far as Damastium inland (in Dassaretis) is generally accepted among modern scholars as its border. As already known by Hecataeus in the 6th century BC, Pseudo-Scylax notes that Oricum marked the northernmost border of Chaonia (and therefore of Epirus); as such, Illyria begun north of Oricum. According to Stocker, Chaonia in the 5th century BC was not considered part of "Greece", but was considered part of it by the beginning of the Hellenistic period. Stocker also states that there was a major cultural border between Chaonia and Illyria. On this the polis of Apollonia was founded by Greek colonists. Language There is today an overall consensus that the Chaonians were among the Greek-speaking population of Epirus, which spoke the North-West Doric dialect of Ancient Greek, akin to that of Aetolia, Phocis, and certain other regions, this is also attested by the available epigraphic evidence in Epirus. Due to the fact that Greek toponyms preserving archaic features are very densely found in the wider area, it appears, according to Vladimir I. Georgiev, that speakers of the Proto-Greek language inhabited a region which included Chaonia before the Late Bronze Age migrations (ca. 2500 BC). Eugene Borza argues that the Molossians originated from a pool of Proto-Greek tribes inhabiting northwestern Greece. Hammond argues the Chaonians and other Epirote tribes spoke Greek at least from the Dark Ages (1100–800 BC). Hammond further argues that Pseudo-Scylax's description of the situation about 380-360 BC indicates that they did not speak Illyrian and that their acceptance in 330 BC into the Epirote League is a strong indication that they spoke Greek; Chaonian inscriptions, all in Greek, began around 329 BC. In the northern part of the region of Epirus, contact with Illyrian-speakers increased sub-dialectal variation within North-West Doric, although concrete evidence outside of onomastics is lacking. On the other hand, penetration of Greek speech, including Epirote, was much more evident among the adjacent Illyrian tribes. Filos asserts that Epirus was a largely Greek-speaking region, as indicated in epigraphic material, although a uniform picture in the sense of dialect use is far from certain, at least regarding the northern parts bordering Southern Illyria, namely Chaonia, where interaction with Southern Illyria and a certain degree of bilingualism in the northern parts must have been a reality, especially in later times. David R. Hernandez (2018) reports that, according to Pierre Cabanes (1979), that the Chaonians spoke Illyrian, the Molossians and