Parauaea () was an

ancient Greek Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...

territory in the region of

Epirus Epirus () is a Region#Geographical regions, geographical and historical region, historical region in southeastern Europe, now shared between Greece and Albania. It lies between the Pindus Mountains and the Ionian Sea, stretching from the Bay ...

. The inhabitants of the area, a Thesprotian Greek tribe, were known as Parauaioi (; also Parauaei or Parauaeans), which meant "those dwelling beside" the

Aous The Vjosa (; indefinite form: ) or Aoös () is a river in northwestern Greece and southwestern Albania. Its total length is about , of which the first are in Greece, and the remaining in Albania. Its drainage basin is and its average dischar ...

river.

History

Due to the fact that Greek toponyms that preserve archaic features are very densely found in the wider area (Epirus, western and northern Thessaly and Pieria), it appears that speakers of the

Proto-Greek language The Proto-Greek language (also known as Proto-Hellenic) is the Indo-European language which was the last common ancestor of all varieties of Greek, including Mycenaean Greek, the subsequent ancient Greek dialects (i.e., Attic, Ionic, A ...

inhabited a region which included Parauaea before the Late Bronze Age migrations (late 3rd-early 2nd millennium BC). At the beginning of the

Peloponnesian War The Second Peloponnesian War (431–404 BC), often called simply the Peloponnesian War (), was an Ancient Greece, ancient Greek war fought between Classical Athens, Athens and Sparta and their respective allies for the hegemony of the Ancien ...

(429 BC), the Parauaei under the leadership of king Oroidos () joined forced together with the nearby Orestae as allies of

Sparta Sparta was a prominent city-state in Laconia in ancient Greece. In antiquity, the city-state was known as Lacedaemon (), while the name Sparta referred to its main settlement in the Evrotas Valley, valley of Evrotas (river), Evrotas rive ...

against

Acarnania Acarnania () is a region of west-central Greece that lies along the Ionian Sea, west of Aetolia, with the Achelous River for a boundary, and north of the gulf of Calydon, which is the entrance to the Gulf of Corinth. Today it forms the western part ...

. That time they were more loosely associated with the adjacent tribes of the

Molossians The Molossians () were a group of ancient Greek tribes which inhabited the region of Epirus in classical antiquity. Together with the Chaonians and the Thesprotians, they formed the main tribal groupings of the northwestern Greek group. On t ...

and the Atintanes. In 350 BC, Parauaea was incorporated into the Greek kingdom of

Macedon Macedonia ( ; , ), also called Macedon ( ), was an ancient kingdom on the periphery of Archaic and Classical Greece, which later became the dominant state of Hellenistic Greece. The kingdom was founded and initially ruled by the royal ...

by Phillip II as part of

Upper Macedonia Upper Macedonia ( Greek: Ἄνω Μακεδονία, ''Ánō Makedonía'') is a geographical and tribal term to describe the upper/western of the two parts in which, together with Lower Macedonia, the ancient kingdom of Macedon was roughly divi ...

. Later in 294 BC, the area was under the control of

Pyrrhus of Epirus Pyrrhus ( ; ; 319/318–272 BC) was a Greeks, Greek king and wikt:statesman, statesman of the Hellenistic period.Plutarch. ''Parallel Lives'',Pyrrhus... He was king of the Molossians, of the royal Aeacidae, Aeacid house, and later he became ki ...

. In the 3rd century BC, they are described as a "Thesprotian nation/tribe" by

Rhianus Rhianus (Greek: Ῥιανὸς ὁ Κρής) was a Greek poet and grammarian, a native of Crete, friend and contemporary of Eratosthenes (275–195 BC). Biography The ''Suda'' says he was at first a slave and overseer of a palaestra, but obtai ...

and by

Stephanus of Byzantium Stephanus or Stephen of Byzantium (; , ''Stéphanos Byzántios''; centuryAD) was a Byzantine grammarian and the author of an important geographical dictionary entitled ''Ethnica'' (). Only meagre fragments of the dictionary survive, but the epit ...

(6th century AD) quoting Rhianus.

Location

Parauaea was among the northern Epirote tribal regions in antiquity.

References

Citations

Sources

* * * * * * *{{cite book, last=Smith, first=William, title=A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, year=1873, location=London, publisher=John Murray Ancient tribes in Epirus Geography of ancient Epirus Greek tribes Upper Macedonia Historical regions in Greece

History

Location

See also

References

Citations

Sources