Butrint and Pyrrhus

Along the coast of the Adriatic were located several important cities. Kassope, 100 km to the south of Butrint, and Apollonia and Epidamnos (Roman Dyrrhachium, modern Durrës) to the north were important commercial and strategic centres for sea traffic into the Adriatic. During the 4th and 3rd centuries BC many smaller towns, too, were given a monumental urban aspect. This was undoubtedly much due to the aspirations of the Molossian royal house of creating a unified kingdom of international standing. Indeed, unlike previously thought, the early defensive walls at Phoenicê, Butrint and Çuka e Aitoit may all belong to this period.

The Molossians, who inhabited the inland area around the great sanctuary of Zeus at Dodona (near modern Ioannina), had prospered from the marriage of princess Olympias to Philip II of Macedon, and from the triumphant conquests in the east by their son Alexander the Great. However, unlike Macedonia, Epirus was less united under its monarch, and after the death of Olympias’ brother, Alexander Molossius, an Epirote Alliance was created. This alliance included the Molossians and the Chaeonians, whose capital city was Phoenicê, and the Thesprotians to the south of Butrint. A sub-region to this, the koinon of the Praesebes, was administered from Butrint.

Coming to power in 297 BC, the Molossian King Pyrrhus sought to emphasise his links to Alexander the Great. The links to Corcyra (modern Corfu) and towards Italy were established through military aid and through Pyrrhus’ marriage to Lanassa, the daughter of King Agathocles of Syracuse, who brought Corcyra as her dowry. Though his reign failed to develop Epirus beyond an essentially tribal stage, the urban development at Butrint in this period is striking with the sanctuary of Asclepius being expanded and monumentalised, and the walls of the extended city being constructed in this period.

In 230 BC the Illyrian Queen Teuta invaded the region and captured Phoenicê. The Illyrian attempt at gaining control of the eastern Adriatic attracted reprisals from Rome who needed to secure her seaway into the eastern Mediterranean. Butrint does not seem to have been affected by this, as it does not seem to have been affected some 30 years later when Greece was made a Roman province and the general Aemilius Paullus is said to have sacked 70 Epirote cities and taking 150.000 people as slaves.

It is possible that the harshest treatment was reserved for the Molossians, and that the Chaeonians and Butrint had come to terms with the Roman invaders. Certainly at some inland cities, like Antigonea in the Drinos Valley, the archaeological evidence point to a complete abandonment at this period – an aspect of which there is no trace at either Phoenicê or Butrint. Indeed, Butrint seems to have continued a quiet, unremarkable existence until falling within the spotlight of the attentions of Caesar, and later the emperor Augustus, in the middle of the first century BC.

 

• Sacred Origins
• Mythological Origins
• Butrint and Corfu
• Butrint and Pyrrhus

Pyrrhus of Epirus
Pyrrhus (319-272 BC) was a charismatic leader and outstanding military commander, publicising himself as descendant of the mythological heroes Achilles and Heracles. Too young to serve with Alexander the Great, he promoted instead his family links with the great general, whom he was said to resemble in ‘appearance, speed and movement.’ As Rome’s power grew, several Italian cities called on him for assistance; thus, in 281 BC he arrived at the aid of Tarentum with 20 elephants. Eight were captured by the Romans and became the first time these animals were seen in Rome. The costs of his victories were often high, leading to the expression ‘a Pyrrhic victory.’