In 49 BC near the island of Krk, the " Navy of Zadar ", equipped by the fleets of a few Liburnian cities and supported by some Roman ships, lost an important naval battle against Pompey supporting the " Liburnian navy ".

In the same year, near island of Krk, there was an important naval battle between armies of Caesar and Pompey, probably due to the local Liburnian support to one or another side.

Thus Liburnian naval force was dragged into the Roman civil war, partially by force, partially because of local interests of the participants.

After return from inland of Illyricum, Octavian destroyed Illyrian pirate communities in the islands of Melita ( Mljet ) and Korkyra Nigra ( Korčula ) and continued to Liburnia, where he wiped out the last remains of the Liburnian naval forces, resolving problems of their renewed piratical activities in the bay of Kvarner ( sinus Flanaticus ) and attempt to secede from Rome.

According to some thoughts, liburna was shown in the scene of naval battle, curved on a stone tablet ( Stele di Novilara ) found near Antique Pisaurum ( Pesaro ), outlined to 5th or 6th century BC, the most possibly showing imaginary battle between Liburnian and Picenian fleets.

Because of the its naval and maneuver features and bravery of its Liburnian crews, these ships completely defeated much bigger and heavier eastern ships, quadriremes and penterames.

Octavian's fleet was largely made up of smaller, fully manned Liburnian vessels, armed with better-trained, fresher crews.

According to tradition, San Marino was founded in 301 AD when a Christian stonemason named Marinus the Dalmatian, later venerated as Saint Marinus, emigrated in 257 AD from the Dalmatian island of Rab, then a Roman colony, when the emperor Diocletian issued a decree calling for the reconstruction of the city walls of Rimini which had been destroyed by Liburnian pirates.

The ancient region of Histria extended over a much wider area, including the whole Kras plateau until the southern edges of the Vipava Valley, the southwestern portions of modern Inner Carniola with Postojna and Ilirska Bistrica, and the modern Italian Province of Trieste, but not the Liburnian coast which was already part of Illyricum.

The name of the Liburnian settlement was first mentioned by a Greek inscription from Pharos ( Stari grad ) on the island of Hvar in 384 BC, where the citizens of Zadar were noted as ( Iadasinoi ).

According to the Greek source Periplus of Pseudo-Scylax the city was ( Idassa ), probably a vulgar Greek form of the original Liburnian name.

Zadar was a Liburnian settlement, laid out in the 9th century BC, built on a small stone islet and embankments where the old city stands and tied to the mainland by the overflown narrow isthmus, which created a natural port in its northern strait.

In 59 BC Illyricum was assigned as a provincia ( zone of responsibility ) to Julius Caesar and Liburnian Iadera became a Roman municipium.

Caesar was supported by the urban Liburnian centres, like Iader ( Zadar ), Aenona ( Nin ) and Curicum ( Krk ), while the city of Issa ( Vis ) and the rest of the Liburnians gave their support to Pompey.

The civil war was prolonged until the end of 48 BC, when Caesar rewarded his supporters in Liburnian Iader and Dalmatian Salona, by giving the status of the Roman colonies to their communities .< ref > M.

During the Roman period Bribir, known as Varvaria, had the status of municipium and was the centre of one of the fourteen Liburnian counties ( Wilkes, 1969 ).

Arba was also the name of the Liburnian settlement in the modern city of Rab.

The exact relationship of Venetic to other Indo-European languages is still being investigated, but the majority of scholars agree that Venetic, aside from Liburnian, was closest to the Italic languages ( a group that includes Latin, Oscan and Umbrian ).

The consensus now is that Illyrian was quite distinct from Venetic and Liburnian, however a close linguistic relation has not been ruled out and is still being investigated.

Liburnia in ancient geography was the land of the Liburnians, a region along the northeastern Adriatic coast in Europe, in modern Croatia, whose borders shifted according to the extent of Liburnian dominance at a given time between 11th and 1st century BC.

Domination of the Liburnian thalassocracy in the Adriatic Sea was confirmed by a several Antique writers, but the archeologists have defined a region of their material culture more precisely in northern Dalmatia, Kvarner and eastern Istria.

Geographer Scymnus ( 4th century BC ) noted that Greek island of Paros had a namesake in the Adriatic Sea, Liburnian island of Paros ( Hvar ); this name was later changed to Pharos, according to Strabo ( VII, 5 ).

Archaeology has confirmed that the narrow region of the Liburnian ethnic nucleus was at the eastern Adriatic coast between Krka and Raša rivers, in " Classical Liburnia ", especially between Krka and Zrmanja rivers, where the material remains of their culture and settlements were the most frequently distributed, while their cities were urbanized at certain degree even in pre-Roman ages.

The 5th century BC saw Greek colonization in the south Adriatic, and final Liburnian retreat to Liburnia was caused by military and political activities of Dionysius the Elder of Syracuse in the 4th century BC.

Liburnia was strongly held, but Greek colonization reached Liburnian strategic possessions in the central Adriatic, Issa ( on the island of Vis ) and Pharos ( Starigrad, Hvar ), a colony of the Greeks from Paros .< ref > M.

However Liburnian seamanship tradition was never wiped out, but became primarily trade-oriented under the new circumstances, a shift which contributed to the economic and cultural flourishing of its ports and cities, as well as to those of the province in general.

In 170 AD a part of north-western Liburnian periphery that included the city Tarsatica ( Trsat ) was cut off from Liburnia.

In 59 BC Illyricum was assigned as a provincia ( zone of responsibility ) to Julius Caesar and Liburnian Iadera was nominally proclaimed a Roman municipium, but real establishment of the Roman province occurred not earlier than in 33 BC.

13, 43-67 ( 1988 ), UDK 904. 930. 2 ( 497. 13 )>> 65 <<, page 47 </ ref > Due to its geographical position, Zadar developed into a main seat of the Liburnian thalassocracy and took a leading role in the Liburnian tetradekapolis, an organization of 14 communes.

Maritime focus shaped Liburnian ethnic development on the Indo-European basis with the transfer of Mediterranean cultural traditions into an independent ethnic community, separated from neighboring peoples, but having evident similarities and links with the wider Illyrian and Adriatic territories.

Greek colonization, however, did not penetrate into the Liburnian area, which remained strongly held, while Syracusan dominance suddenly diminished, very soon, after death of Dionysius the Elder of Syracuse.

Zadar ( Iader ) and the other cities of Liburnian tetradekapolis in the age of the Roman conquest

The archaeological remains have shown that the main centres of Liburnian territorial units or municipalities were already urbanized in the last centuries BC ; before the Roman conquest, Zadar held a territory of more than 600 km2 in the 2nd century BC.

The Roman ships used would have been easy prey for pirates had it not been for the fleets of Liburnian galleys and triremes of the Roman navy.

Material remains from the Early Iron Age in that region have alternately shown Histrian provenance, not necessarily Liburnian, but often ascribed to the Liburnians from the 4th century BC to the age of Roman conquest.

First Roman appearance in the Liburnian seas happened in 129 BC, during the military expedition of the Roman consule Gaius Sempronius Tuditanus against the Iapodes, which ended with hardly won victories over Iapodes, Carni, Taurisci and Liburnians.

The Roman legions once again passed through the Liburnian territory, probably by sea along the coast, in their next expedition against Dalmatae in 78 – 76 BC, started from the north, from Aquilea and Istria, to stabilize control of Dalmatian city Salona .< ref > M.

The Liburnians were not strong enough to reconquer it, so they voluntarily subjected to the Romans asking help from Caesar, actual Roman proconsul of Illyricum, but Liburnian army strategically supported by the Romans was heavily defeated by Dalmatae .< ref > M.

" Navy of Iader " ( Zadar ) probably equipped by mixed Liburnian and Roman ships confronted " Liburnian navy " in service to Pompey, equipped only with Liburnians in their liburna galleys.

Caesar rewarded his supporters in Liburnian Iader and Dalmatian Salona, by giving status of the Roman colonies to their communities, but battle was won by the Liburnian navy, which prolonged the civil war and ensured control of the Adriatic Sea to side aligned with Pompey in next 2 years, until his final defeat in 48 BC.

Renewed Illyrian and Liburnian pirate activities motivated Octavian to organize great military operation in Illyricum province in 35 BC, to finally stabilize Roman control of it.