According to Thucydides, a very important Athenian historian and military man, Mount Athos was inhabited by descendants of the Pelasgians. “αἳ οἰκοῦνται ξυμμείκτοις ἔθνεσι βαρβάρων διγλλώσσων, καί τι ...

Since it is generally believed that the most ancient Balkan people were the Pelasgians, some Albanian authors launched the thesis that both the Illyrians and modern Albanians descend from them.