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History of Epirus Epirotische Geschichte bis zum Jahre 280 v. Chr. Von Carl Klotzsch. I vol. 8vo. Pp. 240. Berlin: Weidmannsche Buchhandlung, 1911. M. 6.

Guy Dickins

The Classical Review / Volume 26 / Issue 06 / September 1912, pp 195 - 196 DOI: 10.1017/S0009840X00200358, Published online: 27 October 2009

Link to this article: http://journals.cambridge.org/abstract_S0009840X00200358

How to cite this article: Guy Dickins (1912). The Classical Review, 26, pp 195-196 doi:10.1017/ S0009840X00200358

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Downloaded from http://journals.cambridge.org/CAR, IP address: 61.129.42.30 on 04 May 2015 THE CLASSICAL REVIEW 195 HISTORY OF EPIRUS. Epirotische Geschichte bis zum Jahre 280 chronological arguments and a full use v. Chr. Von CARL KLOTZSCH. I vol. of scanty evidence a satisfactory table 8vo. Pp. 246. Berlin: Weidmann- of the Epirot Kings from Tharyps to sche Buchhandlung, 1911. M. 6. Pyrrhus. The most important point which he brings out is the division of No historian of Epirus can afford to the descendants of Alcetas I into two ignore the geographical features of the parties, Nationalist and pro - Mace- country. It is probable that Herr Carl donian. The sway of the political pen- Klotzsch writes without a traveller's dulum brought many changes of fortune, first - hand knowledge ; otherwise he and we find Neoptolemus II enjoying would not speak with such optimism of three separate periods of power, divided the communications between Onches- by two six-year intervals of a Nationalist mus on the north-west coast and the regime. The relations of Epirus with Hellopian plain near the ancient Dodona Athens and Sparta, and later with (p. 9), or imply (on p. 1) that difficult Pherae and Macedonia, are carefully mountain chains cut off this plain from studied on a basis of arguments which Aetolia and the south. In reality, as he will, on the whole, find general accept- elsewhere remarks, the mountains of ance. We might take exception, how- Epirus lie in ranges parallel with the ever, to the frequent use of the list of coast. Thus the Hellopian plain, which Pyrrhus' troops in Italy, given by Dio- is the fertile heart of the country, has at nysius of Halicarnassus for establish- all times been most easily accessible ing the extent of his dominions, since it from the south, and has therefore stood cannot be argued that all the races in- in close relations with the region of the troduced as /M6poi were his actual Ambracian Gulf and not with the subjects. One is also disappointed to island of Corcyra. find no adequate explanation of Pyrrhus' This geographical fact throws con- apparent faithlessness and folly in his siderable doubt on the thesis of the first dealings with Demetrius Poliorcetes. chapter, in which the author follows Plutarch seems to be followed here with Karst's theory of a fifth-century Cha- too much docility. There is an occa- onian apxv based on the statement of sional lack of proportion in the author's Theopompus in Strabo VII. 324, that treatment of political events. Thus the Chaonians ruled Epirus before the pp. 135-147 contain an account of the Molossians, and on ambiguous passages battle of Ipsus, with its causes and re- in Thucydides II. 80 and 81, where sults, quite out of proportion to its Chaonians receive particular mention as importance from the Epirot point of the /xa^ifMOTarot T&V irepi. eiceZva ra view, while the Italian expedition of X<»pta. The Chaonians lived on the Alexander the Molossian is barely men- north-west coast near Onchesmus, and tioned. Still, on the whole, the treat- therefore would perhaps be the best ment of the political history of Epirus known of the Epirot tribes to the Greeks from 429-280 is a valuable addition to in the Ionian Islands, but the story of our knowledge. Themistocles at the Court of Admetus On the other hand, the book is full of proves Molossian pre-eminence forty disappointments, for there is practically years before the Ambracian War cele- nothing but political history in it. Not brated by Thucydides. It is therefore only does this limitation create a certain natural to conclude that the Chaonian tediousness in the end, but it entails the apxn of Theopompus refers to a much omission of two of the most interesting earlier period, probably before the foun- points in Epirot history—the ethno- tion of Ambracia created a safe trade- logical origin of the inhabitants, especi- route through Aetolia to Calydon or ally as regards their Dorian affinities, Naupactus. and the explanation of the extraordinary Herr Klotzsch is most successful when late bloom of city-state culture, which he deals with purely political history. produced the wonderful bronzes of He establishes by means of intricate Paramythia, and which surprises us in ig6 THE CLASSICAL REVIEW the campaign of Aemilius Paulus with no serious consideration. Even the con- a record of 150,000 slaves ravished from stitutional system is not fully treated, 70 cities. and we are left very vague in our ideas With neither of these points does the of the relations of King, prostates, and author attempt to deal. He leaves League. Epirus a land of villages and gives no Minor points of criticism are the want hint of further development. A 50-line of a bibliography or a list of abbrevia- note on ethnology gives us little more tions, some haste in the compiling of the information than Karst's article in Index, and an irritating want of system Pauly-Wissowa, and any further atten- in transliteration, which admits of tion to the social and economic, quite Lysimacheia and Lysimachia, Chae- apart from the ethnological, position of ronea and Koroneia, Euboea and Beroia, Epirus is strictly banned. The mention Epirus and Ephesos, Pyrrhus and of the TrpoaTarai with their analogies in Demetrios, Aeacus and Aeakides. the Spartan ephors, the exceptional Still, Herr Klotzsch's success in re- position of women, the traces of dual constructing Epirot political history is kingship, and even the striking oath such that we lay down the book with given in Plutarch, which exactly repro- regret at its abrupt closure in 280 B.C., duces the monthly oath of the Spartan just when it was beginning to be really Kings, fail to stir the author to a dis- interesting. cussion of this problem. The question GUY DICKINS. of Dodona and its bronze age receives

THE THUNDER-WEAPON IN RELIGION AND FOLKLORE. The Thunder-weapon in Religion and belief is practically unknown, or, when Folklore. A Study in Comparative known, clearly imported. I n America, e.g. Archaeology. ByCHR.BLiNKENBERG, thunder is produced by a large thunder- Ph.D. Cambridge Archaeological and bird ; in Australia it is associated with Ethnological Series. 1 vol. 8vo. the bull-roarer. Dr. Blinkenberg con- Pp. 122. 36 phototype and outline cludes that the Old-world belief in illustrations. Cambridge University thunderstones and their manifold vir- Press, 1911. 5s. tues originated in one, not several, centres. DR. BLINKENBERG has given us a In Europe, Asia, and Africa it is most model monograph, learned, cautious, frequently pre-historic stone antiquities, yet illuminating. What emerges from flint weapons, celts, etc., that pass for the great wealth of regional facts sur- thunderstones; but besides these—the veyed is, briefly, as follows : point is important—other stones of Over three continents—Europe, Asia, notable shape, colour, appearance, e.g., and Africa—in those regions where belemnites, echinites, rock crystals, thunderstorms are fairly frequent and globular stones, are accounted as having violent, the belief in thunderstones has the same origin and the like magical existed and still exists. That is, it is powers. Now it is in regard to this believed (in contradiction, of course, to question of stone-implementsas thunder- actual fact) that the destructive stroke weapons that the originality of Dr. of the lightning is caused by the descent Blinkenberg's view comes in. Some- of a stone. Flash and thunderclap are what unconsciously it would seem, but mere accessories. In regions where all the more convincingly, he stands for thunderstorms are absent or unim- the new psychology as contrasted with portant, e.g. Iceland and Egypt, the the elder rationalism. He marks an belief may exist, but it is imported, not epoch in the interpretation of religious indigenous. But on the two remaining phenomena. The older school still continents—America and Australia— finds the origin of man's religion in his though thunderstorms abound, such a primitive scientific curiosity. He found