Elimiotis or Elimeia (Ancient Greek: Ἐλιμιώτις or Ἐλιμία or Ἐλίμεια) was a region of Upper Macedonia that was located along the Haliacmon river. The capital of Elimiotis was Aiani, located in the modern municipality of Kozani, Western Macedonia.[1] It was bordered by Orestis and Eordaea in the north, Pieria in the east, Perrhaebia/Thessaly in the south and Parauaea in the west, and was inhabited by the Epirote Greek tribe of Elimiotes (Ancient Greek: Ἐλιμιῶται).[2][3][4] In earlier times, it was independent and the Derdas family ruled the local kingdom from its capital Aiane. However, later it lost its independence and by 355 BC, Elimiotis was part of the kingdom of Macedon.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)Hecataeus calls the Eliminiotae, Orestae, Lyncastae, and Pelagones of Uppers Macedonia 'Molossian' and since Molossian inscriptions found at the sanctuary of Dodona are inscribed in a West Greek dialect, one would expect the Macedonians to have belonged to a West Greek linguistic Koinē that extended across much of northern and northwestern Greece
On crossing the Balkan chain, we find that Hecataeus called the Orestae 'a Molossian tribe' (F 107), and Strabo (434; cf. 326) probably derived from Hecataeus his belief that the Elimeotae, Lyncestae, and Pelagones, as well as the Orestae, were Epirotic or rather Molossian tribes before their incorporation by the Macedones into the Macedonian kingdom.
Further, the tribes which Strabo termed 'Epirotic' — Orestai, Tymphaioi, Elimiotai, Lynkestai and Pelagones — are likely to have spoken the same dialect as the Molossians, to whom they were in some sense related.