EPIMUS, the ancient name of a part of Greece, bounded on the e. by the chain of Pindus, on the s. by the Ambracian gulf, on the w. by the Ionian sea, and on the n. by Illyria and Macedonia. It formed the southern part of modern Albania, or the pashalic of Janina, a wild and mountainous region, the haunt of robbers and semi civilized tribes in all ages. The chief town was Dodona (q.v.); the chief rivers, the Acheron, Cocytus, Arachthus, and Charadrus. Anciently, it was celebrated for its cattle and its breed of Molossian dogs. Its earliest inhabitants were probably Pelas gians. In the historic period, Theopompus speaks of fourteen tribes, most of whom were believed by the Greeks themselves to be not of Hellenic origin. The principal were the Cheones, Threspoti, and Molossi, the last of whom finally obtained the entire sovereignty of the country. Of the Molossian kings of E., the most distinguished was Pyrrhus, who long waged successful war against the Romans. But after this race of kings became extinct (239-229 u.c.) by the death of Ptolemy, grandson of Pyrrhus, a
republican constitution was adopted, whereupon parties sprang up among them, and the neighboring Macedonians got the upper hand. On the conquest of Macedonia by the Romans (168 u.c.), the Epirots were accused of having assisted Perseus, the Mace donian king, and the most revengeful measures were put in force against them. Amilius Paulus, the Roman gen., plundered and razed to the ground the 70 towns of E., and sold into slavery 150,000 of the inhabitants. From this period, E. shared the vicissitudes of the Roman and Byzantine empires, until 1204, when one of the Comneni made himself independent. His dynasty ruled the country until 1466, when it was finally conquered by the Turks (see ScANoEnnEo). E., peopled largely since the 14th c. by Albanians (see ALBANIA), formed latterly a part of the Turkish vilayet of Janina. The Berlin congress of 1878 recommended that the southern part of E. should be ceded to Greece.