Although the earliest contacts appear to have been more pre-colonial activity rather than permanent settlement, an ancient, still archaeologically unproven tradition claims that the city was founded as a Locrian–Euboean colony on the fringes of the territory of the Amantes.
The city was attested by Ancient Greek epigraphy as Θρόνιον (Thronion), inscribed on a monument erected by Apolloniates in Olympia,[1] as well as on an official inquiry of the oracle of Dodona.
[2] The Apollonian monument at Olympia was found by archaeologist Emil Kunze, but it was already documented by ancient geographer Pausanias (2nd century CE), who mentioned Thronion as a Locrian–Euboean colony and calls it a πόλισμα polisma.
[5] Pausanias places Thronion in front of the Acroceraunian Mountains and on the fringes of Abantis, which was the Hellenistic Greek interpretation of Amantia,[6] the latter being attested by Pseudo-Scylax (mid-4th century BCE) who located it in southern Illyria, corresponding to the hinterland of the Bay of Vlorë.
[7] The interpretation of the toponym Amantia as Abantia besides mythological stories has been rationalized by ancient authors as a part of a colonization of the area from Euboea,[5] which so far has not yet been proven by modern research.
[9] The data from Pausanias and the Apollonian conquest of the city support the placement of the Euboean colony of Thronion on the coastal site of Triport located northwest of Vlorë and in front of the Acroceraunian Mountains.
The same legend linked to the nostoi is taken up by Pausanias (2nd century CE) about the region of Thronion, a city which was to have been founded by a group of Locrians and Abantes – the Homeric designation of the Euboeans – during their return from the Trojan conflict.
[20] Pausanias' data have been compared with the information provided by an Apollonian commemorative monument, suggesting an "oppositional ethnicity" between the Greek colonial associations of the Bay of Aulon (i.e. the area called Abantis), and the barbarians of the hinterland.