The Strymon River rises in the country of the Agrianes who live round about Rhodope.

Some represent the Paeonians as colonists from the Phrygians, while others represent them as independent founders. And it is said that Paeonia has extended as far as Pelagonia and Pieria; that Pelagonia was called Orestia in earlier times, that Asteropaeus, one of the leaders who made the expedition from Paeonia to Troy, was not without good reason called “son of Pelegon,” and that the Paeonians themselves were called Pelagonians.

The Homeric “Asteropaeus son of Pelegon”Hom. Il. 21.141 was, as history tells us, from Paeonia in Macedonia; wherefore “son of Pelegon,” for the Paeonians were called Pelagonians.

Since the “paeanismos”i.e., “the chanting of the paean.” of the Thracians is called “titanismos” by the Greeks, in imitation of the cryThe cry to Titan. uttered in paeans, the Titans too were called Pelagonians.

It is clear that in early times, as now, the Paeonians occupied much of what is now Macedonia, so that they could not only lay siege to Perinthus but also bring under their power all Crestonia and Mygdonis and the country of the Agrianes as far as Pangaeurum.See Frag. 34. Philippi and the region about Philippi lie above that part of the seaboard of the Strymonic Gulf which extends from Galepsus as far as Nestus. In earlier times Pllilippi was called Crenides, and was only a small settlement, but it was enlarged after the defeat of Brutus and Cassius.In 42 B.C., after which it was made a Roman colony.