Nikaia (Greek: Νίκαια, Latin: Nicaea) was a settlement of the koinon of the Bylliones, an Illyrian tribe that through contact with their Ancient Greek neighbours became bilingual.[1] The tribe was found in southern Illyria (today's Fier District, southern Albania).[2][3][4]
The toponym Νίκαια (Nikaia) is recorded by Stephanus of Byzantium (fl. 6th century AD).[3] The name of the settlement is of Greek etymology.[5]
Sources from the classical era point to a location in the vicinity of Byllis. It has been identified c. 1,500 meters south of Byllis in the modern settlement of Klos, near Fier.[2][6][3] Archaeologist Neritan Ceka led the expedition. Its size, organization and administrative relation to Byllis are debated. It was too large to be a kome and had walled fortifications in the 5th and 4th centuries BC. Stephanus of Byzantium is the only primary source who calls it a polis (πόλις ἐν ’Ιλλυριδι, pólis en ’Illyridi).[3] The city plan resembles that of Amantia.[7] After the foundation of Nikaia, Byllis went into decline, however it was not completely abandoned.[8]
Papazoglou and Hammond also stressed that the development of Nikaia as a city wasn't part of the beginning of the development of an "Illyrian city" system.[9] Rather, Nikaia like other settlements in southern Illyria (Byllis, Amantia, Lissus etc.) represents the adoption of the Greek city model by the 4th century BC or later in an indigenous settlement.[10] Papazoglou states that Nikaia together with nearby Byllis were "Greek foundations on barbarian territory".[11]
Inscriptions at both Byllis and Nikaia begin in the middle of the 4th century BC and are related to a polis-like organization. They are exclusively in Greek, as are institutions, the gods worshiped, the titles of the officials and other parts of the organization of the settlement.[2][9] Those inscriptions are written in fluent Greek and reveal typical features of the north-western Greek dialect.[12]
The Gods worshipped in Nikaia as well as Byllis are the typical deities of the Greek Pantheon: Zeus Tropaios, Hera Teleia, Poseidon, Parthenos,[a] etc.[12]
The vast majority of the corpus of names is Greek (Alexander, Andriscus, Archelaus, Kebbas, Maketa, Machatas, Nikanor, Peukolaos, Phalakros, Philotas, Drimakos and Alexommas) with a few Illyrian names. The latter exceptions can't challenge the initial Greek character of the local element.[13] A 2nd-century BC inscription in a festival in Boetia, mentions an Illyrian contestant, Byllion from Nikaia (Βυλλίων απο Νίκαιας).[7] This inscription indicates that the city was a member of the Koinon of the Bylliones.[3]
The political institutions were typical of the Greek polis though it is difficult to define their precise content.[2] A Hellenistic inscription records a strategos eponymos (Greek: Στρατηγός επώνυμος) a general of the Koinon of the Bylliones. The term Koinon did not necessarily[14] refer to an ethnos. As a term it was also used to refer to a coalition of settlements, in this case: Byllis and Nikaia to which it was restricted.[15][2] Fanoula Papazoglou considered Nikaia to have been a deme of Byllis.[14]
