Chaonia

Chaonia (Χαονία)
Region of Ancient Greece
Theatre of Buthrotum
Theatre of Buthrotum
LocationNorthern/Northwestern Epirus
Tribal state (later subdivision of Epirus)8th–2nd centuries BC
LanguageNorthwestern Greek
CapitalPhoenice
Regions of Ancient Greece.

Chaonia or Chaon (Ancient Greek: Χαονία or Χάων) was the name of the northwestern part of Epirus, the homeland of the Epirote Greek tribe of the Chaonians.[1][2] It was one of the three main areas of ethnic division of Epirus, the other being Molossia and Thesprotia.[3]

Chaonia traditionally stretched between the Thyamis river in the south and the Akrokeraunian range in the north,[4] between present-day Greece and Albania. Its main town was called Phoenice. In Virgil's Aeneid, Chaon was the eponymous ancestor of the Chaonians.[5]

  1. ^ Errington, Malcolm. A History of Macedonia. University of California Press, 1990.
  2. ^ The Cambridge Ancient History: Vol. 6, the Fourth Century BC.
  3. ^ Chapinal-Heras 2021, p. 20.
  4. ^ Chapinal-Heras 2021, p. 21.
  5. ^ Virgil. Aeneid, 3.