i made this video to show that we can't relay on maps,because maps shows the ruling population from an area,and in some cases,especially the middle ages,some populations were considered without any importance. here is the hole fragment: ''Whilst she was directing the Empire, as we said, she did not devote the whole day to worldly cares but attended the prescribed services in the chapel of the martyr Thecla, which the Emperor Isaac Comnenus, her brother-in-law, had built for a reason I will now relate. At the time when the chieftains of the Dacians decided no longer to observe their treaty with the Romans arid broke it treacherously, then, directly they heard of this, the Sauromatoe (anciently called Mysians) also decided not to remain quiet in their own territory. [88] Formerly they dwelt on the land separated from the Roman Empire by the Ister, but now they rose in a body and migrated into our territory. The reason for this migration was the irreconcilable hatred of the Dacians for their neighbours, whom they harassed with constant raids. So the Sauromatae seized the opportunity of the Ister being frozen over and by walking over it as if it were dry land, they migrated from their country to ours, and their whole tribe was dumped down within our borders and mercilessly plundered the neighbouring towns and districts. On hearing this, the Emperor Isaac decided to go to Triaditza and as he had formerly succeeded in checking the enterprises of the eastern barbarians, so he effected this stroke too with very little trouble. He collected the whole army and started on the road thither intending to expel them from Roman territory. And when he had set his infantry in battle-array, he led an attack against them, but directly they saw him, the enemy broke up into dissentient parties. Isaac, however, thinking it unwise to trust them overmuch, attacked the strongest and bravest part of their army with a strong phalanx, and on his approaching with his men, they became panic-stricken. For they did not venture so much as to look straight at him, as if he were the Wielder of the Thunder, and when they saw the phalanx' unbroken array of shields they turned faint with fear. So they retreated a short distance and offered to meet him in battle on the third day from then, but that very same day they deserted their camps and fled. Isaac marched to the spot of their encampment and after destroying the tents and removing the booty found there, he returned in triumph. When he had got to the foot of Mount Lobitzus, a violent and most unseasonable snow-storm overtook him, for it was the 24th September, a day sacred to the memory of the martyr Thecla. The rivers at once became swollen and overflowed their banks, so that the whole plain on which the royal tent and those of the soldiers stood, looked like the sea. In a short time all their baggage had disappeared, swept away by the raging torrents, and men and beasts were numbed by the cold. Thunder rumbled in the heavens, lightning was continuous with scarcely any interval between the flashes which threatened to set all the country around on fire. The Emperor in this dilemma knew not what to do; but during a short cessation in the storm, as he had already had a great many men carried off by the wildly rushing streams, he with a few picked men left his tent and went and stood with [89] them under an oak tree. But because he heaxd a great noise and rumbling which seemed to proceed from the tree itself and the wind was rising quickly, he was afraid that the tree might be blown down by it, and therefore moved far enough away from the tree to ensure his not being struck by it if it fell, and there he stood dumbfounded. And immediately as if at a given signal, the tree was torn up by the roots and was seen lying along the ground; whereupon the Emperor stood amazed at God's solicitude for him. Tidings of a revolt in the East were now brought to him, so he returned to the palace. In gratitude for his escape he had a very beautiful chapel built in honour of the proto-martyr Thecla, at no little cost, richly furnished and decorated with various works of art ; there he offered sacrifices of a kind befitting Christians for his safe delivery, and for ' the rest of his life he attended divine service in it. That was the origin of the building of the chapel of the martyr Thecla, in which as I have said, the empress-mother of the Emperor Alexius regularly paid her devotions. I myself knew this woman for a short time and admired her, and all who are willing to speak the truth without prejudice, know and would testify that my words about her are not empty boasting. Had I preferred writing a laudatory article instead of a history, I could have greatly lengthened my story by different tales about her as I made plain before; now however I must bring my story back to its right subject''

A Lost Chapter from the Alexiad

Illyrian--Albanian Words ren -- re dard--dardhë toka--tokë las--lesh mal--mal vasa--vashë ves--vesh cuza-cucë nat--natë ara--arrë frim--frymë ra--ra caj--qaj nis-nis roj--rroj leh--lind (lehem in Geg) venedi--vendi hyll--yll bardi-bardhë fimia-fëmijë lissius-lisi bur, buris ‘man’ [Alb. burrë ‘man’] datan (datas) ‘place, settlement’ [Alb. datë ‘place, settlement] drenis ‘deer’ [Alb. dre, dreni ‘deer’] ermas ‘fierce, mad’ [Alb. jerm ‘furious, mad’] mezéna ‘a horseman’ [Alb. mes, mezi ‘stallion’, Roman. (substrat) mînz ‘stallion’] pupa ‘hill’ [Alb. pupë ‘hill’] rera ‘stones, stony ground’ (from an earlier *lera) [Alb. lerë, -a ‘stones, fallen stones’] titha ‘light, radiance’ [morning drita(ë) ‘light, day’, Alb. ditë ‘day’] Quote: There is an old Illyrian place called Albulenë that is Alb = white Ule (old Illyrian) = water or " Ujë i bardhë" today Albanian. The same derivation has Ulk (old Illyrian) by the name of the ancient city Ulkinon (today Ulqin) to Ujk that mean wolf. Albania derives from the same Indo-European source as the name of the Alps, which also appears in the Scottish "Albainn", for "highlands". Alternatively, "Albania" may derive from the ancient Indo-European root *albho, meaning "white", which also gave the name Albion, the ancient name of England. The first known occurance of the word Albanoi as the name of an Illyrian tribe in what is now north-central Albania goes back to 130 AD, in a work of Ptolemy. Albanopolis of the Albani is a place located on the map of Ptolemy and also named on an ancient family epitaph at Scupi (near Skopje) , which has been identified with the Zgërdhesh hill-fort near Kruja in northern Albania. Arbanon is likely to be the name of a district - the plain of the Mat has been suggested - rather than a particular place. An indication of movement from higher altitudes in a much earlier period has been detected in the distribution of place-names ending in -esh that appears to derive from the latin -enisis or -esis, between the Shkumbin and the Mat rivers, with a concentration between Elbasan and Kruja. The term "Albanoi" may have been slowly spread to other Illyrian tribes until its usage became universal among all the Albanian people. According to the Albanian scholar Faïk bey Konitza, the term "Albania" did not displace "Illyria" completely until the end of the fourteenth century. The word "Alba" or "Arba" seems to be connected with the town Arba (modern Rab, Croatia), in prehistoric times inhabited by the semi-Illyrian Liburnians, first mentioned in 360 BC. Approximately a millennium later, some Byzantine writers used the words "Albanon" and "Arbanon" to indicate the region of Kruja. Under the Angevine rulers, in the 13th century, the names "Albania" and "Albanenses" indicated the whole country and all the population, as is demonstrated by the works of many ancient Albanian writers such as Budi, Blanco and Bogdano. We first learn of Albanians in their native land as the Arbanites of Arbanon in Anna Comnenas' account (Alexiad 4) of the troubles in that region caused by the Normans during the reign of her father Alexius I Comneus (1081-1118). In the History written in 1079-1080, Byzantine historian Michael Attaliates was first to refer to the Albanoi as having taken part in a revolt against Constantinople in 1043 and to the Arbanitai as subjects of the duke of Dyrrachium. The Italo-Albanians and the Albanian minorities still present in Greece have been known by different names over time: Arbënuer, Arbënor, Arbëneshë, Arbreshë, Arbëreshë. There seems to be no doubt that the root alb- or arb- is earlier than shqip-, from which the modern name of the state (Shqipëria) derives, a name which appears only in the time of the Turkish invasions. The Albanian name of the country, Shqipëria, translates into English as "Land of the Eagles", hence the two-headed bird on the national flag and emblem, and because of the large presence of these animals in the mountainous zones of Albania. Albanian names, like all nouns, appear under two forms "indefinite" and "definite". Hence Tiranë/Tirana, Krujë/Kruja, Elbasan/Elbasani, Durrës/Durrësi… The definite form is the equivalent of adding the article "the" in front of the noun. The common scholarly usage is to mention feminine names in the definite form, while the masculine are mentioned in the indefinite: Tirana, Kruja, Elbasan, Durrës, etc. But it is not always the case. Since Albanian territories have long been under foreign rule, historical documents may mention Albanian place-names in their Greek, Latin, Italian (Venetian), Turkish, Slavic, or even French versions. For instance, Durrës has been called Dyrrachion, Dyrrachium, Durazzo, Draç, Drac and Duras. Another source of confusion from historical sources may come from a transformation of "-n-" into "-r-", called "rhotacism", which took place in the Southern (Tosk) dialects and prevails in the literary language. Hence, the Greek/Latin "Avlona" which gave the Italian Valona" is now "Vlora". -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Our earliest mentioning is in the 200 Anno Domini - 4 centuries before the arrival of the Serbs. They are mentioned as Albanoi, which is thought to mean 'white' - ironically, the Illyrian name for the tribe was parthini, and the first part -parth resembles our modern word -bardh, meaning precisely white, whereas the suffix -ini resembles our suffix -inj, defining the word as smth plural, i.e. Parthians, Parthinj. That we're an autochtonous nation in the Balkans is not even disputed among prominent Serb intellectuals and historians. The only dispute is whether we're Illyrian or Thracian, which in relation to our autochtony in Kosova (ancient Dardania) is irrelevant, since ancient Kosova was home to both Illyrians as well as Thracians, as is confirmed by ancient toponyms. But whilst Serb and Bulgarian historians have advocated a Thracian or/and Dacian origins of our people, most others have supported the Illyrian thesis, to the point where now only Serbs seem to favor the Thracian alternative. The Croat historian and Illyrologist Aleksandar Stipcevic formulates himself rather well when he states following; Quote: The result achieved by workers in different disciplines in recent decades have reduced the importance of the work that relied on now obsolete linguistc evidence, and have made the autochthony of the Albanians, i.e. increasingly indisputable. And this ... Quote: Nevertheless, the number of researchers still today refusing to take into consideration the many arguments supplied by different academic disciplines has shrunk, or, more accurately, absolutely the only researchers who deny the theory of Albanian autochthony are Serbian. Source Here's one Serbian document mentioning us in the 12th century, an extract from the Dusanova Zakonik; Quote: A brawl between villages, fifty perpers, (one perper was worth six gold francs); but between Vlachs and Albanians, one hundred perpers. Here are some more quotes; Quote: In the II Century BC, the geographer and astronomer from Alexandria, Ptolemy drafted a map of remarkable significance for the history of Illyria. This map shows the city of Albanopolisi (located south of Durrës), from which the Albanians were later on to be identified by the world. Quote: The first mention of Albanians in the region corresponding to modern Albania is as the Arbanites of Arbanon in Anna Commenas account of the troubles in that region caused in the reign of her father Alexius I Comneus (1081- 1110) by the Normans. (The Alexiad The Alexiad is a book written around the year 1148 by the Byzantine historian Anna Comnena, the daughter of Emperor Alexius I. She describe the political and military history Byzantine Empire during the reign of her father (1081-1110) , making it one of the most important sources of information on the Byzantines of the Middle Ages.... Quote: In ‘History’ written in 1079-1080, Byzantine historian Michael Attaliates was first to refer to the "Albanoi" as having taken part in a revolt against Constantinople in 1043 and to the Arbanitai as subjects of the duke of Dyrrachium. Quote: 1285 in Dubrovnik (Ragusa) where a sizeable Albanian community had existed for some time. In the investigation of a robbery in the house of Petro del Volcio of Belena (now Prati), a certain Matthew, son of Mark of Mançe, who appears to have been witness to the crime, states: "Audivi unam vocem clamantem in monte in lingua albanesca" (I heard a voice crying in the mountains in the Albanian language). Link Our first mentioning is in the 2th century AD, four centuries before the Serb arrival in the Balkans. It's from that Illyrian tribe (the Albanoi) we received our ethnonym. They were mentioned by the Greek geographer Ptolemy Claudius of Alexandria, in his work Geographia, as situated near the modern capital Tirana; Our own medieval term for ourselves wasn't Albanian with the letter 'l', but Arberesh or Arberor or Arban, with 'r', from whence the Slav term 'Arbanas' and Greek term 'Arvanites' came from, when they referred to us. This name stems also from the Illyrian era; Quote: In the II Century BC, in the History of the World, written by Polybius, there is mention of a city named Arbon in present day central Albania. The people who lived there were called Arbanios and Arbanitai. This mention of us is in the IIth century BC - 8 centuries before the arrival of the Serbs. I It doesn't end there though; Quote: In the I Century AD, Pliny the Elder mentions an Illyrian tribe named Olbonenses. The first century Anno Domini - five centuries before the Serbs' arrival. Replace the letter 'o' with 'a' and you'll get (*surprise* *surprise*) Albonenses or Albanenses!!! And finally; Quote: In the II Century AD, Ptolemy, the geographer and astronomer from Alexandria, drafted a map of remarkable significance for the history of Illyria. This map shows the city of Albanopolis (located south of Durrës). Ptolemy also mentions the Illyrian tribe named Albanoi, who lived around this city. Link Here is something that shows continuation of Illyrian culture Another continuation of culture is the law of canon or kanun...which was the natural law the Albanians lived for centuries, it is believed to be a older law than the time of Skenderbe since the kanun of Skenderbe, or Leke Dukagjini, and the southern Albanian kanun were basically the same! Perendi The Albanian thunder god of Illyrian origin. He is the consort of Prende, the goddess of love. Perendi is identical with the Lithuanian Perkunas and the Latvian Perkons.

We stole the cone