Molossians

Following the war, the region witnessed devastation while a considerable number of Molossians and other Epirotes were enslaved and transported to the Roman Republic, in the Italian Peninsula.

"Never, with them on guard," says Virgil, "need you fear for your stalls a midnight thief, or onslaught of wolves, or Iberian brigands at your back."

Strabo records that the Thesprotians, Molossians and Macedonians referred to old men as pelioi (πελιοί) and old women as peliai (πελιαί) (

[7] According to Johannes Engels (2010) in the Oxford Companion to Macedonia, genealogical links through the Trojan cycle and other myths strongly connected Epirus with the rest of Greece, precluding serious debate about the Greekness of the Epirotes, including the Molossians.

[10] The area of Pogoni has been regarded as the heartland of the Molossian tribes due to the large number of tumuli burials found in this region dating from that time.

[11] They initially lived in small unwalled settlements, kata komas, mainly scattered in the river valleys and lakeside areas of central Epirus.

[18] The Epirotes were traditionally on friendly terms with the Corinthians, however in 5th century BC during the last decades of the reign of Tharyps, the Molossians adopted a pro-Athenian policy.

[23] Alcetas eventually managed to restore his power and brought the Molossian state closer to Athens (the traditional enemy of Sparta).

The ruling Molossian Aeacidae dynasty managed to create the first centralized state in Epirus c. 370 BC, expanding their power at the expense of rival tribes.

Pyrrhus, being a skillful general, was encouraged to aid the Greeks of Tarentum and decided to initiate a major offensive in the Italian peninsula and Sicily.

Subsequently, Pyrrhus's forces nearly reached the outskirts of Rome, but had to retreat to avoid an unequal conflict with a more numerous Roman army.

The following year, Pyrrhus invaded Apulia (279 BC) and the two armies met in the Battle of Asculum where the Epirotes won the eponymous Pyrrhic victory, at a high cost.

[31] In the following years, Epirus faced the growing threat of the expansionist Roman Republic, which fought a series of wars with Macedonia.

[33] In historiography, the decision of the senate has been the subject of much debate, as the two main anti-Roman powers of the time in that region, the Macedonians and the Illyrians, suffered few consequences in contrast to the Molossians in terms of punishment.

The modern interpretation of the events, focuses more on the structural reasons which led to this decision by the Romans rather than the personal politics of regional actors.

The Roman senate, which represented the landowning elite, specifically targeted the Molossians because of the proximity of their territory to Brundisium and Taranto would require a much lower cost of transportation.

[36] However, recent research and new interpretations on the scale of the devastation has challenged those traditional views by some contemporary authors, as such those claims about 70 razed settlements and 150,000 captured slaves were not exact, but symbolic figures.

[37] Though the region witnessed widescale destruction the Greek language in Epirus showed remarkable vitality in the following centuries both in the cities as well as outside them.

[42] Linguist Vladimir Georgiev argues that northwestern Greece, including Molossia, was part of the proto-Greek region, before the Late Bronze Age migrations.

[8] Earlier historians (Nilsson (1909 and 1951), Meyer (1878)) argued for a possible partial Hellenization of pre-classical Epirus, with Greek elites ruling over a population of non-Greek origin.

In each given historical era, the Molossians were regarded as "barbarians" by many contemporary Greeks, not on the basis of language, but because of their tribal way of life, their organization, and their pastoral economy.

[48][8] A wider hellenization process among Molossians and other Epirotes continued after the Roman conquest,[49] nevertheless most scholars don't object the fact that they were Greek in terms of language.

[53][54] The list, which was compiled in 360 BC, includes the sacred envoys (members of the ruling family of each tribe or subtribe) of the Molossians, Kassopeans, Chaonians and Thesprotians.

Such genealogies were known and widely accepted in Ancient Greece at least from the end of the Archaic period, as demonstrated in the poems of Pindar (c. 518 – 438 BC) dedicated to the Achaean Neoptolemos.

In the case of the Molossian ruling class, the philosopher who has been credited with much of the mythological construction of their origins is Proxenus of Atarneus (early 4th century BC).

[70] An important point is that the function of this construction of a fictional genealogy by the ruling dynasty of the Molossians was not to Hellenize the ethnic origin of their people, but to heroize their house.

[48] In this context, the purpose of the constructed genealogy was to provide the Molossian dynasty with a "cultural passport as Greeks" in their relations with other ruling houses.

[72] Plutarch writes a story that was related to him, according to which, the Molossian king Tharrhypas was the first in his dynasty to become renowned, as he organized his cities on a system of Greek customs, rules and regulations.

The state officials now were: the king, the prostates, the secretary (grammateus) and a board of fifteen synarchontes (Greek: συνάρχοντες), literally meaning "co-rulers", instead of the earlier ten damiourgoi.

[77] An inscription from the 4th century stated (referring to Alexander I of Epirus):[78] When King was Alexandros when of Molossoi prostatas was Aristomachos Omphalas secretary was Menedamos Omphalas resolved by the assembly of the Molossoi; Kreston is benefactor hence to give citizenship to Kteson and descent lineThe shrine of Dodona was used for the display of public decisions.