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A mountainous region in today’s northwestern Greece, Epirus was inhabited by the Greek tribes of the Chaonians, Molossians, and Thesprotians. It was home to the sanctuary of Dodona, the oldest oracle in ancient Greece, and the second most prestigious after Delphi.
Epirus has been inhabited since at least the Neolithic Age. The neolithic inhabitants of Epirus buried their leaders in large tumuli, which were mounds of earth raised over graves that contained shaft tombs similar to those made by Mycenaean peoples. Researchers attribute this ritualistic similarity to a possible ancestral link that may exist between the two peoples. Mycenaean remains have also been found in the region.
According to researcher James Minahan, Epirus was home to the early Greek-speaking people of the southern Balkan peninsula who moved further up north. Epirus’ inhabitants, the Epirotes, were seafaring people who lived near the Ionian Sea and hunters and herdsmen who lived in the mountainous interior. Their dialects were Dorian and northwest Greek.
The Greek toponym Epirus (Greek: Ήπειρος), meaning “mainland” or “continent”, first appears in the work of Hecataeus of Miletus in the 6th century BC.
More sophisticated Greek city-states in the south such as Athens or Thebes viewed the semi-nomadic Epirotes as barbarians. Nevertheless, Epirus was considered a holy region, with the oracle at Dodona being considered one of the primary sanctuaries of the Greek world. Also, the Necromanteion of Acheron, the temple of the Oracle of the Dead, where the faithful went to talk with their dead ancestors, was one of the most sacred places of antiquity.
The Epirote tribes often warred against the various Illyrian peoples to their north. These constant conflicts may have been an impetus for the confederation of an Epirote kingship.
The origin of the Molossian kingdom and its ruling dynasty is steeped in myth. Molossians are supposedly descendants of the mythological Molossus, one of the three sons of Neoptolemus, son of Achilles and Deidamia. After the sack of Troy, Neoptolemus and his armies settled in Epirus where they joined with the local population. Molossus inherited the kingdom of Epirus after the death of Helenus, son of Priam and Hecuba of Troy, who had married his erstwhile sister-in-law Andromache after Neoptolemus’ death.
Historically, the Molossians were among the known Greek tribes of the Mycenaean period (1600–1100 BC). The area of Pogoni in Epirus has been regarded as the heartland of the Molossian tribes due to the large number of tumuli burials found in this region dating from the Mycenaean period. They began expanding to the wider Epirus around the 6th century BC.
The Molossian kingdom and its king Admetus first appears in history in the writings of Thucydides and other historians. Thucydides wrote that after being expelled from Athens (472 or 471 BC) Themistocles took refuge in the court of Admetus in Molossia.
Recent archaeological excavations in the Ioannina Basin and literary and epigraphic evidence, indicate that the political and urban development of the region was due to the Molossian king Tharyps’ relationship with Athens and its influence, a few decades after the exiled Themistocles found shelter in King Admetus’ court. Tharyps spent a few years in Athens during the Peloponnesian Wars (431-404 BC) and the Athenian influence is evident in the sociopolitical changes in Molossia.
The construction of new unwalled settlements around that time can be linked to changes in the Molossian socio-political and administrative structure. Lists of magistrates found in epigraphic texts lead to a comparison with the Athenian system, indicating that from a tribal kingdom, Epirus slowly changed to a federal-type state.
Around 370 BC, the ruling Molossian Aeacidae dynasty created the first centralized state in Epirus. The Aeacids allied themselves with the kingdom of Macedon, in part against the common threat of Illyrian raids.
The most famous Epirote in antiquity was King Pyrrhus, a Molossian king who lived from 319 to 272 BC. From a young age, the Greek king was characterized by his ambition and his passion for fighting and the military. Pyrrhus ruled Epirus twice, from 306 to 302 BC and 297-272 BC.
Such was his fervor for fighting that Pyrrhus became a legendary figure. After him the phrase “Pyrrhic victory” was coined, still used today. It means winning a battle but at a very high cost.
Pyrrhus’ kingship was in jeopardy from the start. In 319 BC, Cassander, king of Macedon, overthrew his father Aeacides. Glaucias took infant Pyrrhus to Illyria to save and protect him. In 306 BC Pyrrhus was able to return to Epirus and claim the throne at age 13. He was too young for such a heavy load and was forced to flee again in 302 BC.
A year later, during the fourth War of the Diadochi (successors) of Alexander the Great, he joined Antigonus I Monophthalmus and his son Demetrius I Poliorcetes against a coalition of Cassander, Lysimachus, and Ptolemy I Nicator in the Battle of Ipsus in 301 BC.
The Antigonids were defeated, Antigonus was killed in battle and Demetrius escaped. As part of a peace treaty between Demetrius and Ptolemy I, Pyrrhus was given to the latter as hostage and taken to Alexandria.
Once there, Pyrrhus married Ptolemy’s step-daughter Antigone and was permitted to return to Epirus in 297 BCE. Once there, he eliminated his co-ruler Neoptolemus, and became king of Epirus.
Pyrrhus made Dodona the religious center of his kingdom and constructed a huge theater with 17,000 seats and several temples. He also organized four-yearly athletic games, the festival of Naïa, in honor of Zeus. He expanded his kingdom into southern Illyria and absorbed several provinces bordering Macedonia. He also formed alliances with several small kingdoms, further securing his position.
Then he campaigned against his former ally, Demetrius, an act that endeared him to the Macedonians. He allied with Lysimachus – whom he had fought against at Ipsus – and co-ruled Macedon for a few years. However, the ambitious Lysimachus drove him out of Macedon in 284 BC.
After that, Pyrrhus’ ambition had him set his eyes on the cities of Magna Graecia. That brought the Epirote king against the rising power of Rome. When the Greek city of Taras in the Italian peninsula called for help, he crossed the Adriatic with his army of 25,000 infantry, 20 war elephants, and a cavalry force of 3,000 to fight the Romans.
Pyrrhus won victories at Heraclea in 280 BC and Ausculum in 279 BC and marched towards Rome. The victories came with high losses of troops. It is said that when a friend congratulated him on his victories against the Romans, he exclaimed, “One more victory like that over the Romans will destroy us completely!”
To win these battles, Pyrrhus employed some new war techniques that would be used later by other Greek states. When the phalanx fought on rough terrain, he used local troops to fill gaps that occurred. He also successfully guarded his flanks using the same local contingents. These light-armed troops with their large oval shields, javelins, and swords would be later introduced by Pyrrhus into warfare in Greece. Another addition to the Greek way of fighting was to use cavalry armed with javelins, thus increasing the mobility and attacking potential of his army.
His Pyrrhic victories against the Romans won him many allies in southern Italy. In 278 BC he was called by the Greeks in Sicily to come and drive out the Carthaginians. Pyrrhus drove the invaders out and became king of Sicily. He then lifted the siege of Syracuse, also by Carthage. Three years later, the Sicilians became unhappy with his rule and rebelled against him, forcing him to move to mainland Italy.
There he met his old enemies, the Romans, and fought them at the Battle of Maleventum (renamed by the Romans Beneventum) in 275 BC. After that, he was forced to leave Italy and moved back to Greece where he established his base in the Peloponnese. From there he hoped to wrest the throne of Macedon from Antigonas II Gonatas. Once there, he met the exiled king of Sparta Cleonymus who asked him to attack Sparta and claim the throne. The Spartans held him at the Isthmus of Corinth, so he turned towards Argos. Once there, he met the hostile Argives and fought them. During the street battle, an old lady on a rooftop threw down a tile at his head. Dazed, the great commander fell from his horse and broke his spine, then was ruthlessly slain by the enemy.
As Plutarch wrote of Pyrrhus, “The general opinion of him was that for warlike experience, daring and personal valor, he had no equal among the kings of his time”.
