ARGOS ORE´STICUM
ARGOS ORE´STICUM (
Ἄργος Ὀρεστικόν), the chief town of the Orestae, said to have been founded by Orestes, when he fled from Argos after the murder of his mother. (
Strab. vii. p.326.) Strabo (
l.c.) places these Orestae in Epirus; and they must probably be distinguished from the Macedonian Orestae, who dwelt near the sources of the Haliacmon, on the frontiers of Illyria. Stephanus B. (s. v.
Ἄργος) mentions an Argos in Macedonia, as well as Argos Oresticum; and Hierocles (p. 641) also speaks of a Macedonian Argos. Moreover, Ptolemy (
3.13. § § 5, 22) distinguishes clearly between an Epirot and a Macedonian Orestias, assigning to each a town Amantia. Hence the Macedonian Argos appears to have been a different place from Argos Oresticum.
The former was probably situated in the plain of
Anaselítza, near the sources of the Haliacmon, which plain is called “Argestaeus Campus” by Livy (
27.33; Leake,
Northern Greece, vol. iv. p. 121, who, however, confounds the Macedonian Argos with Argos Oresticum).
The site of Argos Oresticum is uncertain; but a modern writer places it near Ambracia, since Stephanus calls the Orestae (s. v.) a Molossian people. (Tafel, in Pauly's
Realencycl. vol. i. p. 738.)
