pæoni

Pæoni, or Paeones, refers to an ancient population that inhabited Paeonia, a region in the northern Balkans. Classical sources place Paeonia north of ancient Macedon, roughly within the area of present-day northern Greece and southern North Macedonia, with major geographical markers such as the Axios (Vardar) and Strymon (Struma) rivers guiding settlement outlines.

The Paeonians are known primarily from Greek and later Roman writers. Their language is poorly attested, and scholars generally classify it as a Paleo-Balkan tongue, often described as related to Thracian or Illyrian, though firm classification remains uncertain. Cultural and linguistic evidence is drawn from onomastic data, coin finds, and brief literary references rather than extensive inscriptions.

In historical narratives, the Paeonians appear from the 5th and 4th centuries BCE as a distinct group interacting with neighboring states, including Macedon. They participated in alliances and conflicts characteristic of the era, and their territory frequently figured in the military and diplomatic networks of the region. Over time, as Macedon expanded its power, Paeonia came under Macedonian influence and, in the late Hellenistic and into Roman times, was incorporated into broader political structures of the area, eventually becoming part of the Roman province of Macedonia.

Legacy of the Paeonians lies mainly in the ethnographic and geographic traces they left in ancient sources. The name Paeonia persists in historical geography as the designation of the region, even though the Paeonian language did not survive into later periods in a traceable form. The population itself left a fragmentary but clear mark on the ancient ethnographic landscape of the northern Balkans.