A country so near to a mighty internal power of the unfathomable earth may be expected to be distinguished for extraordinary fertility. Few parts of Greece have an _honos montium et silvarum_ like that of Epirus; it contains the most beautiful mountains, covered only in a few places with fir-wood, but for the most part with the most splendid foliage. The fertility in the valleys is almost fabulous. The fuller’s earth in the country of the Stymphaeans contains traces of volcanic decomposition. But the animal creation too is very rich: the Molottian dogs are the strongest in all Greece; the herds of cattle appear to have reached their perfection in antiquity by careful breeding, for at present they are much inferior. The flourishing farms resembling those of Switzerland have perished under the dominion of barbarians; in Buthroton alone they still are equally good. The horses are small, robust, and strong, but not lasting. Epirus was full of small tribes; fourteen or fifteen are enumerated, some which occupied large, and others small districts; I shall speak only of the more important among them. The most prominent in what may be termed the history of Epirus Proper, are the CHAONIANS, THESPROTIANS, and MOLOTTIANS, to which I may add the AMPHILOCHIANS and ORESTIANS, both of which are to some extent beyond the boundaries of Epirus in its narrower sense. In the earliest times they did not form a definite union, but in one part of the country some tribes had a predominating influence at an early period, first the Chaonians, then the Thesprotians, and in the historical times the Molottians. We must not, however, imagine that these tribes subjugated the others, or reduced them to the condition of perioeci; but their relation resembled that of the free allies of Rome, and they recognised the majesty of the ruling people only by presents and fidelity. Several of these tribes had a regal government (the most ancient among all the Greek and kindred nations) down to very late times. One member of a γένος was either elected by the people, or enjoyed a hereditary right to the throne. This sacred hereditary principle continued for a long period; to it those tribes owed their importance in later times, and without it they never would have had the power and influence with which they afterwards appear in history. When all forms had become obsolete and effete, those nations which still adhered to the hereditary regal power, were enjoying a great advantage. This was the only reason why Sparta maintained itself so long: when its royal family perished, the Spartans, too, were lost. We find, however, in Epirus the same stages of development as among other nations, and royalty was succeeded by the dominion of the γένη. Traces of this occur in Thucydides; in speaking of the Chaonians, he mentions an ἀρχικὸν γένος, and I think I have found distinct evidence that the Καμπυλίδαι were this ruling γένος.