The valley of the Una river, the land of the “Illyrian” Iapodes / Dolina rijeke Une, područje ilirskih Japoda

This paper focuses on one of the Illyrian people that played a large role in the study of ancient Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is important to make an overview of ancient sources and their information about the Iapodes as people in order to get a broader picture. In addition, there were many controversies both in historiography and in the information provided by classical authors regarding the territory where the Iapodes lived. It is very difficult to determine the exact border today, so for that reason, the paper presents the opinion of several authors who addressed this issue. One of the most important events, when it comes to the Illyrians, was Bellum Batonianum, commonly known as Bato’s Uprising (AD 6–9), and the paper presents a discussion about whose side the Iapodes were on. It is difficult to draw any major conclusions based on all the texts. Attention was also paid to the administrative arrangements of the Iapodes and their territory after the establishment of Roman rule, which is very important given the differences between the Iapodes and other Illyrian peoples. This paper is an interdisciplinary study combining the ethnological, history of art, architectural and written perspectives.