The Iapydes (or Iapodes, Japodes, Giapidi) are an ancient people who dwell north of and inland from the Liburnians, off the Adriatic coast and eastwards of the Istrian peninsula.

They occupy the interior of the country between the Colapis (Kupa) and Oeneus (Una) rivers, and the Velebit mountain range (Mons Baebius) which separates them from the coastal Liburnians.

Their territory covers the central inlands of modern Croatia and Una River Valley in today's Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Archaeological documentation confirms their presence in these countries at least from ninth century BC, and they persist in their area longer than a millennium.

The ancient written documentation on inland Iapydes is scarcer than on the adjacent coastal peoples (Liburni, Delmatae, etc.)

that had more frequent maritime contacts with ancient Greeks and Romans.Iapydes had their maximal development and territorial expansion from 8th-4th cent.

BCE.

They settled mostly in inland mountain valleys between Pannonia and the coastal Adriatic basin, but in disputation with southern Liburni they periodically reached also the northern Adriatic coast at Vinodol valley (classical Valdevinum).The Iapydes were a mixed nation of Celts and Pannonian Illyrians with a strong Venetic element.

They were later completely Celticized.