Orestae

ORESTAE(Ὀρέσται, Hecat. ap. Steph. B. s. v.;Thuc. 2.80; Plb. 18.30; Strab. 7. p. 326, 9. p. 434; Plin. Nat. 4.17), a people who are shown by Thucydides (l. c.) to have bordered upon the Macedonian Paravaei, and who partly, perhaps, as having been originally an Epirote tribe (Steph. B. s. v. terms them a Molossian tribe), were united with the other Epirots, under their prince Antiochus, in support of the expedition of Cnemus and the Ambraciots against Acarnania. Afterwards they were incorporated in the Macedonian kingdom. In the peace finally granted to Philip, B.C. 196, by the Romans, the Orestae were declared free, because they had been the first to revolt. (Liv. 33.34.)