Editing History of Montenegro (section)

==Early history==
{{main|Prehistory of Southeastern Europe|Illyria|Illyro-Roman Wars|Praevalitana}}
[[File:Roman Roads in Montenegro 6a.svg|thumb|200px|right|Roman Roads in Montenegro]]Before the arrival of the [[Slavic people|Slavonic peoples]] in the [[Balkans]] during the 6th century AD, the area now known as Montenegro was inhabited principally by the [[Illyrians]].
During the Bronze Age, the Illirii, probably the southernmost Illyrian tribe of that time, that gave their name to the entire group<ref name=Boardman629/> were living near [[Skadar lake]] on the border of Albania and Montenegro and neighboring with the [[Ancient Greece|Greek]] tribes south.<ref name=Boardman629>John Boardman. [https://books.google.com/books?id=vXljf8JqmkoC&pg=PA629 The prehistory of the Balkans and the Middle East and the Aegean world]. Cambridge University Press, 1982. {{ISBN|978-0-521-22496-3}}, p. 629</ref><ref>Wilkes John. [https://books.google.com/books?hl=el&id=4Nv6SPRKqs8C The Illyrians]. Wiley-Blackwell, 1995, {{ISBN|978-0-631-19807-9}}, p. 92</ref> Along the seaboard of the [[Adriatic Sea|Adriatic]], the movement of peoples that was typical of the ancient [[Mediterranean]] world ensured the settlement of a mixture of colonists, traders, and those in search of territorial conquest. Substantial [[Greek colonies]] were established on the 6th and 7th centuries BC and [[Celts]] are known to have settled there in the 4th century BC. During the 3rd century BC, an indigenous [[Illyrian kingdom]] emerged with its capital at [[Shkodër|Scutari]]. The [[Ancient Rome|Romans]] mounted several punitive expeditions against local pirates and finally conquered the Illyrian kingdom in the 2nd century BC, annexing it to the province of [[Illyricum (Roman province)|Illyricum]].

The division of the [[Roman Empire]] between [[Western Roman Empire|Roman]] and [[Byzantine]] rule &ndash; and subsequently between the [[Latin Church|Latin]] and [[Greek church]]es &ndash; was marked by a line that ran northward from Shkodra through modern Montenegro, symbolizing the status of this region as a perpetual marginal zone between the economic, cultural, and political worlds of the Mediterranean. As Roman power declined, this part of the [[Dalmatia|Dalmatian coast]] suffered from intermittent ravages by various semi-[[nomadic]] invaders, especially the [[Goths]] in the late 5th century and the [[Avars (Carpathians)|Avars]] during the 6th century. These soon were supplanted by the Slavs, who became widely established in [[Dalmatia]] by the middle of the 7th century. Because the terrain was extremely rugged and lacked any major sources of wealth such as mineral riches, the area that is now Montenegro became a haven for residual groups of earlier settlers, including some tribes who had escaped [[Romanisation (cultural)|Romanisation]].{{citation needed|date=May 2021}}