by Anita Paga. Translation Petrit Latifi

We often see nationalist claims that Greeks did not exist, or that Greeks are “a population with Slavic facial traits and arched eyelashes and the sharp features of Albanian shepherds” (A. Fine). Based on migrations of tribes from Libya, Crete, Pontus (Chalcidia), and Phoenice since the 15th century BC, and the 7th century BC according to chronicles, we must ask:

• In which territories did the early Greeks live?
• Have the Greeks conquered any territory from Epirus in the past?
• When did they first migrate to Epirus?

Part 1: Albanians and Greeks: Epirus and Pelasgia

Historically, Epirus was a mixed center of Pelasgian, Mycenaean, and Trojan-Dardanian populations.

Thucydides, in The Peloponnesian War, says:

[1.3] Before the Trojan War there is no indication of any common action in Hellas… rather, before the time of Hellen, son of Deucalion (Thebes), no such name existed, but the land went by the names of different tribes, especially the Pelasgian. This did not happen until Hellen and his sons became powerful in Phthiotis (Thebes), and were invited as allies to other cities, and from this association they gradually took the name Hellenes, although a long time passed.

Homer, born long after the Trojan War, nowhere calls them all by that name, and indeed none except the followers of Achilles from Phthiotis, who were the original Hellenes; in his poems they are called Danaans, Argives, and Achaeans. He does not use the term barbarian either, perhaps because the Hellenes had not yet been distinguished from the rest of the world by a specific name…

Thucydides continues that in the expedition against Troy [1.4] they could not unite for this expedition until they had gained greater familiarity with the sea, which explains why the Mycenaean ruler Agamemnon sought help and allies.

Dated to 3000–2800 BC, the discovered city of Pavlopetri, currently submerged on the southeastern coastal edge of the Peloponnese, reveals that Laconia was the land of the Pelasgian Leleges.

(Historical records)

The descendants of the mythical Pelasgus (Helicanus of Lesbos) were the kings of the Pelasgians in Thessaly. Pelasgus also had a son named Lycaon, who became ruler of Arcadia. Lycaon had four sons: Iapyx, Daunus, Oenotrus, and Peucetius.

History tells of the early Mycenaean/Pelasgian civilization, which had flourished since 3000 BC and had successful trade with the cities of Troy in the east, which controlled the Dardanelles.

The Mycenaeans were part of a large Indo-European expansion and migration, a broad and multilayered grouping that originated on the northern shores of the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea. The western section of this grouping migrated into Eastern Europe between 3300–2600 BC.

An apocalyptic flood and the arrival of northern tribes created the myth of the destruction of Mycenae (1183 BC), but we note that many Pelasgian kings dominated the Mediterranean:
1240 BC – Phrastor
1230 BC – Amyntor (son)
1210? BC – Teutamides / Teutamus (son)
1200 BC – Nasas / Nanas (son), the last Pelasgian king of Pelasgiotis
1120 BC – Munik, son of Driant
1110 BC – Alkander

Troy of Eastern Pelasgia

Troy is known as a permanent settlement around the 36th century BC (3600 BC), as a proto–Indo-European settlement with developed trade relations with several important kingdoms and cities dating back thousands of years.

The Trojans return to Chaonia, which precedes the later emergence of the term “Hellenes” by 500 years after Deucalion.

In 1183 BC, after the end of the war and the plundering of Troy, Neoptolemus (son of Achilles—Pyrrha) and his followers settled in Epirus, where they found the city of Buthrotum (modern Butrint), and coexisted with the local inhabitants, becoming part of the population and absorbing Pelasgian culture.

Chaonia, the center of Epirus

Neoptolemus (Pyrrha) brought with him Andromache, the widow of Hector of Troy, and Helenus, the son of Priam. After the death of Neoptolemus in Delphi (Temple of Phthia), Helenus married Andromache and ruled the kingdom with her, centered in Chaonia.

After the death of Helenus, Andromache withdrew to Pergamum to live with her son, King Pergamus. The Epirote throne was taken by her other son, Molossus, the eponymous founder of the Molossian tribe, in which the Mycenaean contingent under Neoptolemus had already settled.

“Chaoniam omnem troiano a chaone dixit.
Chaones fut primi motes epiri: a qbus chaonia dicta ess cilicet epirus…”

Chaonia named all Trojans from Chaon.
The Chaonians were the first human stock of Epirus, from whom Chaonia derives as part of Epirus…

Epirus had a peaceful period until the 5th century BC. The Molossians of Epirus seem to have been absorbed or united mainly with the Chaonians in the north and the Thesprotians in the south. However, this appears to have been more of a political absorption, as all three tribes were able to independently influence their fate in the formation of the Epirote League in 325 or 320 BC.

“The city of Buthrotum is the same as the source of Timaeus… in Epirus… from which Chaonia spread, which was previously called Molossia.”

“Dodona, parent of sounds, in the region of Chaonia, which is part of Epirus, is the temple of Zeus.”

Admetus (470–430 BC) was king of the Molossians at the time when Themistocles (524–459 BC) was the ruler of Athens, and he protected him against attacks from Athens and Corcyra.

Alcetas I (390/385–370 BC), the next successor, king of Epirus, son of Tharrhypas and great-grandfather of Alexander the Great through his mother, united Epirus while also fortifying Butrint as its center.

Dynasty of Epirus:

• Neoptolemus (Pyrrha)
• Molossus, son of Neoptolemus and Andromache
• Alcon Molossus (6th century BC), regent of Agariste of Sicyon
• Admetus of Epirus (c. 490–470 BC)
• Tharypus
• Alcetas I (c. 385–370 BC)
• Neoptolemus I
• Arybbas (361/360–?)
• Alexander I (?-330/329 BC)
• Aeacides
• Alcetas II (313–307 BC)
• Beroea of Epirus
• Pyrrhus I (307–302 BC)
• Neoptolemus II (302–295 BC)
• Alexander II of Epirus (272–255 BC)
• Olympias II of Epirus
• Pyrrhus II
• Ptolemy of Epirus (238–231 BC)
• Deidamia (?-231 BC)

The last Pelasgians who “lived among the Athenians” were the Cranai, who clearly preserved their language at that time and were later settled by the Athenians in Lemnos, becoming known as the Hellespontine Pelasgians.

5th century BC: some Pelasgian colonies still existed, especially in Arcadia of the Peloponnese. Another territory on the northwestern coast of the Aegean was Pelasgiotis, which extended south of Pieria.

Two such Pelasgian heroes were Hippothous and his brother Nasus, the last Pelasgian king of Pelasgiotis. Hippothous was killed by Ajax during the struggle for the body of Patroclus, and Pylaeus apparently supported him.

Historian Tristan Lambright of Jacksonville State University:
While defining Greek identity in terms of collectivity or superiority, Greek writers always had the option to use traditions of Pelasgian ancestry to emphasize the shared heritage of all Greeks as descendants of indigenous Pelasgians.

Conversely, if Greek identity was analyzed in terms of opposition, Greek writers could use discourses of Pelasgian otherness and barbarity to highlight the distinction between Greek and non-Greek peoples. Nevertheless, Pelasgians consistently appear in Greek literature as a link to the distant past of the Greeks. In this way, they allowed Greek writers to trace the historical roots of Greek identity, explain the development of contemporary cultural conditions, and promote Greek political projects in various political contexts.

Conclusion

Modern Greeks or Hellenes did not have hegemony in Epirus, but only in Thebes and the Peloponnese.

Part 2: Epirus in 1200 AD; Albanian, Greek, or Slavic?

In the years 1000–1018 AD, in a Bulgarian text by Anonymous, Fragment on the Origin of Nations, “Albanians or ‘Arbanasi’ form a distinct ethnic group and are part of the 12 languages of the half-believers.” [Acropolitae 1217 AD]

The year 1204 AD shows that Epirus was mainly Albanian and Vlach, but this ethnic composition later changed.

Chronicles on the “Fall of Constantinople to the Franks on April 13, 1204, and the creation of the state of Epirus by Michael I Komnenos Angelos Doukas (1205 AD)” record waves of refugees who seem to have found shelter in Ioannina, where the fortress was specifically built for them by Michael I. “This city, described by John Apokaukos as a small town, became a new Noah’s Ark for refugees.” [Oswald 2019]

During the decades of migration, from members of the episcopate and wealthy Greeks, we have the following accounts:

• Demetrios Chomatenos, Archbishop of Ohrid, states that at least half of the refugees from Constantinople found asylum in Epirus.
• The former Byzantine Emperor Alexios III.
• Theodore Demnites, who fled from Anatolia to the region of Achelous in Epirus.
• Theodoros Chamaretos, a Greek lord in the Peloponnese, fled to Epirus and wrote to his wife’s father that she could come join him, since Epirus was full of countless refugees from the Peloponnese, many of them people of rank and wealth, and she would surely find herself among friends and compatriots.

This influx of Greek refugees continued throughout the century. Even after 1261, following the recapture of Constantinople by the Emperor of Nicaea, Michael VIII Palaiologos, Epirus and Thessaly welcomed political or religious refugees fleeing the Byzantine court, such as in the 1270s, opponents of the emperor’s church policy. [Oswald 2019]

During the Bulgarian expansion in the east, in 1230, George Bardanes (1220) explains that Grevena in western Macedonia was considered a Bulgarian-barbarian-speaking place, while Vonitsa in Acarnania was Greek-speaking. No other source speaks of Slavs in Epirus before the Serbian expansion of the 14th century. This is why Albanians and Vlachs appear in sources only in the 10th–11th centuries, after the restoration of Byzantine authority.

The first mention of the Vlachs, a Latin-speaking minority that still exists in Greece and Albania, can be dated to the 10th century, when the word “Blachoi” first appeared. They fought for various Orthodox states but did not feel loyalty to Byzantium and often fought as allies of the two Bulgarian Empires in the 10th century and at the end of the 12th century. Many of them settled in Thessaly in large numbers, which is why it became known as “Great Vlachia” or “Vlachia in Greece.” After the conquest of Thessaly by the state of Epirus in the 1210s, the Vlachs became an elite within the Epirote army against the Latin Crusaders, as well as against the armies of Nicaea, a rival Byzantine state.

The Albanian uprising forced Akropolites, who had come hoping to restore order, to write:

“Upon my departure from Albania, I took supplies and all forces with me, because the Albanian people had acted beforehand and had already carried out their revolt. They had all deserted the despot Michael. Seeing everything in chaos, I left Debar, where I had stayed longer than necessary and where the enemy had surrounded us, and I took troubled Ohrid with some of my companions. In Ohrid I left the garrison to guard the fortress and, marching through Prespa and to the place called Siderokastron, I arrived safely in Prilep…” [George Acropolites (1217–1282), teacher of Emperor Theodore II Laskaris]

There is no data on a movement of Albanians into Epirus according to the chronicles of Arbanon, which extended to the Despotate of Akrokeraun, but there is data from revised publications that Albanians moved only toward the Peloponnese and Thessaly after the 12th century, for many reasons. The main one is:

“Even in places such as Thrace, Macedonia, Thessaly, and Epirus, the once sound provincial administration of the Empire was destined never to be re-established.” [Thekla Sansaridou-Hendrickx – revision of the Tocco Chronicle]

“Regarding Epirus, its distance and isolation… created a climate of self-sufficiency and independence among its people… and the stability that Epirus offered to a considerable number of refugees from other parts of the Empire in the early 13th century gave the province a reputation as a prosperous place and even a refuge.”

In the period after 1212, Apokaukos, Chomatenos, and their episcopal colleagues were clearly able to distinguish between Byzantines (Romaioi), Albanians, Bulgarians (or “Drougoubitai”), Latins, and Serbs.

The Byzantine Empire was not a nation-state but a multiethnic empire. The word ethnos in the Bible is used to refer to non-Jews, i.e., pagans outside Christianity. For example, the Metropolitan of Naupaktos, John Apokaukos, refers to the Latin conquerors as ethne.

Thus, the word in our sources that indicates “ethnicity” is genos. This idea of genos, and thus ethnic belonging, was partly based on ethnic elements, but a person’s cultural and linguistic background was certainly the best indicator of their ethnic identity. Consequently, by learning the Greek language, anyone could enter the administrative, ecclesiastical, or military hierarchy.

Thus, the process of social advancement was also a process of cultural assimilation. Byzantine history provides examples of many originally non-Greek speakers, such as Armenians, who came to serve the state at its highest levels. There were even Normans—foreigners to the Empire—who came as invaders in the 11th century and became members of the Byzantine aristocracy, such as the Roger or Petraliphas families.[Osswald et al., 2019]

Situation in the 14th century – The fall of Constantinople and the migration wave of the Yörüks (Ottomans).

“Being a Yörük was mainly a matter of fiscal privilege within the Ottoman state… The Yörüks followed military leaders and were then massively relocated by the sultans from Anatolia to the Balkans, while Albanians were invited to repopulate the countryside of southern Greece by the Venetians and Byzantines.”

The Ottoman cadastral system of 1460–63 divided registered settlements into Greek and Albanian based on different tax rates, which favored the latter ethnic group. Due to continuous wars and the plague in the 14th century, the population of the Peloponnese had suffered losses. This demographic deficit was partly offset by the invitation and settlement of nomadic Albanian clans—this time Christian, in contrast to the Muslim Yörüks—who formed populated groups consisting of families or tribes. Albanians, also known as Arvanites…

“…within half a century, the favorable tax conditions granted to Albanians had ceased to exist. In the next register of the Peloponnese (1514/5), the same poll tax was recorded for both Greeks and Albanians, and therefore Albanian villages were no longer distinguished. This shows that by the beginning of the 16th century Ottoman rule in the peninsula had been consolidated. On the other hand, earlier registers clearly marked Albanian villages as ‘Albanian communities.’”
[Liakopoulos, G.C. (2022)]

“Since chronicles and historiographical works written in Epirus during the period in question are completely lacking, the exact prosopographical data and information about persons in the service of the rulers of Epirus are relatively limited.

The image of the Byzantine states of Nicaea and Epirus in Bulgarian sources presents a mixture of tradition and innovation. The Byzantine term of self-designation ‘Romaios’ was traditionally translated among the Slavs as ‘Greek.’ The Bulgarian texts of the 13th century are no exception. The emperors of both rival states of Epirus and Nicaea are consistently described either as ‘tsars of the Greeks’ or as rulers over the Greeks.

The inscription carved in 1230 in the Church of the Forty Martyrs in Tarnovo boasts of the victory of John Asen II over the Greek army and the successful capture of ‘Tsar Kyr Theodor Komnenos and his sons’; this victory is said to have led the Bulgarian ruler to establish his rule over ‘the land from Adrianople to Dyrrhachion—Greek as well as Serbian and Albanian.’”
[Judith Herrin, 2011]

References
Osswald B. et al. 2019. The Ethnic Composition of Medieval Epirus. University of Pisa (HAL Science)
Liakopoulos, G.C. (2022). The Integration of Settlers into Existing Socio-Environmental Environments: The Recovery of Greek Lands after the Late Medieval Crisis. In: Izdebski, A., Haldon, J., Filipkowski, P. (eds) Perspectives on Public Policy in Societal-Environmental Crises. Springer.
Judith Herrin (2011). Identities and Allegiances in the Eastern Mediterranean after 1204.
Extract from: Radoslav Grujic (1934), translated by Robert Elsie, Early Albania