Atintanes or Atintanians (Greek: Ἀτιντάνες, Atintánes, Latin: Atintani) was an ancient tribe in Epirus. It inhabited a region inland of the Epirote coast which was called Atintania. They were one of the Epirote tribes that belonged to the northwestern Greek group. They were occasionally subordinate to the Mollosians and spoke a northwesten Greek dialects similar to Doric Greek.
Classification and ancient accounts
The Atintanes spoke a northwestern Greek dialect similar to Doric Greek. They inhabited an inland region in Epirus and were located between the Chaonians and the Peraivoi. Their name is of Greek origin due to the suffix -anes while the possibility of an Illyrian root is excluded. According to various scholars (Hammond, Winnifrith, Wilkes) there was another tribe with a similar name "Atintani" that inhabited a region further north of the later Via Egnatia and was Illyrian.
Scholars Fanula Papazoglou and Pierre Cabanes stated that there was no tribe of similar name and that the area it inhabited was located in the mountain ranges between the Aous (Vjosë) and the Apsus (Osum) rivers. 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.
Thucydides listed them among the “barbarians” living north-west from the Greek lands. Strabon presented them as Epirote people.
Timeline
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 330 B.C. the Atintanes formed the core of the Epirote state, together with the Molossians, Thesprotians, and the Cassopaeans. 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). In the sanctuary of Dodona a fragmentary inscription of 4th century BC mentions Atintanes. In the early 3rd century BC Pyrrhus detached Atintanis and made it a part of the Epirote Kingdom again. After his death the Atintanias organized their own koinon (confederation).
At 231 B.C. the Chaonian capital of Phoenice was raided by the Illyrians of Teuta. Those inhabitants of the city who survived the attack and slavery managed to flee to the territory of the Atintanes to seek for available reinforcements. Atintania was possibly ceded to Teuta by the League of the Epirotes at 230 B.C. probably as part of an agreement with her. When in 229 BC the First Illyrian War broke out between Rome and Illyrian queen Teuta, as well as Parthinians and the Atintanians surrendered to Rome. After this conflict, in 228 BC Rome set a protectorate on the conquered Illyrian lands as well as Atintanis.
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