Lynkestis

Lynkestis (or Lynchestia meaning "land of the lynx") was a region (in earlier times, a kingdom) of Upper Macedonia on the southern borders of Illyria which was ruled by kings, lords and independent or semi-independent chieftains till the later Argead rulers of Macedon (Amyntas IV, Philip II) neutralized their independence with dynastic alliances and the practice of bringing up tribal chieftains' sons in the palaces of Philip. To the north of Lynchestia was the region of Deuriopus, while Paionia was to the north-east, Pelagonia bordered on the east, Emathia and Almopia to the south-east, and Orestia, Eordaia and the Haliacmon river at some distance to the south.

Though the rich and turbulent [Robin Lane Fox, "Alexander the Great" 1973:32, 34, 36ff.] kings of Lyncestis traced their origins to the Bacchiad kings that were expelled from Corinth in the seventh century, the names of Upper Macedonian rulers are often not apparently Greek ("Arrhabaios", "Sirrhas"), and some scholars such as Eugene N. Borza argue that the inhabitants of Upper Macedonia retained many of the supposedly non-Hellenic original Macedonian names later lost among the Macedonians to the south.Fact|date=March 2008 Others argue these names may be Hellenic although many do not yet have clear Hellenic etymologies, while others argue that the names were borrowed from Thracians and/or Illyrians.

The tribes of Lynkestis were known as "Lynkestai" or "Lynchestii". Strabo states that the rulers of Lyncestis, under Arrhabaeus, claimed descent of the race of the Bacchiadae of Corinth. Strabo goes on to say that Irra was the daughter of Arrhabaeus, and that his granddaughter was Eurydice, the mother of Philip II. [Strabo. "Geography". Book VII, Chapter VII, 8 ("Getae, Macedonia, Black Sea").]

References

ee also

*Heraclea Lyncestis

ources

*Errington, Robert Malcolm. "History of Macedonia", 1986.
*Strabo. "Geography", Book VII ("Getae, Macedonia, Black Sea").