 The most popular Daco-Moesian tribes described in Yugoslav literature were the Triballians, the Dardanians and the Paeonians.The leading research goal in the Republic of Macedonia during Yugoslav times was the establishment of some kind of "Paionian identity" and to separate it from the western "Illyrian" and the eastern "Thracian" entities.The idea of Paionian identity was constructed to conceptualize that Vardar Macedonia was neither Illyrian nor Thracian, favouring a more complex division, contrary to scientific claims about strict Thraco-Illyrian Balkan separation in neighbouring Bulgaria and Albania.