Locris

A name borne by two territories in central Greece, inhabited by Greek peoples speaking an Aeolian dialect; the two regions were separated by Doris and Phocis (which were probably the remnants of early Dorian and other invasions splitting an originally united Locris):

(1) East (Opuntian, Eoian) Locris, on the mainland coast of the Euboean strait, between Boeotia and Malis. The population of East Locris was believed to have been of pre-Greek (Lelegian) origin, but—despite the survival of certain matriarchal customs—was Hellenized at an early date; its mythical heroes were Patroclus, the comrade of Achilles, and Ajax the Less, son of Oileus. The capital of the East Locrians, where their aristocratic assembly of the `Hundred Families’ held its meetings, was Opus. This ruling class controlled a serf population (woikiatai).

It was the East Locrians who in the early seventh century BC led the colonization of Locri Epizephyrii (qv) in south Italy; and they vigorously assisted the Greek cause in the Persian Wars. Nevertheless, they were compelled to cede Thermopylae to Thessaly and Daphnis to Phocis. Their territory then consisted of Opuntian Locris round Opus and Hypocnemidian (later Epicnemidian) Locris, `under’ and `on’ the slopes of Mount Cnemis (Knimis)—the name of the mountain means a greave, which appears on the fifth century silver coinage of the city of Thronium. After his victory over the Greek city-states at Chaeronea (338), Philip II of Macedonia transferred the principal coinage of East Locris from the city of Opus, which fell under his displeasure, to the (East) Locrians and Hypocnemidian Locrians in general.

Following the death of Alexander the Great, the East Locrians fell to Cassander and then to Demetrius I the Besieger (Poliorcetes), but the Epicnemidians subsequently joined the Boeotian League and then became independent, forming the Federation of the Eoioi (which subsequently split into two); Thronium issued bronze coinage with Aetolian types (279–168), and Opus resumed its issues after the `liberation’ of Greece by the Roman general Flaminius (197). East Locris was involved in Greek hostilities against Rome (146), suffered depredations from Sulla (86), and in the civil war between Pompey the Great and Julius Caesar (49–48) sided first with the former and then with the latter. Opus coined again briefly under the emperors Galba (AD 68/9) and Otho (69).

(2) West (Ozolian) Locris, southwest of Mount Parnassus, included the valley of Amphissa and the northern shores of the Corinthian Gulf, from Naupactus to the neighborhood of Crisa. The West Locrians probably played a subsidiary part in the colonization of Locri Epizephyrii in south Italy led by the East (Opuntian) Locrians (see above). Backward, disunited, and burdened with an unsavory reputation for piracy, the West Locrians lost Naupactus to Athens (c 460); and although relations with East Locris were generally close, differences appeared in the Peloponnesian War (431–404), when most of the western group favored the Athenian side, whereas the easterners—later joined by Amphissa—sided with the Spartans. Owing to the strategic importance of the Amphissa valley, West Locris, by now united in a federation (koinon)—based on the town of Physcus—played an important part in the Third Sacred War (355–347), in which it joined forces with Thessaly and Boeotia against Philomelus' Phocian separatists. Amphissa was destroyed by Philip II of Macedonia in 338, but later recovered. In Hellenistic times a western subdivision of the Ozolian Locrians joined the Aetolian League, and under Roman rule belonged to the territory of the Roman colony Patrae. See alsoAmphissa.