The descriptions we have of the manners of the Illyrians, prove that they were—half savages would be too strong a term—at least very rude: they tattooed themselves, and were pirates[107] at the time when the power of Athens had sunk, and when Corcyra, and in fact all Greece was broken down. They were divided into numerous tribes. In the earlier times kings are nowhere mentioned, that might be regarded as kings of all Illyricum, or of a great part of the Illyrian tribes: the Illyrians seem rather to have had a democratic constitution. In their wars with Macedonia previous to the time of Philip, an Illyrian king is not mentioned anywhere. In the reign of Philip, Theopompus speaks of one Bardylis who from a robber raised himself to the rank of an independent prince, but who is noted for his personal character as a robber rather than as a prince. It is unknown whether the subsequent princes of Illyricum were descendants of his; but certain it is, that we can trace the kings far back till the time after the death of Alexander, that is, to Admetus the Taulantian. During the childhood of Pyrrhus, again we meet with Glaucias, also a Taulantian. It is impossible to determine the extent of Illyricum at the time it came in contact with the Romans; the few statements about it in Polybius pre-suppose a knowledge which we do not possess, and cannot supply; but the Illyrians seem to have had considerable power at that time. They never were closely united among one another, not even under their kings, of whom a whole series is now known: Pleuratus, Agron and his widow Teuta, Pinnes, Scerdilaïdas, Pleuratus, and Genthius, under whom the kingdom was destroyed, because he allowed himself to be prevailed upon by Perseus to share his fate. This kingdom of the Illyrians cannot have extended far north; it embraced the Parthinians, perhaps also the Ardyaeans, the Taulantians, Bulionians,[108] Dessaretans, and the southern tribes which were afterwards under the dominion of Rome, probably also belonged to it. The residence of the kings, at least in later times, was at Scodra, the modern Scutari. The Illyrians were robbers both by land and by sea, until the Romans in the first war against them, between the time of the first Punic and the Cisalpine wars, put an end to their proceedings; but before that time they roved over Epirus and Greece, laying waste the country with great cruelty; and at sea, they ventured even into the Aegean, plundering all the Greek coasts, and especially the defenceless Cyclades. The tactics, the ships of war, and the battle order of the Illyrians, however, were excellent: they were not phalangites, but fought with short spears and light javelins; their chief weapon, however, was the μάχαιρα, or the Albanese knife. With this they fought as peltasts (with light shields), but not as ψιλοί; they rather formed a middle class between the phalangites and ψιλοί. In this respect they differed from the Romans, and were infinitely inferior to them.