It was founded between 650 and 625 BC by Gorgus, son of the Corinthian tyrant Cypselus, at which time its economy was based on farmlands, fishing, timber for shipbuilding, and the exportation of the produce of Epirus.

The early policy of Ambracia was determined by its loyalty to Corinth ( for which it probably served as an entrepot in the Epirus trade ), its consequent aversion to Corcyra ( as Ambracia participated on the Corinthian side at the Battle of Sybota, which took place in 433 BC between the rebellious corinthian colony of Corcyra ( modern Corfu ) and Corinth ).

The death of Arcadius in May 408 caused milder counsel to prevail in the western court, but Alaric, who had actually entered Epirus, demanded in a somewhat threatening manner that if he were thus suddenly requested to desist from war, he should be paid handsomely for what modern language would call the " expenses of mobilization ".

By their assistance and that of his own subjects, who entertained a great attachment for him, he recovered Epirus.

Nicaea and Epirus both vied for the imperial title, and tried to recover Constantinople.

In the Ionian Sea, the Greek fleet operated without opposition, ferrying supplies for the army units in the Epirus front.

The Treaty of Bucharest, which concluded the war, left Greece with southern Epirus, the southern half of Macedonia, Crete and the Aegean islands, except for the Dodecanese, which had been occupied by Italy in 1911.

The citizens called Pyrrhus of Epirus for help.

The outcome was disastrous for Epirus ; Molossia fell to Rome in 167 BC and 150, 000 of its inhabitants were enslaved.

Epirus, and the city of Ioannina in particular, became a haven for Greek refugees from Constantinople for most of the century.

It was then perhaps that the settlement of Cassiope was founded to serve as a base for the King of Epirus ' expeditions.

In 1514, Dimitri Caloiri of Ioannina obtained reduced custom duties for Greek merchants coming from the towns of Ioannina, Arta and Avlona in Epirus.

The court had gathered there for the celebration of the marriage between Alexander I of Epirus and Philip's daughter, by his fourth wife Olympias, Cleopatra.

Taranto won the first of two wars against Rome for the control of Southern Italy: it was helped by Pyrrhus, king of Greek Epirus, who surprised Rome with the use of elephants in battle, a thing never seen before by the Romans.

* On his way back to Rome, the Roman general Lucius Aemilius Paulus is ordered by the Roman Senate to inflict a brutal revenge on Epirus for being an ally of Macedonia.

* At a grand celebration of his daughter Cleopatra's marriage to Alexander I of Epirus ( brother of Olympias ), Philip II is assassinated at Aegae by Pausanias of Orestis, a young Macedonian noble with a bitter grievance against the young queen's uncle Attalus and against Philip for denying him justice.

When Pyrrhus of Epirus takes the Macedonian city of Verroia, Demetrius ' army promptly deserts and goes over to Pyrrhus ' side as he is much admired by the Macedonians for his bravery.

He forms an alliance with Olympias, who is acting as regent for Alexander IV, and King Aeacides of Epirus.

Neoptolemus (; Greek: Νεοπτόλεμος, Neoptolemos, " new war "), also called Pyrrhus (; Πύρρος, Purrhos, " red ", for his red hair ), was the son of the warrior Achilles and the princess Deidamia in Greek mythology, and also the mythical progenitor of the ruling dynasty of the Molossians of ancient Epirus.

Despite this, Afranius, along with Petreius, broke his word to Caesar, embarked with as many loyal troops as he could gather and sailed for Epirus and Pompey.

The revolution in Epirus, which substituted a republican league for the monarchy, gravely weakened his position.

In 234 BC due to the Federal Republic replacing the monarchy in Epirus led to the events of 231 BC, Demetrius hired Agron for military aid against advancing Aetolians.

William ( with a fleet of 200 ships ) landed in Epirus with a strong force ( 80, 000 men including 5, 000 knights ), and marched as far as Thessalonica, which he took and pillaged ruthlessly ( 7, 000 Greeks died ).

* 1914 – The Autonomous Republic of Northern Epirus is proclaimed in Gjirokastër, by the Greeks living in southern Albania.

At the same time, an uprising in the country's south by local Greeks, led to the formation of the Autonomous Republic of Northern Epirus in the southern provinces ( 1914 ).

Mussolini, in October 1940, used his Albanian base to launch an attack on Greece, which led to the defeat of the Italian forces and the Greek occupation of Southern Albania in what was seen by the Greeks as the liberation of Northern Epirus.

Unlike most other Greeks of this time, who lived in or around city-states, the inhabitants of Epirus lived in small villages and their way of life was foreign to that of the poleis of southern Greece.

Albania is since the 1940s demanding that Greece grant a Right of Return to the Muslim Cham Albanians, who were expelled from the Greek region of Epirus between 1944 and 1945, at the end of World War II-a demand firmly rejected by the Greeks ( see Cham issue ).

After lengthy preparations, the Greeks broke through the Ottoman defences in the Battle of Bizani and captured Ioannina and most of Epirus up into what is today southern Albania ( Northern Epirus ).

The Greeks were appealing for help to Epirus ; those on the plains — the Campanians — appealed to Rome and Rome came to their rescue.

In the end of 1914, Essad secretly agreed with the Greek government to support the annexation of the southern provinces, known to Greeks as Northern Epirus, to the Kingdom of Greece.

A Greek school was also established and scholarships for higher studies were awarded to young Greeks from Peloponnesus, Epirus, Chio or Smyrna.

The remaining Ottoman army of about 200, 000 was located in Macedonia, pitted against the Serbian ( 234, 000 Serbs and 48, 000 Bulgarians under the Serbians orders ) and Greek ( 115, 000 men ) armies, and divided into the Vardar and Macedonian Ottoman armies with independent static guards around the fortress cities of Ioannina ( against the Greeks in Epirus ) and Shkodër ( against the Montenegrins in north Albania ).

Upon mobilization, as in 1897, this force was grouped in two field armies, reflecting the geographic division between the two operational theaters open to the Greeks: Thessaly and Epirus.

The Great Idea embodied a desire to bring all ethnic Greeks into the Greek state, and subsequently revive the Byzantine Empire ; specifically those Greeks in Epirus, Thessaly, Macedonia, Thrace, the Aegean Islands, Crete, Cyprus, parts of Anatolia, and the city of Constantinople, which would replace Athens as capital.

The attack by Italy from Albania and the Greek victories enabled Greece to conquer, during the winter of 1940-1941, parts of southern Albania ( Northern Epirus, as it is identified by Greeks ) which were administered as a province of Greece for a short time until the German offensive of April 1941.

In modern times, apart from Cyprus, Enosis is adopted among part of the Greeks living in southern Albania / Northern Epirus.

The delineation of the exact boundaries of the Albanian state under the Protocol of Florence ( 17 December 1913 ) was highly unpopular among the local Greek population of Southern Albania ( or Northern Epirus for Greeks ), who after their revolt managed to declare the Autonomous Republic of Northern Epirus, which was internationally recognized as an autonomous region inside Albania under the terms of the Protocol of Corfu.

The Battle of Heraclea took place in 280 BC between the Romans under the command of Consul Publius Valerius Laevinus and the combined forces of Greeks from Epirus, Tarentum, Thurii, Metapontum, and Heraclea under the command of King Pyrrhus of Epirus.

Also many Greeks were angry with the Italians and French, who after the Balkan Wars did not support the Greek claims on the liberated lands of Macedonia and Northern Epirus.

The Pyrrhic War ( 280 – 275 BC ) was a complex series of battles and shifting political alliances among the Greeks ( specifically Epirus, Macedonia, and the city states of Magna Graecia ), Romans, the Italian peoples ( primarily the Samnites and the Etruscans ), and the Carthaginians.

Defeated and running out of allies Pyrrhus abandoned the Italian Greeks to Rome, taking back 8, 000 infantry and 500 cavalry to Epirus.