Paeonia (kingdom)


In antiquity, Paeonia or Paionia was the land and kingdom of the Paeonians.
The exact original boundaries of Paeonia, like the early history of its inhabitants, are obscure, but it is known that it roughly corresponds to present-day North Macedonia, and also to some parts of northern Greece, western Bulgaria and southeasternmost Serbia.
Ancient authors placed Paeonia south of Dardania, north of Macedon, west of the Thracian mountains, and east of the southernmost Illyrians of the Ohrid-Prespa basin. It was separated from Dardania by the mountains through which the Vardar river passes from the field of Scupi to the valley of Bylazora.
In the Iliad, the Paeonians are portrayed as allies of the Trojans. During the Persian invasion of Greece, the conquered Paeonians from as far as the Lake Prasias, including the Paeoplae and Siropaiones, were deported from Paeonia to Asia.
In 356 BC Paeonia was made a Macedonian vassal by Philip II, who took advantage of the death of king Agis and campaigned against its northern neighbor. Down to 227 BC, at least seven Paeonian kings reigned, and during that period, Paeonia remained a distinct entity, either subject to Macedonia or independent. In 227 BC, Antigonus Doson conquered the southern part of Paeonia and ten years after Philip V of Macedon conquered the rest by capturing Bylazora.

Paeonian people

Tribes

The Paeonian tribes were:
Some modern scholars consider the Paeonians to have been of either Illyrian, Brygian/Phrygian, Thracian, or of mixed origins. Linguistically, the very small number of surviving words in the Paeonian language have been variously connected to its neighboring languages – Illyrian and Thracian, Phrygian, as well as to Greek but with a great deal of Illyrian and Thracian influence as a result of their proximity. According to Radoslav Katičić, the possibility that the Paeonians took part in the "great Greek migration" and remained behind on the route cannot be wholly ruled out. Irwin L. Merker considers the Paeonians to be of Hellenic stock.
There is relatively little mention of the Paeonians in the works of the ancient Greeks. Homer 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, and instead connects them to the Phrygians. Homer calls the Paeonian leader Pyraechmes ; later on in the Iliad, Homer mentions a second leader, Asteropaeus, son of Pelagon. Herodotus and Thucydides distinguish the Paeonians from the Thracians. According to their national legend, they were Teucrian colonists from Troy. Several eastern Paeonian tribes, including the Agrianes, clearly fell within the Thracian sphere of influence.
Appian wrote of a genealogy in which Paion, the eponym of the Paeonians, is the son of Autarieus, the eponym of the Autariatae, and father of Skordiskos and Triballos, the eponyms of two central Balkanic tribes, one Celtic and the other Thracian. This might connect the Paeonians with the Illyrian complex, although as Katičić suggests, Appian might not refer to the Paeonians but might refer instead to the Pannonians, since Appian uses the Paeonian name to denote that ethnic group as well.
Pausanias tells us of another genealogy, which connects the Paeonians with the Peloponnesian Epeians and the Aetolians; Paion is said to be the son of Endymion and brother of Epeius and Aitolus. This version, indeed, establishes a Greek affiliation for the Paeonians; Anson writes that "this notice from Pausanias may suggest that at least by the second century AD the Paeonians were seen as part of the Greek community".
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, he is said to have marched through Paeonian territory. They occupied the entire valley of the Axios 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. Pelagonia was used as a name for the westernmost part of Paeonia, while the north-westernmost part of Pelagonia was referred to as Derriopos. Emathia, roughly the district between the Haliacmon and Axios, was once called Paeonia; and Pieria and Pelagonia were inhabited by Paeonians. As a 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.

Mythology

In Greek mythology, the Paeonians were said to have derived their name from Paeon the son of Endymion. Endymion of Elis, the lover of the goddess of the Moon, had three sons: Paeon, Epeios, and Aetolus; the eponymous ancestors of the Paeonians, Epeians, and Aetolians, respectively. Endymion, in order to give his kingdom to one of them, made them run a race in Olympia, where Epeios won and took the kingdom. Paeon left in disappointment to settle in the Upper Valley of Axios which was since called Paeonia.
In the Trojan War, the Paeonians "with ankylosed bows" "wearing helmets with horsetails" were allies of the Trojans, appearing to fight on their side, under King Pyraichmes and Asteropaeus.

Paeonian Kingdom

In early times, the chief town and seat of the Paeonian kings was Bylazora on the Vardar; later, the seat of the kings was moved to Stobi.
Subjugation of the Paeonians happened as a part of Persian military operations initiated by Darius the Great in 513 – after immense preparations – a huge Achaemenid army invaded the Balkans and tried to defeat the European Scythians roaming to the north of the Danube river. Darius' army subjugated several Thracian peoples, and virtually all other regions that touch the European part of the Black Sea, such as parts of nowadays Bulgaria, Romania, Ukraine, and Russia, before it returned to Asia Minor. Darius left in Europe one of his commanders named Megabazus whose task was to accomplish conquests in the Balkans. The Persian troops subjugated gold-rich Thrace, the coastal Greek cities, as well as defeating and conquering the powerful Paeonians. At the time of the Persian invasion, the Paeonians on the lower Strymon had lost, while those in the north maintained, their territorial integrity.
At some point after the Greco-Persian Wars, the Paeonian princedoms coalesced into a kingdom centred in the central and upper reaches of the Axios and Strymon rivers, corresponding with today's central and eastern parts of North Macedonia and western Bulgaria. They joined with the Illyrians to attack the northern areas of the Kingdom 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 unsuccessfully attacked the northern defences of Macedonian territory in an attempt to occupy the region. In 360–359 BC, southern Paeonian tribes were launching raids into Macedon, 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, 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 succession in 358 BC with a campaign deep into the north, into Paeonia itself. Paeonia was made a Macedonian vassal in 356 during the course of Philip's Balkan campaigns. Although they retained their territory and the right to mint coins, the Paeonians were expected to provide both tribute and manpower for Macedonian military campaigns. This reduced the Paeonian Kingdom then ruled by Lyppeius to a semi-autonomous, subordinate status, which led to a process of gradual and formal Hellenization of the Paeonians, who, during the reign of Philip II, began to issue coins with Greek legends like the Macedonian ones. A Paeonian cavalry contingent, led by Ariston, possibly brother of King Patraus and father of the later king Audoleon, was attached to Alexander the Great's army. Alexander the Great wished to bestow the hand of his sister Cynane upon Langarus, king of the Agrianians, who had shown himself loyal to Philip II.
The daughter of Audoleon, a king of Paeonia, was the wife of Pyrrhus, king of Epirus. In 279, when the Gauls defeated Ptolemy Ceraunus and got as far as Delphi, it is certain that Paeonia was overrun and held for a time by their chieftain Brennus, but in the wake of the Celtic invasion, Leon reestablished the Paeonian kingdom. Antigonus Gonatas then annexed Paeonia into his kingdom.
Irwin Merker suggests that when Demetrios II and the Aetolian League were at war, "Dropion was involved as an ally of Aitolia." Additionally he states that "When Demetrios or Antigonos Doson created the Macedonian Koinon he was imitated by his northern neighbor Dropion who hoped in this way both to modernize the constitution of his Kingdom and to increase the support of his subjects." In 230 the Dardani under Longarus captured Bylazora from the Paeonians. In 227 BC, Antigonus Doson conquered the southern part of Paeonia and founded the city of Antigoneia, and ten years after Philip V of Macedon conquered the rest by capturing Bylazora; after this Perseis and Astraion were founded. The citizens of Paeonian cities were not Macedonians but Paeonians. Only after the Roman conquest in 168 BC, Paeonia was integrated into Macedonia.