Pelagonia

Pelagonia (Macedonian: Пелагонија, romanized: Pelagonija; Greek: Πελαγονία, romanized: Pelagonía), also called plain of Pelagonia, is a geographical region of Macedonia shared between North Macedonia and Greece.

History

Ancient Pelagonia

Ancient Pelagonia was roughly bounded by Paeonia to the north and east, Lynkestis and Almopia to the south and Illyria to the west, in classical antiquity. Pelagonia was also used as a name for the westernmost part of Paeonia, while the north-westernmost part of Pelagonia was referred to as Derriopos. Strabo calls Pelagonia by the name Tripolitis and names only one ancient city of the supposed three in the region; Azorus. Pelagonia roughly corresponded to the present-day municipalities of Prilep, Bitola, Mogila, Novaci, Kruševo, and Krivogaštani in North Macedonia.

The mythological Pelagon, the eponym of the region according to Greek mythology, was son of the river-god Axius (modern Axios or Vardar river) and father of Asteropaeus, a Paeonian leader in Homer's Iliad. Many Mycenaean objects have been found in the area, such as the double axe, later found in Mycenae, and are exhibited in the Museum of Bitola.

Pelagonia was the homeland of the Pelagones or Pelagonians, an ancient Greek tribe of Upper Macedonia, who were centered at the Pelagonian plain, belonged to the Molossian tribal state or koinon, and spoke a Northwest Greek dialect. Menelaus of Pelagonia (ca. 360 BC), according to Bosworth, fled his kingdom finding refuge and citizenship in Athens, when it was annexed by Philip II to the Macedonian kingdom and became one of its administrative provinces during the 4th century BC.

Medieval Pelagonia

In medieval times, when the names of Lynkestis and Orestis had become obsolete, Pelagonia acquired a broader meaning.