In ancient geography, Paeonia or Paionia (Greek: Παιονία) was the land of the Paeonians (Ancient Greek Παίονες). The exact original boundaries of Paeonia, like the early history of its inhabitants, are very obscure, but it is believed that they lay in the region of Thrace. In the time of Classical Greece, Paeonia might have later included the whole Vardar River valley and the surrounding areas, in what is now a small strip along the northern part of the Greek region of Macedonia, most of the present-day Republic of Macedonia, and a small part of southwestern Bulgaria.[1] It was located immediately north of ancient Macedonia (which roughly corresponds to the modern Greek region of Macedonia) and to the south-east of Dardania (roughly corresponding to modern-day Kosovo). In the east were Thracians and in the west the Illyrians. From Dardania, Paeonia was separated by the mountains through which the Axius passes from the field of Scupi to the valley of Bylazora (Veles)
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The Paeonian tribes were:
Some modern scholars consider the Paionians to have been of either Thracian,[10] or of mixed Thraco-Illyrian origins.[11] They were later hellenised.[12] Linguistically the Paeonian language has been variously connected to its neighboring languages - Illyrian and Thracian; (and every possible Thraco-Illyrian mix in between).[13] Several eastern Paeonian tribes including the Agrianes, clearly fell within the Thracian sphere of influence. Yet according to the national legend (Herodotus v. 13), they were Teucrian colonists from Troy. Homer (Iliad, book II, line 848) speaks of Paeonians from the Axios fighting on the side of the Trojans, but the Iliad does not mention whether the Paeonians were kin to the Trojans. Homer gives the Paeonian leader as a certain Pyraechmes (parentage unknown); but later on in the Iliad (Book 21)Homer mentions a second leader, named Asteropaeus, son of Pelagon.
Before the reign of Darius Hystaspes, they had made their way as far east as Perinthus in Thrace on the Propontis. At one time all Mygdonia, together with Crestonia, was subject to them. When Xerxes crossed Chalcidice on his way to Therma (later renamed Thessalonica) he is said to have marched through Paeonian territory. They occupied the entire valley of the Axios (Vardar) as far inland as Stobi, the valleys to the east of it as far as the Strymon and the country round 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. In 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.
In Greek mythology the Paeonians were said to have derived their name from Paeon the son of Endymion.[14]
In early times, the chief town and seat of the Paionian kings was Bylazora (now Veles in the Republic of Macedonia) on the Axios; later the seat of the kings was moved to Stobi (now Pusto Gradsko). At some point thereafter, the Paeonian princedoms coalesced into a kingdom centered in the central and upper reaches of the Vardar and Struma rivers. They joined with the Illyrians to infiltrated the northern most populated areas of the Hellenic state of Macedonia. The Illyrians, who had a culture of piracy, would have been cut off from some trade routes if movement through this land had been blocked. They attacked the northern defenses of Macedonian territory unsuccessfully in an attempt to occupy the region. In 360-359 BC, southern Paeonian tribes were launching raids into Macedon, (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.[15][16][17][18][19][20] 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 began during the reign of Philip II to issue coins with Greek legends like the Macedonian ones. This also united Hellenic peoples and clans that had not belonged to another Hellenic state within that region. A Paeonian contingent 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 determination. The daughter of Audoleon, one of these kings, was the wife of Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, and Alexander the Great wished to bestow the hand of his sister Cynane upon Langarus, who had shown himself loyal to Philip II. Alexander the Great's mother was from the Hellenic state of Epirus and was an Epirot by blood. A genial dynasty also continued through the reigns of Paeonian kings.
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 Dionysus, known amongst them as Dyalus or Dryalus, and Herodotus mentions that the Thracian and Paeonian women offered sacrifice to Queen Artemis (probably Bendis). They worshipped the sun in the form of a small round disk fixed on the top of a pole. A passage in Athenaeus seems to indicate the affinity of their language with Mysian. They drank barley beer and various decoctions made from plants and herbs. The country was rich in gold and a 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 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 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, Lycceios, etc), a fact which according to Irwin L. Merker which puts into question the theories of Illyrian and Thracian connections.
The women were famous for their industry. In this connection Herodotus (v. 12) tells the story that Darius, having seen at Sardis a beautiful Paeonian woman carrying a pitcher on her head, leading a horse to drink, and spinning flax, all at the same time, inquired who she was. Having been informed that she was a Paeonian, he sent instructions to Megabazus, commander in Thrace, to deport two tribes of the nation without delay to Asia. An inscription, discovered in 1877 at Olympia on the base of a statue, states that it was set up by the community of the Paeonians in honor of their king and founder Dropion. Another king, whose name appears as Lyppeius on a fragment of an inscription found at Athens relating to a treaty of alliance is no doubt identical with the Lycceius or Lycpeius of Paeonian coins (see B. V. Head, Historia numorum, 1887, p. 207).
In 280 BC the Gallic invaders under 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. Paeonia consolidated again but in 217 BC the Macedonian king Philip V of Macedon (220-179 BC), the son of Demetrius II, succeeded in uniting and incorporating into his empire the separate regions of Dassaretia and Paeonia. A mere 70 years later (in 168 BC), Roman legions conquered Macedon in turn. Paeonia around the Axios formed the second and third districts respectively of the newly constituted Roman province of Macedonia (Livy xiv. 29). Centuries later under Diocletian, Paeonia and Pelagonia formed a province called Macedonia Secunda or Macedonia Salutaris, belonging to the Praetorian prefecture of Illyricum. However, by 400 AD the Paeonians, had lost their identity, and the term Paeonia had become a mere geographic identifier.
This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology by William Smith (1870).