EPIRUS, was a region in ancient Greece, bounded on the east by Macedon and Thessaly; on the south by the Ambracian Gulf; on the west by the Ionian Sea; and on the north by the Ceraunian Mountains. It con sisted anciently of three divisions ; Chaouia, lying to wards the north; Molosis, the middle or inland pro vince; and Thesprotia, extending on the south from the Ambracian Gulf to the sea. Many cities of consi derable magnitude adorned this territory, of which we shall only mention Ambracia, built near the mouth of the river Arachtus, which was about three miles in cir cumference, and became the residence of the ./Eacithe, who reigned in Epirus; and Dodona, said to have been founded by Deucalion as early as the flood, and render ed illustrious by the temple and oracle of Jupiter Do donRus, which were accounted the most ancient and venerable in all Greece. The lands which sti etched along the sea coasts were fertile and well cultivated; but the interior parts were covered with vast forests, and were almost entirely barren. The horses of Epirus were famous from the most remote antiquity ; and the dogs, which the Romans called Mo/ossi, from the dis trict where they were reared, were every where pur chased and employed in hunting.
If credit be due to Josephus, Dodanim,"the grandson of Japhet, having first settled in the Island of Rhodes, either went over the continent himself, or sent thither some of his descendants, to people this region. From him the inhabitants were called Dodonxans, and their principal city Dodona : but in a short time afte, a number of different tribes migrated thither, and took possession of those places which were not yet occupied. Having no bond of union, they were almost constantly engaged in war; and though this inspired them with the most ex alted courage, it rendered the introduction of civiliza tion and refinement slow and difficult.
During the time that the country was divided into a number of independent states, each governed by its own king with the most despotic authority, the history of this region is altogether unworthy of attention. It was only when the kings of Molossis had gained the ascendency over their neighbours, and had reduced the whole under their sway, that this region was denomina ted Epirus, from a Greek word which signifies the con tinent. Pyrrhus, the son of Achilles, was the first of the race of the ./Eacidx, who assumed the sceptre. But though the ancient annalists generally begin the history of this country with his accession after the siege of Troy, yet the exploits which they attribute to him, arc certainly disfigured by poetical invention. The names of his descendants, who governed Epirus till the Persian war, are buried in oblivion. When Xerxes in vaded Greece, Admetus held the sceptre ; but as he had refused to assist either party, Themistocles, after the ter mination of the war, rejected, with disdain, his offers of alliance; but when that celebrated Athenian was banish ed from the ungrateful country, which his skill and bravery had saved, he found an honourable asylum in the court of the prince whom he had formerly contemned. He was succeeded by his son Tharymbas, who went to Athens for the sole purpose of conveying the litera ture, which was there cultivated, to his own country, and who, on account of the wise laws which he after wards enacted, was enrolled among the ancient law givers. Ili's descendants, Aleetas, Neoptolemus, Ary
bas, Alexander, Accides, Aleetas II. reigned in suc cession.
Our attention, however, is powerfully arrested by Pyrrhus II. the son of Aecides, who, when an infant, had been saved from the fury of the rebels, who drove his father into exile. This prince, nursed by misfor: tune, and educated amid dangers in a foreign land, was seated upon the throne of his ancestors by Glau cius, king of Illyricum ; was afterwards stripped of his dominions by Nooptolemus, his great uncle; and was then sent by his brother-in-law, Demetrius, with whom he lived in exile, as a hostage to Ptolemy, king of Egypt. Having conciliated the affection of that mo narch, by his assistance he again ascended the throne of Epirus; joined the Tarentines in a war which they waged with the Romans ; embarked a powerful army for Italy ; and, after encountering a dreadful tempest, arrived at Tarentum. Taking the field at the head of his own forces and those of his allies, he defeated the Romans upon the banks of the Siris ; but whilst he poured his victotions army over the territories of his enemies, he was completely routed upon the plains of Asculum, where he was dangerously wounded. Col lecting the relics of his forces, he again encountered the Romans near Beneventum ; but, after the greatest part of his army had fallen around him, he was obliged, not only to leave the field of battle, and retire to Ta rentum, but to abandon Italy', and return home. To retrieve his reputation, and supply his exhausted trea sury, his restless spirit then invaded the kingdom of Macedon, overthrew Antigonus in a pitched battle, drove him from his throne and his dominions, and took possession of the kingdom. Fired with success, and with the hope of still greater conquests, he burst into the Peloponnesus with a mighty' army; but the brave ry of the Lacedemonians arrested his progress: and having lost his son, and avenged his death, in a bloody but an undecisive engagement, he directed his march to Argos, and, by stratagem, made himself master of that city. But Antigonus, with an army which he had collected, and Arcus with his Lacedemonians, who had closely pursued him, entered the city during the night, immediately attacked his unsuspecting army', and the morning discovered the terrible carnage which their fury and revenge had made. Pyrrhus, who now per ceived that all was lost, endeavoured in vain to retire from the city with the wreck of his forces; and, whilst he performed prodigies of valour, a woman who sur veyed the battle from the top of a house, beheld the enraged monarch below her ready to plunge his sword into the breast of her son who had wounded him, and, in order to prevent the blow, she threw furiously a tile which she had rent from the roof upon the head of Pyrrhus, which, felling him to the ground, saved her son, and avenged her country. The head of the monarch was severed from the body, and the remains of his army were made prisoners.