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elatively independent from the Roman rule, started to be used more commonly in discourse
of the Roman politicians (Winnifrith 2002: 69). According to Winnifrith, many people living
in this province spoke Greek at the time (1 st to 3 rd century A.D.) though a couple of Latin
manuscripts can also be traced from that time (ibid.). Sometimes in the 3 rd century Diocletian
divided Epirus into two administrative units, Epirus Vetus extending from Nicopolis to the
Acroceunian mountains and Epirus Nova that included Greek cities such as Dyrrachium and
Apollonia (Winnifrith 2002: 70). The boundary between Epirus Nova and Epirus Vetus is
nowadays unclear although many contemporary Greek scholars seek to push the boundaries
as far north as possible (ibid.). In their arguments they refer to Strabo, who defined the river
Shkumbin as dividing line between both administrative units.
Sometime in the 5 th century the Roman Empire was gradually succeeded by the Byzantine.
From this period onwards Via Egnatia facilitated the eastward movements of the Normans
and the Crusaders, westward invasions of Goths, the Bulgarians, the Byzantines and later in
16 th century the invasions of the Ottomans (Jacques 1995: 134-164).
Between the 12 th and 13 th century, along with the enforcement of the Byzantine Empire and
the spread of Christianity the first churches were built in the area of today’s Dhërmi/Drimades
and Himarë/Himara. The inscriptions found in some of these churches present another issue
of dispute between contemporary scholars. Frashëri writes the following about the
inscriptions:
The inscriptions found in 1751 in the church Ipapandis in Dhermi, which disclose two
inhabitants of Dhrimadhes prove, that the inhabitants of this area are not Greeks. The
names of the persons inscribed on the church wall are priest Papa Ilia Leka and Andon
Starat Gjika. Both names are undoubtedly of Albanian anthroponomy [sic.] (Frashëri
2005: 77, translated by Juliana Vera).
As an answer to Frashëri’s conclusions the local intellectual Jorgji writes:
I believe that Mr. Frashëri refers to the names Leka and Gjika when he calls them as
an Albanian onomastics.
We should make clear first that Dhrimadhes, where this argument comes from, has (if
I am not wrong) more than 30 churches and in the town of Himara there have been
more than 80 churches. To argue that the inhabitants are Albanian, because in one
church out of 30 churches there is an inscription that could tell for Albanian
inhabitants, is very wrong [sic.](2006c: http://www.himara.eu/articles/004-en.html).
Jorgji continues that there were eight other inscriptions found in different churches of
Dhërmi/Drimades:
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