Chaonia

Chaonia or Chaon (Greek Χαονία or Χάων) was the name of the northwestern part of Epirus, the homeland of the Epirote tribe of the Chaonians.[1][2] Its main town was called Phoenice. According to Virgil, Chaon was the eponymous ancestor of the Chaonians.[3]

For the community in the United States, see Chaonia, Missouri.
Chaonia (Χαονία)
Region of Ancient Greece
Theatre of Buthrotum
LocationNorthern/Northwestern Epirus
Tribal state (later subdivision of Epirus)8th–2nd centuries BC
LanguageNorthwestern Greek
CapitalPhoenice

Geography

Strabo in his Geography,[4] places Chaonia between the Ceraunian mountains in the north and the River Thyamis in the south. The Roman historian, Appian, mentions Chaonia as the southern border in his description and geography of Illyria.[5]

Important cities in Chaonia included Chimaera (modern Himarë), Buthrotum, Phoenice, Panormos, Onchesmus (today Saranda) and Antigonia.

Mythology

In Vigil's Aeneid, Aeneas visits Chaonia and meets Andromache and Helenus. He is told he must continue on to Italy, and instructed to meet the Sibyl concerning a more specific prophecy as to Aeneas's destiny.[6]

See also

References
  1. Errington, Malcolm. A History of Macedonia. University of California Press, 1990.
  2. The Cambridge Ancient History: Vol. 6, the Fourth Century BC.
  3. Virgil. Aeneid, 3.295.
  4. Strabo. The Geography. Book VII, Chapter 7.5 (LacusCurtis).
  5. Appian. The Foreign Wars, III.1 (ed. Horace White).
  6. Virgil (1993). Aeneid. Translated by Fitzgerald, Robert. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN 0-679-41335-9.

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