16
Feb
Feb
THE USE AND ABUSE OF ANCIENT ACCOUNTS BY YUNNANISTAN PROPAGANDA
By: AlbPELASGIAN
©ARBERIAONLINE.COM
The self-proclaimed “Greeks” from Greece have now resurfaced more aggressively than never before, putting to their use every channel and means possible to spread their systematic propaganda about “Epirus” in the virtual world!
Their whole political movement since 1913 has been to achieve and justify the military occupation of the lower half of “Epirus” aka “Çameria“ and to lay claim to the northern part of “Epirus” or as it is called today Toskeria. To lay claim to these lands they produce maps and bring selective quotes from some ancient authors and historians, trying to prove the ethnic Hellenic ruts of the people of “Epirus”, ruts of whom they (the Greeks) do not belong themselves but they claim to be of! In most cases these quotes are brought forth edited, miss-quoted and in such a way that their true meaning has been lost or is being miss lead as to work in their favour.
Our purpose here is to smash their evil lies and shed light to the truth! Below we will show their “historical” quotes, how they miss lead and miss interpret the true meaning of them.
THE USE AND ABUSE OF ANCIENT ACCOUNTS BY MODERN BYZANTINE PROPAGANDA
By: AlbPELASGIAN
©ARBERIAONLINE.COM
The self-proclaimed “Greeks” from Greece have now resurfaced more aggressively than never before, putting to their use every channel and means possible to spread their systematic propaganda about “Epirus” in the virtual world!
Their whole political movement since 1913 has been to achieve and justify the military occupation of the lower half of “Epirus” aka “Çameria“ and to lay claim to the northern part of “Epirus” or as it is called today Toskeria. To lay claim to these lands they produce maps and bring selective quotes from some ancient authors and historians, trying to prove the ethnic Hellenic ruts of the people of “Epirus”, ruts of whom they (the Greeks) do not belong themselves but they claim to be of! In most cases these quotes are brought forth edited, miss-quoted and in such a way that their true meaning has been lost or is being miss lead as to work in their favour.
Our purpose here is to smash their evil lies and shed light to the truth! Below we will show their “historical” quotes, how they miss lead and miss interpret the true meaning of them.
EXAMPLE NR.1Alexander, the Epirote, when waging war against the Illyrians, first placed a force in ambush, and then dressed up some of his own men in Illyrian garb, ordering them to lay waste his own, that is to say, Epirote territory. When the Illyrians saw that this was being done, they themselves began to pillage right and left the more confidently since they thought that those who led the way were scouts. But when they had been designedly brought by the latter into a disadvantageous position, they were routed and killed.Frontinus, Stratagems, Book II, V. On ambushes
DECONSTRUCTION:
This quote is like a spark, it dies out as fast as it lights up! Unfortunately the forcefully indoctrinated “Greeks” use this quote to deny the same ethnic ruts of Illyrians and Epiriots, but, not having the same exact costumes can’t prove that Illyrians and Epiriots were of different ethnic back round. Because as in modern times also in the ancient times costumes were worn as to the popularity of those times.
Below Plutarch tells us something very interesting:
Several of these Pyrrhus himself sent privately, pretending to be Macedonians, and saying, now was the time to be delivered from the severe government of Demetrius by coming over to Pyrrhus, a gracious prince and a lover of soldiers. By this artifice a great part of the army was in a state of excitement, and the soldiers began to look every way about inquiring for Pyrrhus. It happened he was without his helmet, till understanding they did not know him, he put it on again, and so was quickly recognized by his lofty crest and the goat’s horns he wore upon it. Then the Macedonians, running to him, desired to be told his password, and some put oaken boughs upon their heads, because they saw them worn by the soldiers about him. Some persons even took the confidence to say to Demetrius himself, that he would be well advised to withdraw and lay down the government. And he, indeed, seeing the mutinous movements of the army to be only too consistent with what they said, privately got away, disguised in a broad hat and a common soldier’s coat. So Pyrrhus became master of the army without fighting, and was declared King of the Macedonians.Plutarch, Pyrrhus, 11
As it seems the Epiriots have used a very fine tuned strategy the likes of which could be named espionage, trying to subdue the enemy from with in and destroy hi, trying to kill two birds with one stone! Nowhere in this quote does Plutarch distinguish the Epirots form the Macedonians ethnically. Its not like people of the same ethnic back round haven’t waged war against one another, more so in the ancient times where every one was trying to gain more territory at the expense of the others. We’ve all heard of brothers killing the other brother just so they can get the crown, have we not? To give the reader a reflection to better understand the ethnography we are bringing a quote from the ancient geographer Strabo:
Ἠπειρῶται δ’ εἰσὶ καὶ Ἀμφίλοχοι καὶ οἱ ὑπερκείμενοι καὶ συνάπτοντες τοῖς Ἰλλυρικοῖς ὄρεσι, τραχεῖαν οἰκοῦντες χώραν, Μολοττοί τε καὶ Ἀθαμᾶνες καὶ Αἴθικες καὶ Τυμφαῖοι καὶ Ὀρέσται Παρωραῖοί τε καὶ Ἀτιντᾶνες, οἱ μὲν πλησιάζοντες τοῖς Μακεδόσι μᾶλλον οἱ δὲ τῷ Ἰονίῳ κόλπῳ. λέγεται δὲ τὴν Ὀρεστιάδα κατασχεῖν ποτε Ὀρέστης φεύγων τὸν τῆς μητρὸς φόνον καὶ καταλιπεῖν ἐπώνυμον ἑαυτοῦ τὴν χώραν, κτίσαι δὲ καὶ πόλιν, καλεῖσθαι δ’ αὐτὴν Ἄργος Ὀρεστικόν. ἀναμέμικται δὲ τούτοις τὰ Ἰλλυρικὰ ἔθνη τὰ πρὸς τῷ νοτίῳ μέρει τῆς ὀρεινῆς καὶ τὰ ὑπὲρ τοῦ Ἰονίου κόλπου· τῆς γὰρ Ἐπιδάμνου καὶ τῆς Ἀπολλωνίας μέχρι τῶν Κεραυνίων ὑπεροικοῦσι Βυλλίονές τε καὶ Ταυλάντιοι καὶ Παρθῖνοι καὶ Βρῦγοι· πλησίον δέ που καὶ τὰ ἀργυρεῖα τὰ ἐν Δαμαστίῳ, περὶ ἃ Δυέσται συνεστήσαντο τὴν δυναστείαν καὶ Ἐγχέλειοι, οὓς καὶ Σεσαρηθίους καλοῦσι· πρὸς δὲ τούτοις Λυγκῆσταί τε καὶ ἡ Δευρίοπος καὶ ἡ τρίπολις Πελαγονία καὶ Ἐορδοὶ καὶ Ἐλίμεια καὶ Ἐράτυρα. ταῦτα δὲ πρότερον μὲν κατεδυναστεύετο ἕκαστα, ὧν ἐν τοῖς Ἐγχελείοις οἱ Κάδμου καὶ Ἁρμονίας ἀπόγονοι ἦρχον, καὶ τὰ μυθευόμενα περὶ αὐτῶν ἐκεῖ δείκνυται. οὗτοι μὲν οὖν οὐχ ὑπὸ ἰθαγενῶν ἤρχοντο· οἱ δὲ Λυγκῆσται ὑπ’ Ἀρραβαίῳ ἐγένοντο τοῦ Βακχιαδῶν γένους ὄντι· τούτου δ’ ἦν θυγατριδῆ ἡ Φιλίππου μήτηρ τοῦ Ἀμύντου Εὐρυδίκη, Σίρρα δὲ θυγάτηρ· καὶ τῶν Ἠπειρωτῶν δὲ Μολοττοὶ ὑπὸ Πύρρῳ τῷ Νεοπτολέμου τοῦ Ἀχιλλέως καὶ τοῖς ἀπογόνοις αὐτοῦ Θετταλοῖς οὖσι γεγονότες· οἱ λοιποὶ δὲ ὑπὸ ἰθαγενῶν ἤρχοντο· εἶτ’ ἐπικρατούντων ἀεί τινων κατέστρεψεν ἅπαντα εἰς τὴν Μακεδόνων ἀρχήν, πλὴν ὀλίγων τῶν ὑπὲρ τοῦ Ἰονίου κόλπου. καὶ δὴ καὶ τὰ περὶ Λύγκον καὶ Πελαγονίαν καὶ Ὀρεστιάδα καὶ Ἐλίμειαν τὴν ἄνω Μακεδονίαν ἐκάλουν, οἱ δ’ ὕστερον καὶ ἐλευθέραν· ἔνιοι δὲ καὶ σύμπασαν τὴν μέχρι Κορκύρας Μακεδονίαν προσαγορεύουσιν, αἰτιολογοῦντες ἅμα ὅτι καὶ κουρᾷ καὶ διαλέκτῳ καὶ χλαμύδι καὶ ἄλλοις τοιούτοις χρῶνται παραπλησίως·
The Amphilochians are Epeirotes; and so are the peoples who are situated above them and border on the Illyrian mountains, inhabiting a rugged country — I mean the Molossi, the Athamanes, the Aethices, the Tymphaei, the Orestae, and also the Paroraei and the Atintanes, some of them being nearer to the Macedonians and others to the Ionian Gulf. It is said that Orestes once took possession of Orestias — when in exile on account of the murder of his mother — and left the country bearing his name; and that he also founded a city and called it Argos Oresticum. But the Illyrian tribes which are near the southern part of the mountainous country and those which are above the Ionian Gulf are intermingled with these peoples; for above Epidamnus and Apollonia as far as the Ceraunian Mountains dwell the Bylliones, the Taulantii, the Parthini, and the Brygi.(…) Then, because one tribe or another was always getting the mastery over others, they all ended in the Macedonian empire, except a few who dwelt above the Ionian Gulf. And in fact the regions about Lyncus, Pelagonia, Orestias, and elimeia, used to be called Upper Macedonia, though later on they were by some also called Free Macedonia. But some go so far as to call the whole of the country Macedonia, as far as Corcyra, at the same time stating as their reason that in tonsure, language, short cloak, and other things of the kind, the usages of the inhabitants are similar, although, they add, some speak both languages.”(~Strabo, Geography, Book VII, Chapter 7)
No comments are needed here, but it is worth saying and underlining that which is, Epir even in the modern times before the military occupation of “Greece” in 1913 has always been a part of the lands inhabited by the distinguished ethnic people or as lord Byron says “The most beautiful race in the world” the Albanians”.
EXAMPLE NR. 2Pyrrhus was the first Greek we know of to wage war against the Romans. For no further battle, it is said, took place between Aeneas and Diomedes with his Argives. One of the many ambitions of the Athenians was to reduce all Italy, but the disaster at Syracuse prevented their trying conclusions with the Romans. Alexander, son of Neoptolemus, of the same family as Pyrrhus but older, died among the Leucani before he could meet the Romans in battle.Pausanias, Description of Greece Book 1 Attica 1,11,7
DECONSTRUCTION: But Pausanias also says:
These Gauls inhabit the most remote portion of Europe, near a great sea that is not navigable to its extremities, and possesses ebb and flow and creatures quite unlike those of other seas. Through their country flows the river Eridanus, on the bank of which the daughters of Helius (Sun) are supposed to lament the fate that befell their brother Phaethon. It was late before the name “Gauls” came into vogue; for anciently they were called Celts both amongst themselves and by others. An army of them mustered and turned towards the Ionian Sea, dispossessed the Illyrian people, all who dwelt as far as Macedonia with the Macedonians themselves, and overran Thessaly.Pausanias, Description of Greece Book 1 Attica 1,4,1
Reading this paragraph of Pausanias which talks about the destructive forces parallel to the Ionian sea we realize that here he does not mention the Epiriot but rather puts them together with the Illyrians, by not distinguishing them from the Illyrians nor does he even mention the “Greeks”.
On Pausanias accounts we find another important passage which seems our “Greek” friends have missed!
The first Greeks that Pyrrhus attacked on becoming king were the Corcyraeans. He saw that the island lay off his own territory, and he did not wish others to have a base from which to attack him.Pausanias, Description of Greece Book 1 Attica 1.11.6
If Pyrrhus alone and the Epirot as a whole were “Pure Greeks” than why did Pyrrhus attack the Hellenic colony as to “not wish others to have a base from which to attack him”? Why worry about a Hellenic colony that “lay off his own territory”?
“So Pyrrhus was the first to cross the Ionian Sea from Greece to attack the Romans. And even he crossed on the invitation of the Tarentines. For they were already involved in a war with the Romans, but were no match for them unaided.Pausanias, Description of Greece Book 1 Attica 1.12.1
This quote doesn’t make Pyrrhus a “Greek” only because he passed from a “Greek” territory washed off by the Ionian sea to go and fight the Romans.
Yet again the ancient sources are always contradicting each other.
Here Strabo gives a lesson to our “Greek” friends:
“At one time the Tarantini were exceedingly powerful, that is, when they enjoyed a democratic government; for they not only had acquired the largest fleet of all peoples in that part of the world but were wont to send forth an army of thirty thousand infantry, three thousand cavalry, and one thousand commanders of cavalry. Moreover, the Pythagorean philosophy was embraced by them, but especially by Archytas, who presided over the city for a considerable time. But later, because of their prosperity, luxury prevailed to such an extent that the public festivals celebrated among them every year were more in number than the days of the year; and in consequence of this they also were poorly governed. One evidence of their bad policies is the fact that they employed foreign generals; for they sent for Alexander the Molossian to lead them in their war against the Messapians and Leucanians, and, still before that, for Archidamus, the son of Agesilaüs, and, later on, for Cleonymus, and Agathocles, and then for Pyrrhus, at the time when they formed a league with him against the Romans”.Strabo, Geography 6,3,4
So here we see that Pyrrhus “the pure Greek” is called “foreign generals” by the “Greeks”. We see here that he is looked upon as a foreign blood who should not lead the “Greek” troops!
EXAMPLE NR. 3‘Thus the ambassador of Pyrrhus returned; and, when Pyrrhus asked him “what kind of a place he had found Rome to be,” Cineas replied, that “he had seen a country of kings, for that all there were such, as Pyrrhus alone was thought to be in Epirus and the rest of Greece.”Eutropius, “Abridgment of Roman History” Book II
DECONSTRUCTION:
Here is another passage taken out of context so as to make Epirus “Greek”.
Because we know from well known geographers who have described to us Epirus and they don’t distinguish them ethnically from the Illyrians as they do from the “Greeks”.
Here is one;
“Ephorus says that, if one begins with the western parts, Acarnania is the beginning of Greece; for, he adds, Acarnania is the first to border on the tribes of the Epeirotes. But just as Ephorus, using the sea-coast as his measuring-line, begins with Acarnania (for he decides in favour of the sea as a kind of guide in his description of places…so it is proper that I too, following the natural character of the regions, should make the sea my counselor”.~Strabo Geography Book VIII, Chapter 1, 3
EXAMPLE NR. 4I. But my own belief about it is this. If the Phoenicians did in fact carry away the sacred women and sell one in Libya and one in Hellas, then, in my opinion, the place where this woman was sold in what is now Hellas, but was formerly called Pelasgia, was Thesprotia; [2] and then, being a slave there, she established a shrine of Zeus under an oak that was growing there; for it was reasonable that, as she had been a handmaid of the temple of Zeus at Thebes , she would remember that temple in the land to which she had come. [3] After this, as soon as she understood the Greek language, she taught divination; and she said that her sister had been sold in Libya by the same Phoenicians who sold herHerodotus 2.56
DECONSTRUCTION:
Here again Herodotus is purposefully miss quoted, the important parts are left outside as to fulfill the “Greek” emptiness inside of them. By reading the above quote a person who is not very knowledgeable with history can easily be manipulated and miss led to believe that Hellas were Pelasgians who were in Thesprotia and are Thersprots which in turn makes them “Greeks” = modern “Greeks”.
But they forget that Pelasgians and the Thesprots we not “Greeks” below are quotes from “Greek” people like Strabo that say this.
57. What the language of the Pelasgi was I cannot say with any certainty. If, however, we may form a conjecture from the tongue spoken by the Pelasgi of the present day, – those, for instance, who live at Creston above the Tyrrhenians, who formerly dwelt in the district named Thessaliotis, and were neighbours of the people now called the Dorians, – or those again who founded Placia and Scylace upon the Hellespont, who had previously dwelt for some timewith the Athenians, – or those, in short, of any other of the cities which have dropped the name but are in fact Pelasgian; if, I say, we are to form a conjecture from any of these, we must pronounce that the Pelasgi spoke a barbarous language. If this were really so, and the entire Pelasgic race spoke the same tongue, the Athenians, who were certainly Pelasgi, must have changed their language at the same time that they passed into the Hellenic body; for it is a certain fact that the people of Creston speak a language unlike any of their neighbours, and the same is true of the Placianians, while the language spoken by these two people is the same; which shows that they both retain the idiom which they brought with them into the countries where they are now settled.58. The Hellenic race has never, since its first origin, changed its speech. This at least seems evident to me. 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.Herodotus on the Pelasgians and the Early Greeks
Here we see that the Hellens whom the modern “Greeks” claim to be were a branch of the Pelasgians who in time intermingled with other races which made another one and were now distinguished from their ethnic one, for the Pelasgians, the familly which they came from is now called by the Hellens themselves “barbarians”. So great must these changes have been for the branch of the Pelasgiasn who intermingled with other races forgot their original language!
Where as the Epiriot-Pelasgian connection is more affiliated.
“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”.Strabo 5.2.4
Even Thucydides firmly seperated Epirots from ‘Greeks’ because he labeled (Epirots) as Barbarians
καὶ αὐτῷ παρῆσαν Ἑλλήνων μὲν Ἀμπρακιῶται καὶ Λευκάδιοι καὶ Ἀνακτόριοι καὶ οὓς αὐτὸς ἔχων ἦλθε χίλιοι Πελοποννησίων, βάρβαροι δὲ Χάονες χίλιοι ἀβασίλευτοι, ὧν ἡγοῦντο ἐπετησίῳ προστατείᾳ ἐκ τοῦ ἀρχικοῦ γένους Φώτιος καὶ Νικάνωρ. ξυνεστρατεύοντο δὲ μετὰ Χαόνων καὶ Θεσπρωτοὶ ἀβασίλευτοι. [6] Μολοσσοὺς* δὲ ἦγε καὶ Ἀτιντᾶνας* Σαβύλινθος ἐπίτροπος ὢν Θάρυπος τοῦ βασιλέως ἔτι παιδὸς ὄντος, καὶ Παραυαίους Ὄροιδος βασιλεύων. Ὀρέσται δὲ χίλιοι, ὧν ἐβασίλευεν Ἀντίοχος+, μετὰ Παραυαίων ξυνεστρατεύοντο Ὀροίδῳ* Ἀντιόχου ἐπιτρέψαντος. [7] ἔπεμψε δὲ καὶ Περδίκκας κρύφα τῶν Ἀθηναίων χιλίους Μακεδόνων, οἳ ὕστερον ἦλθον.The Hellenic troops with him consisted of the Ambraciots, Leucadians, and Anactorians, and the thousand Peloponnesians with whom he came; the barbarian of a thousand Chaonians, who, belonging to a nation that has no king, were led by Photius and Nicanor, the two members of the royal family to whom the chieftainship for that year had been confided. With the Chaonians came also some Thesprotians, like them without a king, [6] some Molossians and Atintanians led by Sabylinthus, the guardian of king Tharyps who was still a minor, and some Paravaeans, under their King Oroedus, accompanied by a thousand Orestians, subjects of King Antiochus and placed by him under the command of Oroedus. [7] There were also a thousand Macedonians sent by Perdiccas without the knowledge of the Athenians, but they arrived too late.Thucydides, The Peloponnesian War 2.80.1
Strabo only reinforces Thucydides claim when he says:
“These alone, then, of all the tribes that are marked off by the Ister and by the Illyrian and Thracian mountains, deserve to be mentioned, occupying as they do the whole of the Adriatic seaboard beginning at the recess, and also the seaboard that is called “the left parts of the Pontus,” and extends from the Ister River as far as Byzantium. But there remain to be described the southerly parts of the aforesaid mountainous country and next thereafter the districts that are situated below them, among which are both Greece and the adjacent barbarian country as far as the mountains. Now Hecataeus of Miletus says of the Peloponnesus that before the time of the Greeks it was inhabited by barbarians. Yet one might say that in the ancient times the whole of Greece was a settlement of barbarians, if one reasons from the traditions themselves: Pelops brought over peoples from Phrygia to the Peloponnesus that received its name from him; and Danaüs from Egypt; whereas the Dryopes, the Caucones, the Pelasgi, the Leleges, and other such peoples, apportioned among themselves the parts that are inside the isthmus — and also the parts outside, for Attica was once held by the Thracians who came with Eumolpus, Daulis in Phocis by Tereus, Cadmeia by the Phoenicians who came with Cadmus, and Boeotia itself by the Aones and Temmices and Hyantes. According to Pindar, there was a time when the Boeotian tribe was called “Syes.” Moreover, the barbarian origin of some is indicated by their names — Cecrops, Codrus, Aïclus, Cothus, Drymas, and Crinacus. And even to the present day the Thracians, Illyrians, and Epeirotes live on the flanks of the Greeks (though this was still more the case formerly than now); indeed most of the country that at the present time is indisputably Greece is held by the barbarians — Macedonia and certain parts of Thessaly by the Thracians, and the parts above Acarnania and Aetolia by the Thesproti, the Cassopaei, the Amphilochi, the Molossi, and the Athamanes — Epeirotic tribes.Strabo Geography Book VII, Chapter 7, 1
When it comes to the people who inhabited the ancient Epirus modern “Greeks” are the only ones that try and spin the meaning of the term “barbarian’ as to say that is was a lower “Greek” citizen, this is all done to justify the military occupation of lower Epirus/Çameria and lay claim to the Southern Albania/Toskeria, but this opens more debates and contradictions! What about the other people that were called “Barbarians” were they “Greeks” and why not?
“In Homer, there are no barbarians, but, then, there are no Greekseither; subsequently, to affrim some to be Greeks went hand in hand with declaring the others to be barbarians. Without Greeks there can be no barbarians, and so, to that extent, Herodotus is not the ‘inventor’ of the barbarian“~THE MIRROR OF HERODOTUS, By FRANçOIS HARTOG,1988, PAGE 323)
EXAMPLE NR. 528. CHAONES. And after Illyrians, Chaonians. And Chaonia has good harbours: and the Chaonians live in villages. And the coastal voyage of Chaonia is a half of a day.Pseudo Scylax
DECONSTRUCTION:
There is no other text more miss interpreted from the “Greks” than the one above taken from Scylax the geographer.
Even though the above quotes distort their claim of Epirus being “Greek” they do it because the said geographer maps out the territories of Epiriots which fall outside of the territories of the Illyrians, but this is not an ethnic division but a political and administrative one. Scylax notes that only beyond Ambracia, the Peneus and the town or mountain of Homotion in Magnesia, had the Greeks begun to inhabit the region in a compact manner“.
So what we see here is a clear distinction of the Epiriots from the Hellens for the Epiriotes were “Barbarians”.
33. AMBRAKIA. And after Molottia, Ambrakia, a Hellenic city: and this is distant from sea 80 stades. And there is also upon the sea a fort and an enclosed harbour. From here Hellas begins to be continuous as far as Peneios river and Homolion, a city of Magnesian territory, which is beside the river. And the coastal voyage of Ambrakia is of 120 stades.
Here again another “Greek” distinguishes the Epiriots from the “Greeks”!
“…After the Epeirotes and the Illyrians, then, come the following peoples of the Greeks: the Acarnanians, the Aetolians, and the Ozolian Locrians…
~Strabo Geography Book VIII, Chapter 1, 1
“Ephorus says that, if one begins with the western parts, Acarnania is the beginning of Greece; for, he adds, Acarnania is the first to border on the tribes of the Epeirotes. But just as Ephorus, using the sea-coast as his measuring-line, begins with Acarnania (for he decides in favour of the sea as a kind of guide in his description of places…so it is proper that I too, following the natural character of the regions, should make the sea my counsellor.
~Strabo Geography Book VIII, Chapter 1, 3
Further more in the works of the “Greek” geographer Strabo in his description of “Greece” no where does he mention Epirus.
Chapter 1: Greece, generalitiesChapter 2: The PeloponnesusChapter 3: EleaChapter 4: MesseniaChapter 5: LaconiaChapter 6: ArgolisChapter 7: IoniaChapter 8: Arcadia9Chapter 1: AtticaChapter 2: BoeotiaChapter 3: PhocisChapter 4: LocrisChapter 5: Thessaly
Back to Scylax:
26. TAULANTIOI. And of the Taulantians is the Illyric nation, in which Epidamnos is, and a river flows beside the city which has the name Palamnos. And out of Epidamnos to Apollonia, a Hellenic city, is a road of two days. And Apollonia is distant from the sea 50 stades, and the river Aias flows beside the city. And from Apollonia into Amantia is 320 stades. And the Aias river from the Pindos Mountain flows beside Apollonia. [And] towards [Amantia] inland, somewhat into the Ionian gulf is Orikos. It comes down from Orikia to the sea 90 stades, and from Amantia 60 stades. Sharing a border with all these in the interior are Atintanes above Orikia and Karia* as far as Dodonia. And in the Kestris territory is said to be a pedion, name Erytheia. Here Geryones is said to come and pasture his oxen. By these places are the Keraunian mountains in Epeiros, and there is an island beside these places, a small one, which has the name Sason. From here to Orikos city is a coastal voyage of a day’s third part.
The above paragraph mentions the Atintanes (peopled regions up to the Dodona) who were Illyrians, claim this also somewhat accepted by Nicholas G. Hammond even though he speculates and tries to make them some kind of Illyrian-Greeks?!!
To finish it off I would like to recall the passage from Appian of the descriptions of the Illyrian tribes, included in are the Kaones and the Thesprotes.
I.The Greeks call those people Illyrians who occupy the region beyond Macedonia and Thrace from Chaonia and Thesprotia to the river Ister (Danube). This is the length of the country. Its breadth is from Macedonia and the mountains of Thrace to Pannonia and the Adriatic and the foot-hills of the Alps. Its breadth is five days’ journey and its length thirty — so the Greek writers say. The Romans measured the country and found its length to be upward of 6000 stades and its width about 1200Ἰλλυριοὺς Ἕλληνες ἡγοῦνται τοὺς ὑπέρ τε Μακεδονίαν καὶ Θρᾴκην ἀπὸ Χαόνων καὶ Θεσπρωτῶν ἐπὶ ποταμὸν Ἴστρον. καὶ τοῦτ’ ἐστὶ τῆς χώρας τὸ μῆκος, εὖρος δ’ ἐκ Μακεδόνων τε καὶ Θρᾳκῶν τῶν ὀρείων ἐπὶ Παιονας καὶ τὸν Ἰόνιον καὶ τὰ πρόποδα τῶν Ἄλπεων. καὶ ἔστι τὸ μὲν εὖρος ἡμερῶν πέντε, τὸ δὲ μῆκος τριάκοντα, καθὰ καὶ τοῖς Ἕλλησιν εἴρηται. Ῥωμαίων δὲ τὴν χώραν μετρησαμένων ἔστιν ὑπὲρ ἑξακισχιλίους σταδίους τὸ μῆκος, καὶ τὸ πλάτος ἀμφὶ τοὺς χιλίους καὶ διακοσίους.APPIAN, The Foreign Wars ( The Illyrian Wars) Ill. 1.1
Categories :
Uncategorized
-
Kiprof2
-
fuckgreece
