CHA.OXIAXS. THKSPEOT1AXS, MOLOSSIANS. 41 <J eon or grandson, is said to have been educated at Athens, and t have introduced improved social regularity into his native coun- try : while the subsequent kings both imitated the ambition and received the aid of Philip of Macedon, extending their dominion 1 over a large portion of the other Epirots : even in the time of Skylax, they covered a large inland territory, though their por- tion of sea-coast was confined. From the narrative of Thucydi- des, we gather that all the Epirots, though held together by no political union, were yet willing enough to combine for purposes of aggression and plunder. The Chaonians enjoyed a higher military reputation than the rest, but the account which Thu- cydides gives of their expedition against Akarnania exhibits a blind, reckless, boastful impetuosity, which contrasts strikingly with the methodical and orderly march of their Greek allies and companions. 2 We may here notice, that the Kassoprcans, whom Skylax places in the south-western portion of Epirus between the Acheron and the Ambrakian gulf, are not noticed either by He- rodotus or Thucydides : the former, indeed, conceives the river Acheron and the Thesprotians as conterminous with the Ambra- kiotic territory. To collect the few particulars known respecting these ruder com- munities adjacent to Greece, is a task indispensable for the just comprehension of the Grecian world, and for the appreciation of the Greeks themselves, by comparison or contrast with their con- temporaries. Indispensable as it is, however, it can hardly be rendered in itself interesting to the reader, whose patience I have to bespeak by assuring him that the facts hereafter to be recounted of Grecian history would be only half understood without this preliminary survey of the lands around. 1 Skylax, c. 32; Pausanias, i, 11 ; Justin, xvii, 6. That the Arrhybas of Justin is the same as the Tfiarypas c f Pausanias, perhaps, also, the same as Tharyps in Thucydides, who vras a minor at tb beginning of the Peloponnesian war. seems probable.
- Tfcucrd. ii, 81.
