Lynkestis
Lynkestis or Lyncus was a region, and in earlier times a Greek kingdom of Upper Macedonia, located on the southern borders of Illyria and Paeonia. The inhabitants of Lynkestis were known as Lyncestae or Lynkestai, a northwestern Greek tribe that belonged to the Molossian tribal state, or koinon, of Epirus. The main city was Heraclea Lyncestis.
Lynkestis roughly corresponds to the present-day municipalities of Bitola and Resen in North Macedonia, Florina in Greece, and Pustec in Albania.History
Due to the archaic features found in the ancient Greek name of the region it appears that Lynkestis was part of the proto-Greek area before the late Bronze Age migrations.
The region of Lynchestia was ruled by kings and independent or semi-independent chieftains until the Argead rulers of Macedon neutralized Lynchestia's independence with dynastic alliances and the practice of raising tribal chieftains' sons in the palaces of Philip II. To the north of Lynchestia was the region of Deuriopus, while Paeonia was to the northeast, Pelagonia bordered on the east, Emathia and Almopia to the southeast, and Orestia, Eordaia and the Haliacmon river at some distance to the south.
The wealthy kings of Lynkestis traced their origins to the Bacchiad kings that were expelled from Corinth in the 7th century BC. During the Peloponnesian War Arrhabaeus, the king of Lyncestis, waged war against Perdiccas II of Macedon at the Battle of Lyncestis in 423 BC. According to Strabo, Irra was the daughter of Arrhabaeus, and that his granddaughter was Eurydice, the mother of Philip II.
In Roman times, the Via Egnatia crossed the area and there were several Roman stations in it.Citations
