Bircenna

Who is Bircenna?

Bircenna was an Illyrian princess and later an Epirote queen.

Bircenna was the daughter of Bardylis II of the Dardanian Kingdom. Bircenna was one of the five wives of Pyrrhus of Epirus; she married him around 292 BC. Pyrrhus married Bircenna for diplomatic reasons and to increase his power in southern Illyria as he was an ally of Bircenna's father. Bircenna had a son named Helenus, who at an early age accompanied his father in his ambitious campaigns conducted in the Italian peninsula. Lanassa, one of the wives of Pyrrhus, left him because she claimed that he took better care of his 'barbarian' wives.