An ancient Greek tribe called the Prasaiboi may have gained political standing by invoking ties to the Thesprotians, a people of Epirus mentioned in Homer’s Odyssey, according to a new study. Once a little-known community, the Prasaiboi gave their name to a wider political union under Roman authority in the second century B.C.
University of Turin historian Chiara Lasagni suggests that ties to the Thesprotians, a people remembered in Homer’s poetry, may help explain that surprising change.
The shift followed the breakup of the Epirote federation, and Rome’s victory over the Greek kingdom of Macedon in 168 B.C. Roman forces devastated parts of Epirus the following year, while local loyalties and political boundaries changed.
Bouthroton, a coastal city in what is now southern Albania, became the center of the new Prasaiboi union after previously belonging to the Chaonian community. Its founding date remains uncertain, although it existed before the middle of the second century B.C.
How an ancient Greek tribe may have invoked Homer’s Epirus
A crucial clue comes from the Byzantine scholar Stephanus of Byzantium, who identified the Prasaiboi as a Thesprotian people. The Thesprotians were among the major communities of Epirus and appear in Homer’s “Odyssey.”
Lasagni argues that association with this older past could have given the new political group a stronger claim to recognition under Roman rule. The study does not establish that the Prasaiboi themselves appeared in Homer or deliberately claimed his authority.
Stone inscriptions provide a separate picture of their rise. The earliest record naming a Prasaibos, dating to around 200 B.C., identifies Saotas as a priest of Asclepius , the Greek god of medicine at Bouthroton. Later records name Prasaiboi officials, a council and an assembly.
Many inscriptions recorded the freeing of enslaved people and were displayed at the city’s theater or the Tower of the Inscriptions. The names in these records reflect a community composed of various local groups.
Inscriptions reveal a union shaped by Roman-era upheaval
Three decrees granted outsiders rights to own land and houses in a territory called “Prasaibia.” Some awards also offered tax relief and guarantees of safety. Lasagni says the name may have defined the union’s jurisdiction rather than an established region.
Another inscription names Prasaiboi alongside Kammanoi, whom the historian Polybius recorded as brought under Roman control by Tiberius Gracchus in 163 B.C.
Lasagni also questions efforts to link the Prasaiboi with the similarly named Perrhaiboi of the “Iliad.” Ancient sources never explicitly connect them.
The reasons for the Prasaiboi’s prominence remain unresolved. Local traditions, influential families, and ties to Roman officials may all have mattered. What emerges is a political community that may have sought authority in the memory of a much older Epirus.
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