'Illyrians' in ancient ethnographic discourse

The label 'Illyrians' was used in different contexts, probably developing as an ethnographic generalisation of foreigners related to similar indigenous language(s). In all certainty it developed in the sixth century BC but the evidence we have appears only in the fifth century. Later perceptions of Illyrians arc related to political and territorial contexts, first to the political alliance of the Hellenistic-era Illyrian kingdom, and after that to the Roman use of this term in the context of early imperial expansion.