In ancient sources Modern scholarship hardly denies the belonging of the Chaonians to Greek culture and ethnicity, though classical era literature preferred a more 'peripheral' connotation and described them as "barbaroi". The Greek historian Thucydides describes them as barbaroi while their "ruling family" (τὸ άρχικὸν γένος) apparently had Greek names. Crossland argues that Thucydides' writings indicate that during his lifetime, the tribes from Amphilochia northward were not Greek-speaking, though already under strong Greek influence, and they would later adopt the Greek language in the fourth century BC. On the other hand, Hammond argues that they spoke Greek during and before the time of Thucydides considering both the Greek language and Greek names of their inscriptions were not suddenly adopted. Moreover, Filos finds Crossland's view of a pre-classical semi-Hellenized Epirus untenable given the earliest Greek epigraphical evidence from the region. According to Filos, there were some local peculiarities among the Greek-speaking tribes of Epirus. Irad Malkin asserts that from references in Thucydides' work it is clear that the ancient historian was able to distinguish between various groups of Greeks, semi-Greeks, bilinguals, and non-Greeks, yet he distinguished very explicitly, even within the same coalitions, Epirote barbarians from Greeks, reporting the Epirotes as barbarians. However, Thucydides had similar views of the neighboring Aetolians and Acarnians, even though the evidence leaves no doubt that they were Greek. The term "barbarian" denoted not only clearly non-Greek populations, but also Greek populations on the fringe of the Greek world with peculiar dialects and preserving an archaic way of life that would have been incomprehensible to the inhabitants of the more developed Greek city-states to the south. Pseudo-Scymnus considered the Chaonians barbarians, while Polybius considered the Epirotes, and the Chaonians specifically, to be Greek. According to Plutarch, the Molossian king Tharrhypas was the first to introduce Greek letters and customs in Epirus, and to administer the cities with humane laws, when he was sent to Athens to be educated in the 5th century BC. A much more reliable source about the actual views of contemporary Greeks concerning Epirus is the epigraphic material which contains the list of theorodokoi (; sacred envoy-receivers whose duty was to host and assist the theoroi (θεωροί, "viewers") before the Panhellenic games and festivals), listing Greek cities and tribes, to which the major Panhellenic sanctuaries sent theoroi in Epidaurus, which includes the Epirotes. The list which was compiled in 360 or 356 BC