Chaonians

Regions of mainland Greece in antiquity. Chaonia stretched along the Ionian coast

The Chaonians (Ancient Greek: Χάονες, romanized: Cháones) were an ancient Greek people that inhabited the historical region of Epirus which today is part of northwestern Greece and southern Albania.[1][2] Together with the Molossians and the Thesprotians, they formed the main tribes of the northwestern Greek group.[1] In historical times on their southern frontier lay the Epirote kingdom of the Molossians, to their southwest stood the kingdom of the Thesprotians, and to their north the Illyrians.[3][4][5][6][7] By the 5th century BC, they had conquered and combined to a large degree with the neighboring Thesprotians and Molossians. The Chaonians were part of the Epirote League until 170 BC when their territory was annexed by the Roman Republic.

  1. ^ a b Encyclopædia Britannica ("Epirus") 2013; Hammond 1998, p. 75; Hammond 1994, pp. 430, 434; Hammond 1982, p. 284; Wilkes 1995, p. 104; Chanteli 2020, pp. 11, 41
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference Hatzopoulos was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Chapinal-Heras 2021, pp. 20–21: "On the topic of geography, it is important to note that Epirote boundaries cannot be reconstructed with certainty before the 5th century, as ancient sources do not pro-vide this type of information. The region is first mentioned by Hecataeus of Miletus: τῆς Ἠπείρου (550—476)103. The main ethnic division of Epirus distinguishes three areas: Thesprotia, Molossia, and Chaonia. The former extended from Ambrakia to the Thyamis river on the coast, and up to Dodona in the hinterland. Chaonia was sit-uated between this river and the Illyrian frontier, in the Akrokeraunian range. The Molossians, on the other hand, occupied a vast part of the hinterland, where the most fertile fields lay.104"
  4. ^ Bejko et al. 2015, p. 4: "As for where precisely in this topography of tribes of southern Illyria and Epirus Lofkend lies, there is no clear confirmation, except that the region is north of the Epirote tribes and thus in southern Illyria. The tumulus is located somewhat to the north of ancient Chaonia—usually located between the Thyamis River in Greek Epirus (the mod-ern Kalamas) and the Akrokeraunian headland, the modern Karaburun peninsula that defines the western edge of the bay of Vlorë, the ancient Aulon, in Albania (...)—and to the north and west of Atintania (...)."
  5. ^ Shpuza 2022, p. 553: "Dans un contexte plus large Orikos se situe dans une zone frontalière entre les Epirotes, plus spé-cifiquement les Chaònes situés au sud des monts Acrocérauniens, et les Illyriens dont le territoire le plus méridional se situe au pied de cette montagne."
  6. ^ Nitsiakos 2010, p. 453:"The ancient writers considered as northern border of Epirus the mountain Akrokeravnia, meaning the point that marked the end of the territory of the ancient Greek tribe Chaonians (Hammond 1967; Aravantinos 1984; Kokolakis 1993)."
  7. ^ Hernandez 2010, p. 1-2: The Chaonians occupied northwest Epirus, from the Gulf of Aulon to the Vourgos plain near Konispol along the coast