Elimiotis or Elimeia (Ancient Greek: Ἐλιμιῶτις or Ἐλιμία or Ἐλίμεια) was a region of Upper Macedonia that was located along the Haliacmon river, and was inhabited by the Molossian tribe of Elimiotes or Elimiotae (Ancient Greek: Ἐλιμιῶται), who spoke a Northwest Greek dialect.
The capital of Elimiotis was Aiani, located in the modern municipality of Kozani, Western Macedonia, Greece. It was bordered by Tymphaea and Parauaea in the west, Orestis and Eordaea in the north, Pieria in the east, and Perrhaebia (Thessaly) in the south.
In earlier times, it was independent and the Derdas family ruled the local kingdom from its capital Aiane. However, later it lost its independence and by 355 BC, Elimiotis was part of the kingdom of Macedon ruled by Philip II of Macedon. Phila of Elimeia, sister of Derdas III and Machatas of Elimeia, was the first or second wife of Philip II.
Hecataeus calls the Eliminiotae, Orestae, Lyncastae, and Pelagones of Upper Macedonia 'Molossian' and since Molossian inscriptions found at the sanctuary of Dodona are inscribed in a West Greek dialect, one would expect the Macedonians to have belonged to a West Greek linguistic Koinē that extended across much of northern and northwestern Greece
On crossing the Balkan chain, we find that Hecataeus called the Orestae 'a Molossian tribe' (F 107), and Strabo (434; cf. 326) probably derived from Hecataeus his belief that the Elimeotae, Lyncestae, and Pelagones, as well as the Orestae, were Epirotic or rather Molossian tribes before their incorporation by the Macedones into the Macedonian kingdom.
Further, the tribes which Strabo termed 'Epirotic' — Orestai, Tymphaioi, Elimiotai, Lynkestai and Pelagones — are likely to have spoken the same dialect as the Molossians, to whom they were in some sense related.
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