Antiquity
The town was known as Scodra during antiquity, and was the capital of the first kingdom of the Illyrian tribe of the Ardiaei, since the middle of the 3rd century BC. The town, was first mentioned during classical times as the site of the IllyrianLabeates, as well as the capital of the kingdom of King Gentius- in which he minted coins - and that of Queen Teuta. In the year 168 BC, the city was captured by the Romansand it became an important trade and military route. The Romans colonized the town. Scodra remained in the province of Illyricum, and later Dalmatia. By it 395 AD, it was part of the Diocese of Dacia, within Praevalitana.
Middle Ages
The dawn of the Middle Ages saw waves of Slavs arriving. De Administrando Imperiodescribes how Byzantine Emperor Heraclius (r. 610-641) gave the Serbs a territory in the Western Balkans during the first half of the 7th century. The southernmost, maritime polity of the Serbian Principality, at Duklja, included the Shkodër region. After the death of Prince Časlav (r. 927-960), the state disintegrated, with Duklja retaining most of it.Khan Samuel had by 997 conquered all of Thessaly, Epirus, Macedonia, and most of modern Albania. In the early 11th century, Jovan Vladimir ruled Duklja amidst the war between Basil II and Samuel. Vladimir allegedly retreated into Koplik when Samuel I invaded Duklja, and was subsequently forced to accept Bulgarian vassalage. Vladimir was later slewn by the Bulgars, and received a cult; Shingjon (the feast of St. Jovan Vladimir), which is celebrated by the Albanian Orthodox Christians.
In the 1030s, Stefan Vojislav from Travunia expelled the last strategos, and successfully defeated the Byzantines by 1042. Stefan Vojislav set up Shkodër as his capital. Constantine Bodin accepted the crusaders of the Crusade of 1101 in Shkodër. After the dynastic struggles in the 12th century,
