Paeonia (kingdom)

 ( Macedonia ) 

Before the reign of Darius Hystaspes, they had made their way as far east as Perinthus in Thrace on the Propontis. At one time all Mygdonia, together with Crestonia, was subject to them. When Xerxes crossed Chalcidice on his way to Therma (later renamed Thessalonica), he is said to have marched through Paeonian territory. They occupied the entire valley of the Axios (Vardar) as far inland as Stobi, the valleys to the east of it as far as the Strymon and the country round Astibus and the river of the same name, with the water of which they anointed their kings. Emathia, roughly the district between the Haliacmon and Axios, was once called Paeonia; and Pieria and Pelagonia were inhabited by Paeonians. As a consequence of the growth of Macedonian power, and under pressure from their Thracian neighbors, their territory was considerably diminished, and in historical times was limited to the north of Macedonia from Illyria to the Strymon.

In the Trojan War, the Paeonians "with ankylosed bows" (Iliad, II 848-850) "wearing helmets with horsetails" were allies of the Trojans, appearing to fight on their side, under King Pyraichmes and Asteropaeus.

Subjugation of the Paeonians happened as a part of Persian military operations initiated by Darius the Great (521–486) in 513 – after immense preparations – a huge Achaemenid army invaded the Balkans and tried to defeat the European Scythians roaming to the north of the Danube river. Darius' army subjugated several Thracian peoples, and virtually all other regions that touch the European part of the Black Sea, such as parts of nowadays Bulgaria, Romania, Ukraine, and Russia, before it returned to Asia Minor.The Oxford Classical Dictionary by Simon Hornblower and Antony Spawforth, , page 1515, "The Thracians were subdued by the Persians by 516" Darius left in Europe one of his commanders named Megabazus whose task was to accomplish conquests in the Balkans. The Persian troops subjugated gold-rich Thrace, the coastal Greek cities, as well as defeating and conquering the powerful Paeonians.

At some point after the Greco-Persian Wars, the Paeonian princedoms coalesced into a kingdom centred in the central and upper reaches of the Vardar and Strymon rivers, corresponding with today's northern part of North Macedonia and western Bulgaria. They joined with the Illyrians to attack the northern areas of the Kingdom of Macedonia. The Illyrians, who had a culture of piracy, would have been cut off from some trade routes if movement through this land had been blocked. They unsuccessfully attacked the northern defences of Macedonian territory in an attempt to occupy the region. In 360–359 BC, southern Paeonian tribes were launching raids into Macedon, (Diodorus XVI. 2.5) in support of an Illyrian invasion.

The Macedonian Royal House was thrown into a state of uncertainty by the death of Perdiccas III, but his brother Philip II assumed the throne, reformed the army (providing phalanxes), and proceeded to stop both the Illyrian invasion and the Paeonian raids through the boundary of the "Macedonian Frontier", which was the northern perimeter which he intended to defend as an area of his domain. He followed Perdiccas's succession in 358 BC with a campaign deep into the north, into Paeonia itself.Raphael Sealey, A History of the Greek City States, 700–338 BC, University of California Press, 1976, p. 442, on Google booksNicholas Geoffrey Lemprière Hammond, Guy Thompson Griffith, A History of Macedonia: 550–336 B.C, Clarendon Press, 1979R. Malcolm Errington, A History of Macedonia, University of California Press, 1990Carol G. Thomas, Alexander the Great in his World, Wiley-Blackwell, 2006Simon Hornblower, The Greek world, 479–323 BC, Routledge, 2002Diodorus Siculus, Library, 16.4, on Perseus This reduced the Paeonian Kingdom (then ruled by Agis) to a semi-autonomous, subordinate status, which led to a process of gradual and formal Hellenization of the Paeonians, who, during the reign of Philip II, began to issue coins with Greek legends like the Macedonian ones. A Paeonian contingent, led by Ariston, was attached to Alexander the Great's army.

At the time of the Persian Empire invasion, the Paeonians on the lower Strymon had lost, while those in the north maintained, their territorial integrity. The daughter of Audoleon, a king of Paeonia, was the wife of Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, and Alexander the Great wished to bestow the hand of his sister Cynane upon Langarus, king of the Agrianians, who had shown himself loyal to Philip II.

• Agis (died 358 BC)
• Lycceius (356–340 BC)Catalogue of Greek Coins: Thessaly to Aetolia by Percy Gardner, 2004, Front Matter: "... present to the money of Philip II. of Macedon, and Lycceius and Audoleon, kings of Paeonia, that they must be given ..."
• Patraus (340–315 BC)
• Audoleon (315–285 BC), A Guide to the Principal Gold and Silver Coins of the Ancients: From Circ. B. C. 700 to a. D. 1. (1895) by British Museum Dept. of Coins and Medals, 2009, page 62: "... of Athena, facing. Bee. AYAnA EONTOZ. Horse. Wt. 193.4 grs. Patraus and his son Audoleon reigned over Paeonia between B.C. 340 ..." son of Patraus
• Ariston (286–285 BC), Polyaenus, Stratagems of War, 4.12.3, "Lysimachus conducted Ariston, son of Autoleon, to his father's kingdom in Paeonia; under pretence that the royal youth might be acknowledged by his subjects, and treated with due respect. But as soon as he had bathed in the royal baths in the river Arisbus, and they had set before him an elegant banquet, according to the custom of his country, Lysimachus ordered his guards to arm. Ariston instantly mounted his horse and escaped to the land of the Dardani; and Lysimachus was left in possession of Paeonia." son of Audoleon
• Leon (278–250 BC)Pausanias, Description of Greece Phocis and Ozolian Locri, 10.13.1, "A bronze head of the Paeonian bull called the bison was sent to Delphi by the Paeonian king Dropion, son of Leon."
• Dropion (250–230 BC), son of Leon
• Bastareus (?–? BC)

Mainline

• Agis: founded the Paeonian kingdom; pretender to the Macedonian throne in a time of instability. The Cambridge Ancient History, Volume 6: The Fourth Century BC by D. M. Lewis, John Boardman, Simon Hornblower, and M. Ostwald, 1994, page 463: "Agis, king of Paeonians".
• Lycceius: joined anti-Macedonian coalition with Grabos II and Thrace in 356 BC. Catalogue of Greek Coins: Thessaly to Aetolia by Percy Gardner, 2004, Front Matter: "... present to the money of Philip II. of Macedon, and Lycceius and Audoleon, kings of Paeonia, that they must be given..."
• Patraus
• Audoleon: reduced to great straits by the Autariatae, but was succoured by Cassander. A Guide to the Principal Gold and Silver Coins of the Ancients: From Circ. B. C. 700 to a. D. 1. (1895) by British Museum Dept. of Coins and Medals, 2009, page 62: "... Patraus and his son Audoleon reigned over Paaonia between B.C. 340 ..."
• Ariston
• Leon of Paeonia: consolidated and restored lost lands after the Gallic Invasions in 280/279 BC.
• Dropion: last known Paeonian king in 230 BC, of a dwindling kingdom.

Others

• Pigres: one of the two tyrant brothers which in 511 BC persuaded Darius I to deport the coastal Paeonians to Asia.
  (2025). 9781596258778, Digireads.com. . ISBN 9781596258778
• Mantyes: one of the two tyrant brothers which in 511 BC persuaded Darius I to deport the coastal Paeonians to Asia.
• Dokidan: of the Derrones; reigned during the 6th century BC.Пеония
• Dokim: of the Derrones; reigned during the 6th century BC.
• Euergetes: of the Derrones; reigned –465 BC, known only from his coinage.
• Teutaos: reigned from –435 BC; known only from his coinage.
• Bastareus: reigned from –380/78 BC, known only from his coinage.Introduction générale à l'étude des monnaies de l'antiquité by Ernest Babelon, , 1979, page 224.
• Teutamado: reigned from 378 to 359 BC, known only from his coinage.
• Symnon: great ally of Phillip II from 348 to 336 BC.
• Nicharchos: reigned from 335 to 323 BC; son of Symon.
• Langarus: of the Agrianes; invaded the territory of the Autariatae in 335 BC in coalition with Alexander the Great.Smith, William (editor); Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, "Langarus", Boston, (1867).
• Dyplaios: of the Agrianes; reigned around 330 BC.
  (1995). 9789989390210, Misla. . ISBN 9789989390210
• Didas: allied Philip V of Macedon with 4,000 warriors from 215 to 197 BC.

• Darius I: subjugated Paeonia in 511/2 BC.Timothy Howe, Jeanne Reames. Macedonian Legacies: Studies in Ancient Macedonian History and Culture in Honor of Eugene N. Borza (original from the Indiana University) Regina Books, 2008 p 239
• Xerxes: included Paeonians in vast Persian army of 481 BC, for the Invasion of Greece.Herodotus VII, 185

Thracian

• Sitalces: included Agrianes and Laeaeans in his Macedonian campaign in 429 BC.

The scanty remains of the Paeonian language do not allow a firm judgement to be made. On one side are Wilhelm Tomaschek and Paul Kretschmer, who claim it belonged to the Illyrian family, and on the other side is Dimitar Dečev, who claims affinities with Thracian. On the other hand, the Paeonian kings issued coins from the time of Philip II of Macedon onwards, bearing their names written in straightforward Greek. All the names of the Paeonian Kings that have come down to us are, in fact, explainable with and clearly related to Greek (Agis, Ariston, Audoleon, Lycceius, etc.), a fact that, according to Irwin L. Merker, puts into question the theories of Illyrian and Thracian connections.

The women were famous for their industry. In this connection Herodotusv. 12 tells the story that Darius, having seen at Sardis a beautiful Paeonian woman carrying a pitcher on her head, leading a horse to drink, and spinning flax, all at the same time, inquired who she was. Having been informed that she was a Paeonian, he sent instructions to Megabazus, commander in Thrace, to deport two tribes of the nation without delay to Asia. An inscription, discovered in 1877 at Olympia on the base of a statue, states that it was set up by the community of the Paeonians in honor of their king and founder Dropion. Another king, whose name appears as Lyppeius on a fragment of an inscription found at Athens relating to a treaty of alliance, is no doubt identical with the Lycceius or Lycpeius of Paeonian coins.B. V. Head, Historia Numorum, 1887, p. 207.

• List of ancient Illyrian peoples and tribes
• List of ancient tribes in Thrace
• List of kings of Thrace and Dacia

• Nicholas Geoffrey Lemprière Hammond (1988). 9780198148159, Oxford University Press. . ISBN 9780198148159
• (2025). 9781930053564, Regina Books. . ISBN 9781930053564
• Radoslav Katičić9783111568874, De Gruyter. . ISBN 9783111568874
• Pausanias (2025). 9780674991040 ISBN 9780674991040
• Aleksandar Stipčević (1989). 9788603991062, Školska knjiga. . ISBN 9788603991062