Ancient Macedonians

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This article is about the people of ancient Greece; for the unrelated modern Slavic ethnic group see Macedonians (ethnic group).
The expansion of the ancient Macedonians in 4th. BC.
The expansion of the ancient Macedonians in 4th. BC.

The Ancient Macedonians (Greek: Μακεδόνες, Makedónes) were an ancient tribe which inhabited the alluvial plain around the rivers Haliacmon and lower Axius, north of the Mount Olympus in Greece.[1] Historians generally agree that the ancient Macedonians, whether they originally spoke a Greek dialect or a distinct language, came to belong to the Koine Greek speaking population in Hellenistic times. Whether the ancient Macedonians were ethnically Greeks themselves or were Hellenised continues to be debated by historians, linguists and lay people, although most scholars agree that they were in fact Greek[2]. The Macedonian Royal family known as the Argead dynasty claimed Greek descent and both Macedonian Kings and commoners, at least since Alexander I, were allowed in the Ancient Olympic Games, an athletic event in which only people of Greek origin participated[3][4].

Contents

[edit] Origins

[edit] Greek

Hesiod mentions the mythical progenitor and eponymous ancestor of the Macedonians called Makednos along with the other Hellenes, as being a descendant of Deucalion.

Herodotus provides the chief traditions on the origins of the Macedonians, from whom he claims originate the Dorians, when he describes the history of the Lacedaemonians. He writes in the first book of his Histories that the Macedonians were a Greek tribe left behind during the great Dorian invasion (1.56.1):

“ ...for during the reign of Deucalion, Phthia was the country in which the Hellenes dwelt, but under Dorus, the son of Hellen, they moved to the tract at the base of Ossa and Olympus, which is called Histiaeotis; forced to retire from that region by the Cadmeians, they settled, under the name of Macedonians, in the chain of Pindus. Hence they once more removed and came to Dryopis; and from Dryopia having entered the Peloponnese in this way, they became known as Dorians. ”

On the origins of the Macedonian Royalty, Herodotus holds a record (8.137) about the youngest of three brothers from Argos, and how he, through his skill in accepting omens, tricked an oppressive monarch out of his kingdom. The story apparently describes the genealogical connection between the Macedonian royal house (or Macedonians in general) and legendary Greek heroes. This theory was fully accepted among the scholars of antiquity.

Herodotus mentions in other points of his work the Greek origin of the Macedonians, paralleling them with the Dorians (8.43.1):

“ ...from the Peloponnese, the Lacedaemonians... the Corinthians... the Sicyonians... the Epidaurians... the Troezenians... the Hermioneans. All these, except the people of Hermione, were of Dorian and Macedonian stock and had last come from Erineus and Pindus and the Dryopian region. ”

Polybius, in his work The Histories, describes the treaty made between Hannibal and Philip V of Macedon, implying that Macedonians shared the same religion with the rest of Greeks (7.9.4):

“ This is a sworn treaty made between Hannibal... on the one part; and Xenophanes, son of Cleomachus of Athens, sent to us by King Philip... The oath is taken in the presence... of all the gods who rule Macedonia and the rest of Greece ”

He also implies that Macedonians, being on Greece's frontiers, were always fighting for the security of Greece (9.35.2):

“ ...what high honour do the Macedonians deserve, who throughout nearly their whole lives are ceaselessly engaged in a struggle with the barbarians for the safety of the Greeks?...Brennus promptly marched into the middle of Greece. And this would often have happened if the Macedonians had not been on our frontiers. ”

Polybius relates the racial kinship between Aetolians, Achaeans and Macedonians in the speech of Lyciscus the Acarnanian addressing Cleonicus and Chlaeneas, the Aetolian envoys, at the assembly of Sparta (9.37.2):

“ Then you were contending for glory and supremacy with Achaeans and Macedonians, men of kindred blood with yourselves, and with Philip their leader. ”

During antiquity, the Greekness of the Macedonians was disputed only by Demosthenes, the leader of the anti-Macedonian party in Athens and sworn enemy of Philip II. His words, often perceived as an effort to slander Philip, seem to be in disagreement with Herodotus' theories regarding the kinship between the Dorians and the Makednoi (Macedonians) as well as the 5th century BC Persian characterization of the Macedonians as "Yauna Takabara", meaning 'Greeks wearing hats'. The term barbarian was used by the Greeks to refer, not only to foreigners, but to less civilized Greek tribes and Greeks who committed detestable actions as well. Titus Livius in his work The History of Rome says that Macedonians spoke the same language as that of Aetolians and Acarnanians, undoubtedly Greek tribes (Book XXXI 29):

“ Trifling causes occasionally unite and disunite the Aetolians, Acarnanians, and Macedonians, men speaking the same language. With foreigners, with barbarians, all Greeks have, and ever will have, eternal war: because they are enemies by nature, which is always the same, and not from causes which change with the times. ”

Following the archaeological discoveries of the 20th century, most modern scholars now agree that the ancient Macedonians were in fact of Greek origin.[5] Eugene N. Borza stated that the ancient Macedonians underwent ethnogenesis synthesizing Greek as well as Thraco-Illyrian cultural elements, though considers them at the same time to have been perhaps proto-Greeks, originating from the same population pool that produced other Greek peoples.[6] Walter M. Ellis believes that the ancient Macedonians were Greeks, just like the modern.[7] Eric Carlton mentions that modern scholars believe less or more that Macedonians were one group of many Dorian tribes that had made their way into Greece from the Balkans in successive waves.[8] Theodor Mommsen writes that the Macedonians proper on the lower course of the Haliacmon and the Axius, as far as the Strymon, were an originally Greek stock,[9] while David Sacks call them "a crude Greek nation".[10] Peter G. Tsouras states that the Macedonians were Greek in language and blood,[11] something that is supported by Philip Hughes as well.[12]

There are several other modern historians that support the Greek origin of the ancient Macedonians. Stephen J. Bost describes them as "backward Greeks",[13] W. J. Woodhouse says that Macedonia was settled by immigrants of Greek stock later to be called Macedonians.[14]

Systematic excavations at Aiani since 1983 have brought to light finds that attest the existence of an organised city from the 2nd millennium BC to 100 BC. The excavations have unearthed the oldest pieces of black and white pottery, characteristic of the tribes of northwest Greece, discovered so far. Found with Μycenaean shells, they can be dated with certainty to the 14th century BC. The findings also include some of the oldest samples of writing in Macedonia, among them inscriptions bearing Greek names like Θέμιδα (Themida). The inscriptions demonstrate that the society of Upper Macedonia spoke and wrote Greek before the 5th century BC.[15][16]

[edit] Hellenized

Some 19th century scholars argued that the ancient Macedonians had an Illyrian or Thracian rather than a Greek origin. Professor William Mitchell Ramsay considered the Macedonians as a tribe of Thrace, the land north-east of Greece, akin to the Thracians. Another professor, George Rawlinson, stated that the Macedonians were a mixed race, not Paionians, Illyrians or Thracians, but of the three, closest with the Illyrians.

[edit] Atticisation in the 5th to 4th centuries

Macedon was heavily Atticised from the time of Alexander the Great. Moreover, there are indications that there were pan-Hellenic influences in the Macedonian kingdom as early as the 5th century BC. King Archelaus established the new capital at Pella, a festival in honor of Zeus at Dion, a city right next to Mt. Olympus, and welcomed southern Greek intellectuals into the kingdom. Athenian playwriters such as Euripides and Agathon and the famous painter Zeuxis all were influential in the early kingdom. Euripides wrote his last two tragedies at Archelaus' court. [17]

[edit] Participation in panhellenic events

A passage in book five of Herodotus' Histories (5.22) concerns the exclusion of Macedonians from panhellenic events such as the Ancient Olympic Games. In 504 or 500 BC, the Macedonian king Alexander I attempted to participate in the Olympic Games, and met with resistance by competitors, who regarded him as a non-Hellene. According to Herodotus, Alexander argued that his family was of ultimately Greek (Argive) descent, and Elean Hellanodikai determined that it is so. Other kings of Macedon like Archelaus I and Philip II also took part in the Games. A list of Macedonians competed in the Olympics:[18]

Year (BC) Name Home town Event
504 or 500 Alexander I - Stadion
408 Archelaus I - Tethrippon
356 Philip II - Kelis
352 Philip II - Synoris
348 Philip II - Tethrippon
328 Kliton - Stadion
320 Damasias Amphipolis Stadion
304 Lampos Philippi Tethrippon
292 Antigonus - Stadion
288 Antigonus - Stadion
268 Seleucus - Stadion
268 Belistiche - Tethrippon
264 Belistiche - Synoris

Other Macedonian competitors recorded are Ptolemy I, Ptolemy II, Arsinoe, Berenike I, Berenike II, Etearchus, Molykos, Trygaius, Plaggon[18].

Additionally a 5th century BC inscription found in royal tomb at Vergina shows evidence that Macedonian kings competed in Argive Heraean games[19]. Amyntas III in 371 BC took also part in a Panhellenic congress, concerning Amphipolis. From the age of Perdiccas III 365 BC onwards, who served as Theorodokos, participation of Macedonian athletes in Panhellenic Games and festivals became common.

[edit] Language

Main article: Ancient Macedonian language

Due to the fragmentary attestation various interpretations are possible. The tongue of the area's inhabitants prior to the 5th century BC is attested in some hundred words from various glosses, mainly those of Hesychius of Alexandria, 5th century, as well as placenames (toponyms) and personal names (anthroponyms). The Koine Greek dialect was standardised as the language of formal discourse and official communication by the 4th century BC.[20]

It has though to be noted that every inscription found within the boundaries of the Macedonian kingdoms and dominions that can be ascribed to Macedonians, is in clear Greek whether it has been produced as an official document or by the common peasantry.

[edit] References

  1. ^ South East Europe History pages - Map showing languages around the Aegean in 5th century BC.[1]
  2. ^ ". The coasts had long been within Greek consciousness; colonies had been founded in the archaic period, while rich Athenians like Thucydides had exploited the gold and silver resources of the hinterland. Before the fourth century, however, Macedonia may have been regarded as a fringe area, and during that century Athenian politicians were able to deny, when it suited them, that the Macedonians were Greeks. Once the Macedonians became a threatening power, some Greek writers represented them as in almost every way un-Greek. It is likely, however, that the ruling Argeadai were more or less fully hellenized from at least the fifth century, when we see them establishing cultural links with the southern Greeks. The kings claimed descent from Zeus; Alexander I took part in the Olympic games, apparently the first Macedonian to do so, persuading the judges of his Greekness by enumerating his ancestors back to the kings of Argos. There seems to have been a presumption that ordinary Macedonians, despite their dialect, were not as Greek as their kings. - Herodotos describes Amyntas (c. 500) as 'a Greek ruling over Macedonians' - but despite ancient and modern controversies it seems clear that the Macedonians as a whole were Greek-speakers." Shipley, Graham The Greek World After Alexander 323 - 30 BC Routledge History of the Ancient World. pg. 111 (Routledge, 2000)
  3. ^ Macedonians participating in Olympic Games - Pausanias, "Description of Greece", 5.8.11, at Theoi [2]
  4. ^ List of Macedonian Olympic winners (in Greek)[3]
  5. ^
    1. A. R. Burn, "Alexander the Great and the Hellenistic Empire", Macmillan, 1948
    2. George Cawkwell, "Philip of Macedon", Faber & Faber, London, 1978
    3. Francois Chamoux, "Hellenistic Civilization", Blackwell Publishing Professional, 2002
    4. Victor Ehrenberg, "The Greek State", Methuen, (July 2000)
    5. Malcolm Errington, "A History of Macedonia", University of California Press, February 1993
    6. Alan Fildes and Joann Fletcher, "Alexander the Great: Son of the Gods", Getty Trust Publications, J. Paul Getty Museum, 2004
    7. John V.A. Fine, "The Ancient Greeks: A Critical History", Harvard University Press, 1983
    8. Robin Lane Fox, "Alexander the Great"
    9. Peter Green, "Alexander the Great"
    10. Jonathan M. Hall, "Ethnic Identity in Greek Antiquity", Cambridge University Press, 1998
    11. N G L Hammond, "A History of Greece to 323 BC", Cambridge University, 1986
    12. Archer Jones, "The Art of War in Western World" (University of Illinois Press, 2000)
    13. Irad Malkin, (ed.), "Ancient Perceptions of Greek Ethnicity", Center for Hellenic Studies, Harvard University Press, 2001
    14. Robin Osborne, "Greek History", Routledge, 2004
    15. Jacques Pirenne, "The Tides of History Vol. 1", E. P. Dutton, 1962
    16. Michael M. Sage, "Warfare in Ancient Greece", Routledge
    17. Chester G. Starr, "A History of the Ancient World", Oxford University Press, 1991
    18. Hilding Thylander, "Den Grekiska världen", (Svenska humanistiska förbundet, 1985)
    19. Arnold J. Toynbee, “The Greeks and Their Heritages”, Oxford University Press, 1981
    20. Ulrich Wilcken, "Alexander the Great"
    21. Ian Worthington, "Alexander the Great", Routledge, 2002
  • ^ Borza, E. N. In the shadow of Olympus; The emergence of Macedon, p. 78, ISBN 0691008809. "We have seen that the "Makedones" or "highlanders" of mountainous western Macedonia may have been derived from northwest Greek stock. That is, northwest Greece provided a pool of Indo-European speakers of proto-Greek from which emerged the tribes who were later known by different names as they established their regional identities in separate parts of the country. Thus the Macedonians may have been related to those peoples who at an earlier time migrated south to become the historical Dorians, and to other Pindus tribes who were the ancestors of the Epirotes or Molossians. If it were known that Macedonian was a proper dialect of Greek, like the dialects spoken by Dorians and Molossians, we would be on much firmer ground in this hypothesis."
  • ^ Walter M. Ellis, Ptolemy of Egypt, Routledge, 1994
  • ^ Eric Carlton, Occupation: The Policies and Practices of Military Conquerors, Routledge, 1992
  • ^ Theodor Mommsen, The Provinces of the Roman Empire, 1909
  • ^ David Sacks, A Dictionary of the Ancient Greek World, Oxford University Press, 1995
  • ^ Peter G. Tsouras, Alexander: Invincible King of Macedonia
  • ^ Philip Hughes, A History of the Church
  • ^ Stephen J Bost, Ancient History, Ancient Warriors and Stories of Courage
  • ^ W. J. Woodhouse, The tutorial history of Greece, to 323 B.C.: from the earliest times to the death of Demosthenes, University Tutorial Press, 1904
  • ^ Macedonia: Hellenism in Macedonia, Britannica Online
  • ^ The Late Bronze Age in Aiani, Aegeo-Balkan Prehistory
  • ^ [4]
  • ^ a b Macedonians Olympic Winners (Greek). Pan-Macedonian Association USA. Retrieved on 2008-04-04.
  • ^ Thucydides and Pindar: Historical Narrative and the World of Epinikian Poetry[5] by Simon Hornblower
  • ^ In the Shadow of Olympus: The Emergence of Macedon - Eugene N. Borza

[edit] See also