Atintanians

Epirus and environs.

Atintanes or Atintanians (Greek: Ἀτιντάνες) is a name an ancient Greek tribe in Epirus, Chaonia inland of the Epirote coast. Thucydides, Polybius and Strabo write of them.

At the beginning of the Peloponnesian War, Atintanes and Molossians appear under the leadership of Sabylinthus, regent of king Tharrhypas, as allies of Sparta against Acarnania. In epigraphy, Kleomachos the Atintanian was given ateleia (full fiscal rights) in Epirus by the symmachoi (allies) of Epirotes, when king was Neoptolemus son of Alexander and Derkas, prostatas (archon) of the Molossians (c. 300 BC).^[1] In the sanctuary of Dodona a fragmentary inscription of 4th century BC mentions Atintanes.^[2] In the lexicon "Ethnika" of Stephanus of Byzantium, Atintania appears as a region of Macedonia, named after Atintan, a son of Makednos in the version of Lycaon. In the Treaty of Phoenice, 205 BC, Atintania was assigned to the Macedonian Kingdom.

There was perhaps a tribe with a similar name^[3][4] and Atintani in Illyria, north of Via Egnatia. Appian^[5] mentions them close to Epidamnus. The two tribes were a great^[6] distance from each other. By the time of the Epirus nova if such an Illyrian tribe existed it became Hellenized.^[7]

References

1. Cabanes, L'Épire 545,12
2. Lamelles Oraculaires 161
3. The Illyrian Atintani, the Epirotic Atintanes and the Roman Protectorate, N. G. L. Hammond
4. The Illyrians By John Wilkes, page 97
5. Appian, Illyrian Wars, App. Ill. 2
6. The Illyrian Atintani, the Epirotic Atintanes and the Roman Protectorate, N. G. L. Hammond
7. Apostolos N. Athanassakis, "N.G.L. Hammond, Migrations and Invasions in Greece and Adjacent Areas (review)", American journal of philology 99 (1977), page 263, "the partly Hellenic and partly Hellenized Epirus Nova".