Tymphaea

Tymphaea or Tymphaia (Greek: Τυμφαία) was an ancient Greek territory, specifically located in the region of Epirus, inhabited by the Tymphaioi, a northwestern Greek tribe that belonged to the Molossian tribal state or koinon.[1][2] The tribal territory was annexed by and became a province of the Kingdom of Macedon, specifically Upper Macedonia, in the 4th century BC.[3]

Tribes of Epirus in antiquity.

History

Due to the fact that Greek toponyms that preserve archaic features are very densely found in the wider area, it appears that speakers of the proto-Greek language inhabited a region which included Tymphaea before the late Bronze Age migrations (late 3rd-early 2nd millenium B.C) during several centuries or even millennia before.[4] Tymphaea and its Greek inhabitants, the Tymphaioi, were named after Mount Tymphe.[5] In circa 350 BC, Tymphaea was conquered by Phillip II (r. 359–336 BC) and incorporated into the Kingdom of Macedon as part of Upper Macedonia.[3][6] The most famous native of Tymphaea was Polyperchon, regent of Alexander III (r. 336–323 BC). He was the son of Simmias who was the ruler of the Tymphaioi in circa 370 BC.[7]

The Tymphaei belonged to the wider Molossian tribe.[1] They were one of the Epirote tribes of the north-western Greek group.[8] They worshipped Deipaturos (a sky deity, similar to Zeus Pater) as the god of their mountain, Tymphe.[9]

See also

References

Citations
  1. Hammond 1982, p. 276: "As we leave the coastal area, we may turn first to the middle and upper Haliacmon valley, where Elimeotis, Tymphaea and Orestis were inhabited by Epirotic tribes, or more correctly 'Molossian' tribes if the account in Strabo was derived from Hecataeus."
  2. Hammond 1993, pp. 132–133: "Further, the tribes which Strabo termed "Epirotic" — Orestai, Tymphaioi, Elimiotai, Lynkestai and Pelagones — are likely to have spoken the same dialect as the Molossians, to whom they were in some sense related."
  3. Hammond 1994, p. 206: "When Philip annexed Elimea, Orestis, and Lyncus and territory up to Lake Lychnitis, reorganized the administration, and planted towns such as Heraclea Lyncestis, he was in a position to recruit and train infantry from these areas, ready for service perhaps by 352 B.C.; and similarly from Tymphaea, annexed probably in 350 B.C., infantry ready for service by 345 B.C."
  4. Crossland, R. A.; Birchall, Ann (1974). Bronze Age Migrations in the Aegean: Archaeological and Linguistic Problems in Greek Prehistory. Noyes Press. p. 247. ISBN 978-0-8155-5022-8. The region north of this line, which comprises Epirus as far as Aulon, in the north (including Paravaia, Tymphaea, Athamania, Dolopia, Amphilochia and Acarnania), western and northern Thessaly (Hestiaeotis, Perrhaebia, Tripolis) and Pieria, i.e. approximately the whole of northern and north-western Greece, is characterized by the following features. 1. Absence of pre-Hellenic place-names. ... All the principal names north of the line are of archaic Greek origin...Thus in the region defined just above, roughly northern and northwestern Greece... Since Greek place- names are very dense in that region and they have a very archaic appearance, one may suppose that the proto-Greeks were settled in it during many centuries and even millennia.
  5. Hammond 1993, [p. 141] "We see here the origins of the Tymphaioi (named after Mt. Tymphe) Orestai, Lynkestai and Pelagones, who practiced this way of life and were each a cluster of tribes."; [p. 143] "... the "Tymphaioi" were so named from the mountain Tymphe."
  6. Hatzopoulos 1996, p. 249: "Finally, the fourth meris gathered the Upper Macedonian ethne (Lynkestai, Tymphaioi, Atintanes), to which Pelagonia (presumably with Derriopos), in other words the western part of the former strategia of Paionia, was added."
  7. Pleket, Stroud & Strubbe 1994, p. 124: "Polyperchon, one of Alexander's generals and later regent (319 B.C.), son of Simmias who ruled the Tymphaioi ca. 370 B.C."
  8. Hammond, Nicholas Geoffrey Lemprière (1967). Epirus: the geography, the ancient remains, the history and topography of Epirus and adjacent areas. Clarendon P. p. 538.
  9. Hammond 2000, p. 6.

Sources

Further reading
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