The Albanopolis dossier is stronger because it is not only textual. ToposText identifies Albanopolis as “a Roman to Late Antique settlement E of Zgërdhesh, Kruje, Albania,” and its place entry further describes it as “a Roman to Late Antique settlement of ancient Illyria, associated with ruined fortifications E of Zgërdhesh, Kruje, Albania.” That archaeological association should still be presented cautiously, because localization remains debated, but it matters that Albanopolis is treated as a real site-problem in central Albania rather than as a phantom place-name. 
The medieval bridge is materially strengthened by Byzantine evidence. John Quanrud’s 2021 reassessment of Michael Attaleiates concludes that “the evidence favours the traditional reading of Albanoi as Balkan Albanians over the interpretation of this ethnonym as an obscure reference to Norman mercenaries in territories south of Rome.”
This does not create a seamless documentary chain for every century after Ptolemy, but it significantly narrows the gap between antiquity and the medieval record by confirming that the Alb- ethnonym was attached to a Balkan population in Byzantine historiography itself.
The later Arb- forms reinforce the same pattern. Encyclopaedia Britannica notes that the name Albanian “has been found in records since the time of Ptolemy,” and adds that in Calabrian Albanian it is Arbresh, in Modern Greek Arvanítis, and in Turkish Arnaut.
This is historiographically important because diaspora and neighboring-language forms often preserve older designations after usage in the homeland changes. In that sense, Arbëresh/Arbresh is not peripheral evidence but living testimony to the long afterlife of the same Alb- / Arb- complex.
The strongest line of all, however, is linguistic continuity. Encyclopaedia Britannica states that Albanian is “the only modern representative of a distinct branch of the Indo-European language family.” The same historical synthesis states that under Roman rule “Illyrian culture survived, along with the Illyrian tongue,” and adds that “a transition occurred from the old Illyrian population to a new Albanian one.”
Whether one phrases that final step more cautiously than Britannica’s synthesis does, the underlying point remains decisive: Albanian is not simply another Balkan language with late attestation, but the only surviving branch-language indigenous to the western Paleo-Balkan sphere. That fact gives exceptional weight to the convergence of territory, ethnonym, and language in the Albanian case.
Dionysius of Alexandria preserves the continued literary-geographical visibility of the Illyrian-Ceraunian coast; Strabo maps the southern Illyrian-Macedonian frontier corridor from the Adriatic inland; Pliny’s Illyrii proprie dicti narrows attention to a more specific southern Illyrian core; Ptolemy anchors within that corridor the decisive ethnonymic pair Albanoi and Albanopolis; Byzantine historiography confirms that the Alb- name survived in the medieval Balkans; and later Arb- forms preserve the long afterlife of the same name-family.
Combined with Albanian’s status as the only modern representative of a distinct Indo-European branch indigenous to the western Paleo-Balkan sphere, this evidence supports a cumulative argument that Albanian ethnogenesis is best sought within a southern western Balkan population zone historically connected with Illyria. The case is strongest not as a slogan of simple identity, but as a layered continuity by territory, ethnonym, and language.
Notes:
1. Encyclopaedia Britannica, “Albanian language.” 
2. ToposText, “Dionysius of Alexandria, Guide to the Inhabited World.” 
3. Strabo, Geography 7.7. 
4. Pliny the Elder, Natural History 3. 
5. Ptolemy, Geography 3.12.20. 
6. ToposText, “Albanopolis (Illyria) 1 Zgërdhesh?” 
7. John Quanrud, “The Albanoi in Michael Attaleiates’ History: Revisiting the Vranoussi-Ducellier Debate.” 
8. Encyclopaedia Britannica, “Albanian language.” 
9. Encyclopaedia Britannica, “Albanian language”; “History of Albania.” 
10. The Scupi / Gorno Sonje inscription should remain provisional here because the original epigraphic edition has not been directly verified in this pass. The main argument does not depend on it. 
Bibliography:
Dionysius of Alexandria. Guide to the Inhabited World. ToposText. 
Pliny the Elder. Natural History. Book 3. 
Ptolemy. Geography. Book 3. ToposText. 
Quanrud, John. “The Albanoi in Michael Attaleiates’ History: Revisiting the Vranoussi-Ducellier Debate.” Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies 45, no. 2 (2021). 
Strabo. Geography. Book 7. 
Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Albanian language.” 
Encyclopaedia Britannica. “History of Albania.” 
Image 1: Claudius Ptolemy (later artistic depiction, not a securely identified ancient portrait). Fifteenth-century portrait attributed to Justus van Gent or Pedro Berruguete, Louvre Museum, Paris.
Image 2: Dionysius of Alexandria (Dionysius Periegetes), later editorial/frontispiece depiction from an early modern edition of the Periegesis; no securely identified ancient portrait survives.
