Lynkestis
[1] In its earlier history, Lynkestis was an independent polity ruled by a local dynasty which claimed descent from the Bacchiadae, a Greek aristocratic family from ancient Corinth.
[18][19] In the second half of the 5th century BC Lynkestis was the strongest tribal state in Upper Macedonia under king Arrhabaeus, son of Bomerus.
Lynkestis bordered with Pelagonia to the northeast, Emathia and Almopia to the southeast, and Orestia, Eordaia and the Haliacmon river at some distance to the south.
[31] Another important east–west route between Illyria and Macedonia was controlled by Heraclea Lyncestis, which was founded by Philip to prevent Illyrian raids from the west into Macedon.
According to the season of the year the mostly nomadic pastoralist people of the area moved their flocks of cattle, goats and sheep to the various pasture lands.
[36] The inhabitants of Lynkestis, like other peoples in Upper Macedonia, were mostly nomadic tribes, who were ruled by individual chieftains and who probably lived in basic settlements in the tribal areas instead of actual towns.
[5] Following the withdrawal of the Bryges in c. 800 BC the Lyncestae formed their separate political entity like the rest of the Upper Macedonian populations.
[51] About mid 5th century BC a royal dynasty claiming descent from aristocratic Bacchiad exiles from Corinth, who went to Lynkestis through Corcyra and Illyria, established itself ruling over Lynkestian Macedonians.
[2] It is suggested that the royal family was generally considered to be outsiders by the Lynkestian citizens,[52][53] and Herodotus noted that the Bacchiadae practiced endogamy.
[54] In the second half of the 5th century BC Lynkestis was the strongest tribal state in Upper Macedonia under Bomerus' son Arrhabaeus,[20] who was the first attested Lynkestian ruler.
[55] A nominal confederacy between Lynkestis and the Upper Macedonian regions of Elimeia, Orestis and Pelagonia as well as Lower Macedonia (Pieria and Bottiaea) was created during the reign of Alexander I of Macedon (c. 495–454 B.C.).
[57] During the Peloponnesian War, a coalition of Lynkestians under Arrhabaeus and Illyrians defeated the joined forces of the Macedonian king Perdiccas II, who had wanted to invade Lynkestis, and the Spartan leader Brasidas, at the Battle of Lyncestis in 423 BC.
Perdiccas was interested in peace with Lynkestis due to his recent defeat in the Lynkestian campaign, the Lynkestian-Illyrian collaboration, and his new enmity with Brasidas.
[59] In 413 Perdiccas's son Archelaus obtained the throne of Macedon, and he evidently continued his father's conflict against the Lynkestians, probably involving Illyrians.
[60] Additionally, Archelaus made general ameliorations to the military and reinforced the borders of his kingdom,[62] which apparently held the Illyrians momentarily at bay.
[63] The Illyrians (or an Illyrian-Lynkestian coalition) under king Bardylis invaded Macedon in 393 BC,[64] reaching Lower Macedonia as far as the Thermaic Gulf.
This was not the case of the non-Greek populations (Thracians and Paeonians) indicating that the Lynkestae shared a common Greek identity with the core of the Macedonian kingdom.
[77] Amyntas, one of the commanders sent by Philip II to defeat some of the Greek cities in Asia Minor, was a son of the Lynkestian king Arrhabaeus.
[11] The Macedonian population residing in Upper and Lower Macedonia appears to have spoken a language that belonged to the same branch of the Indo-European family.
Whereas the adjacent populations in Illyria and Thrace spoke different languages that belong to separate branches of the Indo-European linguistic family.
[39] Based on the fact that Lynkestis was one of the regions that was previously inhabited by the Bryges, it has been suggested that there may have been a 'Brygian' substratum or a strong influence by this Paleo-Balkan people.
[82] A corpus of inscriptions from the region of Lynkestis (city of Heraclea Lyncestis and its vicinity), was published by Fanula Papazoglou et al. in 1999.
