Paeonia (kingdom)

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
"Paionia" redirects here. For the municipality in northern Greece, see Paionia (municipality). For the deme of ancient Attica, see Paeonidae.
Coin of Lykkeios (Lycceius), King of Paionia (359 – 335 BC) - depicting Herakles and the Nemean lion
Paeonian tribes
Odrysian Kingdom
Paeonians and the Kingdom of Macedon

In antiquity, Paeonia or Paionia (

romanized
: Paionía) was the land and kingdom of the Paeonians or Paionians (Ancient Greek: Παίονες, romanized: Paíones).

The exact original boundaries of Paeonia, like the early history of its inhabitants, are obscure, but it is known that it roughly corresponds to most of present-day

Greek Macedonia (i.e. probably the Greek municipalities of Paionia (excluding the village of Evropos[1]), Almopia, Sintiki, Irakleia, and Serres), and a small part of south-western Bulgaria.[2][3][4][5][6] Ancient authors placed it south of Dardania (an area corresponding to modern-day Kosovo and northern North Macedonia), west of the Thracian mountains, and east of the southernmost Illyrians.[7] It was separated from Dardania by the mountains through which the Vardar river passes from the field of Scupi (modern Skopje) to the valley of Bylazora (near modern Sveti Nikole
).

In the

Persian invasion of Greece, the conquered Paeonians from as far as the Lake Prasias, including the Paeoplae and Siropaiones, were deported from Paeonia to Asia.[8]

In 355–354 BC,

Stenae (near modern Demir Kapija), Antigoneia (near modern Negotino
), etc.

Paeonian people

Tribes

The Paeonian tribes were:

Origin

Paeonia as part of Epirus environs.

There is relatively little mention of the Paeonians in the

Asteropaeus, son of Pelagon
.

Before the reign of

Astibus and the river of the same name, with the water of which they anointed their kings. Emathia, roughly the district between the Haliacmon and Axios, was once called Paeonia; and Pieria and Pelagonia
were inhabited by Paeonians. As a consequence of the growth of Macedonian power, and under pressure from their Thracian neighbors, their territory was considerably diminished, and in historical times was limited to the north of Macedonia from Illyria to the Strymon.

Mythological chart of Paeonia's founder, Paeon.

Mythology

In

Paeon the son of Endymion.[28]
Endymion of Elis, the lover of the goddess of the Moon (Selene), had three sons, Paeon, Epeios and Aetolus. Endymion, in order to give his kingdom to one of them, made them run a race in Olympia, where Epeios won and took the kingdom. Paeon left in disappointment to settle in the Upper Valley of Axios which was since called Paeonia.

In the Trojan War, the Paeonians "with ankylosed bows" (Iliad, II 848-850) "wearing helmets with horsetails" were allies of the Trojans, appearing to fight on their side, under King Pyraichmes and Asteropaeus.

Paeonian Kingdom

Coin of Patraus, king of Paeonia 335-315 BC

In early times, the chief town and seat of the Paeonian kings was Bylazora (now Veles in North Macedonia) on the Vardar; later, the seat of the kings was moved to Stobi (near modern Gradsko).[29]

Subjugation of the Paeonians happened as a part of Persian military operations initiated by

Asia Minor.[29][30] Darius left in Europe one of his commanders named Megabazus whose task was to accomplish conquests in the Balkans.[29] The Persian troops subjugated gold-rich Thrace, the coastal Greek cities, as well as defeating and conquering the powerful Paeonians.[29][31][32]

At some point after the

Diodorus
XVI. 2.5) in support of an Illyrian invasion.

The Macedonian Royal House was thrown into a state of uncertainty by the death of Perdiccas III, but his brother Philip II assumed the throne, reformed the army (providing phalanxes), and proceeded to stop both the Illyrian invasion and the Paeonian raids through the boundary of the "Macedonian Frontier", which was the northern perimeter which he intended to defend as an area of his domain. He followed Perdiccas's success in 358 BC with a campaign deep into the north, into Paeonia itself.[33][34][35][36][37][38] This reduced the Paeonian kingdom (then ruled by Agis) to a semi-autonomous, subordinate status, which led to a process of gradual and formal Hellenization of the Paeonians, who, during the reign of Philip II, began to issue coins with Greek legends like the Macedonian ones. A Paeonian contingent, led by Ariston, was attached to Alexander the Great's army.

At the time of the

Persian invasion, the Paeonians on the lower Strymon had lost, while those in the north maintained, their territorial integrity. The daughter of Audoleon, a king of Paeonia, was the wife of Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, and Alexander the Great wished to bestow the hand of his sister Cynane upon Langarus
, king of the Agrianians, who had shown himself loyal to Philip II.

Kings

Kings of Paeonia
Main line
  • Agis: founded the Paeonian kingdom; pretender to the Macedonian throne in a time of instability.[43]
  • Lycceius: joined anti-Macedonian coalition with Grabos II and Thrace in 356 BC.[44]
  • Patraus
  • Audoleon: reduced to great straits by the Autariatae, but was succoured by Cassander.[45]
  • Ariston[41]
  • Leon of Paeonia: consolidated and restored lost lands after the Gallic Invasions in 280/279 BC.[42]
  • Dropion: last known Paeonian king in 230 BC, of a dwindling kingdom.[42]
Others
  • Pigres: one of the two tyrant brothers which in 511 BC persuaded Darius I to deport the coastal Paeonians to Asia.[46]
  • Mantyes: one of the two tyrant brothers which in 511 BC persuaded Darius I to deport the coastal Paeonians to Asia.[46]
  • Dokidan: of the Derrones; reigned during the 6th century BC.[47]
  • Dokim: of the Derrones; reigned during the 6th century BC.[47]
  • Euergetes: of the Derrones; reigned c. 480–465 BC, known only from his coinage.[48]
  • Teutaos: reigned from c. 450–435 BC; known only from his coinage.[49]
  • Bastareus: reigned from c. 400–380/78 BC, known only from his coinage.[50]
  • Teutamado: reigned from 378 to 359 BC, known only from his coinage.[51]
  • Symnon: great ally of Phillip II from 348 to 336 BC.[52]
  • Nicharchos: reigned from 335 to 323 BC; son of Symon.[52]
  • Langarus: of the Agrianes; invaded the territory of the Autariatae in 335 BC in coalition with Alexander the Great.[53]
  • Dyplaios: of the Agrianes; reigned around 330 BC.[54]
  • Didas: allied Philip V of Macedon with 4,000 warriors from 215 to 197 BC.[47]

Foreign rulers

Persian
  • Darius I: subjugated Paeonia in 511/2 BC.[29][55]
  • Xerxes: included Paeonians in vast Persian army of 481 BC, for the Invasion of Greece.[56]
Thracian
  • Sitalces: included Agrianes and Laeaeans in his Macedonian campaign in 429 BC.[57]

Culture

See also: Paeonian language

The Paeonians included several independent tribes, all later united under the rule of a single king. Little is known of their manners and customs. They adopted the cult of

bituminous
kind of wood (or stone, which burst into a blaze when in contact with water) called tanrivoc (or tsarivos).

The scanty remains of the Paeonian language do not allow a firm judgement to be made. On one side are Wilhelm Tomaschek and Paul Kretschmer, who claim it belonged to the Illyrian family, and on the other side is Dimitar Dečev, who claims affinities with Thracian. On the other hand, the Paeonian kings issued coins from the time of Philip II of Macedon onwards, bearing their names written in straightforward Greek. All the names of the Paeonian Kings that have come down to us are, in fact, explainable with and clearly related to Greek (Agis, Ariston, Audoleon, Lycceius, etc.), a fact that, according to Irwin L. Merker, puts into question the theories of Illyrian and Thracian connections.

The women were famous for their industry. In this connection Herodotus

Lycceius or Lycpeius of Paeonian coins.[59]

Decline

In 280 BC, the

Brennus ravaged the land of the Paeonians, who, being further hard pressed by the Dardani, had no alternative but to join the Macedonians. Despite their combined efforts, however, the Paeonians and Macedonians were defeated. After the Celtic invasion of the Balkans weakened the state of the Macedonians and Paeonians, the political and military role of the Dardanians began to grow in the region. They expanded their state to the area of Paeonia which definitively disappeared from history.[60] In 230 the Dardani under Longarus[61] captured Bylazora
from the Paeonians. Paeonia consolidated again but, in 217 BC, the Macedonian king
Macedonia Salutaris, belonging to the Praetorian prefecture of Illyricum
.

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Paionia.
  • List of ancient Illyrian peoples and tribes
  • List of ancient tribes in Thrace

References

  1. ^ "Ptolemy's Geography 3.13.39". LacusCurtius. Retrieved 2021-09-14.
  2. ISBN 978-0198759881
    . Paeonia is roughly equivalent to the country currently known as the Republic of North Macedonia (the former FYROM).
  3. ISBN 978-1-4051-7936-2
    .
  4. ^ "Paeonia". Encyclopædia Britannica online.
  5. ISBN 978-1930053564
    . Paeonia, roughly where the F.Y.R.O.M. is today.
  6. ISBN 9780520242609
    . Ovid was lax in his geography, not least over Paeonia (in fact roughly coextensive with the present Slav republic of Macedonia.).
  7. ^ Strabo, "Geography", 7, Frg.4, 9.5.1
  8. ^ The Persian Empire: A Corpus of Sources from the Achaemenid Period (google books)
  9. ^ a b Early symbolic systems for communication in Southeast Europe, Part 2 by Lolita Nikolova,
    ISBN 1-84171-334-1
    , 2003, page 529, "eastern Paionians (Agrianians and Laeaeans)"
  10. ISBN 0-684-82790-5
    , page 153, "... of them still live round Physcasb- and the Almopians from Almopia.
  11. ISBN 978-0-521-85073-5
    Volume 4, Persia, Greece and the Western Mediterranean, C. 525 to 479 B.C, John Boardman, page 252, "The Paeonians were the earlier owners of some of these mines, but after their defeat in the coastal sector they maintained their independence in the mainland and coined large denominations in the upper Strymon and the Upper Axius area in the names of the Laeaei and the Derrones"
  12. ISBN 0-19-814099-1
    , page 854, ... Various tribes have occupied this part of Thrace: Bisaltians (lower Strymon valley), Odomantes (the plain to the north of the Strymon) ...
  13. ^ Thrace in the Graeco-Roman world, p. 112 but others claim that together with the Agrianes and Odomanti, at least the latter of which were with certainty Thracian, not Paeonian.
  14. ISBN 0-14-044908-6
    , 2003, page 315, ... "was that a number of Paeonian tribes – the Siriopaeones, Paeoplae, ..."
  15. ISBN 0-14-044908-6
    , 2003, page 452, "... Then he passed through the country of the Doberes and Paeoplae (Paeonian tribes living north of Pangaeum), and continued in a ..."
  16. ISBN 0-14-044908-6
    , 2003, page 315, "... was that a number of Paeonian tribes – the Siriopaeones, Paeoplae, ..."
  17. ^ a b "The Ancient Kingdom of Paionia". Balkan Studies 6. 1965.
  18. ISBN 0-393-05974-X
    , page 518: "... Italy); to the north, Thracian tribes known collectively as the Paeonians."
  19. ^ See: Encyclopædia Britannica, online edition.
  20. ^ Irwin L. Merker, "The Ancient Kingdom of Paionia", Balkan Studies 6 (1965) 35.
  21. ISSN 2241-2018
    .
  22. ^
    ISBN 3111568873
    .
  23. ISBN 3111568873 "The possibility, however, that they took a part in the great Greek migration and remained behind on the route, and consequently spoke a Greek dialect, or a lost Indo-European language closely related to Greek [i.e Hellenic
    ], cannot be wholly ruled out".
  24. ISBN 88-15-05708-0
    .
  25. ^ Herodotus V, 13.
  26. ^ Iliad II, 848.
  27. ^ Pausanias 5.1, 3-5.
  28. ^ Pausanias, 5.1.5; Smith "Paeon" 3.
  29. ^
    ISBN 9781444351637
    . Retrieved 17 December 2014.
  30. ISBN 0-19-860641-9
    , page 1515, "The Thracians were subdued by the Persians by 516"
  31. ^ Howe & Reames 2008, p. 239.
  32. ^ "Persian influence on Greece (2)". Archived from the original on 24 July 2020. Retrieved 17 December 2014.
  33. ^ Raphael Sealey, A History of the Greek City States, 700–338 BC, University of California Press, 1976, p. 442, on Google books
  34. ^ Nicholas Geoffrey Lemprière Hammond, Guy Thompson Griffith, A History of Macedonia: 550–336 B.C, Clarendon Press, 1979
  35. ^ R. Malcolm Errington, A History of Macedonia, University of California Press, 1990
  36. ^ Carol G. Thomas, Alexander the Great in his World, Wiley-Blackwell, 2006
  37. ^ Simon Hornblower, The Greek world, 479–323 BC, Routledge, 2002
  38. ^ Diodorus Siculus, Library, 16.4, on Perseus
  39. ^ Catalogue of Greek Coins: Thessaly to Aetolia by Percy Gardner, 2004, Front Matter: "... present to the money of Philip II. of Macedon, and Lycceius and Audoleon, kings of Paeonia, that they must be given ..."
  40. ^ A Guide to the Principal Gold and Silver Coins of the Ancients: From Circ. B. C. 700 to a. D. 1. (1895) by British Museum Dept. of Coins and Medals, 2009, page 62: "... of Athena, facing. Bee. AYAnA EONTOZ. Horse. Wt. 193.4 grs. Patraus and his son Audoleon reigned over Paeonia between B.C. 340 ..."
  41. ^ a b Polyaenus, Stratagems of War, 4.12.3, "Lysimachus conducted Ariston, son of Autoleon, to his father's kingdom in Paeonia; under pretence that the royal youth might be acknowledged by his subjects, and treated with due respect. But as soon as he had bathed in the royal baths in the river Arisbus, and they had set before him an elegant banquet, according to the custom of his country, Lysimachus ordered his guards to arm. Ariston instantly mounted his horse and escaped to the land of the Dardani; and Lysimachus was left in possession of Paeonia."
  42. ^ a b c d Pausanias, Description of Greece Phocis and Ozolian Locri, 10.13.1, "A bronze head of the Paeonian bull called the bison was sent to Delphi by the Paeonian king Dropion, son of Leon."
  43. ^ The Cambridge Ancient History, Volume 6: The Fourth Century BC by D. M. Lewis, John Boardman, Simon Hornblower, and M. Ostwald, 1994, page 463: "Agis, king of Paeonians".
  44. ^ Catalogue of Greek Coins: Thessaly to Aetolia by Percy Gardner, 2004, Front Matter: "... present to the money of Philip II. of Macedon, and Lycceius and Audoleon, kings of Paeonia, that they must be given..."
  45. ^ A Guide to the Principal Gold and Silver Coins of the Ancients: From Circ. B. C. 700 to a. D. 1. (1895) by British Museum Dept. of Coins and Medals, 2009, page 62: "... Patraus and his son Audoleon reigned over Paaonia between B.C. 340 ..."
  46. ^
    ISBN 9781596258778. Retrieved 2014-10-15.[permanent dead link
    ]
  47. ^ a b c bg:Пеония
  48. ^ "Thraco Macedonian Tribes, Derrones, ancient coins index with thumbnails - WildWinds.com". wildwinds.com. Retrieved 2014-10-15.
  49. ^ "Ancient Mediterranean and Europe: The Paones". allempires.com. Retrieved 2014-10-15.
  50. ISBN 0405123485
    , 1979, page 224.
  51. ^ "Mbretër Ilirë, 2400 Vjet Më Parë, Në Maqedoninë E Sotme". forumishqiptar.com. Retrieved 2014-10-15.
  52. ^ a b "I/63 Paionian (512–284 BC)". fanaticus.org. Archived from the original on 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2014-10-15.
  53. ^ Smith, William (editor); Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, "Langarus", Boston, (1867).
  54. ISBN 9789989390210
    . Retrieved 2014-10-15.
  55. ISBN 978-1930053564
    p 239
  56. ^ Herodotus VII, 185
  57. ^ Kubelka, Martin. "The unknown Paeonian world | martin kubelka - Academia.edu". academia.edu. Retrieved 2014-10-15.
  58. ^ v. 12
  59. ^ B. V. Head, Historia Numorum, 1887, p. 207.
  60. ^ Stipčević 1989, pp. 38–39.
  61. ^ Hammond 1988, p. 338
  62. ^ Livy xiv. 29.

Bibliography

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