Listed 11 sub titles with search on: Information about the place for wider area of: "EPIRUS Ancient country GREECE" .
ARGOTHEA (Ancient city) EPIRUS
The capital of Athamania, a district of Epirus, situated betwixt rocky mountains
and deep valleys. Leake supposes that it was situated above the bridge of Koraku,
to the left of the main stream of the Achelous, and that the ruins found at a
small village called Knisovo are those of Argithea.
ATHAMANIA (Ancient area) EPIRUS
Athamania (Eth. Athaman,--anos; in Diod. xviii. 11, Athamantes), a district in the SE. of Epeirus, between Mount Pindus and the river Arachthus. The river Achelous flowed through this narrow district. Its chief towns were Argithea, Tetraphylia, Heracleia, and Theudoria; and of these Argithea was the capital. The Athamanes were a rude people. Strabo classes them among the Thessalians, but doubts whether they are to be regarded as Hellenes. (Strab. ix. p. 434, x. p. 449.) They are rarely mentioned in Grecian history, but on the decay of the Molossian kingdom, they appear as an independent people. They were the last of the Epirot tribes, which obtained political power. The Athamanes and the Aetolians destroyed the Aenianes, and the former extended their dominions as far as Mt. Oeta. (Strab. p. 427.) The Athamanes were most powerful under their king Amynander (about B.C. 200), who took a prominent part in the wars of the Romans with Philip and Antiochus. (Diet. of Biogr. art. Amynander.) They were subsequently subdued by the Macedonians, and in the time of Strabo had ceased to exist as a separate people (ix. p. 429). Pliny (iv. 2) erroneously reckons Athamania as part of Aetolia.
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited June 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
ATINTANES (Ancient country) EPIRUS
Atintania (Atintania : Eth. Atintan-anos), a mountainous district
in Illyria, north of Molossis and east of Parauaea, through which the Aous flows,
in the upper part of its course. It is described by Livy (xlv. 30) as poor in
soil and rude in climate. The Atintanes are first mentioned in B.C. 429, among
the barbarians who assisted the Ambraciots in their invasion of Peloponnesus,
upon which occasion the Atintanes and Molossi were commanded by the same leader.
(Thuc. ii. 80.) On the conclusion of the first war between Philip and the Romans,
Atintania was assigned to Macedonia, B.C. 204; and after the conquest of Perseus
in B.C. 168, it was included in one of the four districts into which the Romans
divided Macedonia. (Liv. xxvii. 30, xlv. 30.) It is not mentioned by Ptolemy,
as it formed part of Chaonia. (Comp. Strab. vii. p. 326; Pol. ii. 5; Scylax, s.
v. Illurioi; Lycophr. 1043; Steph. B. s. v.; Leake, Northern Greece, vol. iv.
p. 118.)
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited July 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
EPIRUS (Ancient country) GREECE
Epeirus or Epirus (Epeiros: Eth. Epeirotes, Epirotes: Adj. Epeirotikos,
Epiroticus), was the name given to the country lying between the Ionian sea and
the chain of Pindus, and extending from the Acroceraunian promontory and the boundaries
of Illyria and Macedonia on the north to the Ambracian gulf on the south. The
word epeiros signified the mainland, and was the name originally given to the
whole of the western coast of Greece from the Acroceraunian promontory as far
as the entrance of the Corinthian gulf, in contradistinction to Corcyra and the
Cephallenian islands. In this sense the word was used not only by Homer (Strab.
x. p. 451; Hom. II. ii. 635, Od. xiv. 97), but even as late as the time of the
Peloponnesian War. (Thuc. i. 5.) Epirus, in its more limited extent, is a wild
and mountainous country. The mountains run in a general direction from north to
south, and have in all ages been the resort of semi-civilised and robber tribes.
The valleys, though frequent, are not extensive, and do not produce sufficient
corn for the support of the inhabitants. The most extensive and fertile plain
is that of Joannina, in which the oracle of Dodona was probably situated, but
even at the present day Joannina receives a large quantity of its flour from Thessaly,
and of its vegetables and fruit from the territory of Arta on the Ambracian gulf.
Epirus has been in all times a pastoral and not an agricultural country. Its fine
oxen and horses, its shepherds, and its breed of Molossian dogs, were celebrated
in antiquity. (Pind. Nem. iv. 82; quanto majores herbida tauros non habet Epirus,
Ov. Met. viii. 282; Eliadum palmas Epiros equarum, Virg. Georg. i. 57; domus alta
Molossis personuit canibus, Hor. Sat. ii. 6. 114; Virg. Georg. iii. 405.) The
Epirots were not collected in towns, as was the case with the population in Greece
Proper. It is expressly mentioned by Scylax (p. 28) that the Epirots dwelt in
villages, which was more suitable to their mode of life; and it was probably not
till the time when the Molossian kings had extended their dominion over the whole
country, and had introduced among them Grecian habits and civilisation, that towns
began to be built. It is in accordance with this that we find no coins older than
those of Pyrrhus.
Along the coast of Epirus southward, from the Acroceraunian promontory,
a lofty and rugged range of mountains extends. Hence the Corinthians founded no
colony upon the coast of Epirus at the time when they planted so many settlements
upon the coast of Acarnania, and founded Apollonia and Epidamnus farther north.
Of the mountains in the interior the names of hardly any are preserved with the
exception of Tomarus or Tmarus above Dodona. Of the rivers the most important
are: the Arachthus flowing into the Ambracian gulf, and considered to form the
boundary between Epirus and Hellas Proper; the Celydnus flowing into the Ionian
sea between Oricum and the Acroceraunian, promontory, and forming probably the
northern boundary of Epirus; and the Thyamis, Acheron, and Charadrus all flowing
into the Ionian sea more to the south.
Epirus was inhabited by various tribes, which were not regarded by
the Greeks' themselves as members of the Hellenic race. Accordingly Epirus was
not a part of Hellas, which was supposed to begin at Ambracia. Some of the tribes
however were closely related to the Greeks, and may be looked upon as semi-Hellenic.
Thucydides, it is true, treats both the Molossians and Thesprotians as barbaric
(ii. 80); but these two tribes at all events, were not entirely foreign to the
Greeks like the Thracians and Illyrians; and accordingly Herodotus places the
Thesprotians in Hellas (ii; 56), and mentions the Molossian Alcon among the Hellenic
suitors of Agarista (vi. 127). It would appear that towards the north the Epirots
became blended with the Macedonians and Illyrians, and towards the south with
the Hellenes.
The northern Epirots, extending from the Macedonian frontier as far
as Corcyra, resembled the Macedonians in their mode of cutting the hair, in their
language and dress, and in many other particulars. (Strab. vii. p. 327.) Strabo
also relates that some of the tribes spoke two languages, a fact which proves
the difference of the races in the country and also their close connection.
According to Theopompus, who lived in the fourth century B.C., the
number of Epirot tribes was fourteen (ap. Strab. vii. pp. 323, 324). Their names,
as we gather from Strabo, were the Chaones, Thesproti, Cassopaei, Molossi, Amphilochi,
Athamanes, Aethices, Tymphaei, Parauaei, Talares, Atintanes, Orestae, Pelagones,
and Elimiotae. (Strab. viii. pp. 324, 326, x. p. 434.) Of these, the Orestae,
Pelagones, and Elimiotae were situated east of Mt. Pindus, and were subsequently
annexed to Macedonia, to which they properly belonged. In like manner, the Athamanes,
Aethices, and Talares, who occupied Pindus, were united to Thessaly in the time
of Strabo. The Atintanes and Parauaei, who bordered upon Illyria, were also separated
from Epirus.
The three chief Epirot tribes were the Chaones, Thesproti, and Molossi.
The Chaones, who were at one time the most powerful of the three, and who are
said to have ruled over the whole country (Strab; vii. p. 324), inhabited in historical
times the dis. trict upon the coast from the Acroceraunian country to the river
Thyamis, which separated them from the Thesprotians (Thuc. i. 46). The Thesproti
extended along the coast from the Thyamis beyond the Acheron to the confines of
the Cassopaei, and in the interior to the boundaries of the territory of Dodona,
which in ancient times was regarded as a part of Thesprotia. The Cassopaei, whom
some writers called a Thesprotian tribe, reached along the coast, as far as the
Ambracian gulf. The Molossi, who became subsequently the rulers of Epirus, originally
inhabited only a narrow strip of country, extending from the Ambracian gulf between
the Cassopaei and Ambraciotae, and subsequently between the Thesprotians and Athamanes,
northwards as far as the Dodonaea. (Leake, Northern Greece, vol. iv. pp. 178,
179.) The Molossi subsequently obtained possession of the Cassopaea and the Dodonaea,
and their country reached from the river Aous on the north to the Ambracian gulf
on the south.
The most ancient inhabitants of Epirus are said to have been Pelasgians.
Dodona is represented as an oracle of the Pelasgians. Chaonia is also called Pelasgian;
and the Chaones are said, like the Selli at Dodona, to have been interpreters
of the oracle of Zeus. (Steph. B. s. v. Chaonia.) There appears to have been an
ethnical connection between the ancient inhabitants of Epirus and some of the
tribes on the opposite coast of Italy. The Chones, on the gulf of Tarentum, are
apparently the same people as the Chaones; and although we find no mention of
the Thesprotians in Italy, we have there a town Pandosia, and a river Acheron,
as in Epirus. There are good reasons for supposing that the Italian Oenotrians,
to whom the Chonians belonged, were of the same race as the Epirots. (Niebuhr,
Hist. of Rome, vol. i. p. 57.) If we were to accept the statement of Aristotle
that Dodona was at one time inhabited by the people then called Graeci, but now
Hellenes (Meteor. i. 14), Epirus must be regarded as the original abode of the
Hellenes; but this statement is in opposition to the commonly received opinions
of the Greeks, who place the original home of the Hellenes in Thessaly. It may
be that the Pelasgians in Epirus bore the name of Graeci, and carried the name
to the opposite coast of Italy; which would account for the Romans and Italians
in general giving the name of Graeci to all the Hellenes, looking upon the Hellenes
who subsequently founded colonies in Italy as the same people. (Niebuhr, vol.
iii. p. 451.) But, however this may be, the inhabitants of Epirus exercised, at
an early period, considerable influence upon Greece. Of this the wide spread reputation
of the oracle of Dodona is a proof. The Thessalians, who conquered the country
named after them, are represented as a Thesprotian tribe. According to the common
tradition, Neoptolemus or Pyrrhus, son of Achilles, settled in Epirus after his
return from Troy, accompanied by Helenus, son of Priam. He transmitted his dominions
to his son Molossus, from whom the Molossian kings traced their descent. (Dict.
of Biogr. s. vv. Neoptolemus and Molossus.)
The chief Greek settlement in Epirus was the flourishing Corinthian
colony of Ambracia, upon the gulf called after it. At a later period, probably
between the time of Thucydides and Demosthenes, some Grecian settlers must have
found their way into Thesprotia, since Demosthenes mentions Pandosia, Buchetia,
and Elaea, as Eleian colonies (de Halonn. p. 84).
The Epirot tribes were independent of one another, though one tribe
sometimes exercised a kind of supremacy over a greater or a smaller number. Such
a supremacy may have been exercised in ancient times by the Thesprotians, who
possessed the oracle. In the Peloponnesian War the Chaonians enjoyed a higher
reputation than the rest (Thuc. ii. 80), and it is probably to this period that
Strabo refers when he says that the Chaonians once ruled over all Epirus (vii.
p. 323). The importance of the Chaonians at this period is shown by a line of
Aristophanes (Equit. 78, with Schol.). It must not, however, be inferred that
the Chaonians possessed any firm hold over the other tribes. The power of the
Molossian kings, of which we shall speak presently, rested upon a different basis.
Originally each tribe was governed by a king. In the time of the Persian
wars the Molossians were governed by a king called Admetus, who was living with
the simplicity of a village chief when Themistocles came to him as a suppliant.
(Thuc. i. 136.) Tharyps, also called Tharypas or Arrhybas, the son or grandson
of Admetus, was a minor at the beginning of the Peloponnesian War, and was educated
at Athens: he is said to have been the first to introduce among. his subjects
Hellenic civilisation. (Thuc. ii. 80; Paus. i. 11. § 1; Justin, xvii. 3; Plut.
Pyrrh. 1.) The kingly government always continued among the Molossians, probably
in consequence of their power being very limited; for we are told that the king
and people were accustomed to meet at Passaron, the ancient Molossian capital,
to swear obedience to the laws. (Aristot. Polit. v. 11; Plut. Pyrrh. 5.) But among
the Chaonians and Thesprotians the kingly government had been abolished before
the Peloponnesian War: the chief magistrates of the Chaonians were selected from
a particular family (ek tou archikou genous, Thuc. ii. 80). After the Peloponnesian
War the power of the Molossians increased, till at length Alexander, the brother
of Olympias, who married Philip of Macedon, extended his dominion over most of
the Epirot tribes, and took the title of king of Epirus. (Diod. xvi. 72, 91; Strab.
vi. p. 280.) Alexander, who died B.C. 326, was succeeded by Aeacides, and Aeacides
by Alcetas, after whom the celebrated Pyrrhus became king of Epirus, and raised
the kingdom to its greatest splendour. He removed the seat of government from
Passaron to Ambracia, which was now for the first time annexed to the dominions
of the Epirot kings. Pyrrhus was succeeded in B.C. 272 by his son, Alexander II.,
who was followed in succession by his two sons, Pyrrhus II. and Ptolemy. (For
the history of these kings, see the Dict. of Biogr.) With the death of Ptolemy,
between B.C. 239 and 229, the family of Pyrrhus became extinct, whereupon a republican
form of government was established, which continued till the conquest of Macedonia
by the Romans, B.C. 168. Having been accused of favouring Perseus, the Roman man
senate determined that all the towns of Epirus should be destroyed, and the inhabitants
reduced to slavery. This cruel order was carried into execution by Aemilius Paulus,
who, having previously placed garrisons in the 70 towns of Epirus, razed them
all to the ground in one day, and carried away 150,000 inhabitants as slaves.
(Polyb. ap. Strab. vii. p. 322; Liv. xlv. 34; Plut. Aemil. Paul. 29.) From the
effects of this terrible blow Epirus never recovered. In the time of Strabo the
country was still a scene of desolation, and the inhabitants had only ruins and
villages to dwell in. (Strab. vii. p. 327.) Nicopolis, founded by Augustus in
commemoration of his victory off Actium, was the chief city of Epirus under the
Roman empire. Both this city and Buthrotum had the dignity of Roman colonies.
Epirus formed a province under the Romans, and in the time of Ptolemy was separated
from Achaia by the river Achelous. (Ptol. iii. 14.) Epirus now forms part of Albania.
The Albanians are probably descendants of the ancient Illyrians, who took possession
of the depopulated country under the Roman or the early Byzantine empire. On the
conquest of Constantinople by the Latins in 1204, a member of the celebrated Byzantine
family of Comnenus established an independent dynasty in Epirus; and the despots
of Albania, as they were called, continued for two centuries only second in power
to the emperors of Constantinople. The last of these rulers, George Castriot,
resisted for more than 20 years the whole forces of the Ottoman empire; and it
was not till his death in 1466 that Albania was annexed to the Turkish dominions.
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited September 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
TYMFEI (Ancient country) EPIRUS
Stymphalis a district annexed by the Romans, along with Atintania
and Elimiotis, to Macedonia upon the conquest of this kingdom, A.D. 168. (Liv.
xlv. 30.) From the mention of this district along with Atintania and Elimiotis,
which were portions of Epeirus upon the borders of Thessaly, it would appear that
Stymphalis is only another form of the more common name Tymphalis or Tymphaea;
though, it is true, as Cramer has observed, that Diodorus has mentioned Stymphalia
(Diod. xx. 28), and Callimachus speaks of the Stymphalian oxen in that territory
(Hymn. in Dian. 179). Ptolemy (iii. 13. § 43) likewise mentions a town Gyrtona
in Stymphalia, but in this passage other Mss. read Tymphalia. (Cramer, Ancient
Greece, vol. i. p. 198.)
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited July 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
ATHAMANIA (Ancient area) EPIRUS
A mountainous country in the south of Epirus, on the western side of Pindus, of which Argithea was the chief town. The Athamanes were a Thessalian people, who had been driven out of Thessaly by the Lapithae.
EPIRUS (Ancient country) GREECE
(Epeiros). A country to the west of Thessaly, lying along
the Adriatic. The Greek term, which answers to the English word mainland, appears
to have been applied at a very early period to that northwestern portion of
Greece which is situated between the chain of Pindus and the Ionian Gulf and
between the Ceraunian Mountains and the river Achelous--this name being probably
used to distinguish it from the large, populous, and wealthy island of Corcyra,
which lay opposite to the coast. It appears that, in very ancient times, Acarnania
was also included in the term, and in that case the name must have been used
in opposition to all the islands lying along the coast.
The inhabitants of Epirus were scarcely considered Hellenic.
The population in early times had been Pelasgic. The oracle at Dodona was always
called Pelasgic, and many names of places in Epirus were also borne by the Pelasgic
cities of the opposite coast of Italy. But irruptions of Illyrians had barbarized
the whole nation; and though Herodotus speaks of Thesprotia as a part of Hellas,
he refers rather to its old condition, when it was a celebrated seat of the
Pelasgians, than to its state at the time when he wrote his history. In their
mode of cutting the hair, in their costume, and in their language, the Epirotes
resembled the Macedonians, who were an Illyrian race. Theopompus, cited by Strabo,
divided the inhabitants of Epirus into fourteen different tribes, of which the
most renowned were the Chaonians, Thesprotians, and Molossians. The Molossians
claimed descent from Molossus, son of Neoptolemus and Andromache. Tradition
reported that the son of Achilles, Neoptolemus or Pyrrhus, as he is also called,
having crossed from Thessaly into Epirus on his return from the siege of Troy,
was induced, by the advice of an oracle, to settle in the latter country, where,
having subjugated a considerable extent of territory, he transmitted his newly
formed kingdom to Molossus, his son by Andromache, from whom his subjects derived
the name of Molossi.
The history of Molossia is involved in great obscurity until
the period of the Persian invasion, when the name of Admetus, king of the Molossi,
occurs from the circumstance of his having generously afforded shelter to Themistocles
when in exile and pursued by his enemies, although the influence of that celebrated
statesman had previously been exerted against him in some negotiations which
he had carried on at Athens. Admetus was succeeded by his son Tharybas or Tharymbas,
who appears to have been a minor towards the beginning of the Peloponnesian
War, when we find his subjects assisting the Ambraciots in their invasion of
Acarnania. Tharybas is represented by Plutarch as a wise and able monarch, and
as encouraging science and literature. His successor is not known; but some
years after, we hear of a prince called Alcetas, who was dethroned by his subjects
but restored by Dionysius of Syracuse. Neoptolemus, his son, reigned but for
a short time and left the crown to his brother Arybas, together with the care
of his children. Alexander, the eldest of these, succeeded his uncle, and was
the first sovereign of Epirus who raised the character and fame of that country
among foreign nations by his talents and valour. His sister Olympias had been
married to Philip of Macedon before his accession to the throne of Epirus, and
the friendship thus cemented between the two monarchs was still further strengthened
by the union of Alexander with Cleopatra, the daughter of Philip. It was during
the celebration of their nuptials at Edessa that the king of Macedon was assassinated.
Alexander of Epirus seems to have been an ambitious prince, desirous of conquest
and renown. There is good reason for believing that he united the Chaonians,
Thesprotians, and other Epirotic clans, together with the Molossians, under
his sway, as we find the title of king of Epirus first assumed by him. Having
been applied to by the Tarentines to aid them against the attacks of the Lucani
and Bruttii, he eagerly seized this opportunity of adding to his fame and enlarging
his dominions. He therefore crossed over into Italy with a considerable force,
and, had he been properly seconded by the Tarentines and the other colonies
of Magna Graecia, the barbarians, after being defeated in several engagements,
must have been conquered. But Alexander, being left to his own resources and
exertions, was at length surrounded by the enemy and slain (B.C. 326) near Pandosia
in the Bruttian territory. On the death of Alexander the crown devolved on his
cousin Aeacides, the son of Arybas, the former king, of whom little is known,
except that, having raised an army to assist Olympias against Cassander, his
soldiers mutinied and deposed him; not long after, however, he appears to have
been reinstated. His brother Alcetas, who succeeded him, was engaged in a war
with Cassander, which proved disastrous; for, being defeated, his dominions
were overrun by the forces of his victorious enemy, and he himself was put to
death by his rebellious subjects. The name of Pyrrhus, who now ascended the
throne, gives to the history of Epirus an importance it never would otherwise
have possessed. Alexander, the eldest son of Pyrrhus, succeeded his father,
whom he sought to emulate by attempting afresh the conquest of Macedon. On this
occasion Antigonus Gonatas was again vanquished and driven from his dominions.
But Demetrius, his son, having raised another army, attacked Alexander and presently
compelled him to evacuate the Macedonian territory. At the expiration of two
other insignificant reigns, the royal line of the Aeacidae becoming extinct,
the Epirots determined to adopt a republican form of government, which prevailed
until the subjugation of Macedon by the Romans. Having been accused of favouring
Perseus in the last Macedonian War, they became the objects of the bitterest
vengeance of the Romans, who treated them with unusual severity. Aemilius Paullus
destroyed seventy of their towns and sold 150,000 of the inhabitants into slavery.
Epirus, having lost its independence, was then annexed as a province to the
Roman Empire.
This text is cited Oct 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
EPIRUS (Ancient country) GREECE
Perseus Project Index. Total results on 23/4/2001: 380 for Epirus, 124 for Epeiros, 27 for Epeirus, 3 for Epirot, 5 for Epirots, 6 Epeirot, 9 for Epeirots, 15 for Epirote, 4 for Epirotes, 15 for Epeirotes.
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