Cestria (Epirus)

Cestria or Kestria (Ancient Greek: Κεστρία),[1] also known as Ilium or Ilion (Ἴλιον), or Troja (Τροΐα),[2] was a town in ancient Epirus.[3] Its district was called Cestrine or Kestrine (Κεστρίνη) and Kestrinia (Κεστρινία)[4], and was in the south of Chaonia, separated from Thesprotia by the river Thyamis.[5] It is said to have received its name from Cestrinus, son of Helenus and Andromache,[6] having been previously called Cammania or Kammania (Καμμανία).[7] The principal town of the district was Cestria,[8] but its more usual name appears to have been Ilium or Troja, in memory of the Trojan colony of Helenus.[9] In the neighbourhood are those fertile pastures, which were celebrated in ancient times for the Cestrinic oxen.[10] The inhabitants of the district were called Κεστρηνοί by the poet Rhianus.[11]

Its site is tentatively located near the modern Çiflik, Albania.[12][13]

References

1. Stephanus of Byzantium. Ethnica. s.v.
2. Stephanus of Byzantium. Ethnica. s.v.
3. Thucydides. History of the Peloponnesian War. 3.96.
4. Stephanus of Byzantium, Ethnica, §K351.22
5. Thucydides. History of the Peloponnesian War. 1.46.
6. Pausanias. Description of Greece. 1.11.1. , 2.23.6.
7. Stephanus of Byzantium. Ethnica. s.v.
8. Pliny. Naturalis Historia. 4.1.
9. Stephanus of Byzantium. Ethnica. s.v. Τροΐα.
10. Hesych. sub voce Κεστρινικοὶ Βοές; Schol. ad Aristoph. Pac. 924.
11. Stephanus of Byzantium. Ethnica. s.v. Χαῦνοι.
12. Richard Talbert, ed. (2000). Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World. Princeton University Press. p. 54, and directory notes accompanying.
13. Lund University. Digital Atlas of the Roman Empire.

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Smith, William, ed. (1854–1857). "Cestrine". Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography. London: John Murray.