Orestis (region)

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Orestis (Greek: Ὀρεστίς, mountainous orestias) was a region of Upper Macedonia, corresponding roughly to the modern Kastoria Prefecture, West Macedonia, Greece. Its inhabitants were the tribe Orestae. As most of Upper Macedonia, it became part of Macedon only after the early 4th century BC; before that it had close relations with the Molossians of Epirus. Hecataeus and Strabo identified these mountain Macedonia kingdoms as of Epirotic stock. Natives of the region were: Pausanias of Orestis, the murderer of Philip II, and three of Alexander's most trusted Macedonians, Perdiccas (son of Orontes), Seleucus I Nicator (son of Antiochus) and Craterus, son of a noble from Orestis named Alexander.

Orestis became again independent in 196 BC when the Romans, after defeating Philip V, declared the people of Orestis free because they had adhered to the Roman cause in the recent war against. According to Appian, Argos Orestikon (in modern Orestida), rather than Peloponesian Argos, was the homeland of the Argead dynasty.