After Ambracia comes Argos Amphilochicum, founded by Alcmaeon and his children. According to Ephorus, at any rate, Alcmaeon, after the expedition of the Epigoni against Thebes, on being invited by Diomedes, went with him into Aetolia and helped him acquire both this country and Acarnania; and when Agamemnon summoned them to the Trojan war, Diomedes went, but Alcmaeon stayed in Acarnania, founded Argos, and named it Amphilochicum after his brother; and he named the river which flows through the country into the Ambracian Gulf “Inachus,” after the river in the Argeian country. But according to Thucydides,Thuc. 2.68. Amphilochus himself, after his return from Troy, being displeased with the state of affairs at Argos, passed on into Acarnania, and on succeeding to his brother’s dominion founded the city that is named after him.

The Amphilochians are Epeirotes; and so are the peoples who are situated above them and border on the Illyrian mountains, inhabiting a rugged country—I mean the Molossi, the Athamanes, the Aethices, the Tymphaei, the Orestae, and also the Paroraei and the Atintanes, some of them being nearer to the Macedonians and others to the Ionian Gulf. It is said that Orestes once took possession of Orestias—when is, exile on account of the murder of his mother—and left the country bearing his name; and that he also founded a city and called it Argos Oresticum. But the Illyrian tribes which are near the southern part of the mountainous country and those which are above the Ionian Gulf are intermingled with these peoples; for above Epidamnus and Apollonia as far as the Ceraunian Mountains dwell the Bylliones, the Taulantii, the Parthini, and the Brygi. Somewhere near by are also the silver mines of Damastium,The site of Damstium is unknown. Imhoof-Blumer (Ztschr. f. Numism. 1874, Vol. I. pp. 99 ff.) think that is might be identified with what is now Tepeleni, on the Viosa River. But so far as is now known, there is no silver ore in Epeirus or Southern Illyria. Philippson (Pauly-Wissowa, s.v. “Damastion”) suggests that Argyrium (now Argyrocastro, on the Viosa) might be connected with the presence of silver. around which the Dyestae and the Encheleii (also called Sesarethii) together established their dominion; and near these people are also the Lyncestae, the territory Deuriopus, Pelagonian Tripolitis, the Eordi, Elimeia, and Eratyra. In earlier times these peoples were ruled separately, each by its own dynasty. For instance, it was the descendants of Cadmus and Harmonia who ruled over the Encheleii; and the scenes of the stories told about them are still pointed out there. These people, I say, were not ruled by men of native stock; and the Lyncestae became subject to Arrabaeus, who was of the stock of the Bacchiads (Eurydice, the mother of Philip, Amyntas’ son, was Arrabaeus’ daughter’s daughter and Sirra was his daughter); and again, of the Epeirotes, the Molossi became subject to Pyrrhus, the son of Neoptolemus the son of Achilles, and to his descendants, who were Thessalians. But the rest were ruled by men of native stock. Then, because one tribe or another was always getting the mastery over others, they all ended in the Macedonian empire, except a few who dwelt above the Ionian Gulf. And in fact the regions about Lyncus, Pelagonia, Orestias, and Elimeia, used to be called Upper Macedonia, though later on they were by some also called Free Macedonia. But some go so far as to call the whole of the country Macedonia, as far as Corcyra, at the same time stating as their reason that in tonsure, language, short cloak, and other things of the kind, the usages of the inhabitants are similar,That is, to those of the Macedonians. although, they add, some speak both languages. But when the empire of the Macedonians was broken up, they fell under the power of the Romans. And it is through the country of these tribes that the Egnatian RoadSee 7. 7. 4. runs, which begins at Epidamnus and Apollonia. Near the Road to CandaviaSee 7. 7. 4. are not only the lakes which are in the neighborhood of Lychnidus,Now Ochrida. on the shores of which are salt-fish establishments that are independent of other waters, but also a number of rivers, some emptying into the Ionian Gulf and others flowing in a southerly direction—I mean the Inachus, the Aratthus, the Acheloüs and the Evenus (formerly called the Lycormas); the Aratthus emptying into the Ambracian Gulf, the Inachus into the Acheloüs, the Acheloüs itself and the Evenus into the sea—the Acheloüs after traversing Acarnania and the Evenus after traversing Aetolia. But the Erigon, after receiving many streams from the Illyrian mountains and from the countries of the Lyncestae, Brygi, Deuriopes, and Pelagonians, empties into the Axius.

In earlier times there were also cities among these tribes; at any rate, Pelagonia used to be called Tripolitis,“Country of three cities.” one of which was Azorus; and all the cities of the Deuriopes on the Erigon River were populous, among which were Bryanium, Alalcomenae, and Stubara. And Cydrae belonged to the Brygi, while Aeginium, on the border of Aethicia and Tricca,Now Trikala. belonged to the Tymphaei. When one is already near to Macedonia and to Thessaly, and in the neighborhood of the Poeus and the Pindus Mountains, one comes to the country of the Aethices and to the sources of the Peneius River, the possession of which is disputed by the Tymphaei and those Thessalians who live at the foot of the Pindus, and to the city Oxineia, situated on the Ion River one hundred and twenty stadia from Azorus in Tripolitis. Near by are Alalcomenae, Aeginium, Europus, and the confluence of the Ion River with the Peneius. Now although in those earlier times, as I have said, all Epeirus and the Illyrian country were rugged and full of mountains, such as Tomarus and Polyanus and several others, still they were populous; but at the present time desolation prevails in most parts, while the parts that are still inhabited survive only in villages and in ruins. And even the oracle at Dodona,See articles s.v. “Dodona” in Pauly-Wissowa and Encyclopedia Britannica. like the rest, is virtually extinct.

This oracle, according to Ephorus, was founded by the Pelasgi. And the Pelasgi are called the earliest of all peoples who have held dominion in Greece. And the poet speaks in this way: “O Lord Zeus, Dodonaean, Pelasgian”;Hom. Il. 16.233 and Hesiod: “He came to Dodona and the oak-tree, seat of the Pelasgi.”Hes. Fr. 212 (Rzach) The Pelasgi I have already discussed in my description of Tyrrhenia;5. 2. 4. and as for the people who lived in the neighborhood of the temple of Dodona, Homer too makes it perfectly clear from their mode of life, when he calls them “men with feet unwashen, men who sleep upon the ground,”Hom. Il. 16.235. that they were barbarians; but whether one should call them “Helli,” as Pindar does, or “Selli,” as is conjectured to be the true reading in Homer, is a question to which the text, since it is doubtful, does not permit a positive answer. Philochorus says that the region round about Dodona, like Euboea, was called Hellopia, and that in fact Hesiod speaks of it in this way: “There is a land called Hellopia, with many a corn-field and with goodly meadows; on the edge of this land a city called Dodona hath been built.”Hes. Fr. 134 (Rzach) It is thought, Apollodorus says, that the land was so called from the marshesThe Greek for marshes is “Hele.” around the temple; as for the poet, however, Apollodorus takes it for granted that he did not call the people who lived about the temple “Helli,” but “Selli,” since (Apollodorus adds) the poet also named a certain river Selleeïs. He names it, indeed, when he says, “From afar, out of Ephyra, from the River Selleeïs”Hom. Il. 2.659; 15.531; however, as Demetrius of Scepsis says, the poet is not referring to the Ephyra among the Thesprotians, but to that among the Eleians, for the Selleeïs is among the Eleians, he adds, and there is no Selleeïs among the Thesprotians, nor yet among the Molossi. And as for the myths that are told about the oak-tree and the doves, and any other myths of the kind, although they, like those told about Delphi, are in part more appropriate to poetry, yet they also in part properly belong to the present geographical description.

In ancient times, then, Dodona was under the rule of the Thesprotians; and so was Mount Tomarus,Now Mt. Olytsika. or Tmarus (for it is called both ways), at the base of which the temple is situated. And both the tragic poets and Pindar have called Dodona “Thesprotian Dodona.” But later on it came under the rule of the Molossi. And it is after the Tomarus, people say, that those whom the poet calls interpreters of Zeus—whom he also calls “men with feet unwashen, men who sleep upon the ground”Hom. Il. 16.235.—were called “tomouroi”; and in the Odyssey some so write the words of Amphinomus, when he counsels the wooers not to attack Telemachus until they inquire of Zeus: “If the tomouroi of great Zeus approve, I myself shall slay, and I shall bid all the rest to aid, whereas if god averts it, I bid you stop.”Hom. Od. 16.403 For it is better, they argue, to write “tomouroi” than “themistes”; at any rate, nowhere in the poet are the oracles called “themistes,” but it is the decrees, statutes, and laws that are so called; and the people have been called “tomouroi” because “tomouroi” is a contraction of “tomarouroi,” the equivalent of “tomarophylakes.”“Guardians of Mt. Tomarus.” Now although the more recent critics say “tomouroi,” yet in Homer one should interpret “themistes” (and also “boulai”) in a simpler way, though in a way that is a misuse of the term, as meaning those orders and decrees that are oracular, just as one also interprets “themistes” as meaning those that are made by law. For example, such is the case in the following: “to give ear to the decree“Boulê.” of Zeus from the oak-tree of lofty foliage.Hom. 14.328