DOKUMENTE PEJ AUSTRALIE

Epirus was an ancient region of Greece, located in what is now Albania and northwestern Greece, with Illyria to the north, the Pindus mountains to the east, and the Gulf of Ambracia (near Preveza) to the south. The region was barbarous in early Greek times and famous primarily for the oracle at Dodona (in southern Epirus) with its sacred oak tree and cult of Zeus. The oracle was much consulted throughout ancient times. The region became Hellenized through contact with Corcyra (Korfu) and Ambracia, but it did not become important until Alexander, king of Molossia (in Epirus) and brother-in-law of Philip II of Macedonia, unified the Epirotes. Alexander invaded Italy in 333 B.C. He conquered much of southern Italy, but was finally defeated and killed in 330.

When Pyrrhus (319–272) ascended the throne, Epirus was dependent on Macedonia. He made his country independent and increased its territory at Macedonia's expense. He too invaded Italy brilliantly but unsuccessfully. His failure weakened the kingdom, which fell c.232. Epirus was subsequently drawn into the Roman-Macedonian wars, and in 167 the Romans sacked the country and enslaved 150,000 Epirotes.

For centuries thereafter, Epirus remained under Roman (and later Byzantine) rule. In 1081 it was conquered by the Norman crusader Robert Guiscard. When the Fourth Crusade captured Constantinople, the Byzantines established (1204) an independent despotate of Epirus. It survived as a vassal state of the Byzantine Empire until conquered by the Ottoman Turks in the 15th century.

Charles W. Fornara

Ronald Edward Latham, In quest of civilization, Jarrolds limited, 1946, p. 247, chapter "Trying to be Greeks":

On the fringe of Hellas, and not yet fully accepted as Greeks even in name, lived the Epirotes and the Macedonians. Though these were being progressively Hellenized by contact with Greek colonies on the coast and their rulers claimed descent from legendary Greek heroes, the Greeks still regarded them, as the more civilized Chinese regarded the Ch'in,

The Balkan exchange of minorities and its impact on Greece
By Dimitri Pentzopoulos

Ethnologia Balkanica

In Turkey, Cham Albanians were accommodated in Istanbul and Bursa. The majority of them were from Ioannina and outlying areas and Preveza.[21] About 16,000 Greek refugees from Asia Minor were settled in Epirus,[56] mainly in the same areas.[57]

# ^ a b c Pentzopoulos, Dimitris (7 October 2002). The Balkan Exchange of Minorities and Its Impact on Greece. London, UK: C. Hurst & Co. Publishers. p. 128. ISBN 978-978-1-85065-674-6. http://books.google.com/?id=lAWKstorJAEC&printsec=. Retrieved 2009-03-31.
# ^ See also: Wikipedia contributors (31 March 2009). Greek refugees. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Greek_refugees&oldid=279609625#List_of_settlements. Retrieved 2009-03-31.

A coin from Epirus. On left is the head of Pyrrhus' mother, Phthia. On the right is Athena, shield and spear in hands with a battle stance. The Greek inscription reads ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΠΥΡΡΟΥ

There is also another circumstance that contributes not a little to my conviction of the weakness of ancient times. Before the Trojan war there is no indication of any common action in Hellas, nor indeed of the universal prevalence of the name(Helen)........went by the names of the different tribes, in particular of the Pelasgian.......The best proof of this is furnished by Homer. Born long after the Trojan War, he nowhere calls all of them by that name(helens)..........He does not even use the term barbarian, probably because the Hellenes had not yet been marked off from the rest of the world by one distinctive appellation...gradually acquired from the connection the name of Hellenes; though a long time elapsed before that name could fasten itself upon all(after 8th century BC )

Thucydides History of the Peloponnesian War Book I

Before the Trojan war there is no indication of any common action in Hellas, nor indeed of the universal prevalence of the name; on the contrary,before the time of Hellen, son of Deucalion, no such appellation existed, but the country went by the names of the different tribes, in particular of the Pelasgian. It was not till Hellen and his sons grew strong in Phthiotis, and were invited as allies into the other cities, that one by one they gradually acquired from the connection the name of Hellenes; though a long time elapsed before that name could fasten itself upon all. The best proof of this is furnished by Homer. Born long after the Trojan War, he nowhere calls all of them by that name, nor indeed any of them except the followers of Achilles from Phthiotis, who were the original Hellenes: in his poems they are called Danaans, Argives, and Achaeans. He does not even use the term barbarian, probably because the Hellenes had not yet been marked off from the rest of the world by one distinctive appellation

Heracleidae brought back the Dorians, who founded both Megara and many of the cities of the Peloponnesus. The Ionians, however, were soon driven out again by the Achaeans, an Aeolic tribe; and so there were left in the Peloponnesus only the two tribes, the Aeolian and the Dorian. Now all the peoples who had less intercourse with the Dorians--as was the case with the Arcadians and with the Eleians, since the former were wholly mountaineers and had no share in the allotments {7} of territory, while the latter were regarded as sacred to the Olympian Zeus and hence have long lived to themselves in peace, especially because they belonged to the Aeolic stock and had admitted the army which came back with Oxylus

Its again Strabo which confirms that old Hellas is not in northern Thesaly but in Peloponesse(Arcadia)

008.008.001

Ἀρκαδία δ' ἐστὶν ἐν μέσῳ μὲν τῆς Πελοποννήσου, πλείστην δὲ χώραν ὀρεινὴν ἀποτέμνεται. μέγιστον δ' ὄρος ἐν αὐτῇ Κυλλήνη· τὴν γοῦν κάθετον οἱ μὲν εἴκοσι σταδίων φασὶν οἱ δ' ὅσον πεντεκαίδεκα. δοκεῖ δὲ παλαιότατα ἔθνη τῶν Ἑλλήνων εἶναι τὰ Ἀρκαδικά, Ἀζᾶνές τε καὶ Παρράσιοι καὶ ἄλλοι τοιοῦτοι

Arcadia lies in the middle of the Peloponnesus; and most of the country which it includes is mountainous. The greatest mountain in it is Cyllene; at any rate some say that its perpendicular height is twenty stadia, though others say about fifteen. The Arcadian tribes--the Azanes, the Parrhasians, and other such peoples--are reputed to be the most ancient tribes of the Greeks

The Hellenic race has never, since its first origin, changed its speech. It was a branch of the Pelasgic, which separated from the main body, and at first was scanty in numbers and of little power; but it gradually spread and increased to a multitude of nations, chiefly by the voluntary entrance into its ranks of numerous tribes of barbarians. The Pelasgi, on the other hand, were, as I think, a barbarian race which never greatly multiplied

STRABO 12.008.004·
ἀλλὰ καὶ πρὸ τῶν Τρωικῶν ἦν ταῦτα. τό τε γὰρ τῶν Πελασγῶν ἦν φῦλον καὶ τὸ τῶν Καυκώνων καὶ Λελέγων· εἴρηται δ' ὅτι πολλαχοῦ τῆς Εὐρώπης τὸ παλαιὸν ἐτύγχανε πλανώμενα, ἅπερ ποιεῖ τοῖς Τρωσὶ συμμαχοῦντα ὁ ποιητής, οὐκ ἐκ τῆς περαίας.

but this was also the case before the Trojan War, for the tribe of the Pelasgians was then in existence, as also that of the Cauconians and Leleges. And, as I have said before, {190} they wandered in ancient times over many regions of Europe.

Appian, The Civil Wars Book II
[39] The consuls crossed safely to Dyrrachium, which some persons, by reason of the following error, consider the same as Epidamnus. A barbarian king of the region, by name, built a city on the sea-coast and named it after himself. Dyrrachus, the son of his daughter and of Neptune (as is supposed), added a dockyard to it which he named Dyrrachium. When the brothers of this Dyrrachus made war against him, Hercules, who was returning from Erythea, formed an alliance with him for a part of his territory; wherefore the Dyrrachians claim Hercules as their founder because he had a share of their land, not that they repudiate Dyrrachus, but because they pride themselves on Hercules even more as a god. In the battle which took place it is said that Hercules killed Ionius, the son of Dyrrachus, by mistake, and that after performing the funeral rites he threw the body into the sea in order that it might bear his name. At a later period the Briges, returning from Phrygia, took possession of the city and the surrounding country. They were supplanted by the Taulantii, an Illyrian tribe, who were displaced in their turn by the Liburnians, another Illyrian tribe, who were in the habit of making piratical expeditions against their neighbors, with very swift ships. Hence the Romans call swift ships liburnicœ, because these were the first ones they came in conflict with. The people who had been expelled from Dyrrachium by the Liburnians procured the aid of the Corcyreans, who then ruled the sea, and drove out the Liburnians. The Corcyreans mingled their own colonists with them and thus it came to be considered a Greek port; but the Corcyreans changed its name, because they considered it unpropitious, and called it Epidamnus from the town just above it, and Thucydides gives it that name also. Nevertheless, the former name prevailed finally and it is now called Dyrrachium.

Strabo 5.2.4

As for the Pelasgi, almost all agree, in the first place, that some ancient tribe of that name spread throughout the whole of Greece, and particularly among the Aeolians of Thessaly. 221Again, Ephorus says that he is of the opinion that, since they were originally Arcadians, they chose a military life, and that, in converting many peoples to the same mode of life, they imparted their name to all, and thus acquired great glory, not only among the Greeks, but also among all other people whithersoever they had chanced86 to come. For example, they prove to have been colonisers of Crete, as Homer says; at any rate, Odysseus says to Penelope: "But one tongue with others is mixed; there87 dwell Achaeans, there Cretans of the old stock, proud of heart, there Cydonians and Dorians too, of waving plumes, and goodly Pelasgians." And Thessaly is called "the Pelasgian Argos" (I mean that part of it which lies between the outlets of the Peneius River and Thermopylae as far as the mountainous country of Pindus), on account of the fact that the Pelasgi extended their rule over these regions. Further, the Dodonaean Zeus is by the poet himself named "Pelasgian": "O Lord Zeus, Dodonaean, Pelasgian." And many have called also the tribes of Epirus "Pelasgian," because in their opinion the Pelasgi extended their rule even as far as that

As far as I know Herodotus says:
τὸ δὲ Ἑλληνικὸν ........
ἀποσχισθὲν μέντοι ἀπὸ τοῦ Πελασγικοῦ ἐόν ἀσθενές

making clear that Hellenes were a small branch of the Pelasgians and not the oppossite. Here is the translation:

As for the Hellenic race, it has used ever the same language, as I clearly perceive, since it first took its rise; but since the time when it parted off feeble at first from the Pelasgian race, setting forth from a small beginning it has increased to that great number of races which we see, and chiefly because many Barbarian races have been added to it besides. Moreover it is true, as I think, of the Pelasgian race also, that so far as it remained Barbarian it never made any great increase.

Plato, Timaeus, 21- 22a-b, My Italics

And Solon said that when he travelled there he was held in great esteem amongst them; moreover, when he was questioning such of their priestsas were most versed in ancient lore about their early history, he discovered that neither he himself nor any other Greek knew anything at all, one might say, about such matters. And on one occasion, when he wished to draw them on to discourse on ancient history, he attempted to tell them the most ancient of our traditions, concerning Phoroneus, who was said to be the first man, and Niobe; and he went on to tell the legend about Deucalion
and Pyrrha after the Flood, and how they survived it, and to give the geneology of their descendantsand by recounting the number of years occupied by the events mentioned he tried to calculate the periods of time. Whereupon one of the priests, a prodigiously old man, said, “O Solon, Solon, you Greeks are always children: there is not such a thing as an old Greek.” And on hearing this he asked, “What mean you by this saying?” And the priest replied, “You are young in soul, every one of you. For therein you possess not a single belief that is ancient and derived from old tradition, nor yet one science that is hoary with age.

Strabo 008.001.002

the Dorians too, since they were few in number and lived in a most rugged country, have, because of their lack of intercourse with others, changed their speech and their other customs to the extent that they are no longer a part of the same tribe as before. And this was precisely the case with the Athenians