The Thesprotians

[Prokomenos]

The Thesprotians
The word Epirus (modern Epiros) traces its origins back to the late 4th cent BC, when it referred to the region lying between the Pindos Mountains to the east and the Ionian Sea to the west and extending between Cape Lingeta to the north and the Amvrakian Gulf to the south. Epiros has been inhabited since the Middle Palaeolithic period (36,000BC).

Around 2,000BC the Thesprotians were the first of the original Greek tribal groups to settle the region. During the Late Bronze Age, Mycenaean influence stretched to Epiros between 1,250 and 1,150BC. The Mycenaeans, who developed the first great civilization on the Greek mainland, founded a dynasty which ruled over the areas of Parga and Aphyra, off the coast to the River Aheron.

By the 12th cent BC the Thesprotians were supplanted as the dominant tribe by the Molossi, who settled in central and eastern Epiros, restricting the Thesprotians on the western edge of Epiros. The Molossi established the city of Passaron, which was made the capital of their kingdom, and became the head of the Epirotic League. Yet, it was not until the reign of King Pyrrhus in the mid-3rd cent BC when the army of the League marched in to take over Macedon, the Peloponnese and Sicily in a series of unsuccessful military operations. Pyrrhus was a forceful warrior whose expansionist aspirations were never really fulfilled although Epiros experienced a remarkable degree of advancement under his leadership.

In 167BC the forces of the Roman general Emilio Paul sacked Epiros' cities and the League collapsed. In 31BC Octavian was victorious over the allies Mark Antony and Cleopatra in the famous naval battle of Actium (modern Aktion) near Preveza, and established Nikopolis, the 'city of victory', which was populated by forcible resettlement of the local inhabitants from the Roman-subjected Epiros' cities. Nikopolis grew in wealth and strength, which lent distinction to the whole region in the Roman period.

In Byzantine times, Epiros was originally part of the administrative area of Eastern Illyrion (capital: Thessaloniki). After Constantinople was sacked during the Fourth Crusade, in 1204, and eventually partitioned into feudal states, the Seignory of Epiros was established under the control of the Despot of Epiros Michael I Komnenos Doukas, who made Arta his seat of government. A wealth of superlative Byzantine churches and monasteries were built in those times, a great number of which have survived as visible reminders of the period.

Ioannina was ceded to the Turks in 1431 as part of a formal agreement whereby certain privileges of an administrative, commercial and religious nature were granted to Epiros' territories. Known as the 'Sinan Pasha Order', those privileges contributed enormously to the region's development throughout Ottoman dominance. Epiros reached its zenith in the 18th cent, at a time when the total population reached 400,000 whilst Ioannina's population was over 40,000, the majority of which was of Greek descent. Assuming even greater importance as a trading centre, Epiros attracted the attention of foreign states, which established consulates in Arta, Preveza and Sagiada.