Grabos

Grabos (Latin: Grabus; ruled c. 358–356 BC) was the king of the Grabaei, a minor tribe in Illyria, located somewhere in what is today the northern half of Albania. According to Hammond, Grabos belonged to the royal house of the Grabaei, although the tribe may have been incorporated into the Taulantii realm of which Grabos became king. Hammond believes that Grabus, the Taulantii ruler, was his ancestor. After Philip II of Macedon defeated Bardylis (358 BC), the Grabaei under Grabos became the strongest state in Illyria. Philip II had killed 7,000 Illyrians in a great victory and annexed the territory up to Lake Ohrid. Very soon after the presumed alliance between the Chalkidians (Paeonian king Lyppeius and Thracian king Cetriporis) and Grabos in Athens in midsummer 356 BC, Grabos was defeated by Macedonian general Parmenion. The said alliance was found in a fragment at Olynthus, in unfinished state and thrown into a riverbed suggesting that it was never ratified. No more is heard of him.