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197-583: The Despotate was centred on the region of Epirus , encompassing also Albania and the western portion of Greek Macedonia and also included Thessaly and western Greece as far south as Nafpaktos . Through a policy of aggressive expansion under Theodore Komnenos Doukas the Despotate of Epirus also briefly came to incorporate central Macedonia , with the establishment of the Empire of Thessalonica in 1224, and Thrace as far east as Didymoteicho and Adrianople , and

394-698: A single state in 370 BC by the Aeacidae dynasty, Epirus achieved fame during the reign of Pyrrhus of Epirus who fought the Roman Republic in a series of campaigns . Epirus subsequently became part of the Roman Republic along with the rest of Greece in 146 BC, which was followed by the Roman Empire and Eastern Roman Empire . Following the sack of Constantinople by the Fourth Crusade (1204), Epirus became

591-562: A Greek tribe with whom they were in contact in north Epirus . N. G. L. Hammond has pointed out that the names Graeci and Hellenes spread from contact with small tribes or with Graia, a defunct Greek polis in the Gulf of Euboea. According to Rene Olivier, in the French language the word grec ("Greek") is sometimes also used as an ethnic slur meaning "fraudster" (in contrast with hellénique which has no negative connotations). Hellenes in

788-533: A Muslim Albanian brigand who rose to become the provincial governor of Ioannina in 1788. At the height of his power, he controlled all of Epirus, and much of the Peloponnese , central Greece, and parts of western Macedonia Ali Pasha's campaign to subjugate the confederation of the settlements of Souli met with fierce resistance by the Souliot warriors of the mountainous area. After numerous failed attempts to defeat

985-554: A battleground in the rebellions of the Ostrogoths after 479. In 517, a raid of the Getae or Antae reached Greece, including Epirus Vetus . The claim of Procopius of Caesarea in his Secret History , that under Justinian I (r. 527–565) the entirety of the Balkan provinces was raided by barbarians every year, is considered rhetorical hyperbole by modern scholars; only a single Slavic raid to

1182-657: A cousin of the Byzantine emperors Isaac II Angelos and Alexios III Angelos . At first, Michael allied with Boniface of Montferrat , but having lost the Morea ( Peloponnese ) to the Franks at the battle of the Olive Grove of Koundouros , he went to Epirus , where he considered himself the Byzantine governor of the old province of Nicopolis and revolted against Boniface. Epirus soon became

1379-565: A divine status in Epirus and in the local dialect he was called Aspetos" (meaning unspeakable , unspeakably great , in Homeric Greek ). Beginning in 370 BC, the Molossian Aeacidae dynasty built a centralized state in Epirus and began expanding their power at the expense of rival tribes. The Aeacids allied themselves with the increasingly powerful kingdom of Macedon , in part against

1576-511: A haven for Greek refugees from the Latin Empire of Constantinople for the next half century. The Despotate of Epirus ruled over Epirus and western Greece as far south as Naupaktos and the Gulf of Corinth, much of Albania (including Dyrrhachium), Thessaly, and the western portion of Macedonia , extending its rule briefly over central Macedonia and most of Thrace following the aggressive expansionism of Theodore Komnenos Doukas , who established

1773-511: A major center of the modern Greek Enlightenment . Numerous schools were founded, such as the Balaneios, Maroutsaia , Kaplaneios , and Zosimaia , teaching subjects such as literature, philosophy, mathematics and physical sciences. In the 18th century, as the power of the Ottoman Empire declined, Epirus became a de facto independent region under the despotic rule of Ali Pasha of Tepelena ,

1970-562: A national name signifying an ethnic Greek to a cultural term signifying anybody who conducted his life according to Greek mores . A wholly different term came to establish itself in the East . The ancient people of the Middle East referred to the Hellenes as Yunan , deriving from Persian Yauna , itself a loan of Greek Ιωνία ( Ionia ), the western coast of Asia Minor . It is by affiliation with

2167-662: A purely religious meaning was slow, and complete by approximately the 2nd or 3rd century AD: Athenian statesman Aristeides , in his written Apology to the Emperor Hadrian , picked out the Hellenes as one of the representative pagan peoples of the world along with the Egyptians and the Chaldæans . Later, Clement of Alexandria reports an unknown Christian writer who named all of the above Hellenes and spoke of two old nations and one new:

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2364-789: A relatively small tribe in Thessaly . The Dorians , an important Greek-speaking group, appeared roughly at that time. According to the Greek tradition, the Graeci (Latin; Ancient Greek: Γραικοί , Graikoi , "Greeks") were renamed Hellenes probably with the establishment of the Great Amphictyonic League after the Trojan War. When the Romans first encountered Greek colonists in Southern Italy , they used

2561-576: A second time in 1374–1375. A truce was signed when Pjetër's son Gjin was betrothed to Thomas's daughter Irina, but she would soon die in the 1375 plague and hostilities would recommence. Preljubović attempted to pacify the Albanians of Epirus; however, under Gjin Bua Shpata , the Albanians defeated him. The reign of Esau de' Buondelmonti (1385–1411) in Ioannina followed, and with an army that consisted of

2758-503: A single central authority. Ioannina became a center of Greek resistance to the Albanian clans. The Greeks of Ioannina offered power to three foreign rulers during this time, beginning with Thomas II Preljubović (1367–1384), whose rule was marked by hostilities in the region, as Ioannina came under constant siege by the Mazaraki and Malakasi clans under Losha. These tribes would besiege Ioannina

2955-577: A small tribe in Thessaly of which Achilles was a member. After the name was extended to all peoples south of Mount Olympus , however, it still left out those of common origin living in the north. One factor contributing to this was their non-participation in the Persian Wars , which were considered a vital affair for all Hellenes; subsequent to the Persian Wars, representatives of these tribes were accepted in

3152-468: A strictly linguistic sense – these peoples were considered barbarophone to the extent that their dialects of Greek were sufficiently different and archaic so as to sound crude and barely understandable to a southern Attic speaker such as Thucydides. Similarly, when the Athenian orator Demosthenes called Philip II of Macedon worse than a barbarian in his Third Philippic , he did so with respect to

3349-729: A successor of Roman heritage on the grounds that Greeks have nothing to do with the Roman legacy. In 865, Pope Nicholas I wrote to the Emperor Michael III : "You ceased to be called 'Emperor of the Romans' since the Romans, of whom you claim to be Emperor, are in fact according to you barbarians." Henceforth, the emperor in the East was known and referred to in the West as Emperor of the Greeks and their land as Greek Empire , reserving both "Roman" titles for

3546-571: A tributary of the Vjosë flowing through the Vikos Gorge . The Vikos Gorge, one of the deepest in the world, forms the centerpiece of the Vikos–Aoös National Park , known for its scenic beauty. The only significant lake in Epirus is Lake Pamvotis , on whose shores lies the city of Ioannina , the region's largest and traditionally most important city. The climate of Epirus is Mediterranean along

3743-607: Is Hellene ( Ancient Greek : Ἕλλην ), pl. Hellenes ( Ἕλληνες ); the name Greeks ( Latin : Graeci ) was used by the ancient Romans and gradually entered the European languages through its use in Latin. The mythological patriarch Hellen is the named progenitor of the Greek peoples ; his descendants the Aeolians , Dorians , Achaeans and Ionians correspond to the main Greek tribes and to

3940-622: Is based on Aristotle 's comments in Meteorologica where he places archaic Hellas in Epirus between Dodona and the Achelous river, where in his opinion the great deluge of Deucalion must have occurred. The land was inhabited by Selloi and Graeci, who later came to be known as Hellenes . Homer mentions that the Selloi were the prophets of Zeus at Dodona, but he is referring to Zeus of Dodona as god of

4137-628: Is derived from the Greek : Ἤπειρος , romanized :  Ḗpeiros ( Doric Greek : Ἄπειρος , romanized:  Ápeiros ), meaning "mainland" or terra firma . It is thought to come from an Indo-European root *apero- 'coast', and was applied to the mainland of north-west Greece opposite Corfu and the Ionian islands . The local name was struck on the coinage of the unified Epirote commonwealth : "ΑΠΕΙΡΩΤΑΝ" ( Ancient Greek : Ἀπειρωτᾶν , romanized :  Āpeirōtân , Attic Greek : Ἠπειρωτῶν , romanized:  Ēpeirōtôn , i.e. "of

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4334-448: Is described as "καλλιγύναικος", kalligýnaikos , "of beautiful women", and its warriors, the Hellenes, along with the feared Myrmidons , were under the command of Achilles . The Parian Chronicle mentions that Phthia was the homeland of the Hellenes and that this name was given to those previously called Greeks ( Γραικοί ). Alcman (7th century BC) also refers that the mothers of Hellenes were Graikoi . In Greek mythology , Hellen ,

4531-455: Is evidenced from the fact that the territories that were under Bulgarian rule formed part of the autocephalous Archbishopric of Ohrid after the Byzantine conquest of Bulgaria by Emperor Basil II in 1018: thus in Epirus the sees of Chimara , Hadrianopolis, Bela, Buthrotum, Ioannina, Kozyle, and Rogoi passed under the jurisdiction of Ohrid, while the Metropolitan of Naupaktos retained only

4728-543: Is first mentioned in the late 11th century, while Jewish communities are attested throughout the medieval period in Arta and Ioannina. When Constantinople fell to the Fourth Crusade in 1204, the partitio Romaniae assigned Epirus to Venice , but the Venetians were largely unable to effectively establish their authority, except over Dyrrhachium (the " Duchy of Durazzo "). The Greek noble Michael Komnenos Doukas , who had married

4925-584: Is found in Aristotle for the Dorians in Epirus from Graii, a native name of the people of Epirus. He places the seat of these most ancient "Greeks" in the region of the Achelous river around Dodona , where in his opinion the great deluge of Deucalion must have occurred. The priests of Zeus in Dodona were called Selloi, which could lead to Sellanes (like Akarnanes ), and then to Hellanes and Hellenes . Homer

5122-492: Is from a Venetian document dating to 1210, which states that "the continent facing the island of Corfu is inhabited by Albanians". Kosta Giakoumis believes that the use of hypothetical immigrations to explain the accounts of Albanian presence in Epirote territory prior to the 13th-14th century is somewhat arbitrary. In 1337, Epirus was once again brought under the rule of the restored Byzantine Empire . In 1348, taking advantage of

5319-524: Is no evidence that the newcomers established a different civilization. The destruction was followed by the Greek Dark Ages with very poor archaeological findings, when most occupied areas were deserted, but some areas like Attica occupied by the Ionians remained untouched by the invaders. Several Greek tribes moved to regions of Greece where they acquired different names, and population groups moved through

5516-458: Is not regarded as part of Epirus. The definition of Epirus has changed over time, such that modern administrative boundaries do not correspond to the boundaries of ancient Epirus. The region of Epirus in Greece only comprises a fraction of classical Epirus and does not include its easternmost portions, which lie in Thessaly. In Albania, where the concept of Epirus is never used in an official context,

5713-421: Is now Preveza ) in 1463, and finally Vonitsa in 1479. With the exception of several coastal Venetian possessions, this was also the end of Latin rule in mainland Greece. The Ottomans ruled Epirus for almost 500 years. Their rule in Epirus proved particularly damaging; the region was subjected to deforestation and excessive cultivation, which damaged the soil and drove many Epirotes to emigrate so as to escape

5910-522: Is referring to Hellenes as a relatively small tribe in Phthia in central Greece ( Achaea Pthiotis ). In the Parian Chronicle it is mentioned that Phthia was the homeland of Hellenes and that this name was given to those previously called Graikoi ( Γραικοί ). In Greek mythology , Hellen , the patriarch of Hellenes, was son of Deucalion (who ruled around Phthia) and Pyrrha , the only survivors after

6107-906: Is the Vjosë , which flows in a northwesterly direction from the Pindus mountains in Greece to its mouth north of the Bay of Vlorë in Albania. Other important rivers include the Acheron river , famous for its religious significance in ancient Greece and site of the Necromanteion , the Arachthos river , crossed by the historic Bridge of Arta , the Louros , the Thyamis or Kalamas, and the Voidomatis,

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6304-512: Is unclear how much the area was affected by the second wave of Slavic migration, which began in the middle of the 8th century due to Bulgar pressure in the northern Balkans. Slavic toponyms are nearly lacking in the mountains of Labëria (on the Kurvelesh plateau ), in the Ionian coast where today Lab Albanian villages neighbour with the Greek-speaking ones, therefore it can be assumed that

6501-508: Is used in a religious sense for the first time in the New Testament . In Mark 7 :26, a woman arrives before Jesus , and kneeling before him: "The woman was a Hellene, a Syrophœnician by nation; and she besought him that he would cast forth the devil out of her daughter." Since the nationality or ethnicity of the woman is stated to be Syrophœnician, "Greek" (translated as such into the English of

6698-524: Is used in current Persian , Arabic ( يوناني ), Azeri , Turkish , Hindi (यूनान), Indonesian and Malay . The related Hebrew name, Yavan or Javan ( יָוָן ), was used to refer to the Greek nation in the Eastern Mediterranean in early Biblical times. There was an eponymous character Javan mentioned in Genesis 10:2. In later times it was used for all Hellenistic kingdoms (for example,

6895-495: Is why the historian Procopius prefers to call the Byzantines as Hellenized Romans , while other authors use Romhellenes and Graecoromans , aiming to indicate descent and citizenship simultaneously. The Lombard and Arab invasions in the same century resulted in the loss of most of the provinces including Italy and all of the Middle East, save for Anatolia . The areas that did remain were mostly Greek-speaking, thereby turning

7092-561: The Adriatic Sea . The modern Egnatia Odos , the A2 motorway , which links Ioannina to the Greek province of Macedonia and terminating at Igoumenitsa , is the only highway through the Pindus mountains and has served to greatly reduce the region's isolation from the east, while the Ionia Odos highway , connecting Epirus with Western Greece , helped reducing the region's isolation from the south. Also,

7289-793: The Aktio-Preveza Undersea Tunnel connects the southernmost tip of Epirus, near Preveza , with Aetolia-Acarnania in western Greece. Ferry services from Igoumenitsa to the Ionian islands and Italy exist. The only airport in Epirus is the Ioannina National Airport , while the Aktion National Airport is located just south of Preveza in Aetolia-Acarnania . There are no railroads in Epirus. Rhomaioi The Greeks ( Greek : Έλληνες ) have been identified by many ethnonyms . The most common native ethnonym

7486-483: The Autonomous Republic of Northern Epirus in February 1914. After fierce guerrilla fighting, they managed to gain full autonomy under the terms of the Protocol of Corfu , signed by Albanian and Northern Epirote representatives and approved by the Great Powers. The signing of the Protocol ensured that the region would have its own administration, recognized the rights of the local Greeks and provided self-government under nominal Albanian sovereignty. The Republic, however,

7683-413: The Avars and their Slavic allies. This is placed by the Chronicle of Monemvasia in the year 587, and is further corroborated by evidence that several sees were abandoned by their bishops by 591. Thus in c.  590 the bishop, clergy and people of Euroea fled their city, carrying with them the relics of their patron saint, St. Donatus , to Cassiope in Corfu. Of the various Slavic tribes, only

7880-411: The Baiounitai , first attested c.  615 , are known by name, giving their name to their region of settlement: " Vagenetia ". Based on the density of the Slavic toponyms in Epirus, the Slavs must have settled in the region, although the extent of this settlement is unclear. Slavic toponyms occur mainly in the mountainous areas of the interior and the coasts of the Gulf of Corinth , indicative of

8077-426: The Balkan Wars , but the Treaty of Bucharest , which concluded the Second Balkan War , assigned Northern Epirus to Albania. This outcome was unpopular among local Greeks, as a substantial Greek population existed on the Albanian side of the border. Among Greeks, northern Epirus was henceforth regarded as terra irredenta . Local Greeks in northern Epirus revolted, declared their independence and proclaimed

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8274-439: The Dukes of Athens . In 1267 Corcyra and much of Epirus were taken by Charles of Anjou , and in 1267/68 Michael II died. Michael VIII did not attempt to annex Epirus directly, and allowed Nikephoros I to succeed his father and deal with Charles, who captured Dyrrhachium in 1271. In 1279 Nikephoros allied with Charles against Michael VIII, agreeing to become Charles' vassal. With Charles' defeat soon after Nikephoros lost Albania to

8471-473: The Eastern Orthodox Church . Henry of Flanders demanded that Michael submit to the Latin Empire , which he did, at least nominally, by allowing his daughter to marry Henry's brother Eustace in 1209. Michael did not honour this alliance, assuming that mountainous Epirus would be mostly impenetrable by any Latins with whom he made and broke alliances. Meanwhile, Boniface's relatives from Montferrat made claims to Epirus as well, and in 1210 Michael allied with

8668-427: The Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople managed to shut down the few Albanian schools, considering teaching in Albanian a factor that would diminish its influence and lead to the creation of separate Albanian church, while publications in Albanian were banned by the Ottoman Empire. In the late 19th century, the Kingdom of Italy opened various schools in the regions of Ioannina and Preveza in order to influence

8865-415: The Empire of Thessalonica in 1224. During this time, the definition of Epirus came to encompass the entire coastal region from the Ambracian Gulf to Dyrrhachium, and the hinterland to the west up to the highest peaks of the Pindus mountain range. Some of the most important cities in Epirus, such as Gjirokastër (Argyrokastron), were founded during this period. The oldest reference to Albanians in Epirus

9062-399: The Gospel to all men, "Hellenes and barbarians, both wise and foolish". Discrimination between Hellenes and barbarians lasted until the 4th century BC. Euripides thought it plausible that Hellenes should rule over barbarians, because the first were destined for freedom and the other for slavery . Aristotle came to the conclusion that "the nature of a barbarian and a slave is one and

9259-545: The King James Version , but as haiþno " heathen " in Ulfilas 's Gothic ; Wycliffe and Coverdale likewise have heathen ) must therefore signify her polytheistic religion. Nevertheless, it is important to mention that phrases in koine Greek similar to the one in Mark 7:26 ("ἡ δὲ γυνὴ ἦν Ἑλληνίς, Συροφοινίκισσα τῷ γένει·") can be found in the new testament being applied to Jewish people ( Acts 18 :2 "καὶ εὑρών τινα Ἰουδαῖον ὀνόματι Ἀκύλαν, Ποντικὸν τῷ γένει,")(Acts 18:24 "Ἰουδαῖος δέ τις Ἀπολλὼς ὀνόματι, Ἀλεξανδρεὺς τῷ γένει,") and

9456-433: The Maccabeans applied it to their Seleucid foes). "Yavan" is still the name used for modern Greece in contemporary Israel . Although the contemporary Chinese term for Greece (希臘 Xīlà ) is based on Hellas , Chinese previously used what was likely a version of the Yunan or Yona root when referring to the Dàyuān (大宛). The Dàyuān were probably the descendants of the Greek colonies that were established by Alexander

9653-444: The Macedonians were a Dorian tribe that stayed behind in Macedonia when the main Dorian tribes moved to the south. Late Bronze Age Hittite texts mention a nation called Ahhiya and subsequently Ahhiyawa which have been identified in scholarship as part of the Mycenaean world. Egyptian records mention peoples known as Ekwesh , Denyen and Tanaju that have been also linked to the Mycenaean world. In Homer 's Iliad ,

9850-430: The Ottoman Turks against the Albanians. In 1399 the Albanian leader of Principality of Gjirokastër , Gjon Zenebishi captured the Despot Esau de' Buondelmonti and released him after 15 months, when his relatives in Italy offered a huge amount of money as a ransom. By 1416 the Tocco family of Cephalonia succeeded in reuniting Epirus, or at least in asserting their control over its towns. But internal dissension eased

10047-404: The Pelasgians who belonged to a Pre- Dorian population. It is possible that the extension of a particular cult of Zeus in Dodona (a tendency among the Greeks to form ever-larger cultic communities or amphictionies ) caused the name to further extend to the rest of the peninsula. This theory connects the name Hellenes with the Dorians (and the substrate of Pelasgians) who occupied Epirus in

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10244-406: The Pindus Mountains and the Ionian Sea , stretching from the Bay of Vlorë and the Acroceraunian Mountains in the north to the Ambracian Gulf and the ruined Roman city of Nicopolis in the south. It is currently divided between the region of Epirus in northwestern Greece and the counties of Gjirokastër and Vlorë in southern Albania. The largest city in Epirus is Ioannina , seat of

10441-437: The Republic of Venice , before being conquered by the Ottoman Empire in the 15th century. Epirus became part of the semi-independent Pashalik governed by the Ottoman Albanian ruler Ali Pasha in the early 19th century, but the Sublime Porte re-asserted its control in 1821. Following the Balkan Wars and World War I , southern Epirus became part of Greece, while northern Epirus became part of Albania. The name Epirus

10638-416: The Romans '), which generally referred to the whole Byzantine Empire, to refer specifically to Epirus, as seen in the Latin title of Despotus Romanie claimed by Philip I of Taranto and his son Philip of Apulia , Nicholas Orsini , and later Carlo I Tocco . In the Byzantine world, the term Dysis ( Δύσις ), meaning "West", which historically referred to Dalmatia , Macedonia and Sicily , or even

10835-413: The Treaty of Berlin (1878) awarded large parts of Epirus to Greece, opposition by the Ottomans and the League of Prizren resulted in only the region of Arta being ceded to Greece in 1881. It was only following the First Balkan War of 1912–1913 and the Treaty of London that the rest of southern Epirus, including Ioannina , was incorporated into Greece. Greece had also seized northern Epirus during

11032-429: The Venetians and attacked Boniface's Kingdom of Thessalonica . Pope Innocent III excommunicated him in response. Henry forced Michael into a renewed nominal alliance later that year. Michael turned his attention to capturing other strategically important Latin-held towns, including Larissa and Dyrrhachium . He also took control of the ports on the Gulf of Corinth . In 1214 he captured Corcyra from Venice , but he

11229-577: The Western Roman generalissimo Stilicho in order to wrest the Eastern Illyricum from the Eastern Empire. The Synecdemus of Hierocles , composed in ca. 527/8 AD but probably reflecting the situation in the first half of the 5th century, reports 11 cities for Old Epirus ( Ancient Greek : Παλαιὰ Ἤπειρος , Latin : Epirus Vetus ): the capital Nicopolis, Dodona , Euroea , Hadrianopolis , Appon , Phoenice , Anchiasmos , Buthrotum , Photike , Corfu Island, and Ithaca Island. New Epirus, with capital at Dyrrhachium , comprised 9 cities. From 467 on,

11426-402: The civil war between the Byzantine emperors John V Palaiologos and John VI Kantakouzenos , the Serbian king Stefan Uroš IV Dušan conquered Epirus, with a number of Albanian mercenaries assisting him. The Byzantine authorities in Constantinople soon re-established a measure of control by making the Despotate of Epirus a vassal state , but Albanian clans proceeded to invade and seize most of

11623-415: The 1410s, the Count palatine of Cephalonia and Zakynthos Carlo I Tocco managed to reunite the core of the Epirote state, but his successors gradually lost it to the advancing Ottoman Empire , with the last stronghold, Vonitsa , falling to the Ottomans in 1479. In traditional and modern historiography , the Epirote state is usually termed the "Despotate of Epirus" and its rulers are summarily attributed

11820-455: The Albanian leaders of the Despotate of Arta . The Shpata were originally defeated by Carlo's brother Leonardo II Tocco at Mazoma near ancient Nicopolis , but Carlo's son Torno was in turn defeated by the Albanians. After the Tocchi succeeded in capturing Rhiniasa, Leonardo tried to take Rogoi and Carlo attempted to take Arta, but Jakob and Muriq succeeded in defending their capital for the time being. Carlo withdrew to Ioannina, but soon after

12017-535: The Albanian tribes of the Mazaraki and Malakasi, he marched against the Principality of Gjirokastër . He was defeated and captured by Albanian nobleman Gjon Zenebishi , and ransomed for 10,000 gold pieces on the intervention of the Venetian governor of Corfu . At the time the Zenebishi clan controlled the area around Gjirokastër (1386–1411), while only the city of Ioannina remained under Greek control. Carlo I Tocco (1411–1429) then assumed control of Ioannina, commencing heavy conflicts with Jakob and Muriq Shpata,

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12214-469: The Allies. Due to the extensive activity of the anti-Nazi Greek resistance (mainly under EDES ), the Germans carried out large scaled anti-partisan sweeps, making wide use of Nazi-collaborationist bands of Cham Albanians , who committed numerous atrocities against the civilian population. They fought fiercely against the Greek partisans of the EDES, the latter being ordered by the Allied command to push them out of Greece into Albania. The violent clashes and

12411-399: The Boeotian forces in the Iliad 's Catalogue of Ships , provides the first known reference to a region named Graea , and Pausanias mentions that the ancient city of Tanagra was for a time called Graea, adding that "no one knows where this Graia really was; Aristotle thought it was near Oropus , further east on the same coast as Delion ." Busolt claimed that the name was given by

12608-600: The Byzantines. Under Andronikos II Palaiologos , son of Michael VIII, Nikephoros renewed the alliance with Constantinople. Nikephoros, however, was persuaded to ally with Charles II of Naples in 1292, although Charles was defeated by Andronikos's fleet. Nikephoros married his daughter to Charles's son Philip I of Taranto and sold much of his territory to him. After Nikephoros's death in c. 1297 Byzantine influence grew under his widow Anna, Andronikos's cousin, who ruled as regent for her young son Thomas I Komnenos Doukas . In 1306 she revolted against Philip in favour of Andronikos;

12805-510: The Christian nation. Several books written at this time demonstrate clearly the semantic shift. For example, Athanasius ' Against Hellenes was originally titled Against the Gentiles (Greek: ethnikoi ) according to older manuscripts. From then on, Hellene no longer meant an ethnic Greek or an adherent to Greek culture, but pagans in general, regardless of race. Emperor Julian 's attempt to restore paganism failed, and according to Pope Gregory I , "matters moved in favor of Christianity and

13002-423: The Despotate. Anna tried to negotiate and obtain the Despotate for her son when he came of age, but Andronikos demanded the complete surrender of the Despotate to which she finally agreed. Thus Epirus came peacefully under imperial rule, with Theodore Synadenos as governor. The imperials had insisted that Nikephoros would be engaged to one of the daughters of the emperor's right-hand man, John Kantakouzenos . When

13199-477: The Dorians (Δωριείς) of Sparta , the Ionians (Ἴωνες) of Athens , the Phthian Achaeans (Ἀχαιοί), the Locrians (Λοκροί) ( Opuntians , Ὀπούντιοι and Ozolians , Ὀζολαί), the Magnesians (Μάγνητες), the Malians (Μαλιεῖς), the Perrhaebians (Περραιβοί), the Phocians (Φωκεῖς), the Pythians (Πύθιοι) of Delphi, and the Thessalians (Θεσσαλοί). Among the descendants of Hellen are mentioned Aeolus , Ion , Achaeus , Dorus , Graecos and Makedon . It seems that

13396-413: The Earth. The adjective derived from the name, Ogygios (Ὠγύγιος "Ogygian") came to mean "primeval, primal," or "from earliest days" and also "gigantic". Homer refers to Hellenes as an originally relatively small tribe settled in Thessalic Phthia . During the era of the Trojan War they were centered along the settlements of Alos , Alope , Trachis , and the Pelasgian Argos. This Homeric Hellas

13593-454: The Epirote rulers as "Despots of Epirus" is technically incorrect. The title of Despot did not imply any specific territorial jurisdiction, nor was it hereditary; it was merely the highest rank in the Byzantine court hierarchy , awarded by a reigning emperor to close relatives, usually his sons. Consequently, it was often borne by the princes sent to govern semi-autonomous appanages and only later came to be associated with these territories as

13790-419: The Epirotes", see adjacent image). The Albanian name for the region, which derives from the Greek, is Epiri . Similarly, the Aromanian name for Epirus, which is also Greek-derived, is Epiru . Historically, the geographical area of Epirus proper is defined within the lines drawn from Cape Gjuhëz of the Ceraunian Mountains in the north-west, to Mount Qelqëz in the north-east, to Mount Gavrovo in

13987-497: The Frankish king. The interests of both sides were nominal rather than actual. No land areas were ever claimed, but the insult the Byzantines took on the accusation demonstrates how close at heart the Roman name (Ῥωμαῖος) had become to them. In fact, Bishop Liutprand of Cremona , a delegate of the Frankish court, was briefly imprisoned in Constantinople for not referring to the Roman emperor, Nikephoros II Phokas , by his appropriate title, and in reprisal for his king, Otto I , claiming

14184-607: The Great and prospered within the Hellenistic realm of the Seleucids and Greco-Bactrians , until they were isolated by the migrations of the Yueh-Chih around 160 BC. It has been suggested that the name Yuan was simply a transliteration of the words Yunan , Yona , or Ionians, so that Dàyuān (literally "Great Yuan") would mean "Great Yunans" or "Great Ionians." The name Hellene was given

14381-476: The Greek allied forces are described under three different names ; Achaeans (Ἀχαιοί, Akhaioí , used 598 times), Danaans (Δαναοί, Danaoí , used 138 times) and Argives (Ἀργεῖοι, Argeîoi , used 29 times). All of the aforementioned terms were used synonymously to denote a common Greek identity. A fourth term – "Panhellenes" – ( Πανέλληνες "All of the Greeks") and "Hellenes'" ( / ˈ h ɛ l iː n z / ; Ἕλληνες ) – both appear only once ; implying it

14578-468: The Greek region of Epirus, with Gjirokastër the largest city in the Albanian part of Epirus. A rugged and mountainous region, Epirus was the north-west area of ancient Greece . It was inhabited by the Greek tribes of the Chaonians , Molossians , and Thesprotians . It was home to the sanctuary of Dodona , the oldest oracle in ancient Greece, and the second most prestigious after Delphi . Unified into

14775-458: The Greek revolutionaries), Nikolaos Skoufas and Athanasios Tsakalov, came from the Arta area and the city of Ioannina , respectively. Greece's first constitutional prime minister (1844–1847), Ioannis Kolettis , was a native of the village of Syrrako in Epirus and was a former personal physician to Ali Pasha. Ali Pasha tried to use the war as an opportunity to make himself a fully independent ruler, but

14972-761: The Greek soldiers (etc) that Alexander the Great was first the hegemon of, is being used by – at least – contemporary sources when referring to the Hellenistic period , as the ancient Macedonian army , including the famous somatophylakes (e. g. Lysimachus ) and, later, the diadochi of Alexander, consisted of warriors from numerous and diverse Greek tribes . Thus, as the Spartans (Lacedaemonians) did not take part in Alexander's campaign, Alexander once ordered for an inscription to be sent, along with some war spoils, to Athens saying "Alexander, son of Philip, and all

15169-511: The Greek world enhanced the prestige of the religious institutions that remained intact. Early Christians differentiated people according to religion, so the sense of the word Hellene as a cultural attribute became marginalized and then supplanted by its religious element. Eventually, Christians came to refer to all pagans as Hellenes . St. Paul in his Epistles uses Hellene almost always juxtaposed to Hebrew , and in disregard of all other ethnicities (Romans, Syrians, Egyptians, etc.) living in

15366-576: The Greeks except the Lacedaemonians [...]". Likewise, the term "Macedonian", while referring here to Greek dialects, also ended up meaning the Koine Greek in classical sources, whereas diverse major Ancient Greek dialects were natively spoken in the later/expanded Macedonian Kingdom , and even though the Koine dialect was mostly based on Attic Greek that was natively spoken around Athens . Notably, during

15563-505: The Hellenization campaign also suggests a continuity of the original Greek population, and that the Slavs had settled among many Greeks, in contrast to areas further north, in what is now Bulgaria and the former Yugoslavia, as those areas could not be Hellenized when they were recovered by the Byzantines in the early 11th century. Following the great naval victory of admiral Nasar in 880, and

15760-634: The Iliad. In the Middle Bronze Age, Epirus was inhabited by the same nomadic Hellenic tribes that went on to settle in the rest of Greece. Aristotle considered the region around Dodona to have been part of Hellas and the region where the Hellenes originated. According to Bulgarian linguist Vladimir I. Georgiev , Epirus was part of the Proto-Greek linguistic area during the Late Neolithic period. By

15957-596: The Indian subcontinent as the Yona . A unique form is used in Georgian , where the Greeks are called Berdzeni (ბერძენი). By Late Antiquity (c. 3rd–7th centuries), the Greeks referred to themselves as Graikoi ( Γραικοί , "Greeks") and Rhomaioi / Romioi ( Ῥωμαῖοι / Ῥωμηοί / Ρωμιοί , "Romans") the latter of which was used since virtually all Greeks were Roman citizens after 212 AD. The term Hellene started to be applied to

16154-579: The Ionian Islands and the coasts of Epirus became subject to raids by the Vandals , who had taken over the North African provinces and established their own kingdom centred on Carthage . The Vandals notably seized Nicopolis in 474 as a bargaining chip in their negotiations with Emperor Zeno , and plundered Zakynthos, killing many of its inhabitants and ferrying off others into slavery. Epirus Nova became

16351-559: The Ionian and Adriatic seas, combating Saracen piracy, and securing communications with the remaining Byzantine possessions in Italy, rather than any systematic effort at subduing the Epirote mainland. Nevertheless, following the onset of the Muslim conquest of Sicily in 827, the Ionian became particularly exposed to Arab raids. The 9th century saw great progress in the restoration of Imperial control in

16548-563: The Ionian tribe the Persians conquered in the late 6th century BC that their name extended to all Hellenes. All peoples under Persian influence adopted the term, and it is from this root that Sanskrit Yavana derives, which one encounters in ancient Sanskrit sources, first attested in Pāṇini's grammar, and later referring, together with Pali Yona , Yonaka to the Indo-Greeks . The term Yunan

16745-606: The Latin inhabitants were expelled but she was forced to return some territory to Philip. In 1312 Philip abandoned his claim to Epirus and claimed the defunct Latin Empire of Constantinople instead as the inheritance of his wife Catherine II of Valois, Princess of Achaea . Anna succeeded in marrying off Thomas to a daughter of Michael IX, but Thomas was assassinated in 1318 by his cousin Nicholas Orsini , who married his widow and claimed to rule not only Epirus, but all of Greece; his rule

16942-938: The Latins out of Thrace . In 1227 Theodore crowned himself Byzantine emperor, although this was not recognized by most Greeks, especially not the Patriarch in Nicaea. In 1230 Theodore broke the truce with Bulgaria , hoping to remove Ivan Asen II , who had held him back from attacking Constantinople. In the battle of Klokotnitsa (near Haskovo in Bulgaria) the Bulgarian emperor defeated Theodore, capturing and later blinding him. His brother Manuel Komnenos Doukas took power in Thessalonica, but Epirus itself soon broke away under Michael I's illegitimate son, Michael II Komnenos Doukas . Manuel awarded Michael

17139-553: The Levite Barnabas ( Acts 4 :36, "Λευΐτης, Κύπριος τῷ γένει"). In all those cases the terms Hellene/Jew/Levite are mentioned, eventually followed by a comma, a designation such as Syrophoenician/Pontic/Alexandrian/Cypriot and after that the words "τῷ γένει", with the last words tending to have differing translations. A broadly similar terminology is found in John 12 :20–23: "And there were certain Hellenes among them that came up to worship at

17336-633: The Mycenaean civilization, suggesting that the founders of Mycenae may have come from Epirus and central Albania . Epirus itself remained culturally backward during this time, but Mycenaean remains have been found at two religious shrines of great antiquity in the region: the Oracle of the Dead on the Acheron River, familiar to the heroes of Homer’s Odyssey , and the Oracle of Zeus at Dodona, to whom Achilles prayed in

17533-592: The Olympic Games and competed alongside other Hellenes. The fact that each of these northern peoples at this time continued to live as an ethnos , or collection of tribes, under an archaic monarchial political system – as opposed to the democratic or oligarchic polis (city state) of the south–also contributed to this view of them as "barbaric". Thucydides calls the Acarnanians , Aetolians , Epirotes and Upper Macedonians barbarians , but does so in

17730-508: The Ottoman conquest, which proceeded with the capture of Ioannina in 1430, Arta in 1449, Angelokastron in 1460, and finally Vonitsa in 1479. With the exception of several coastal Venetian possessions, this was the end of Frankish rule in mainland Greece. Epirus Epirus ( / ɪ ˈ p aɪ r ə s / ) is a geographical and historical region in southeastern Europe , now shared between Greece and Albania . It lies between

17927-548: The Peloponnese, and by Nikephoros who had returned to Epirus, based in Thomokastron . By the end of the year the imperial army returned to the area, and in the following year, 1340, Andronikos III himself arrived together with John Kantakouzenos. Nikephoros was persuaded through diplomacy to recognize the authority of the emperor. He surrendered Thomokastron, married Maria Kantakouzene, the daughter of John Kantakouzenos, and received

18124-722: The Peloponnesian War , as does Strabo in his Geography , although the latter clearly distinguishes them from the neighboring Illyrians . Other writers, such as Herodotus , Dionysius of Halicarnassus , Pausanias , and Eutropius , describe them as Greeks. Similarly, Epirote tribes/states are included in the Argive and Epidaurian lists of the Greek Thearodokoi (hosts of sacred envoys). Plutarch mentions an interesting element of Epirote folklore regarding Achilles: In his biography of King Pyrrhus , he claims that Achilles "had

18321-470: The Romans originally to the Greek colonists from Graea who helped to found Cumae the important city in southern Italy where the Italic peoples first encountered the Greeks and then to all Greeks. According to Irad Malkin, Graikoi could have also been an exonym for the Greeks, used by neighboring Illyrians and Messapians . It has been suggested that the name Graeci was possibly an Illyrian name for

18518-567: The Souliotes, his troops succeeded in conquering the area in 1803. On the other hand, Ali, who used Greek as official language, witnessed an increase of Greek cultural activity with the establishment of several educational institutions. When the Greek War of Independence broke out, the inhabitants of Epirus contributed greatly. Two of the founding members of the Filiki Eteria (the secret society of

18715-583: The Theme of Nicopolis was raided by the Bulgarians, who even occupied some parts until driven out or subjugated by the Byzantines years later. Only the extreme north of Epirus seems to have remained consistently under Bulgarian rule in the period, but under Tsar Samuel , who moved the centre of Bulgarian power south and west to Ohrid , probably all of Epirus down to the Ambracian Gulf came under Bulgarian rule. This

18912-584: The Tocco , where the inhabitants of the Despotate are referred to as the Despotatoi . The term "Despotate of Epirus" is thus sometimes replaced by "(Independent) State of Epirus" in more recent historiography. The Epirote realm itself did not have an official name. Contemporaries, particularly in Western Europe, used the term Romania (Greek: Ῥωμανία , romanized:  Rhōmania , lit.   'land of

19109-415: The area at the time. A possible exception to this being Colossians 3 :11 ("Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all." King James Version ). The aim was probably to represent the aggregate of the polytheistic and the monotheistic religious communities, who respectively believed in many gods or one god. Hellene

19306-530: The area had been subject to increasing Hellenization and settlement by Epirote tribes from the south. The two Epirote provinces became part of the Diocese of Moesia , until it was divided in ca. 369 into the dioceses of Macedonia and Dacia , when they became part of the former. In the 4th century, Epirus was still a stronghold of paganism , and was aided by Emperor Julian (r. 361–363) and his praetorian prefect Claudius Mamertinus through reduction in taxes and

19503-526: The area was again ceded to Albania. In 1939, Italy occupied Albania , and in 1940 invaded Greece . The Italians were driven back into Albania, however, and Greek forces again took control of northern Epirus. The conflict marked the first tactical victory of the Allies in World War II . Benito Mussolini himself supervised the spring counter-offensive of his divisions in spring 1941, only to be repulsed again by

19700-679: The battle of Klokotnitsa. Theodore's younger son Demetrios Angelos Doukas lost Thessalonica to Nicaea in 1246 and Michael II of Epirus allied with the Latins against the Nicaeans. In 1248 John III Doukas Vatatzes of Nicaea forced Michael to recognize him as emperor, and officially recognized him in turn as despotēs in Epirus. Vatatzes' granddaughter Maria later (in 1256) married Michael's son Nikephoros , although she died in 1258. Also in 1248 Michael's daughter Anna married William II , Prince of Achaea , and Michael decided to honour this alliance over his obligations to Vatatzes. The allies were defeated in

19897-597: The beginning of the Byzantine offensive against the Arabs in southern Italy in the 880s, the security situation improved and the Theme of Nicopolis was established, most likely after 886. As the ancient capital of Epirus had been laid waste by the Slavs, the capital of the new theme became Naupaktos further south. The extent of the new province is unclear, but probably matched the extent of the Metropolis of Naupaktos , established at about

20094-518: The birds how to talk. The term eventually picked up a derogatory use and was extended to indicate the entire lifestyle of foreigners, and finally coming to mean "illiterate" or "uncivilized" in general. Thus "an illiterate man is also a barbarian". According to Dionysius of Halicarnassus , a Hellene differed from a barbarian in four ways: refined language, education, religion, and the rule of law. Greek education became identified with noble upbringing. Paul of Tarsus considered it his obligation to preach

20291-519: The bishop of Dyrrhachium participated in the Ecumenical Councils of 680/1 and 692 , a century later the bishops of Dyrrhachium, Nicopolis, Corfu, Cephallonia, and Zakynthos are attested in the Second Council of Nicaea in 787. In about the middle of the 8th century, the Theme of Cephallenia was established, but at least initially it was more oriented towards restoring Byzantine control over

20488-519: The cause of Olympias against Cassander , but was dethroned in 313 BC. His son Pyrrhus came to throne in 295 BC, and for six years fought against the Romans and Carthaginians in southern Italy and Sicily . The high cost of his victories against the Romans gave Epirus a new, but brief, importance, as well as a lasting contribution to the Greek language with the concept of a " Pyrrhic victory ". Pyrrhus nonetheless brought great prosperity to Epirus, building

20685-629: The center of the Despotate of Epirus , one of the successor states to the Byzantine Empire . In the 14th century, Epirus was brought under the rule of the restored Byzantine Empire , before being briefly conquered by the Serbian Empire . The region was then divided amongst a number of despotates and political entities, including the Despotate of Epirus, the Despotate of Arta , the Zenebishi family , and

20882-553: The clan of Muriq Shpata held Aetoloacarnania, with Angelokastron as its capital. In 1367 a part of the Epirotan Despotate was resurrected under local Serbian nobleman Thomas II Preljubović , who kept Ioannina. After Thomas' death in 1384, his widow remarried in 1385 and transferred the Despotate to homage of Italian nobility. The state tradition was carried on by the Serbian and Italian rulers of Ioannina , who solicited aid from

21079-575: The classicizing term Ausones to refer to the people of the Eastern Roman Empire, although, as John Tzetzes points out (in his Scholia to Lycophron 's "Alexandra" , attributed to himself and his brother Isaac), that should be understood in its proper context as a literary device. Overall, the word Rhomaios came to represent the Hellenized inhabitants of the East Roman Empire. Overall,

21276-569: The coast and Alpine in the interior. Epirus is heavily forested, mainly by coniferous species. The fauna in Epirus is especially rich and features species such as bears , wolves , foxes , deer , and lynxes . In the Neolithic period Epirus was populated by seafarers along the coast and by shepherds and hunters from the southwestern Balkans who brought with them the Greek language. These people buried their leaders in large mounds containing shaft graves. Similar burial chambers were subsequently used by

21473-636: The common root is "yun" or "ywn". It is borrowed from the Greek name Ionia , a once Greek region of Asia Minor, and the Ionians : The third form is "Hellas", used by a few languages around the world, including Greek: Other forms: The first people speaking an ancient Proto-Greek language entered mainland Greece during the Neolithic period or the Bronze Age . From the Ancient Greek dialects as they presented themselves centuries later, it seems that at least two migrations of Greeks occurred overall,

21670-611: The common threat of Illyrian raids, and in 359 BC the Molossian princess Olympias , niece of Arybbas of Epirus , married King Philip II of Macedon . She was to become the mother of Alexander the Great . On the death of Arybbas, Alexander of Epirus succeeded to the throne and the title King of Epirus in 334 BC. He invaded Italy, but was killed in battle by a Lucanian in the Battle of Pandosia against several Italic tribes 331 BC. Aeacides of Epirus , who succeeded Alexander, espoused

21867-470: The continuation of the state of war until 1987 was that during the entire period of Communist rule in Albania, the Greek population of Northern Epirus experienced forced Albanisation . Although a Greek minority was recognized by the Hoxha regime, this recognition only applied to an "official minority zone" consisting of 99 villages, leaving out important areas of Greek settlement, such as Himara . People outside

22064-546: The counties of Gjirokastër, Vlorë , and Berat extend well beyond the northern and northeastern boundaries of classical Epirus. Epirus is a predominantly rugged and mountainous region. It is largely made up of the Pindus Mountains , a series of parallel limestone ridges that are a continuation of the Dinaric Alps . The Pindus mountains form the spine of mainland Greece and separate Epirus from Macedonia and Thessaly to

22261-437: The culture they demonstrated as foreigners not adhering to proper Hellenic standards, and did not raise the issue of their origin: "not only no Greek, nor related to the Greeks, but not even a barbarian from any place that can be named with honors, but a pestilent knave from Macedonia, whence it was never yet possible to buy a decent slave." Herodotus , Polybius , Strabo and a large number of other Greek and Roman writers regard

22458-426: The daughter of a local magnate, took advantage of this, and within a few years consolidated his control over most of Epirus, first as a Venetian vassal and eventually as an independent ruler. By the time of his death in 1214/5, Michael had established a strong state, the Despotate of Epirus , with the former theme of Nicopolis at its core and Arta as its capital. Epirus, and the city of Ioannina in particular, became

22655-712: The early 1st millennium BC, all fourteen Epirote tribes including the Chaonians in northwestern Epirus, the Molossians in the centre and the Thesprotians in the south, were speakers of a strong west Greek dialect. Geographically on the edge of the Greek world, Epirus remained for the most part outside the limelight of Greek history until relatively late, much like the neighbouring Greek regions of Macedonia, Aetolia, and Acarnania, with which Epirus had political, cultural, linguistic and economic connections. Unlike most other Greeks of this time, who lived in or around city-states ,

22852-424: The east. The ridges of the Pindus are parallel to the sea and generally so steep that the valleys between them are mostly suitable for pasture rather than large-scale agriculture. Altitude increases as one moves east, away from the coast, reaching a maximum of 2,637 m at Mount Smolikas , the highest point in Epirus. Other important ranges include Tymfi (2,496 m at Mount Gamila), Lygkos (2,249 m), to

23049-529: The emperor. The name Hellene meaning "pagan" has persisted into modern times. Many groups advocating a revival or reconstruction of the worship of the Olympian Gods call themselves Hellenic Polytheists and the religion Hellenic Polytheistic Reconstructionism or Hellenismos . Such groups outside of Greece are careful not to imply that, by calling themselves Hellenes , they consider themselves Greek nationals. The name "Macedonians", in order to colloquially mean

23246-651: The empire into a much more cohesive unit that eventually developed a fairly self-conscious Greek identity. The Byzantines' failure to protect the Pope from the Lombards forced the Pope to search for help elsewhere. The man who answered his call was Pepin II of Aquitaine , whom he had named "Patrician", a title that caused a serious conflict. In 772, Rome ceased commemorating the emperor that first ruled from Constantinople , and in 800 Charlemagne

23443-403: The ensuing conflict at the Battle of Pelagonia in 1259. Emperor Theodore II Laskaris allied with Michael II, and their children, betrothed by John years before, finally married in 1256, with Theodore receiving Dyrrhachium in return. Michael did not accept this transfer of land, and in 1257 he revolted, defeating a Nicaean army led by George Acropolites . As Michael marched on Thessalonica, he

23640-431: The entire European part of the Empire, also came into use already in the 13th century when juxtaposing Epirus to its eastern rival, the Empire of Nicaea , which was then called Anatolē ( Ἀνατολή ), "East". Moreover, the term " Hellenes " was widely used instead of the earlier "Romans" by the 13th-century court of the Despotate to describe its population. The Epirote state was founded in 1205 by Michael Komnenos Doukas ,

23837-575: The environs of Dyrrhachium, in 548/9, has been documented. Procopius further reports that in 551, in an attempt to interdict the Byzantines' lines of communication with Italy during the Gothic War , the Ostrogoth king Totila sent his fleet to raid the shores of Epirus. In response to these raids, and to repair the damage done by two destructive earthquakes in 522, Justinian initiated a wide-ranging programme of reconstruction and re-fortification: Hadrianopolis

24034-498: The expansion of the Slavs had not reach this region. As in eastern Greece, the restoration of Byzantine rule seems to have proceeded from the islands, chiefly Cephallonia, which was certainly under firm Imperial control in c.  702 , when Philippicus Bardanes was banished there. The gradual restoration of Imperial rule is evidenced further from the participation of local bishops in councils in Constantinople : whereas only

24231-472: The extreme north of Greece, rendering uncertain the relation with the name Graeci used by the Romans . Some toponyms, especially an ancient city Hellas in southern Thessaly , and the Greek tradition seem to indicate that the name Hellenes was Pre-Dorian itself and that the homeland of the Graikoi , who were later called Hellenes , was in central Greece . A Greek myth mentions an earlier deluge of Ogyges in

24428-413: The fact that this was the avenue used by most of the Slavs who crossed the Gulf into the Peloponnese . With the exception of some few toponyms on Corfu, the Ionian Islands seem to not have been affected by Slavic settlement. The linguistic analysis of the toponyms reveals that they date mostly to the early wave of Slavic settlement at the turn of the 6th/7th centuries. Due to scarcity of textual evidence, it

24625-429: The feast ... Jesus answered them, saying, The hour is come, that the Son of man should be glorified". This could have one of two interpretations: either that Jesus meant that the time had come for his religion to spread to the pagans (in which case the term "Hellenes" is religious), or that it would spread by using the Greek language (in which case the term "Hellenes" is meant to be linguistic). The development towards

24822-503: The first of the Ionians and the Aeolians probably in the 19th century BC and the second of the Dorians probably in the 13th century BC. The first migration resulted in Mycenean Greek , an archaic Greek language which appears in Linear B syllabic inscriptions and the second resulted in the Dorian dialect which displaced the Arcadocypriot dialect that seems to be closest to the Mycenean Greek. The tribes later called Aeolians and Ionians established several feudal kingdoms around Greece, and

25019-459: The first two Macedonian Wars but split in the Third Macedonian War (171–168 BC), with the Molossians siding with the Macedonians and the Chaonians and Thesprotians siding with Rome. The outcome was disastrous for Epirus; Molossia fell to Rome in 167 BC and 150,000 of its inhabitants were enslaved. The region of Epirus was placed under the senatorial province of Achaea in 27 BC, with the exception of its northernmost part, which remained part of

25216-423: The followers of the polytheistic (" pagan ") religion after the establishment of Christianity by Theodosius I . Most European languages, as well as other languages that have borrowed the name from one of them, use names for Greece that come from the Latin Graecia and Graecus , the name the Romans used for the Greeks, itself from the Greek Γραικός : In languages of Middle East and South and Central Asia,

25413-462: The forefront of the Hellenes, the Athenians at Marathon […]" and after the Greco-Persian Wars , an inscription was written in Delphi celebrating victory over the Persians and calling Pausanias the leading general of the Hellenes. Awareness of a Pan-Hellenic unity was promoted by religious festivals, most significantly in the Eleusinian Mysteries , in which prospective initiates had to speak Greek , and almost as importantly through participation in

25610-518: The foreign borrowed name (Romans) initially had a more political than national meaning, which went hand in hand with the universalizing ideology of Rome that aspired to encompass all nations of the world under one true God. Up until the early 7th century, when the Empire still extended over large areas and many peoples, the use of the name "Roman" always indicated citizenship and never descent. Various ethnicities could apply their own ethnonyms or toponyms to disambiguate citizenship from genealogy, which

25807-400: The four Panhellenic Games , including the Olympic Games, in which participants were exclusively Greek and recognized by tribal affiliation. The development of mythological genealogies of descent from eponymous founder-figures, long after the actual southward migration of the four tribal groups recognized by the Greeks, affected how the identity of northern tribes was perceived. According to

26004-418: The great deluge. Hesiod is referring to Graecus , son of Pandora , who was sister of Hellen . Alcman mentions that the mothers of Hellenes were Graikoi . The German classical historian Georg Busolt (1850–1920) derives the name from Graikos , "inhabitant of Graea , a town on the coast of Boeotia. The name Graea (γραῖα) is derived from Proto-Greek grau-j- , "old lady". Homer , while reciting

26201-478: The great theater of Dodona and a new suburb at Ambracia (now modern Arta ), which he made his capital. The Aeacid dynasty ended in 232 BC, but Epirus remained a substantial power, unified under the auspices of the Epirote League as a federal state with its own parliament, or synedrion . However, it was faced with the growing threat of the expansionist Roman Republic , which fought a series of wars against Macedon . The League steered an uneasy neutral course in

26398-399: The growing power of Nicaea and could not stop Theodore from capturing Thessalonica in 1224. Theodore now challenged Nicaea for the imperial title and crowned himself emperor, founding the short-lived Empire of Thessalonica . In 1225, after John III Doukas Vatatzes of Nicaea had taken Adrianople , Theodore arrived and took it back from him. Theodore also allied with the Bulgarians and drove

26595-410: The historians called them Myceneans after their most powerful kingdom Mycenea in Peloponnese , or Myceneans - Achaeans because in Homer the Achaeans were the dominating tribe in Greece and the name Achiyawa that appears in Hittite texts seems to correspond to a thalassocratic country which might be Mycenea . Although Homer referred to a union of the Greek kingdoms under the leadership of

26792-441: The inhabitants of Epirus lived in small villages and their way of life was foreign to that of the poleis of southern Greece. Their region lay on the periphery of the Greek world and was far from peaceful; for many centuries, it remained a frontier area contested with the Illyrian peoples to the north. However, Epirus had a far greater religious significance than might have been expected given its geographical remoteness, due to

26989-549: The inhabitants of the city of Rome in Italy, but with the increasing grants of Roman citizenship to the Greeks and other nations of the Roman Empire, it soon lost its connection with the Latins . This process culminated in 212 AD, when Emperor Caracalla's Constitutio Antoniniana granted the citizenship to all free-born men of the Empire. Later Byzantine authors such as Nikephoros Basilakes, Michael Attaleiates , Theodore Prodromos , Patriarch Germanus II , Niketas Choniates and Nicaean Emperor Theodore II Laskaris also used

27186-471: The islands to the western coasts of Asia Minor where they kept their native names Aeolians , Ionians and Dorians . It seems that the myth of Hellen , the progenitor of the Hellenes , was invented when the Greek tribes started to separate from each other, and stressed their common origin. The name "Hellenes" was probably used by the Greeks with the establishment of the Great Amphictyonic League, an ancient association of Greek tribes. According to legend it

27383-405: The king of Mycenae during the Trojan War , there is no evidence that these kingdoms were dominated by a central power. Most of the Mycenaean palaces were destroyed at the end of the 13th century BC. The Greek tradition relates this destruction to the Dorians, but it is suggested that the Dorian invasion was only one of the causes of the Bronze Age collapse in the Eastern Mediterranean , as there

27580-431: The local population. These schools began to attract students from the Greek language schools, but were ultimately closed after intervention and harassment by the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople. Throughout, the late period of Ottoman rule (from the 18th century) Greek and Aromanian population of the region suffered from Albanians raiders, that sporadically continued after Ali Pasha's death, until 1912–1913. While

27777-399: The main dialects spoken in Greece and Asia Minor (Anatolia) . The first Greek-speaking people, called Myceneans or Mycenean-Achaeans by historians, entered present-day Greece sometime in the Neolithic era or the Bronze Age . Homer refers to " Achaeans " as the dominant tribe during the Trojan War period usually dated to the 12th–11th centuries BC, using Hellenes to describe

27974-440: The mainland, as evidenced by the participation of the bishops of Ioannina, Naupaktos , Hadrianopolis, and Vagenetia (evidently by now organized as a Sklavinia under imperial rule) in the Ecumenical Councils of 869/70 and 879/80 . The Byzantine recovery resulted in an influx of Greeks from southern Italy and Asia Minor into the Greek interior, while remaining Slavs were Christianized and Hellenized . The eventual success of

28171-407: The meaning "pagan" by the early Christian church, and retained that meaning until the end of the millennium. It is believed that contact with Christian Jews led some Christians to use Hellene as a means of religious differentiation. Jews, like Greeks , distinguished themselves from foreigners, but unlike Greeks, did so according to religious rather than cultural standards. Roman domination of

28368-416: The most prevailing legend, Hellen , son of Deucalion and Pyrrha , received from the nymph Orseis three sons, Aeolus , Dorus , and Xuthus , each of whom founded a primary tribe of Hellas–the Aeolians , Dorians , Achaeans and Ionians . At the time of the Trojan War, the Epirotes ( Molossians , Thesprotians and Chaonians ) were not considered Hellenes, for the people so named were then limited to

28565-489: The mountains of Epirus also became the scene of some of the fiercest fighting of the second and bloodier round of the Greek Civil War. The final episode of the war took place on Mount Grammos in 1949, ending with the defeat of the Communists. Peace returned to the region in 1949, although because of official Albanian active involvement in the civil war on the side of the communists, the formal state of war between Greece and Albania remained in effect until 1987. Another reason for

28762-405: The name Graeci for the colonists and then for all Greeks; this became the root of all relevant terms in European languages. The Persians used the name Yaunas ( Yunans ) after the Ionians , a Greek tribe who colonized part of the coasts of western Asia Minor. The term was used later in Hebrew ( Yevanim , יוונים ‎), Arabic , and also by the Turks . The word entered the languages of

28959-416: The new home of many refugees from Constantinople , Thessaly , and the Peloponnese , and Michael was described as a second Noah , rescuing men from the Latin flood. John X Kamateros , the Patriarch of Constantinople , did not consider him a legitimate successor and instead joined Theodore I Laskaris in Nicaea ; Michael instead recognized the authority of Pope Innocent III over Epirus, cutting ties to

29156-410: The official minority zone received no education in the Greek language, which was prohibited in public. The Hoxha regime also diluted the ethnic demographics of the region by relocating Greeks living there and settling in their stead Albanians from other parts of the country. Relations began to improve in the 1980s with Greece's abandonment of any territorial claims over Northern Epirus and the lifting of

29353-414: The official state of war between the two countries. A rugged topography, poor soils, and fragmented landholdings have kept agricultural production low and have resulted in a low population density. Animal husbandry is the main industry and corn the chief crop. Oranges and olives are grown in the western lowlands, while tobacco is grown around Ioannina. Epirus has few natural resources and industries, and

29550-408: The patriarch of Hellenes, was son of Deucalion , who ruled around Phthia with Pyrrha , the only survivors after the great deluge. It seems that the myth was invented when the Greek tribes started to separate from each other in certain areas of Greece and it indicates their common origin. The name Hellenes was probably used by the Greeks with the establishment of the Great Amphictyonic League . This

29747-408: The poorly equipped, but determined, Greeks. Nazi Germany then intervened in April 1941 to avert an Italian defeat. The German military performed rapid military maneuvers through Yugoslavia and forced the encircled Greek forces of the Epirus front to surrender. The whole of Epirus was then placed under Italian occupation until 1943, when the Germans took over following the Italian surrender to

29944-400: The population has been depleted by migration. The population is centered around Ioannina, which has the largest number of industrial establishments. Epirus has historically been a remote and isolated region due to its location between the Pindus mountains and the sea. In antiquity, the Roman Via Egnatia passed through Epirus Nova , which linked Byzantium and Thessalonica to Dyrrachium on

30141-400: The position of the Hellenes was severely aggravated". Half a century later Christians protested against the Eparch of Alexandria , whom they accused of being a Hellene. Theodosius I initiated the first legal steps against paganism, but it was Justinian's legal reforms that triggered pagan persecutions on a massive scale. The Corpus Juris Civilis contained two statutes which decreed

30338-403: The practice became regularized (aside from Epirus, the Despotate of the Morea is the most notable case). The territorial term "despotate" itself (in Greek δεσποτᾶτον , despotaton ) was first used in contemporary sources for Epirus only from the 14th century on, e.g. in the Chronicle of the Morea , in the history of John Kantakouzenos , the hagiography of St. Niphon, or the Chronicle of

30535-481: The presence of the shrine and oracle at Dodona – regarded as second only to the more famous oracle at Delphi . The Epirotes, speakers of a Northwest Greek dialect, different from the Dorian of the Greek colonies on the Ionian islands, and bearers of mostly Greek names, as evidenced by epigraphy, seem to have been regarded with some disdain by some classical writers. The 5th-century BC Athenian historian Thucydides describes them as " barbarians " in his History of

30732-444: The province of Macedonia . Under Emperor Trajan , sometime between 103 and 114 AD, Epirus became a separate province, under a procurator Augusti . The new province extended from the Gulf of Aulon ( Vlorë ) and the Acroceraunian Mountains in the north to the lower course of the Acheloos River in the south, and included the northern Ionian Islands of Corfu , Lefkada , Ithaca , Cephallonia , and Zakynthos . Probably during

30929-426: The provincial reorganization by Diocletian (r. 284–305), the western portion of the province of Macedonia along the Adriatic coast was split off into the province of New Epirus ( Latin : Epirus Nova ). Although this territory was not traditionally part of Epirus proper as defined by the ancient geographers, and was historically inhabited by Illyrian tribes and Greeks, the name reflects the fact that under Roman rule,

31126-419: The rebuilding of the provincial capital, Nicopolis . According to Jordanes , in 380 the Visigoths raided the area. With the division of the Empire on the death of Theodosius I in 395, Epirus became part of the Eastern Roman or Byzantine Empire . In 395–397, the Visigoths under Alaric plundered Greece. They remained in Epirus for a few years, until 401, and again in 406–407, during Alaric's alliance with

31323-401: The region around Dyrrhachium existed as the homonymous theme possibly as early as the 9th century. During the early 10th century, the themes of Cephallenia and Nicopolis appear mostly as bases for expeditions against southern Italy and Sicily, while Mardaites from both themes are listed in the large but unsuccessful expedition of 949 against the Emirate of Crete . In c.  930 ,

31520-427: The region of Boeotia which was occupied by the Minyans a group of autochthonous or Proto-Greek speaking people. The region (situated next to Attica ) was called Graïke in ancient times probably after the old city of Graea (Γραῖα Graîa , from Proto-Greek grau-j- , "old lady") on the coast. The name Ogyges (or Ogenos ) is related with Okeanos (Ὠκεανός), the great river-ocean that Greeks believed to surround

31717-425: The region's pervasive poverty. Nonetheless, the Ottomans did not enjoy total control of Epirus. The Himara and Zagori regions managed to successfully resist Ottoman rule and maintained a degree of independence throughout this period. The Ottomans expelled the Venetians from almost the whole area in the late 15th century. Between the 16th and 19th centuries, the city of Ioannina attained great prosperity and became

31914-449: The region. Under Pjetër Losha , the Albanian Malakasi and Mazaraki tribes defeated Nikephoros II Orsini at the Battle of Achelous in 1359, which won Pjetër Losha the rule of Arta ; Losha then founded the Despotate of Arta (1358-1416) with the help of the Mazaraki and Malakasi clans. Although Albanian clans gained control of most of the region by 1366/7, their continued division into rival clans meant that they could not establish

32111-460: The reign of Constantine the Great , who is regarded as the first Byzantine Emperor , the Diocese of Macedonia was established, comprising principally the area that is modern Greece , with Thessalonica as its capital. Romans or Rhomaioi (Ῥωμαῖοι; sg. Ῥωμαῖος Rhomaios ) and Romioi (Ρωμιοί; sg. Ρωμιός Romios ), is the name by which the Greeks were known in the Middle Ages and during Ottoman rule . The name in antiquity originally signified

32308-461: The reprisals that followed by the Greek guerillas resulted in the expulsion to Albania of almost the entire Cham population. With the liberation of Greece and the start of the first round of the Greek Civil War at the end of 1944, the highlands of Epirus became a major theater of guerrilla warfare between the leftist Greek People's Liberation Army (ELAS) and the right-wing National Republican Greek League (EDES). In subsequent years (1945–1949),

32505-432: The same time, encompassing the sees of Vonditsa, Aetos, Acheloos, Rogoi , Ioannina, Hadrianopolis, Photike, and Buthrotum. Vagenetia notably no longer appears as a bishopric. As the authors of the Tabula Imperii Byzantini comment, it appears that "the Byzantine administration had brought the strongly Slavic-settled areas in the mainland somewhat under its control, and a certain Re-Hellenization had set in". Further north,

32702-410: The same". Alexander the Great 's conquests consolidated Greek influence in the East by exporting Greek culture into Asia and permanently transformed education and society in the region. Isocrates declared in his speech Panegyricus , speaking about Athens and Greece: "And so far has our city distanced the rest of mankind in thought and in speech that her pupils have become the teachers of the rest of

32899-449: The sees of Bonditza, Aetos, and Acheloos. Basil II also established new, smaller themes in the region: Koloneia , and Dryinopolis (Hadrianopolis). The region joined the uprising of Petar Delyan in 1040, and suffered in the First Norman invasion of the Balkans : Dyrrhachium was occupied by the Normans in 1081–1084, Arta was unsuccessfully besieged, and Ioannina was captured by Robert Guiscard . An Aromanian presence in Epirus

33096-420: The south-east, to the mouth of the Ambracian Gulf in the south-west. The northern boundary of ancient Epirus is alternatively given as the Vjosa river. Epirus's eastern boundary is defined by the Pindus Mountains , that form the spine of mainland Greece and separate Epirus from Macedonia and Thessaly . To the west, Epirus faces the Ionian Sea . The island of Corfu is situated off the Epirote coast but

33293-428: The time of the engagement came, Nikephoros had vanished. Andronikos learned that Nikephoros had fled to Italy, with the help of members of the Epirote aristocracy who supported an independent Epirus. He stayed in Taranto , Italy, in the court of Catherine II of Valois (Philip of Taranto's widow), the titular empress of Constantinople. In 1339 a revolt began, supported by Catherine of Valois, who had previously moved to

33490-481: The title of panhypersebastos . The Empire soon fell into a civil war between John V Palaiologos and John VI Kantakouzenos, and Epirus was conquered by the Serbian tsar Stefan Dušan in 1348, who appointed his brother, despot Simeon Nemanjić-Palailogos as governor of the province. Nikephoros II took advantage of the Byzantine civil war and the death of Dušan (1355) to escape and to reestablish himself in Epirus in 1356, to which he also added Thessaly. Nikephoros

33687-443: The title of Despot —making Michael the first Epirote ruler to bear the title—as a sign of his nominal dependency on Thessalonica, but Michael was de facto independent, which he demonstrated by seizing Corfu in ca. 1236. In the rump Empire of Thessalonica, after Theodore was released in 1237, he overthrew his brother Manuel, and set up his son John Komnenos Doukas as ruler of Thessalonica. Thessalonica never regained its power after

33884-520: The title of " Despot " from its inception, but this use is not strictly accurate. First of all, the title of "Despot" was not borne by all Epirote rulers: the state's founder, Michael I Komnenos Doukas , never used it, and is only anachronistically referred to as " Despot of Epirus " in 14th-century Western European sources. His successor Theodore Komnenos Doukas did not use it either, and actually crowned himself emperor ( basileus ) at Thessalonica c.  1225 . The first ruler of Epirus to receive

34081-498: The title of Despot was Michael II , from his uncle Manuel of Thessalonica in the 1230s, and then again, as a sign of submission and vassalage, from the Nicaean emperor John III Vatatzes . Earlier historians assumed that Michael I was indeed named "Despot" by the deposed emperor Alexios III Angelos after ransoming him from Latin captivity in c.  1206/7 or c.  1210 ; this has been disproven by more recent research. Furthermore, even after Michael II, speaking of

34278-415: The total destruction of Hellenism , even in civic life, and were zealously enforced even against men in high position. The official suppression of paganism made non-Christians a public threat, which further derogated the meaning of Hellene . Paradoxically, Tribonian , Justinian's own legal commissioner, according to the Suda dictionary, was a Hellene (pagan). The usage of Hellene as a religious term

34475-405: The tribes of western Hellas , Epirus, and Macedonia as Hellenic in every respect. Both Thucydides and Demosthenes were themselves of partial non-Attic origins and for Demosthenes it seems of non-Greek origins altogether while notably both of them held strong opposing political positions against Macedonians. In the following centuries, Hellene typically contrasted with barbarian , representing

34672-416: The uncivilized. The Greek tribes quickly noticed that they did not speak the same tongue as their neighbors, and used the term "βάρβαρος" ("barbarian") for them, with the meanings "uncultured", "uncivilized" or "speaker of a foreign language". The term βάρβαρος is thought to be onomatopoeic in origin: "bar-bar"—i.e. stammering —may have been how the speech of foreign peoples sounded to Greek-speakers. This

34869-415: The west and east of Smolikas respectively, Gramos (2,523 m) in the northeast, Tzoumerka (2,356 m) in the southeast, Tomaros (1,976 m) in the southwest, Mitsikeli near Ioannina (1,810 m), Mourgana (1,806 m), and Nemercke/Aeoropos (2,485 m) on the border between Greece and Albania, and the Ceraunian Mountains (2,000 m) near Himara in Albania. Most of Epirus lies on

35066-400: The wider meaning of the word appears in writing for the first time in an inscription by Echembrotus , dedicated to Heracles for his victory in the Amphictyonic Games, and refers to the 48th Olympiad (584 BC). Simonides of Ceos in his epigram on the tomb of the Athenians who were killed in the Battle of Marathon (490 BC) wrote "Ἑλλήνων προμαχοῦντες Ἀθηναῖοι Μαραθῶνι […]" "Fighting at

35263-471: The windward side of the Pindus, and the prevailing winds from the Ionian Sea make the region the rainiest in mainland Greece. Significant lowlands are to be found only near the coast, in the southwest near Arta and Preveza , in the Acheron plain between Paramythia and Fanari , between Igoumenitsa and Sagiada , and also near Saranda . The Zagori area is a scenic upland plateau surrounded by mountain on all sides. The main river flowing through Epirus

35460-433: The word is related to the Greek word γέρων geron "old man" (from the PIE base *ǵerh 2 - "to grow old") via Proto-Greek *gera- "old age", also related to Mycenean Greek kera /geras/, "gift of honour". The Germanic languages borrowed the name with an initial k sound, which was probably their initial sound closest to the Latin g ( Gothic Kreks ). The first use of Graikos as equivalent to Hellenes

35657-442: The world; and she has brought it about that the name Hellenes suggests no longer a race but an intelligence, and that the title Hellenes is applied rather to those who share our culture than to those who share a common blood". With a small reformation, the Hellenistic civilization is the evolution of classical Greek civilization into a civilization with global proportions, this time open to everybody. Similarly, Hellene evolved from

35854-403: Was assassinated later that year and was succeeded by his half-brother Theodore. Theodore Komnenos Doukas immediately set out to attack Thessalonica , and he fought with the Bulgarians along the way. Henry of Flanders died on the way to counterattack, and in 1217 Theodore captured his successor Peter of Courtenay , most likely executing him. The Latin Empire, however, became distracted by

36051-411: Was able to lure Jakob to an ambush near Vobliana: Jakob was captured and immediately executed (1 October 1416). Carlo had effectively ended the rule of the Albanian clans in southernmost Epirus. Nevertheless, internal dissension eased the Ottoman conquest, which began with the capture of Ioannina in 1430 and continued with Arta in 1449, Angelokastro in 1460, Riniasa Castle and its environs (in what

36248-401: Was also the case for the Egyptians , who, according to Herodotus , "named barbarians all those who spoke a different tongue", and in later years for the Slavs , who gave the Germans the name němec , which means "mute", while calling themselves slověnski or "people of the word". In his play The Birds , Aristophanes calls the illiterate supervisor a "barbarian" who nevertheless taught

36445-501: Was an ancient association of Greek tribes with twelve founders which was organized to protect the great temples of Apollo in Delphi ( Phocis ) and of Demeter near Thermopylae ( Locris ). According to legend it was founded after the Trojan War, by the eponymous Amphictyon , brother of Hellen . The modern English noun Greek ( Old English Grecas or Crecas ) is derived from the Latin Graeci , which in turn originates from Ancient Greek Γραικός ( Graikós ). It seems that

36642-416: Was assassinated by Ottoman agents in 1822. When Greece became independent in 1830, however, Epirus remained under Ottoman rule. In 1854, during the Crimean War , a major local rebellion broke out . Although the newly found Greek state tried tacitly to support it, the rebellion was suppressed by Ottoman forces after a few months. Another failed rebellion by local Greeks broke out in 1878 . During this period,

36839-504: Was attacked by King Manfred of Sicily , who conquered Albania and Corcyra . However, Michael immediately allied with him by marrying his daughter Helena to him. After Theodore II died, Michael, Manuel, and William II fought the new Nicaean emperor, Michael VIII Palaiologos . The alliance was very unstable and in 1259 William was captured at the disastrous Battle of Pelagonia . Michael VIII went on to capture Michael II's capital of Arta , leaving Epirus with only Ioannina and Vonitsa. Arta

37036-486: Was crowned Roman Emperor by the Pope himself, officially rejecting the Eastern Roman Empire as true Romans. According to the Frankish interpretation of events, the papacy appropriately "transferred Roman imperial authority from the Greeks to the Germans , in the name of His Greatness, Charles". From then on, a war of names about the New Rome revolved around Roman imperial rights. Unable to deny that an emperor did exist in Constantinople, they sufficed in renouncing him as

37233-402: Was founded after the Trojan War, by the eponymous Amphictyon , brother of Hellen. It had twelve founders and was organized to protect the great temples of Apollo in Delphi ( Phocis ) and of Demeter near Thermopylae ( Locris ). The twelve founders enumerated by Aeschines were the Aenianes or Oetaeans (Αἰνιᾶνες, Οἰταῖοι), the Boeotians (Βοιωτοί) of Thebes , the Dolopes (Δόλοπες),

37430-580: Was initially part of an exclusively Christian nomenclature, but some Pagans began to defiantly call themselves Hellenes. Other pagans even preferred the narrow meaning of the word from a broad cultural sphere to a more specific religious grouping. However, there were many Christians and pagans alike who strongly objected to the evolution of the terminology. The influential Archbishop of Constantinople Gregory of Nazianzus , for example, took offence at imperial efforts to suppress Hellenic culture (especially concerning spoken and written Greek) and he openly criticized

37627-438: Was killed in battle putting down an Albanian revolt in 1359, and the territory of the former despotate became a component part of the personal Empire of Dušan's brother Simeon Nemanjić-Palailogos . Simeon was also governing Thessaly at the time, and, as the Chronicle of Ioannina shows, he left much of the territory under the control of Albanian clans establishing short-lived entities: the clan of Pjetër Losha held Arta , and

37824-619: Was limited only to Akamania, or the southern part of Epirus. He was overthrown by his brother John in 1323, who attempted to balance submission to Constantinople with cooperation with the Angevins of Naples, who also claimed Greece as part of their domains. John was poisoned around 1335 by his wife Anna, who became regent for their son Nikephoros II . In 1337 the new Emperor, Andronikos III Palaiologos , arrived in northern Epirus with an army partly composed of 2,000 Turks contributed by his ally Umur of Aydın . Andronikos first dealt with unrest due to attacks by Albanians and then turned his interest to

38021-440: Was not a central concept in Homer's work. In some English translations of the Iliad , the Achaeans are simply called "the Greeks" throughout. There is currently no satisfactory etymology for the name Hellenes. Some scholars assert that the name of the priests of Zeus in Dodona , Selloi (Σελλοί; also Ἑλλοί Helloi ), changed to Sellanes (by analogy with Akarnanes ) and then to Hellanes and Hellenes . This theory

38218-440: Was on the verge of recapturing Constantinople and restoring the Byzantine Empire before the Battle of Klokotnitsa in 1230 where he was defeated by the Bulgarian Empire . After that, the Epirote state contracted to its core in Epirus and Thessaly, and was forced into vassalage to other regional powers. It nevertheless managed to retain its autonomy until being conquered by the restored Palaiologan Byzantine Empire in ca. 1337. In

38415-405: Was rebuilt, albeit in reduced extent, and renamed Justinianopolis, while Euroea was moved further inland (traditionally identified with the founding of Ioannina ), while Procopius claims that no less than 36 smaller fortresses in Epirus Vetus—most of them not identifiable today—were either rebuilt or built anew. In the late 6th century, much of Greece, including Epirus, fell under the control of

38612-402: Was recovered by 1260 while Michael VIII was occupied against Constantinople. After Michael VIII restored the empire in Constantinople in 1261 he frequently harassed Epirus, and forced Michael's son Nikephoros to marry his niece Anna Palaiologina Kantakouzene in 1265. Michael considered Epirus a vassal state, although Michael II and Nikephoros continued to ally with the Princes of Achaea and

38809-427: Was short-lived, as when World War I broke out, Albania collapsed, and northern Epirus was alternately controlled by Greece, Italy and France at various intervals. Although the Paris Peace Conference of 1919 awarded Northern Epirus to Greece, developments such as the Greek defeat in the Greco-Turkish War and, crucially, Italian lobbying in favor of Albania meant that Greece would not keep Northern Epirus. In 1924,

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