The Molossians (Ancient Greek: Μολοσσοί, romanized: Molossoi) were a group of ancient Greek tribes which inhabited the region of Epirus in classical antiquity.^[1][2] Together with the Chaonians and the Thesprotians, they formed the main tribal groupings of the northwestern Greek group.^[3] On their northern frontier, they neighbored the Chaonians and on their southern frontier neighbored the kingdom of the Thesprotians. They formed their own state around 370 BC and were part of the League of Epirus. The most famous Molossian ruler was Pyrrhus of Epirus, considered one of the greatest generals of antiquity. The Molossians sided against Rome in the Third Macedonian War (171–168 BC) and were defeated. Following the war, 150,000 Molossians and other Epirotes were enslaved and transported to the Roman Republic, overwhelmingly in Italy itself.

Mythological constructions

In order to increase their prestige, the ruling dynasty of the Molossians in classical antiquity invented a heroic genealogy going back to the Trojan War and then these names from the Trojan cycle were used for contemporary rulers of the dynasty like Neoptolemos and Pyrrhus of Epirus. This use of names from Iliad was contrary to ancient Greek name giving customs of classical antiquity in which names from the Iliad were not given to living people.^[4] When the ruling class of the Molossians began to construct such a genealogy is unclear. The various theories place it chronologically from a post-Odyssey framework to the 5th century BC. The initial reasons for doing so are also debated. The conflict with the Thessalian tribes to the east (who claimed similar mythological ancestry as the later Molossians) and the beginning of the Hellenization of the Molossians in the 5th century BC have been argued as contributing factors for these constructions.^[5] An important point is that the function of this construction of a fictional genealogy by the ruling dynasty of the Molossians was not to Hellenize the ethnic origin of their people, but to heroize their house.^[6] In this context, the purpose of the constructed genealogy was to provide the Molossian dynasty with a "cultural passport as Greeks" in their relations with other ruling houses.^[7]

According to these mythological constructions, the Molossians were the descendants of Molossus, one of the three sons of Neoptolemus, son of Achilles and Deidamia. Following the sack of Troy, Neoptolemus and his armies settled in Epirus where they joined with the local population. Molossus inherited the kingdom of Epirus after the death of Helenus, son of Priam and Hecuba of Troy, who had married his erstwhile sister-in-law Andromache after Neoptolemus's death. According to some historians, their first king was Phaethon, one of those who came into Epirus with Pelasgus. According to Plutarch, Deucalion and Pyrrha, having set up the worship of Zeus at Dodona, settled there among the Molossians.^[8]

Ancient sources

According to Strabo, the Molossians, along with the Chaonians and Thesprotians, were the most famous among the fourteen tribes of Epirus, who once ruled over the whole region. The Chaonians ruled Epirus at an earlier time, and afterwards the Thesprotians and Molossians controlled the region. The Thesprotians, the Chaonians, and the Molossians were the three principal clusters of Greek tribes that had emerged from Epirus and were the most powerful among all other tribes.^[8]

The Molossians were also renowned for their vicious hounds, which were used by shepherds to guard their flocks. This is where the canine breed Molossoid, native to Greece, received its name. Virgil tells us that in ancient Greece the heavier Molossian dogs were often used by the Greeks and Romans for hunting (canis venaticus) and to watch over the house and livestock (canis pastoralis). "Never, with them on guard," says Virgil, "need you fear for your stalls a midnight thief, or onslaught of wolves, or Iberian brigands at your back."

Strabo records that the Thesprotians, Molossians and Macedonians referred to old men as pelioi (πελιοί) and old women as peliai (πελιαί) (<PIE *pel-, "grey"). Cf. Ancient Greek πέλεια peleia, "pigeon", so-called because of its dusky grey color. Ancient Greek πελός pelos meant "grey".^[9] Their senators were called Peligones (Πελιγόνες), similar to Macedonian Peliganes (Πελιγᾶνες).^[10]

Molossian royalty

The most famed member of the Molossian dynasty was Pyrrhus, who became famous for his Pyrrhic victory over the Romans. According to Plutarch, Pyrrhus was the son of Aeacides of Epirus and a Greek woman from Thessaly named Phthia, the daughter of a war hero in the Lamian War. Pyrrhus was a second cousin of Alexander the Great. In the 4th century BC, they had adopted the term for office of prostatai (Greek: προστάται) literally meaning "protectors" like most Greek tribal states at the time.^[11] Other terms for office were grammateus (Greek: γραμματεύς) meaning "secretary", demiourgoi (Greek: δημιουργοί) literally meaning "creators", hieromnemones (Greek: ἱερομνήμονες) literally meaning "of the sacred memory" and synarchontes (Greek: συνάρχοντες) literally meaning "co-rulers".^[12] An inscription from the 4th century stated (referring to Alexander I of Epirus):^[13]

When King was Alexandros when of Molossoi prostatas was Aristomachos Omphalas secretary was Menedamos Omphalas resolved by the assembly of the Molossoi; Kreston is benefactor hence to give citizenship to Kteson and descent line

The shrine of Dodona was used for the display of public decisions.^[14] Despite having a monarchy, the Molossians sent princes to Athens to learn of democracy, and they did not consider certain aspects of democracy incompatible with their form of government.^[15][16]

Olympias, the mother of Alexander the Great, was a member of this celebrated sovereign house.

History

The Molossian expansion in Epirus possibly began in the early 6th century B.C.. As such they were a leading power in the region already from the time of historian Hecataeus (c. 550-476 B.C.). ^[17]

In 385 BC, the Illyrians, aided by Dionysius of Syracuse, attacked the Molossians, attempting to place the exile Alcetas on the throne.^[18] Dionysius planned to control all the Ionian Sea. Sparta intervened and expelled the Illyrians who were led by Bardyllis.^[19][20][21] Even with the aid of 2,000 Greek hoplites and 500 suits of Greek armour, the Illyrians were defeated by the Spartans (led by Agesilaus) but not before ravaging the region and killing 15,000 Molossians.^[21]

In another Illyrian attack in 360 BC, the Molossian king Arymbas (or Arybbas) evacuated his non-combatant population to Aetolia and let the Illyrians loot freely. The stratagem worked, and the Molossians fell upon the Illyrians, who were encumbered with booty, and defeated them.^[21][22]

The Molossians briefly sided with the anti-Roman Macedonian-Illyrian pact in the Third Macedonian War. After the Roman victory, a total of 150,000 Epirotes, mostly Molossians, were enslaved and sent to Italy, by decision of the Roman Senate. This decision is the only such act of the Roman senate and the largest, single, slave-hunting operation in Roman history. In the following years, Epirote slaves in Italy outnumbered slaves of other origins and the majority of slave marriages were between Epirotes.^[23] In historiography, the decision of the senate has been the subject of much debate, as the two main anti-Roman powers of the time in that region, the Macedonians and the Illyrians, suffered few consequences in contrast to the Molossians in terms of punishment. Howard Hayes Scullard had proposed the most recognized theory in the past. He connected the measures taken by the Romans to Charops of Epirus, member of a rival tribe the Chaonians - a Roman ally - who in order to gain command of the region, pushed for the extermination of the Molossians.^[24] This interpretation is based on the negative assessment of Charops, already in ancient sources, as Polybius calls him "the most savage and degenerate of all men". The modern interpretation of the events, focuses more on the structural reasons which led to this decision by the Romans rather than the personal politics of regional actors.^[25] The plague of 174 BC caused a great reduction of available labor in Italy, which was supplied almost exclusively by slave labor. In the following years, slave-hunting became a central feature of Roman campaigns. The Roman senate, which represented the landowning elite, specifically targeted the Molossians because of the proximity of their territory to Brundisium and Taranto would require a much lower cost of transportation. In comparison, at least 65,000 Sardinians and many other tribes were enslaved in the same year.^[26]

Culture

In terms of language, there is today an overall consensus that the Molossians were among the Greek-speaking population of Epirus, which spoke the North-West Doric dialect of Ancient Greek, akin to that of Aetolia, Phocis, and certain other regions, based on the available epigraphic evidence in Epirus.^[27] The first epigraphic evidence in Epirus come from Corinthian colonies or dedications to Dodona and aren't representative of sites in Epirus.^[28] The first epigraphic evidence in Epirus outside of Dodona and the nearby colonies dates from the beginning of 4th century BC. In the case of the Molossian decrees during the reign of king Neoptolemos I (370-368 BC) it can be revealed that the composers of those inscriptions had a considerable experience in the use of Greek language. They used a Greek dialect which was not borrowed by nearby Corinthian colonies, but a distinct northwestern Greek dialect similar to Akarnanian, Aetolian and Lokrian, aditionally it exhibited several unique features. Thus the possibility of being borrowed is rejected.^[29] The epigraphic corpus unearthed during the recent decades also yielded a great number of onomastics which is of Greek origin akin to the onomastic areas of Thessaly and Macedon. Based on these points the possibility of Greek being not the ancestral language among Epirotes can be easily rejected.^[30] Most epigraphic comes from the late Classical/Helllenistic era (post-323 BC) in which they were under influence from a NW Doric koine that operated supraregionally, while those after 1 AD are part of the common Attic spoken throughout the Hellenistic world.^[28]

Hammond (1982) argues the Molossians and other Epirote tribes spoke Greek at least from the Dark Ages (1100-800 BC).^[31] Tom Winnifrith (1983) argues that the Epirotes, including the Molossians were initially not closely connected in terms of culture and their hellenization procces took place during the centuries that preced Roman conquest (3rd-2nd century BC) and afterwards.^[32]

In terms of their origin, earlier historians on the basis of largely linguistic material argued that they were of Greek origin, while other scholars of equal academic weight but at an earlier era (Nilsson (1951), Meyer (1878)) in their fields argued in favor of an Illyrian origin. Irad Malkin of Tel Aviv University followed Hammond and argued the Epirotes were Greek speakers, but left open the possibility that Greek might have been the prestige language which was spoken at least from the 5th century BC without the Molossians themselves necessarily being Greeks.^[33] In modern research, the question of identity has arisen about what constituted the ancient Greek identity with mode of a life as main criterion of ethnicity construction as regardless of what language they spoke in each given historical era the Molossians were regarded as "barbarians" by contemporary Greeks not on the basis of language, but because of their tribal way of life, their organization and their pastoral economy. In this context, the Epirotes were more similar to the Macedonians and Illyrians than to those ancient Greeks who were organized in city-states.^[6][34]

According to Johannes Engels, genealogical links through the Trojan cycle and other myths strongly connected Epirus with the rest of Greece, precluding serious debate about the Greekness of the Epirotes, including the Molossians. The language they spoke was regarded as a primitive Northwestern Greek dialect, but there was no question that it was Greek. The way of life in Epirus was more archaic than that in the Corinthian and Corcyrean colonies on the coast, but there was never a discussion about their Greekness.^[34]

In terms of religion they worshipped the same gods like the rest of the Greeks. No traces of non-Greek deities were found until the Hellenistic age (with the introduction of oriental deities in the Greek world). Their supreme deity was Zeus and the Oracle of Dodona found in the land of the Molossians attracted pilgrims from all over the Greek world. As with the rest of the Epirotes they were included in the thearodokoi catalogues where only Greeks were allowed in order to participated in Panhellenic Games and festivals.^[35] Aristotle considered the region around Dodona to have been part of Hellas and the region where the Hellenes originated.^[36]

List of Molossians

• Pyrrhus of Epirus (318–272 BC) most prominent Epirote king.
• Neoptolemus son of Achilles and Deidamia (Aeacid dynasty till 231 BC).
• Molossus son of Neoptolemus and Andromache.
• Alcon (6th century BC) suitor of Agariste of Sicyon.
• Admetus, who gave asylum to Themistocles.
• Eidymmas prostates, secretary Amphikorios gave citizenship το Philista, wife of Antimachos from Arrhonos, under King Neoptolemos I 370–368 BC.^[37]
• Tharyps theorodokos in Epidauros 365 BC.^[38]
• Myrtale Olympias mother of Alexander the Great circa 376–316 BC.
• Arybbas winner in Tethrippon Olympics 344 BC.^[39]
• Aristomachos prostates, secretary Menedamos gave citizenship to Simias of Apollonia, resident at Theptinon, under King Alexander I 342–330/329 BC.^[40]
• Deidamia II of Epirus (died circa 233 BC) last surviving representative of the royal Aeacid dynasty.
• Kephalos, Antinoos sided with Perseus against the Romans (Third Macedonian War) circa 170 BC.^[41]

Family tree of kings of Epirus

See also

• Chaonia
• Chaonians
• Olympias
• Orestis (region)
• Pyrrhus of Epirus
• Thesprotians
• Invasion of Molossia

References

Citations

Sources