Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD)
PAE-¦ONES
PAE-¦ONES (Paiones, Hom. Il. 845, xvi. 287, xvii. 348, xxi. 139; Herod. iv. 33, 49, v. 1, 13, 98, vii. 113, 185; Thuc. ii. 96:; Strab. i. pp. 6, 28; vii. pp. 316, 318, 323, 329, 330.331; Arrian, Anab. ii. 9. -º 2, iii. 12. -º4; Plut. Alex. 39; Polyaen Strat. iv. 12. -º 3; Eustath. ad Hom. Il. xvi. 287; Liv. xlii. 51), a people divided into several tribes, who, before the Argolic colonisation of Emathia, appear to have occupied the entire country afterwards called Macedonia, with the exception of that portion of it which was considered a part of Thrace. As the Macedonian kingdom increased, the district called PAEONIA [p. 512] (Paionia, Thuc. ii. 99; Polyb. v. 97, xxiv. 8; Strab. vii. pp. 313, 318, 329, 331; Ptol. iii. 13. -º 28; Liv. xxxiii. 19, xxxviii. 17, xxxix. 54, xl. 3, xlv. 29; Plin. iv. 17, vi. 39) was curtailed of its dimensions, on every side, though the name still continued to be applied in a general sense to the great belt of interior country which covered Upper and Lower Macedonia to the N. and NE., and a portion of which was a monarchy nominally independent of Macedonia until fifty years after the death of Alexander the Great. The banks of the wide-flowing Axius seem to have been the centre of the Paeonian power from the time when Pyraechmes and Asteropaeus led the Paeonians to the assistance of Priam (Hom. ll. cc.), down to the latest existence of the monarchy. They appear neither as Macedonians, Thracians, or Illyrians, but professed to be descended from the Teucri of Troy. When Megabazus crossed the river Strymon, he conquered the Paeonians, of whom two tribes, called the Siropaeones and Paeoplae, were deported into Asia by express order of Dareius, whose fancy had been struck at Sardis by seeing a beautiful and shapely Paeonian woman carrying a vessel on her head, leading a horse to water, and spinning flax, all at the same time. (Herod. v. 12--16.) These two tribes were the Paeonians of the lower districts, and their country was afterwards taken possession of by the Thracians. When the Temenidae had acquired Emathia, Almopia, Crestonia, and Mygdonia, the kings of Paeonia still continued to rule over the country beyond the straits of the Axius, until Philip, son of Amyntas, twice reduced them to terms, when weakened by the recent death of their king Agis; and they were at length subdued by Alexander (Diodor. xix. 2, 4, 22, xvii.

; after which they were probably