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“Speakers of these various Greek dialects settled different parts of Greece at different
times during the Middle Bronze Age, with one group, the “northwest” Greeks,
developing their own dialect and peopling central Epirus. This was the origin of
the Molossian or Epirotic tribes.”

E.N.Borza “In the shadow of Olympus; The emergence of Macedon” (revised

edition, 1992), page 62

the western greek people (with affinities to the Epirotic tribes) in Orestis, Lyncus,
and parts of Pelagonia;

“In the shadow of Olympus..” By Eugene Borza, page 74

“We have seen that the “Makedones” or “highlanders” of mountainous western

Macedonia may have been derived from northwest Greek stock. That is, northwest
Greece provided a pool of Indo-European speakers of proto-Greek from which
emerged the tribes who were later known by different names as they established their
regional identities in separate parts of the country. Thus the Macedonians may have
been related to those peoples who at an earlier time migrated south to become the
historical Dorians, and to other Pindus tribes who were the ancestors of the Epirotes
or Molossians. If it were known that Macedonian was a proper dialect of Greek,
like the dialects spoken by Dorians and Molossians, we would be on much firmer
ground in this hypothesis.”

E.N.Borza “In the shadow of Olympus; The emergence of Macedon” (revised edition,
1992), page 78

“When Amyntas became king of the Macedonians sometime during the latter third of
the sixth century, he controlled a territory that included the central Macedonian plain
and its peripheral foothills, the Pierian coastal plain beneath Mt. Olympus, and
perhaps the fertile, mountain-encircled plain of Almopia. To the south lay the Greeks
of Thessaly. The western mountains were peopled by the Molossians (the western
Greeks of Epirus), tribes of non-Argead Macedonians, and other populations.“

E.N.Borza “In the shadow of Olympus; The emergence of Macedon” (revised edition,
1992), page 98

“As subjects of the king the Upper Macedonians were henceforth on the same footing
as the original Macedonians, in that they could qualify for service in the King’s
Forces and thereby obtain the elite citizenship. At one bound the territory, the
population and wealth of the kingdom were doubled. Moreover since the great
majority of the new subjects were speakers of the West Greek dialect, the
enlarged army was Greek-speaking throughout.”
“Certainly the Thracians and the Illyrians were non-Greek speakers, but in the
northwest, the peoples of Molossis {Epirot province}, Orestis and Lynkestis
spoke West Greek. It is also accepted that the Macedonians spoke a dialect of Greek
and although they absorbed other groups into their territory, they were essentially
Greeks.”
Robert Morkot, “The Penguin Historical Atlas of Ancient Greece”,
Penguin Publ., 1996
“Still, Olympias, a Greek from Epirus married to a king of Macedon”
Paul Catledge “The Greeks: Crucible of Civilization 2000″, Chapter 14, page 213
“Olympias, it seems, though Greek by birth…”
Paul Catledge “The Greeks: Crucible of Civilization 2000″, Chapter 14, page 216
EPIRUS (”Hpeiros”, Mainland)North-west area of Greece, from Acroceraunian point
to Nicopolis, with harbours at Buthrotum and Glycys Limen (at Acheron’s mouth);
bordered on south by gulf of Ambracia, and on east by Pindus range with pass via
Metsovo to Thessaly.Three limestone ranges parallel to the coast and the Pindus range
enclose narrow valleys and plateaux with good pasture and extensive woods; alluvial
plains were formed near Buthrotum, Glycys Limen, and Ambracia.Epirus had a
humid climate and cold winters. In terrain and in history it resembled Upper
Macedonia. Known in the ‘Iliad’ only for the oracle of Dodona, and to Herodotus for
the oracle of the dead at Ephyra, Epirus received Hellenic influence from the Elean
colonies in Cassopaea and the Corinthian colonies at Ambracia and Corcyra, and the
oracle of Dodona drew pilgrims from northern and central
Greece especially.

Theopompus knew fourteen Epirote tribes, speakers of a strong west-Greek

dialect, of which the Chaones held the plain of Buthrotum, the Thesproti the plain of
Acheron, and the Molossi the plain of Dodona, which forms the highland centre of
Epirus with an outlet southwards to Ambracia.

A strong Molossian state, which included some Thesprotian tribes, existed in the reign
of Neoptolemos c.370-368 (”Arx.Ef”.1956, 1ff). The unification of Epirus in a
symmachy led by the Molossian king was finally achieved by Alexander, brother-in-
law of Philip II of Macedon. His conquests in southern Italy and his alliance with
Rome showed the potentialities of the Epirote Confederacy, but he was killed in 330
BC.

Dynastic troubles weakened the Molossian state, until Pyrrhus removed his fellow
king and embarked on his adventurous career.he most lasting of his achievements
were the conquest of southern Illyria, the development of Ambracia as his capital, and
the building of fortifications and theaters, especially the large one at Dodona.

His successors suffered from wars with Aetolia, Macedon, and Illyria, until in c.232
BC the Molossian monarchy fell.

An Epirote League with a federal citizenship was then created, and the meetings of its
council were held probably by rotation at Dodona or Passaron in Molossis, at Gitana
in Thesprotis, and at Phoenice in Chaonia.It was soon involved in the wars between
Rome and Macedon, and it split apart when the Molossian state alone supported
Macedon and was sackedby the Romans in 167 BC, when 150,000 captives were
deported. Central Epirus never recovered; but northern Epirus prospered during the
late republic, and Augustus celebrated his victory at Actium by founding a Roman
colony at Nicopolis. Under the empire a coastal road and a road through the interior
were built from north to south, and Buthrotum was a Roman colony.Ancient remains
testify to the great prosperity of Epirus in Hellenistic times

N.G.L.Hammond, “Oxford Classical Dictionary,” 3rd ed. (1996), pp.546,547

The Molossians were the strongest and, decisive for Macedonia, most easterly of the
three most important Epeirot tribes, which, like Macedonia but unlike the
Thesprotians and the Chaonians, still retained their monarchy. They were Greeks,
spoke a similar dialect to that of Macedonia, suffered just as much from the
depredations of the Illyrians and were in principle the natural partners of the
Macedonian king who wished to tackle the Illyrian problem at its roots.”

Malcolm Errington, “A History of Macedonia”, California University Press, 1990.

The West Greek dialect group denotes the dialects spoken in: (i) the
northwest Greek regions of Epeiros, Akarnania, Pthiotid Akhaia….

Johnathan M. Hall, “Ethnic Identity in Greek Antiquity”, Cambridge

University Press, 1997

Quote:
Alexander was King Philip’s eldest legitimate child. His mother, Olympias,came
from the ruling clan of the northwestern Greek region of Epirus.

David Sacks, “A Dictionary of the Ancient Greek World”, Oxford, 1995

Quote:
Epirus was a land of milk and animal products…The social unit was a small tribe,
consisting of several nomadic or semi-nomadic groups, and these
tribes, of which more than seventy names are known, coalesced into large
tribal coalitions, three in number: Thesprotians, Molossians and Chaonians…We
know from the discovery of inscriptions that these tribes
were speaking the Greek language (in a West-Greek dialect).

NGL Hammond, “Philip of Macedon”, Duckworth, London, 1994

Quote:
The molossians were the most powerfull people of Epirus, whose kings had extended
their dominion over the whole country. They traced their descent back to Pyrrhus, son
of Acchilles..

the Satyres by Juvenal, Page 225

—————————————————-

Quote:
That the molossians, who were immediately adjacent to the Dodonaeans in the time
of Hecataeus but engulfed them soon afterwards, spoke Illyrian or another barbaric
tongue was nowhere suggested, although Aeschylus and Pindar wrote of Molossian
lands. That they in fact spoke greek was implied by Herodotus’ inclusion of
Molossi among the greek colonists of Asia minor, but became demonstranable
only when D. Evangelides published two long inscriptions of the Molossian State,
set up p. 369 B.C at Dodona, in Greek and with Greek names, Greek
patronymies and Greek tribal names such as Celaethi, Omphales, Tripolitae,
Triphylae, etc. As the Molossian cluster of tribes in the time of Hecataeus included
the Orestae, Pelagones, Lyncestae, Tymphaei and Elimeotae,as we have argued
above, we may be confindent that they too were Greek-speaking;
“The Cambridge Ancient History - The Expansion of the Greek World, Eighth to
Sixth Centuries B.C., Part 3: Volume 3″ by P Mack Crew, Page 284
Quote:

Inscriptional evidence of the Chaones is lacking until the Hellinistic period; but Ps-
Scylax, describing the situation of c. 380-360 put the Southern limit of the
Illyrians just north of the Chaones, which indicates that the Chaones did not
speak Illyrian, and the acceptance of the Chaones into the Epirote alliance in the
330s suggest strongly that they were Greek-speaking

“The Cambridge Ancient History: Volume 6, the Fourth Century BC” by D M Lewis,
Martin Ostwald, Simon Hornblower, John Boardman
Quote:
however, in central Epirus the only fortified places were in the plain of Ioannina, the
centre of the Molossian state. Thus the North-west Greek-speaking tribes were at a
half-way stage economically and politically, retaining the vigour of a tribal society
and reaching out in a typically Greek manner towards a larger political
organization.
Quote:
In 322 B.C when Antipater banished banished the anti-Macedonian leaders of the
Greek states to live ‘beyond the Ceraunian Mountains’ (plut. Phoc. 29.3) he regarded
Epirus as an integral part of the Greek-speaking mainland.

Page 443
Quote:
The chaones as we will see were a group of Greek-speaking tribes, and the Dexari,
or as they were called later the Dassarete, were the most northernly member of the
group.

Page 423

Molossi (Μολοσσοί), a people in Epirus, who inhabited a narrow slip of country,

called after them Molossia (Μολοσσία) or Molossis, which extended from the Aous,
along the western bank of the Arachthus, as far as the Ambracian Gulf. The Molossi
were Greek people, who claimed descent from Molossus, the son of Pyrrhus
(Neoptolemus) and Andromache, and are said to have emigrated from Thessaly
into Epirus, under the guidance of Pyrrhus himself. In their new abodes they
intermingled with the original inhabitants of the land and with the neighbouring
illyrian tribes of which they were regarded by the other Greeks as half barbarians.
They were, however, by far the most powerful people in Epirus, and their kings
gradually extended their dominion over the whole of the country. The first of their
kings, who took the title of King of Epirus, was Alexander, who perished in Italy B.C.
326. The ancient capital of the Molossi was Pasaron,but Ambracia afterward became
their chief town, and the residence of their kings. The Molossian hounds were
celebrated in antiquity, and were much prized for hunting.

A New Classical Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography, Mythology and

Geography” by William Smith

That they [Dorians] were related to the North-West Dialects (of Phocis, Locris,
Aetolia, Acarnania and Epirus) was not perceived clearly by the ancients

History of the Language Sciences: I. Approaches to Gender II. Manifestations By

Sylvain Auroux, page 439

Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, was himself simply a military adventurer. He was none the
less a soldier of fortune that he traced back his pedigree to Aeacus and Achilles

Quote:
he was the first Greek that met the Romans in battle. With him began those
direct relations between Rome and Hellas, on which the whole subsequent
development of ancient, and an essential part of modern, civilization are based.
Quote:

this struggle between Rome and Hellenism was first fought out in the battles
between Pyrrhus and the Roman generals;

Quote:
But while the Greeks were beaten in the battlefield as well as in the senate-hall,
their superiority was none the less decided on every other field of rivalry than that of
politics; and these very struggles already betokened that the victory of Rome over
the Hellenes would be different from her victories over Gauls and Phoenicians, and
that the charm of Aphrodite only begins to work when the lance is broken and the
helmet and shield are laid aside.

Theodor Mommsen History of Rome, From the Abolition of the Monarchy in Rome
to the Union of Italy, The Historical Position Of Pyrrhus

That the molossians, who were immediately adjacent to the Dodonaeans in the time
of Hecataeus but engulfed them soon afterwards, spoke Illyrian or another barbaric
tongue was NOWHERE suggested, although Aeschylus and Pindar wrote of
Molossian lands. That they in fact spoke greek was implied by Herodotus’
inclusion of Molossi among the greek colonists of Asia minor, but became
demonstranable only when D. Evangelides published two long inscriptions of the
Molossian State, set up p. 369 B.C at Dodona, in Greek and with Greek names,
Greek patronymies and Greek tribal names such as Celaethi, Omphales,
Tripolitae, Triphylae, etc. As the Molossian cluster of tribes in the time of
Hecataeus included the Orestae, Pelagones, Lyncestae, Tymphaei and
Elimeotae,as we have argued above, we may be confindent that they too were
Greek-speaking;Inscriptional evidence of the Chaones is lacking until the Hellinistic
period; but Ps-Scylax, describing the situation of c. 380-360 put the Southern limit
of the Illyrians just north of the Chaones, which indicates that the Chaones did
not speak Illyrian, and the acceptance of the Chaones into the Epirote alliance in
the 330s suggest strongly that they were Greek-speaking.

“The Cambridge Ancient History - The Expansion of the Greek World, Eighth to
Sixth Centuries B.C., Part 3: Volume 3″ by P Mack Crew ,page 284.

The Epirotes, who may fairly be considered as Greeks by blood, long maintained
a rugged independence under native chiefs, who were little more than leaders in war.

A Manual of Greek Antiquities

Book by Percy Gardner, Frank Byron Jevons; Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1895, page 8

After the Mycenaean civilization declined, Epirus was the launching area of the
Dorian invasions (1100–1000 BC) of Greece. The region’s original inhabitants
were driven southward by the Dorians, and out of the ensuing migrations three main
clusters of Greek-speaking tribes emerged in Epirus: the Thesproti of
southwestern Epirus, the Molossi of central Epirus, and the Chaones of
northwestern Epirus. They lived in clusters of small villages, in contrast to most
other Greeks, who lived in or around city-states.In the 5th century Epirus was still on
the periphery of the Greek world. To the 5th-century historian Thucydides, the
Epirotes were “barbarians.†The only Epirotes regarded as Greek were the
Aeacidae, who were members of the Molossian royal house and claimed descent
from Achilles. From about 370 BC on, the Aeacidae were able to expand the
Molossian state by incorporating tribes from the rival groups in Epirus. The
Aeacidae’s efforts gained impetus from the marriage of Philip II of Macedon to their
princess, Olympias. In 334, while Alexander the Great, son of Philip and Olympias,
crossed into Asia, his uncle, the Molossian ruler Alexander, attacked southern Italy,
where he was eventually checked by Rome and killed in battle in about 331. Upon
Alexander the Molossian’s death, the Epirote tribes formed a coalition on an equal
basis but with the Molossian king in command of their military forces. The greatest
Molossian king of this coalition was Pyrrhus (319–272); he and his son Alexander
II ruled as far south as Acarnania and to central Albania in the north. Pyrrhus’ military
adventures overstrained his state’s military resources, but they also brought great
prosperity to Epirus. He built a magnificent stone theatre at Dodona and a new suburb
at Ambracia (now à rta), which he made his capital.

[Encyclopedia Britannica, edition 2007, abstract from Epirus]

Whereas this did not happen with the Persians or the Egyptians, it did wit the
Molossians (who were probably ethnically/linguistically Greek-see bellow). In
other words what may have begun as poetic or erudite inventions caught on. For
the Molossians, for example, Greek heroic origins ceased to be merely a matter
for Greek-centered erudite Ethnography of the Other” but were incorporated
and adopted y that other.

“The Return of Odysseus: Colonization and ethnicity” by Irad Malkin

but what language did the Epirotes speak?The answer to this question became
apparent, when D. Evangelidis published two inscriptions from Dodona. They showed
beyond dispute that the tribes which made up the Molossian state not only recorded
decisions in Greek language and with Greek technical terms but also had Greek
personal names and ethnic forms in the period 370-368 B.C. Since the personal names
of men who were adult then had been given to them c. 420 B.C., the conclusion was
unavoidable that these tribes were speaking Greek at the very time when Thucydides
was labelling them as barbaroi. This ceases to be a paradox, if one realizes that the
contrast in the term barbaros was not linguistic but cultural.

The dialect of the Greek language which these tribal groups spoke was not the Doric
of Corinth and her colonies but a form of west Greek, as is becoming clear from the
dececipherment of questions asked by local enquirers, which have been preserved on
lead strips at Dodona. Their dialect may well have been retarded and therefore
not easy for southern Greeks to understand, just as the dialect
of the Makedones proper was unfamiliar to the Greeks on
their coast.

[Epirus :4000 years of Greek history and civilization, the

entry of Epirus into the Greek world, page 60 ]

Epirus, though mostly held by people of Grecian speech and lineage, had an
intermixture of those called barbarians; Illyrians, and perhaps others. Herodotus
however, among earliest, and Plutarch, among late ancient historians, clearly
reckon the Molossians a Grecian people. Some expressions of Thucydides and
Strabo may perhaps be construed either way. But, as it has been formerly observed,
Herodotus, Thucydides, and Strabo concur in showing that all Greece was of mixed
population; and how the distinction of Greek and barbarian, unknown to Homer,
arose, and what at last it was, always remained uncertain. Strabo however, clearly
acknowledging the Macedonian for a Greek nation, assures us that the general
language of the Epirots was the Macedonian dialect of the Greek; that where
another language, probably the Illyric, was in use, the people commonly spoke both,
and that, in habits and manners, most of the Epirots hardly differed from the
Macedonians.
The governments of the Epirot states were, some Republican with annual chief
magistrates, as at Athens, Thebes, and Rome; others monarchal. That of Molossis,
from earliest tradition, was monarchal; and whether the people may have been
more or less allowed the always questionable dignity of pure Grecian blood, yet
the claim of the royal family to the oldest and noblest Grecian origin, resting on
tradition, but asserted by Straho and Plutarch, with Aristotle’s assent implied, is
not found anywhere controverted. They reckoned themselves direct descendants
ofNeoptolemus Pyrrhus, son of Achilles; who, it was said, ‘” after the Trojan war,
migrating from Thessaly, be¬came king of Molossis, Whatever credit may be due to
this lofty pretension, that the Molossian sceptre remained in one Greek family, from
times beyond certain history till after Aristotle’s age, appears satisfactorily testified.
By advantage of situation and constitution, exempt from great troubles, Molossis, had
it had historians, probably afforded little for general interest. Nevertheless we learn
from the father of Grecian history that, some generations before his time, it was
esteemed respectable among Grecian states. The tale wherein this appears, like
many of that writer, somewhat of a romantic cast, nevertheless may have been true in
all its parts; and for the information it affords of an important change of manners and
policy among the Greeks, and of the florishing condition of several republics about
the age of the Athenian legislator Solon, some destroyed before the historian wrote,
others little heard of since, while Molossis apparently remained unshaken, it maybe
reckoned of considerable historical value.
Clisthenes, tyrant of Sicyon, under whose rule that little state was eminent among
those of Peloponnesus,’ desiring, the historian says, to marry his daughter to a man of
the greatest consideration and highest worth of all Greece, opened his house for
any who, from personal dignity and the eminence of their countries, might have
pretensions; that so he might have oppor¬tunity to estimate their merits. Thirteen
guests, rivals for his favor, are thus described. There came from the Greek colonies in
Italy, then florishing extraordinarily, Smindyrides of Sybaris and Damas of Siris. The
former was remarked for going beyond all of his time in the luxury for which Sybaris
was renowned. Damas was son of that Samyris who was distinguished by the epithet
of the Wise. Am-phimnestus came from Epidamnus, on the coast of the Ionian gulf.
Males was of jjEtolia, brother of Titormus, esteemed the strongest man in Greece, but
who had withdrawn from the society of men to reside in the farthest part of yEtolia.3
Lcocedes was son of Phi don, tyrant of Argos; that Phidon, says the historian, who
established uniformity of weights and measures throughout Peloponnesus, and,
together with his power, (so far, it may seem, bene¬ficially exerted,) was remarked
for an arrogance un¬equalled among the Greeks; for, depriving the Eleans of the
presidency of the Olympian festival, he assumed it himself. Two came from Arcadia,
Amiantus of Trapezus, and Laphanes of Pafos. The father of the latter, Euphorion,
was celebrated for his extensive. hospitality, and had the extraordinary fame of having
entertained the gods Castor and Pollux. Lysanias came from Eretria in Eubcea, then
greatly florishing; Onomastus from Elea: Megacles and Hippoclides were of Athens;
the latter esteemed the richest Athenian of his time, and the handsomest: Diac-tondes
was of Cranon and Scopada? in Thessaly; Alcon was of Molossis. This simple
description of Alcon, combined with what has preceded, enough marks that the
Molossians were esteemed a Grecian people, and Molossis then considerable
among the Grecian states. One of the Athenians, Megacles, was the successful
suitor.

“The history of Greece”, by lord Redesdale By William Mitford

Quote:
He [Pyrrhus] has been compared to Alexander of Macedonia; and certainly the idea
of founding a Hellenic empire of the west–which would have had as its core Epirus,
Magna Graecia, and Sicily, would have commanded both the Italian seas, and would
have reduced Rome and Carthage to the rank of barbarian peoples bordering on the
Hellenistic state-system,like the Celts and the Indians–was analogous in greatness
and boldness to the idea which led the Macedonian king over the Hellespont.

NGL Hammond, “Philip of Macedon”, Gerald Duckword & Ltd, London,

1994

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