The unity of the Epirotic region (Northern and Southern)

When historians refer to “EPIRUS”, they do not only mean the four provinces of NW Greece, but NORTHERN EPIRUS as well, that part of the united Epirus that is now under the Albanian domination, due to political expediencies. For Procopius (6th c. A.D), Epirus stretches up to the town of Epidamnus (Dyrhacchion) “Up to the city of Epidamnus, situated by the sea, there are Greeks, who are called Epirots”. There, at Epidamnus, the borders of the Epirotic tribes are placed by Thucydides as well. Dionysius the Traveler (1st c. B.C.) specifies the borders at the north of Avlona. The ancient dictum “The beginning of Greece leans upon the land of Orikos” has Greece to begin from the Orikos region. Finally, Strabo (1st c. A.D.) regards as boundary between the Epirots and Illyrian tribes the Genoussos River and the neighboring Via Egnatia, which started from Dyrhacchion and reached Byzantium. Epidamnus (Dyrhacchion) was a Corinthian and Corcyran colony. The Epirots were allowed to participate in the Olympic Games, while the citizens of Epidamnus were involved in the Peloponnesian War as allies of Athens and Corcyra. The unity of the Epirotic region (Northern and Southern) with the rest of Greece is evident and indisputable throughout the ancient history.