The whole country opposite Corcyra and the Cephallenian islands, from the Acroceraunian rocks as far as the Rhion, bore the name of Epirus, or the continent, in contradistinction to those islands, in ancient times and even during the Peloponnesian war. It was not till later, when Ætolia and Acarnania had come forth from their obscurity, and most tribes north of the Ambracian gulph had been united into one kingdom, that the narrower geographical signification of the name arose, which supplanted the former one, and it now became customary to call Epirots the inhabitants of that country, who were not Greeks, especially those who formed that state.

These Epirots were no more Greeks than the Sicelians: Thucydides expressly calls them barbarians, and even Polybius, without using the harsh expression which had become more unusual in his time, says distinctly, that the Epirot tribes which were united with the Ætolians, were not Greeks. They were however by no means, like the Thracians or Illyrians, quite forein to the Greeks, but rather a kindred people: so that he who paid most regard to affinity, might in certain respects consider them as Greeks; and that they were reckoned among Greeks in later times, must surprise us all the less, inasmuch as this honour was confered upon the people in western Asia, among whom the Greek language had become predominant in business and society, since Carians and Lydians past at Rome as Greeks, and were admitted to the Olympian contests.