The Chaonians () were an ancient Greek people that inhabited the historical region of Epirus which today is part of northwestern Greece and southern Albania.; ; ; ; ; Together with the Molossians and the Thesprotians, they formed the main tribes of the northwestern Greek group. In historical times on their southern frontier lay the Epirote kingdom of the Molossians, to their southwest stood the kingdom of the Thesprotians, and to their north the Illyrians. By the 5th century BC, they had conquered and combined to a large degree with the neighboring Thesprotians and Molossians. The Chaonians were part of the Epirote League until 170 BC when their territory was annexed by the Roman Republic.
Name Attestation The ethnic name Χάονες Cháones is attested indirectly in the fragments of Hecataeus of Miletus ( 500 BC), the author of Περίοδος Γῆς or Περιήγησις (Description of the Earth or Periegesis), which have been preserved in the geographical lexicon Ἐθνικά (Ethnica) of Stephanus of Byzantium ( 6th century AD).; ; The Chaonians are directly mentioned for the first time in 429 BC by Thucydides, the author of History of the Peloponnesian War.; .
Etymology The etymology of the ethnic name Χάονες Cháones is uncertain. In modern bibliography, a connection of Χᾱον- to words like χάος 'void' and χάσκω 'to yawn, gape', has been proposed by linguist Vladimir I. Georgiev (also by Radoslav Katičić). The semantic shift which is required for Chaones to be linked to them may contain irregularities, although a common root may point to a term referring to a "rugged area". Significant phonemic differences between them, in particular Χᾱον- and the root *χᾰF-, render their relation even more improbable. The original root of the name may have even been entirely different and unrelated to *χᾰF-, but became unrecognizable during the course of its historical uses.
Several narratives were produced about the Chaonian ethnonym during the late classical era. According to the construction of mythological genealogies, Chaonians allegedly received their name from an eponymous ancestor named Cháōn, a Trojan hero who supposedly settled in Epirus. The Athenian comic playwright Aristophanes, in his play The Knights, punningly associated the ethnonym of the Chaonians with the similar sounding verb χάσκω, chásko 'to yawn', while in his play The Acharnians, with χάος, cháos 'chaos'; implying the situation that prevailed in Athenian foreign policy, and the indolent nature of Athenian politicians.; ;
Geography
Chaonia () was in the northwestern part of Epirus. It was one of the three main ethnic divisions of Epirus; the other two were Thesprotia and Molossia. The chronological arc when the toponym of Chaonia is attested ranges from the Classical Era to the Roman Era. Important river valleys that were included within Chaonia were those of Drino, Bistrica, Kalasa and Pavlla. Being under Chaonian control and playing an important geopolitical role in the region, the Drino valley represented a key land route between Illyria and northern Greece, which probably explains the reasons of the independence and notability of the Chaonians in classical antiquity.
Chaonia manifested a 'continental' propensity and the natives of the region had scarce interest for the sea. Nevertheless, with its strategic position on the routes towards Italy, Chaonia appears to have been precociously and continuously affected by the trans-Ionian and trans-Adriatic navigation routes that required their own cultural landscape. Among the oldest of these cultural landscapes was a 'colonial' landscape, the precocity of which is acknowledged only within the cultural sphere of the peraia of Korkyra.
Settlements and fortifications
Hammond (1982) suggests that the lack of ancient Greek colonies in the territories of where Chaonians are attested since the classical era is linked to Chaonian control over this area which prevented the Greek city-states from establishing colonies..
The population of Chaonia lived mostly in rural settlements before the 4th century BCE. Phoenice which in time became the capital and most urbanized settlement of the Chaonians first developed in the late 4th century BCE.. Phoenice peaked as an urban settlement in the mid-3rd century BCE. Bouthroton, was another settlement which developed during the Hellenistic era in Chaonia. The city and the territory it controlled was founded as a Korkyraian colony and enclave. It was abandoned in 475-350 BCE, which coincides with the involvement of Korkyra in the Peloponnesian War. Chaonians seem to have resettled this coastal area around 350-300 BCE. At the end of the 4th century BC, the city of Bouthroton, became Phoenice's harbor and experienced a thorough transformation, with the construction of a new city wall and the reactivation of the harbor and sanctuary. With the reorganization of the epineion of Bouthroton, Chaonia was opened towards the sea. Apart from those two cities the rest of the Chaonian territory retained its kata komas rural organization at the last half of the 4th century.
Onchesmos (present-day Saranda) was another harbor of Chaonia, however archaeological finds dating back to this period are lacking so far, possibly reflecting Onchesmos' secondary role in relation to that of Bouthroton. In the Hellenistic period Himara was the most northwestern fortification of Chaonia and an important center according to epigraphic and historical sources. Himara was of the earliest Chaonian fortifications and served as a fortified refuge for the rural settlements forming a restricted chora around it. Another stronghold in northwest of Chaonia was in Borsh, which controlled a crucial road that connected Chaonia and southern Illyria.
The inclusion of Chaonia in the Kingdom of Epirus is linked to increasing control of Chaonian territories as royal lands by the Molossian King Pyrrhus. In the area of the Drino valley, Pyrrhus founded Antigonea in the early 3rd century BCE. It is unclear whether Pyrrhus founded Antigonea with approval from Chaonian elites or not. Nevertheless it indicates Pyrrhus' authority to interfere in the organization of the Epirote kingdom. A number of fortified farmsteads which likely belonged to landowners linked to Pyrrhus appeared during this era, mostly between Phoenice and Bouthroton in Matomara, Metoqi, Çumpora, Çuka and Malathrea and in Dobra. In the same era, such sites have been found in Melan, while sites in Lekel (possibly ancient Hecatompedon), Labova (possibly ancient Omphalion), Dholani e Derviçan and Selo secured various access points to the valley. The sites in Labovë e Sipërme, Dholan and Derviçan may have been fortified residences which developed around Antigonea in the same manner as the farmsteads between Phoenice and Bouthroton.
In the Roman era the main urban center was transferred to Hadrianopolis, on the left bank of the Drinos replacing Antigonea. The first phases of occupation found in Hadrianopolis seem to date back to at least the Hellenistic age..
Border zones
The borders in Epirus cannot be reconstructed with certainty before the 5th century BC. The broadest borders documented for Chaonia in historical times correspond to the mountain chain of Llogara (in the Acroceraunians) in the northwest, to the last offshoots of the massif of Kurveleshi in the north, to the mountain chain of Lunxhëri-Bureto in the northeast, to the river Thyamis in the south.
The region of the lower course of the Aoos as well as the Gulf of Aulon lay outside the Chaonian territory. As part of the southward expansion of Apollonia the lower Aoos region came under the control of this polis (during the capture of Thronium c. 450 BC). It has been suggested that Apollonia's expansion towards the south may have been due to the control of the northern end of the land route that crossed all of Epirus; from south to north. Apollonia was the northernmost Greek colony in direct interaction to Epirus, although the city itself located in Illyria. As such a major cultural border between Chaonia and Illyria could be found around that area.
The eastern border of Chaonia was located along the Drino and Aoos rivers. The eastern and southern boundaries of the Chaonians were also not clear and also changed over the centuries. This occurred due to a number of factors and historical events; seasonal movements of nomadic or semi-nomadic populations and relations towards the neighboring populations including the interests of the southern Greek powers: Corinth and the Athens as well as of the neighboring Greek nations. Also, to the north-east the Chaonians bordered the Atintanians, whose position is in question. In the east they were adjacent to the Paraueans who populated the valley on the right bank of the Aoos between the Straits of Këlcyrë and the Sarantaporos or alternatively only the southern part of the upper Aoos. In the southeast the Chaones were adjacent to the Molossians who occupied the current basin of Ioannina and to the south with the Thesprotians.
The Shushica River (which has been tentatively identified with Polyanthos or Chaonites) set a clear boundary between Chaonians and Amantes, who constituted two distinct tribal communities separated and protected against each other by fortification systems. Strongholds of the Amantes that separated them from the Chaonians were Cerja on the right side of Shushica, and Matohasanaj, which controlled a natural route between southern Illyria and Epirus.
The southern borders of Chaonia were located at Cestrine, an area contested between the Chaonians and the Thesprotians. Cestrine stretched along the modern Greek-Albanian border in the Filiates and Konispol areas.
Discussion in ancient sources and historiography
According to Šašel Kos, at the time of Pseudo-Scylax, Chaonians as well as all the peoples to the north and to the south of Chaonia were living in villages, while Greece began at the Greek polis of Ambracia. However, Šašel Kos also stated that both northern and southern Epirus was part of the Greek world, but possessing their own ethnic identity. As reported in a fragment of Hecataeus of Miletus (around 6th century BC), the Chaonian tribe of the Dexaroi bordered the Enchele to their north. According to Sharon Stocker, Chaonia in the 5th century BC was not considered part of "Greece", but was considered part of it by the beginning of the Hellenistic period. For Lazari and Kanta-Kitsou (2010), the main geographical positions of the peoples of Epirus had become fixed by the 8th century BCE with further divisions involving internal re-organization between smaller units.