Due to the fact that Greek toponyms that preserve archaic features are very densely found in the wider area (Epirus, western and northern Thessaly and Pieria), it appears that speakers of the
Proto-Greek language inhabited a region which included Parauaea before the Late Bronze Age migrations (late 3rd-early 2nd millennium BC). At the beginning of the
Peloponnesian War (429 BC), the Parauaei under the leadership of king Oroidos () joined forced together with the nearby
Orestae as allies of
Sparta against
Acarnania. That time they were more loosely associated with the adjacent tribes of the
Molossians and the
Atintanes. Later in 294 BC, the area was under the control of
Pyrrhus of Epirus. In the 3rd century BC, they are described as a "Thesprotian nation/tribe" by
Rhianus and by
Stephanus of Byzantium (6th century AD) quoting Rhianus. ==Location==