Page:History of Greece Vol III.djvu/434

 418 HISTORY OF GREECE. the lake and river of Acheron with the sea, were possessed by the Thesprotian town of Ephyre, situated on a neighboring emi- nence ; perhaps also, in part, by the ancient Thesprotian town of Pandosia, so pointedly connected, both in Italy and Epirus, with the river Acheron. 1 Amidst the almost inexpugnable mountains and gorges which mark the course of that Thesprotian river, was situated the memorable recent community of Suli, which held in dependence many surrounding villages in the lower grounds and in the plain, the counterpart of primitive Epirotic rulers in situation, in fierceness, and in indolence, but far superior to them in energetic bravery and endurance. It appears that after the time of Thucydides, certain Greek settlers must have found ad- mission into the Epirotic towns in this region. For Demosthenes 3 mentions Pandosia, Buchetia, and Elaea, as settlements from Elis, which Philip of Macedon conquered and handed over to his brother-in-law the king of the Molossian Epirots ; and Strabo tells us that the name of Ephyre had been changed to Kichyrus, which appears to imply an accession of new inhabitants. Both the Chaonians and Thesprotians appear, in the time of Thucydides, as having no kings : there was a privileged kingly race, but the presiding chief was changed from year to year. The Molossians, however, had a line of kings, succeeding from father to son, which professed to trace its descent through fifteen generations downward, from Achilles and Neoptolenras to Tha- rypas about the year 400 B. c. ; they were thus a scion of the great .ZEakid race. Admetus, the Molossian king to whom The- mistokles presented himself as a suppliant, appears to have lived in the simplicity of an inland village chief. But Arrybas, his 1 See the account of this territory in Colonel Leake's Travels in Northern Greece, vol. i. ch. v ; his journey from Janina, through the district of Sail nnd the course of the Acheron, to the plain of Glyky and the Achcrusian lake and marshes near the sea. Compare, also, vol. iv, ch. xxxv, p. 73. " To the ancieni sites (observes Colonel Leake) which are so numerous in the great valleys watered by the lower Acheron, the lower Thyamis, and their tributaries, it is a mortifying disappointment to the geographer not to be able to apply a single name with absolute certainty." The number of these sites affords one among many presumptions tint each mnst have been individually inconsiderable. 8 Demosthenes, Do. Haloneso, ch. 7, p. 84 R ; Strabo, vii, p. 324.