Our tent stood in the middle of the open space that used to be the agora of Cassope. The founders of the city must have been guided by the gods when they selected this location. This plateau enabled the Cassiopaeans to control the main artery that connected their lands in the south, on the shores of the Ambracian Gulf with the cities in the north. They were also able to keep an eye on the road leading from the Ionian Sea to the mountains in the east. The thief who brought us here claimed that the Cassiopaeans once lived in small defenceless mountainous communities all over Epirus but decided to come together in Cassope when they founded their own state more than nine generations ago.