In the 3rd century BCE, aggressive expansionism is the game. Rome defeats Carthage in the First Punic War, the Gauls are pushing further into new territories while actively avoiding the Greeks and the Ardiaei of Illyria are at the height of their power under the rule of their king, Agron.

When King Agron dies, his wife Teuta picks up the mantel of her late husband’s expansionism. While her naval forces push to unify the Illyrian tribes along the Adriatic’s eastern coast, Illyrian pirates – well-known and feared for their plundering of merchant ships – are encouraged by their queen regent to antagonize Mediterranean trade routes.

Illyrian pirating soon garners the unwanted attention of the growing Roman Republic. After much merchant whining, Rome sends an envoy to warn against any continuation of Teuta’s disruptive naval campaigns and Illyrian piracy within Roman trade routes. Teuta, in a display of cautious diplomacy, replies “she would see to it that Rome suffered no public wrong from Illyria, but that, as for private wrongs, it was contrary to the custom of the Illyrian kings to hinder their subjects from winning booty from the sea”, thus beginning the First Illyrian War with Rome.