Bato is one of the most characteristic Illyrian names. It appears both as a male (Bato, Batas, Baton, Batun) and a female (Bateia, Batuia, Batea) name. It is attested from the southern Illyrian to the northern Illyrian (Delmato-Pannonian) region. Outside Illyria, it is found among Roman Illyrians soldiers from the Balkans in Europe, the Illyrian community in
Alburnus Maior (
Dacia), the
Iapygian lands of southern Italy and the wider Hellenistic Mediterranean. In the form Baton (Βάτων) it must have reached Hellenistic Greece quite early, as it is already embedded in typically local anthroponymy in that era. The female name
Batea appears twice in Greek mythology: as the name of
Batea of Troad, daughter of
Teucer and wife of
Dardanus and as the name of a nymph who married
Oebalus of Sparta.
Pausanias (2nd century CE) mentions a sanctuary to
Baton near
ancient Argos. His depiction of Baton is that of the charioteer of Amphiaraus.
Stephanus of Byzantium names
Baton as the cup-bearer of the mythical hero
Amphiaraus.
Baton was buried in
Harpyia, a city in Illyria in the territory of the
Enchelei. Indo-Europeanist
Radoslav Katičić proposes that the name spread in Illyria and ancient Greece as a
nomen sacrum used in cults and religious practices of the ancient Balkan peninsula. == People ==