What is "dalmatae"

The Dalmatae or Delmatae were an ancient people who inhabited the core of what would then become known as Dalmatia after the Roman conquest — now the eastern Adriatic coast in Croatia, between the rivers Krka and Neretva. The Delmatae are mostly classed as an Illyrian tribe, although for most of their history they were independent of the Illyrian kingdom which bordered to the southeast of them.