Epirus

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.

Oceania Terms Northern Epirus main A map of the traditional Greek presence in Northern Epirus (in blue).

The definition of Epirus has changed over time, such that modern administrative boundaries do not correspond to the boundaries of ancient Epirus.

Located just outside of the modern city of Preveza in the southwestern part of Epirus, what would later become known as the city of Nikopolis was originally inhabited by the Greek tribe of Cassopeans, part of a larger tribe, the Thesprotians.

Epirus’ inhabitants, the Epirotes, were seafaring people who lived near the Ionian Sea and hunters and herdsmen who lived in the mountainous interior.

Once there, he eliminated his co-ruler Neoptolemus, and became king of Epirus.

The mountain range stretches from near the Greek-Albanian border in southern Albania, entering the Epirus and Macedonia regions in northern Greece down to the north of the Peloponnese.

In Macedonia and Epirus these tribes settled near each other and intermarried.

A few years later, at the time of the Greek revolution, Psalidas refutes, for obvious reasons, the term Arvanitia and comments: “Epirus is wrongly referred to as Arvanitia, since no one there knows how to speak Arvanitika (Albanian)”.

After keeping his fiancée waiting in Epirus for a year, he announces his intention of marrying her, only to change his mind almost immediately afterwards.

Agron extended his rule over other neighbouring tribes as well. citation He raided parts of Epirus, Epidamnus, and the islands of Corcyra and Pharos.

All of them, though, were obliged to determine the differences between the ancient term of Epirus and the new term Arvanitia or Albania, the area of which was similarly disputed.

Also shown are the Roman Republic (light blue), the Carthaginian Republic (purple), and the Kingdom of Epirus (red).

Another Greek irredentist claim includes Northern Epirus (currently part of Albania ), where a sizable Greek minority lives.

By their assistance and that of his own subjects, who entertained a great attachment for him, he recovered Epirus.

By the late 9th and early 10th centuries, Bulgaria extended to Epirus and Thessaly in the south, Bosnia in the west and controlled all of present-day Romania and eastern Hungary to the north.

Despite these troubles, Andronikos III took advantage of a secession crisis in Despotate of Epirus to seize Byzantine control from Nikephoros II Orsini in 1337.

Despite this, Pyrrhus plundered the temple of Persephone at Locris before his return to Epirus, an event which would live on in the memory of the Greeks of Italy.

Epirus has few natural resources and industries, and the population has been depleted by migration.

Epirus in the Classical period The theater of Dodona with Mt. Tomarus in the background.