Ancient Macedonians

TheMacedonians(Ancient Greek:Μακεδόνες,Makedónes) were an ancient tribe that lived on thealluvial plainaround the riversHaliacmonand lowerAxiosin the northeastern part ofmainland Greece. Essentially anancient Greek people,they gradually expanded from their homeland along the Haliacmon valley on the northern edge of the Greek world, absorbing or driving out neighbouring non-Greek tribes, primarilyThracianandIllyrian.They spokeAncient Macedonian, which is usually classified by scholars as a dialect ofNorthwest Doric Greek,and occasionally as a distinctsister languageofGreekor anAeolic Greekdialect.However, theprestige languageof the region during theClassical erawasAttic Greek, replaced byKoine Greekduring theHellenistic era.Their religious beliefs mirrored those ofother Greeks, following the main deities of theGreek pantheon, although the Macedonians continuedArchaicburial practicesthat had ceased in other parts ofGreeceafter the 6th century BC. Aside from the monarchy, the core of Macedonian society was its nobility. Similar to the aristocracy of neighboringThessaly, their wealth was largely built on herdinghorsesandcattle.
Although composed of various clans, thekingdom of Macedonia, established around the 7th century BC, is mostly associated with theArgead dynastyand the tribe named after it. The dynasty wasallegedly foundedbyPerdiccas I, descendant of the legendaryTemenusofArgos, while theregion of Macedonderived its name fromMakedon, a figure ofGreek mythology. Traditionally ruled by independent families, the Macedonians seem to have accepted Argead rule by the time ofAlexander I(r.498 – 454 BC). UnderPhilip II(r.359 – 336 BC), the Macedonians are credited with numerousmilitary innovations, which enlarged their territory and increased their control over other areas extending intoThrace. Thisconsolidation of territoryallowed for the exploits ofAlexander the Great(r.336 – 323 BC),the conquestof theAchaemenid Empire, the establishment of thediadochisuccessor states, and the inauguration of theHellenistic periodinWest Asia,Greece, and the broaderMediterranean world. The Macedonians wereeventually conqueredby theRoman Republic, which dismantledthe Macedonian monarchyat the end of theThird Macedonian War(171–168 BC) and established theRoman provinceofMacedoniaafter theFourth Macedonian War(150–148 BC).
Authors,historians, and statesmen of the ancient world often expressed ambiguous if not conflicting ideas about theethnic identityof the Macedonians as eitherGreeks, semi-Greeks, or evenbarbarians. This has led to some debate among modern academics about the precise ethnic identity of the Macedonians, who nevertheless embraced many aspects of contemporaneousGreek culturesuch as participation inGreek religious cultsandathletic games, including the exclusiveAncient Olympic Games. Given the scant linguistic evidence, such as thePella curse tablet,ancient Macedonianis regarded by most scholars as another Greek dialect, possibly related toDoric GreekorNorthwestern Greek.
The ancient Macedonians participated in the production and fostering ofClassicaland laterHellenistic art. In terms ofvisual arts, they producedfrescoes,mosaics,sculptures, and decorativemetalwork. Theperforming artsofmusicandGreek theatrical dramaswere highly appreciated, while famousplaywrightssuch asEuripidescame to live in Macedonia. The kingdom also attracted the presence of renownedphilosophers, such asAristotle, while native Macedonians contributed to the field ofancient Greek literature, especiallyGreek historiography. Their sport and leisure activities included hunting,foot races, andchariot races, as well as feasting and drinking at aristocratic banquets known assymposia.
TheethnonymΜακεδόνες (Makedónes) stems from theAncient Greekadjectiveμακεδνός(makednós), meaning "tall, slim", also the name of a people related to theDorians(Herodotus).It is most likelycognatewith the adjective μακρός (makrós), meaning "long" or "tall" in Ancient Greek.The name is believed to have originally meant either "highlanders", "the tall ones", or "high grown men".
Theexpansion of the Macedonian kingdomhas been described as a three-stage process. As a frontier kingdom on the border of the Greek world withbarbarian Europe, the Macedonians first subjugated their immediate northern neighbours — variousPaeonian,IllyrianandThraciantribes — before turning against the states ofsouthernandcentral Greece. Macedonia then led apan-Hellenicmilitary forceagainst their primary objective—theconquest of Persia—which they achieved with remarkable ease.Following thedeath of Alexander the Greatand thePartition of Babylonin 323 BC, thediadochisuccessor statessuch as theAttalid,PtolemaicandSeleucid Empireswere established, ushering in theHellenistic periodofGreece,West Asiaandthe HellenizedMediterranean Basin.With Alexander's conquest of theAchaemenid Empire, Macedonianscolonized territoriesas far east asCentral Asia.
The Macedonians continued to rule much ofHellenistic Greece(323–146 BC), forming alliances withGreek leaguessuch as theCretan LeagueandEpirote League(and prior to this, theKingdom of Epirus).However, they often fell into conflict with theAchaean League,Aetolian League, the city-state ofSparta, and thePtolemaic dynastyofHellenistic Egyptthat intervened in wars of theAegean regionandmainland Greece.After Macedoniaformed an alliancewithHannibalofAncient Carthagein 215 BC, the rivalRoman Republicresponded by fightinga series of warsagainst Macedonia in conjunction with its Greek allies such asPergamonandRhodes.In the aftermath of theThird Macedonian War(171–168 BC),the Romansabolished theMacedonian monarchyunderPerseus of Macedon(r.179–168 BC–) and replaced the kingdom with fourclient staterepublics.A brief revival of the monarchy by thepretenderAndriscusled to theFourth Macedonian War(150–148 BC), after which Rome established theRoman provinceofMacedoniaandsubjugated the Macedonians.
InGreek mythology,Makedonis the  eponymous hero of Macedonia and is mentioned inHesiod'sCatalogue of Women.The first historical attestation of the Macedonians occurs in the works ofHerodotusduring the mid-5th century BC.The Macedonians are absent inHomer'sCatalogue of Shipsand the term "Macedonia" itself appears late. TheIliadstates that upon leavingMount Olympus,Herajourneyed viaPieriaandEmathiabefore reachingAthos.This is re-iterated byStraboin hisGeography.Nevertheless, archaeological evidence indicates thatMycenaeancontact with or penetration into the Macedonian interior possibly started from the early 14th century BC.
In hisA History of Macedonia,Nicholas Hammondreconstructed the earliest phases of Macedonian history based on his interpretation of later literary accounts and archaeological excavations in the region of Macedonia.According to Hammond, the Macedonians are missing from early Macedonian historical accounts because they had been living in theOrestian highlandssince before theGreek Dark Ages, possibly having originated from the same (proto-Greek) population pool that produced other Greek peoples.The Macedonian tribes subsequently moved down from Orestis in the upperHaliacmonto the Pierian highlands in the lower Haliacmon because of pressure from theMolossians, a related tribe who had migrated to Orestis fromPelagonia.In their new Pierian home north of Olympus, the Macedonian tribes mingled with the proto-Dorians. This might account for traditions which placed the eponymous founder, Makedon, near Pieria and Olympus.Some traditions placed the Dorian homeland in thePindusmountain range in westernThessaly, whilst Herodotus pushed this further north to the Macedonian Pindus and claimed that the Greeks were referred to asMakednon(Mακεδνόν) and then as Dorians.A different, southern homeland theory also exists in traditional historiography.Arnold J. Toynbeeasserted that the Makedones migrated north to Macedonia fromcentral Greece, placing the Dorian homeland inPhthiotisand citing the traditions of fraternity between Makedon andMagnes.
The Macedonian expansion is said to have been led by the ruling Temenid dynasty, known as "Argeads" or "Argives". Herodotus said thatPerdiccas, the dynasty's founder, was descended from the HeraclidTemenus.He left Argos with his two older brothers Aeropus andGayanes, and travelled viaIllyriatoLebaea, a city inUpper Macedoniawhich certain scholars have tried to connect with the villages Albus orVelventos.Here, the brothers served as shepherds for a local ruler. After a vision, the brothers fled to another region in Macedonia near theMidas Gardensby the foot of theVermio Mountains, and then set about subjugating the rest of Macedonia.Thucydides's account is similar to that of Herodotus, making it probable that the story was disseminated by the Macedonian court,i.e. it accounts for the belief the Macedonians had about the origin of their kingdom, if not an actual memory of this beginning.Later historians modified the dynastic traditions by introducing variouslyCaranusor Archelaus, the son of Temenus, as the founding Temenid kings—although there is no doubt thatEuripidestransformedCaranustoArchelausmeaning "leader of the people" in his playArchelaus, in an attempt to pleaseArchelaus I of Macedon.
The earliest sources, Herodotus and Thucydides, called the royal family "Temenidae". In later sources (Strabo, Appian,Pausanias) the term "Argeadae" was introduced. However,Appiansaid that the term Argeadae referred to a leading Macedonian tribe rather than the name of the ruling dynasty.The connection of the Argead name to the royal family is uncertain. The words "Argead" and "Argive" derive viaLatinArgīvusfromAncient Greek:Ἀργεῖος(Argeios), meaning "of or fromArgos",and is first attested in Homer, where it was also used as a collective designation for the Greeks ("Ἀργείων Δαναῶν",ArgiveDanaans).The most common connection to the royal family, as written by Herodotus, is with Peloponnesian Argos.Appian connects it with Orestian Argos.According to another tradition mentioned by Justin, the name was adopted after Caranus moved Macedonia's capital fromEdessatoAegae, thus appropriating the name of the city for its citizens.A figure, Argeas, is mentioned in theIliad(16.417).
Taking Herodotus's lineage account as the most trustworthy, Appian said that after Perdiccas, six successive heirs ruled:Argeus,Philip,Aeropus,Alcetas, Amyntas and Alexander.Amyntas I(r.547 – 498 BC) ruled at the time of thePersian invasionofPaeoniaand whenMacedonbecame avassal stateofAchaemenid Persia.However,Alexander I(r.498 – 454 BC) is the first truly historic figure. Based on this line of succession and an estimated average rule of 25 to 30 years, the beginnings of the Macedonian dynasty have thus been traditionally dated to 750 BC.Hammond supports the traditional view that the Temenidae did arrive from thePeloponneseand took charge of Macedonian leadership, possibly usurping rule from a native "Argead" dynasty with Illyrian help.However, other scholars doubt the veracity of their Peloponnesian origins. For example, Miltiades Hatzopoulos takes Appian's testimony to mean that the royal lineage imposed itself onto the tribes of the Middle Heliacmon fromArgos Orestikon,whilstEugene N. Borzaargues that the Argeads were a family of notables hailing from Vergina.
Both Strabo and Thucydides said that Emathia andPieriawere mostly occupied by Thracians (Pieres,Paeonians) andBottiaeans, as well as some Illyrian andEpirotetribes.Herodotus states that theBrygeswere cohabitants with the Macedonians before their mass migration toAnatolia.If a group of ethnically definable Macedonian tribes were living in the Pierian highlands prior to their expansion, the first conquest was of the Pierian piedmont and coastal plain, including Vergina.The tribes may have launched their expansion from a base near Mount Bermion, according to Herodotus.Thucydides describes the Macedonian expansion specifically as a process of conquest led by the Argeads:
Thucydides's account gives a geographical overview of Macedonian possessions at the time of Alexander I's rule. To reconstruct a chronology of the expansion by Alexander I's predecessors is more difficult, but generally, three stages have been proposed from Thucydides' reading. The initial and most important conquest was of Pieria andBottiaea, including the locations ofPydnaandDium. The second stage consolidated rule in Pieria and Bottiaea, capturedMethoneandPella, and extended rule overEordaeaandAlmopia. According to Hammond, the third stage occurred after 550 BC, when the Macedonians gained control overMygdonia,Edonis, lower Paeonia,BisaltiaandCrestonia.However, the second stage might have occurred as late as 520 BC;and the third stage probably did not occur until after 479 BC, when the Macedonians capitalized on the weakened Paeonian stateafter the Persian withdrawalfrom Macedon and the rest of their mainland European territories.Whatever the case, Thucydides' account of the Macedonian state describes its accumulated territorial extent by the rule ofPerdiccas II, Alexander I's son. Hammond has said that the early stages of Macedonian expansion were militaristic, subduing or expunging populations from a large and varied area.Pastoralismand highland living could not support a very concentrated settlement density, forcing pastoralist tribes to search for more arable lowlands suitable for agriculture.
Present-day scholars have highlighted several inconsistencies in the traditionalist perspective first set in place by Hammond.An alternative model of state andethnosformation, promulgated by an alliance of regional elites, which redates the creation of the Macedonian kingdom to the 6th century BC, was proposed in 2010.According to these scholars, direct literary, archaeological, and linguistic evidence to support Hammond's contention that a distinct Macedonianethnoshad existed in the Haliacmon valley since theAegean civilizationsis lacking. Hammond's interpretation has been criticized as a "conjectural reconstruction" from what appears during later, historical times.
Similarly, the historicity of migration, conquest and population expulsion have also been questioned. Thucydides's account of the forced expulsion of the Pierians and Bottiaeans could have been formed on the basis of his perceived similarity of names of the Pierians and Bottiaeans living in theStruma valleywith the names of regions in Macedonia; whereas his account of Eordean extermination was formulated because such toponymic correspondences are absent.Likewise, the Argead conquest of Macedonia may be viewed as a commonly usedliterary toposin classical Macedonian rhetoric. Tales of migration served to create complex genealogical connections between trans-regional ruling elites, while at the same time were used by the ruling dynasty to legitimize their rule, heroicize mythical ancestors and distance themselves from their subjects.
Conflict was a historical reality in the early Macedonian kingdom and pastoralist traditions allowed the potential for population mobility. Greek archaeologists have found that some of the passes linking the Macedonian highlands with the valley regions have been used for thousands of years. However, the archaeological evidence does not point to any significant disruptions between theIron Ageand Hellenistic period in Macedonia. The general continuity of material culture,settlement sites,and pre-Greek onomasticon contradict the allegedethnic cleansingaccount of early Macedonian expansion.
The process of state formation in Macedonia was similar to that of its neighbours in Epirus, Illyria,Thraceand Thessaly, whereby regional elites could mobilize disparate communities for the purpose of organizing land and resources. Local notables were often based in urban-like settlements, although contemporaneous historians often did not recognize them aspoleisbecause they were not self-ruled but under the rule of a "king".From the mid-6th century, there appears a series of exceptionally rich burials throughout the region—inTrebeništa,Vergina,Sindos,Agia Paraskevi, Pella-Archontiko,Aiani,Gevgelija,Amphipolis—sharing a similar burial rite and grave accompaniments, interpreted to represent the rise of a new regional ruling class sharing a common ideology, customs and religious beliefs.A common geography, mode of existence, and defensive interests might have necessitated the creation of a political confederacy among otherwise ethno-linguistically diverse communities, which led to the consolidation of a new Macedonian ethnic identity.
The traditional view that Macedonia was populated by rural ethnic groups in constant conflict is slowly changing, bridging the cultural gap between southern Epirus and the north Aegean region. Hatzopoulos's studies on Macedonian institutions have lent support to the hypothesis that Macedonian state formation occurred via an integration of regional elites, which were based in city-like centres, including the Argeadae at Vergina, the Paeonian/Edonianpeoples in Sindos,Ichnaeand Pella, and the mixed Macedonian-Barbarian colonies in theThermaic Gulfand westernChalkidiki.The Temenidae became overall leaders of a new Macedonian state because of the diplomatic proficiency of Alexander I and the logistic centrality of Vergina itself. It has been suggested that a breakdown in traditional Balkan tribal traditions associated with adaptation of Aegean socio-political institutions created a climate of institutional flexibility in a vast, resource-rich land.Non-Argead centres increasingly became dependent allies, allowing the Argeads to gradually assert and secure their control over the lower and eastern territories of Macedonia.This control was fully consolidated byPhillip II(r.359 – 336 BC).
Macedonia had a distinct material culture by theEarly Iron Age.Typically Balkan burial, ornamental, and ceramic forms were used for most of the Iron Age.These features suggest broad cultural affinities and organizational structures analogous with Thracian, Epirote, and Illyrian regions.This did not necessarily symbolize a shared cultural identity, or any political allegiance between these regions.In the late sixth century BC, Macedonia became open to south Greek influences, although a small but detectable amount of interaction with the south had been present since late Mycenaean times.By the 5th century BC, Macedonia was a part of the "Greek cultural milieu" according to Edward M. Anson, possessing many cultural traits typical of the southern Greek city-states.Classical Greek objects and customs were appropriated selectively and used in peculiarly Macedonian ways.In addition, influences fromAchaemenid Persiain culture and economy are evident from the 5th century BC onward, such as the inclusion of Persian grave goods at Macedonian burial sites as well as the adoption of royal customs such as a Persian-stylethroneduring the reign of Philip II.
The way of life of the inhabitants of Upper Macedonia differed little from that of their neighbours in Epirus and Illyria, engaging in seasonaltranshumancesupplemented by agriculture. Young Macedonian men were typically expected to engage inhuntingand martial combat as a byproduct of their transhumance lifestyles of herdinglivestocksuch as goats and sheep, whilehorse breedingand raisingcattlewere other common pursuits.In these mountainous regions, upland sites were important focal points for local communities. In these difficult terrains, competition for resources often precipitated intertribal conflict and raiding forays into the comparatively richer lowland settlements of coastal Macedonia and Thessaly.Despite the remoteness of the upper Macedonian highlands, excavations at Aiani since 1983 have discovered finds attesting to the presence of social organization since the 2nd millennium BC. The finds include the oldest pieces of black-and-white pottery, which is characteristic of the tribes of northwest Greece, discovered so far.Found withΜycenaean sherds, they can be dated with certainty to the 14th century BC.The finds also include some of the oldest samples of writing in Macedonia, among them inscriptions bearing Greek names likeΘέμιδα(Themida). The inscriptions demonstrate that Hellenism in Upper Macedonia was at a high economic, artistic, and cultural level by the sixth century BC—overturning the notion that Upper Macedonia was culturally and socially isolated from the rest of ancient Greece.
By contrast, the alluvial plains ofLower Macedoniaand Pelagonia, which had a comparative abundance of natural resources such as timber and minerals, favored the development of a native aristocracy, with a wealth that at times surpassed the classical Greek poleis.Exploitation of minerals helped expedite the introduction of coinage in Macedonia from the 5th century BC, developing under southern Greek, Thracian and Persian influences.Some Macedonians engaged in farming, often withirrigation,land reclamation, andhorticultureactivities supported by the Macedonian state.However, the bedrock of the Macedonian economy and state finances was the twofold exploitation of the forests withloggingand valuablemineralssuch as copper, iron, gold, and silver withmining.The conversion of these raw materials into finished products and their sale encouraged the growth of urban centers and a gradual shift away from the traditional rustic Macedonian lifestyle during the course of the 5th century BC.
Macedonian society was dominated byaristocraticfamilies whose main source of wealth and prestige was their herds of horses and cattle. In this respect, Macedonia was similar to Thessaly and Thrace.These aristocrats were second only to the king in terms of power and privilege, filling the ranks of his administration and serving as commanding officers in the military.It was in the more bureaucratic regimes of theHellenistic kingdomssucceeding Alexander the Great's empire where greatersocial mobilityfor members of society seeking to join the aristocracy could be found, especially in Ptolemaic Egypt.In contrast with classical Greek poleis, the Macedonians held only few slaves.
However, unlike Thessaly, Macedonia was ruled by a monarchy from its earliest history until theRoman conquest in 167 BC. The nature ofthe kingship, however, remains debated. One viewpoint sees it as anautocracy, whereby the king held absolute power and was at the head of both government and society, wielding arguably unlimited authority to handle affairs of state and public policy. He was also the leader of a very personal regime with close relationships or connections to hishetairoi, the core of the Macedonian aristocracy.Any other position of authority,including the army, was appointed at the whim of the king himself. The other, "constitutionalist", position argues that there was an evolution from a society of many minor "kings" – each of equal authority – to a sovereign military state whereby anarmy of citizen soldierssupported a central king against a rival class ofnobility.Kingship was hereditary along thepaternal line, yet it is unclear ifprimogeniturewas strictly observed as an established custom.
During the Late Bronze Age (circa 15th-century BC), the ancient Macedonians developed distinct, matt-painted wares that evolved fromMiddle Helladicpottery traditions originating in central and southern Greece.The Macedonians continued to use an individualized form of material culture—albeit showing analogies in ceramic, ornamental and burial forms with the so-calledLausitz culturebetween 1200 and 900 BC—and that of theGlasinac cultureafter circa 900 BC.While some of these influences persisted beyond the sixth century BC,a more ubiquitous presence of items of an Aegean-Mediterranean character is seen from the latter sixth century BC,as Greece recovered from its Dark Ages. Southern Greek impulses penetrated Macedonia via trade with north Aegean colonies such as Methone and those in theChalcidice, neighbouring Thessaly, and from theIonic colonies of Asia Minor. Ionic influences were later supplanted by those ofAthenianprovenance. Thus, by the latter sixth century, local elites could acquire exotic Aegean items such asAthenian red figure pottery, fine tablewares, olive oil and wine amphorae, fine ceramic perfume flasks, glass, marble and precious metal ornaments—all of which would serve as status symbols.By the 5th century BC, these items became widespread in Macedonia and in much of the central Balkans.
Macedonian settlements have a strong continuity dating from the Bronze Age, maintaining traditional construction techniques for residential architecture. While settlement numbers appeared to drop in central and southern Greece after 1000 BC, there was a dramatic increase of settlements in Macedonia.These settlements seemed to have developed along raised promontories near river flood plains calledtells(Greek: τύμβοι). Their ruins are most commonly found in western Macedonia betweenFlorinaandLake Vergoritis, the upper and middleHaliacmon River, andBottiaea. They can also be found on either side of theAxiosand in the Chalcidice in eastern Macedonia.
By the 5th century BC the Macedonians and the rest of the Greeks worshiped more or less thesame deities of the Greek pantheon.In Macedonia, politics and religion often intertwined. For instance, the head of state for the city ofAmphipolisalso served as the priest ofAsklepios, Greek god of medicine; a similar arrangement existed atCassandreia, where a cult priest honoring the city's founderCassanderwas the nominal municipal leader.Foreigncults from Egyptwere fostered by the royal court, such as the temple ofSarapisatThessaloniki, while Macedonian kingsPhilip III of MacedonandAlexander IV of Macedonmadevotive offeringsto the internationally esteemedSamothrace temple complexof theCabeirimystery cult.This was also the same location wherePerseus of Macedonfled and received sanctuary following his defeat bythe Romansat theBattle of Pydnain 168 BC.The main sanctuary ofZeuswas maintained atDion, while another atVeriawas dedicated toHeraklesand received particularly strong patronage fromDemetrius II Aetolicus(r.239 – 229 BC) when he intervened in the affairs of the municipal government at the behest of the cult's main priest.
The ancient Macedonians worshipped theTwelve Olympians, especiallyZeus,Artemis,Heracles, andDionysus. Evidence of this worship exists from the beginning of the 4th century BC onwards, but little evidence of Macedonian religious practices from earlier times exists.From an early period, Zeus was the single most important deity in the Macedonian pantheon.Makedon, the mythical ancestor of the Macedonians, was held to be a son of Zeus, and Zeus features prominently in Macedonian coinage.The most important centre of worship of Zeus was atDioninPieria, the spiritual centre of the Macedonians, where beginning in 400 BC King Archelaus established an annual festival, which in honour of Zeus featured lavish sacrifices and athletic contests.Worship of Zeus's son Heracles was also prominent; coins featuring Heracles appear from the 5th century BC onwards.This was in large part because the Argead kings of Macedon traced their lineage to Heracles, making sacrifices to him in the Macedonian capitals of Vergina and Pella.Numerous votive reliefs and dedications also attest to the importance of the worship of Artemis.Artemis was often depicted as a huntress and served as a tutelary goddess for young girls entering the coming-of-age process, much asHeracles Kynagidas(Hunter) did for young men who had completed it.By contrast, some deities popular elsewhere in the Greek world—notablyPoseidonandHephaestus—were largely ignored by the Macedonians.
Other deities worshipped by the ancient Macedonians were part of a local pantheon which included Thaulos (god of war equated withAres), Gyga (later equated withAthena), Gozoria (goddess of hunting equated with Artemis), Zeirene (goddess of love equated withAphrodite) and Xandos (god of light).A notable influence on Macedonian religious life and worship was neighbouring Thessaly; the two regions shared many similar cultural institutions.They were tolerant of, and open to, incorporating foreign religious influences such as thesun worshipof the Paeonians.By the 4th century BC, there had been a significant fusion of Macedonian and common Greek religious identity,but Macedonia was nevertheless characterized by an unusually diverse religious life.This diversity extended to the belief in magic, as evidenced by curse tablets. It was a significant but secret aspect of Greek cultural practice.
A notable feature of Macedonian culture was the ostentatious burials reserved for its rulers.The Macedonian elite built lavish tombs at the time of death rather than constructing temples during life.Such traditions had been practiced throughout Greece and the central-west Balkans since theBronze Age. Macedonian burials contain items similar to those at Mycenae, such as burial with weapons, gold death masks etc.From the sixth century, Macedonian burials became particularly lavish, displaying a rich variety of Greek imports reflecting the incorporation of Macedonia into a wider economic and political network centred on the Aegean city-states. Burials contained jewellery and ornaments of unprecedented wealth and artistic style. This zenith of Macedonian "warrior burial" style closely parallels those of sites in south-central Illyria and western Thrace, creating akoinonof elite burials.Lavish warrior burials had been discontinued in southern and central Greece from the seventh century onwards, where offerings at sanctuaries and the erection of temples became the norm.From the sixth century BC, cremation replaced the traditional inhumation rite for elite Macedonians.One of the most lavish tombs dating from the 4th century BC, believed to be that of Phillip II, is at Vergina. It contains extravagant grave goods, highly sophisticated artwork depicting hunting scenes and Greek cultic figures, and a vast array of weaponry.This demonstrates a continuing tradition of the warrior society rather than a focus on religious piety and technology of the intellect, which had become paramount facets of central Greek society in theClassical Period.In the three royal tombs atVergina, professional painters decorated the walls with a mythological scene ofHadesabductingPersephone(Tomb 1) and royal hunting scenes (Tomb 2), while lavishgrave goodsincludingweapons, armor, drinking vessels and personal items were housed with the dead, whose boneswere burnedbeforeburial in decorated gold coffins.Some grave goods and decorations were common in other Macedonian tombs, yet some items found at Vergina were distinctly tied to royalty, including adiadem, luxurious goods, and arms and armor.Scholars have debated about the identity of the tomb occupants sincethe discoveryof their remains in 1977–1978,yet recent research and forensic examination have concluded with certainty that at least one of the persons buried wasPhilip II(Tomb 2).Located near Tomb 1 are the above-ground ruins of aheroon, a shrine forcult worshipof the dead.In 2014, the ancient MacedonianKasta Tomb, the largest ancient tomb found in Greece (as of 2017), was discovered outside ofAmphipolis, a city that was incorporated into the Macedonian realm after its capture by Philip II in 357 BC.The identity of the tomb's occupant is unknown, but archaeologists have speculated that it may be Alexander's close friendHephaestion.
Thedeificationof Macedonian monarchs perhaps began with the death of Philip II, yet it was his son Alexander the Great who unambiguously claimed to be aliving god.Aspharaohof the Egyptians, he was already entitled asSon of Raand considered the living incarnation ofHorusby his Egyptian subjects (a belief that thePtolemaic successorsof Alexander would foster fortheir own dynasty in Egypt).However, following his visit to theoracleofDidymain 334 BC that suggested his divinity, he traveled to theOracleofZeus Ammon(theGreek equivalentof the EgyptianAmun-Ra) at theSiwa Oasisof theLibyan Desertin 332 BC to confirm hisdivine status.After the priest there convinced him that Philip II was merely his mortal father and Zeus his actual father, Alexander began styling himself as the 'Son of Zeus', which brought him into contention with some of his Greek subjects who adamantly believed that living men could not be immortals.Although theSeleucidand Ptolemaicdiadochisuccessor statescultivatedtheir own ancestral cults and deification of the rulersas part of state ideology, a similar cult did not exist in the Kingdom of Macedonia.
By the reign ofArchelaus I of Macedon, the Macedonian elite started importing significantly greater customs, artwork, and art traditions from other regions of Greece. However, they still retained more archaic, perhapsHomericfunerary rites connected with thesymposiumand drinking rites that were typified with items such as decorative metalkratersthat held the ashes of deceased Macedonian nobility in their tombs.Among these is the large bronzeDerveni Kraterfrom a 4th-century BC tomb ofThessaloniki, decorated with scenes of the Greek godDionysusandhis entourageand belonging to an aristocrat who had a military career.Macedonianmetalworkusually followedAthenian styles of vase shapesfrom the 6th century BC onward, with drinking vessels, jewellery, containers, crowns,diadems, andcoinsamong the many metal objects found in Macedonian tombs.
Surviving Macedonian painted artwork includesfrescoesandmuralson walls, but also decoration onsculpted artworksuch asstatuesandreliefs. For instance, trace colors still exist on thebas-reliefsof theAlexander Sarcophagus.Macedonian paintings have allowed historians to investigate the clothing fashions as well as military gear worn by ancient Macedonians, such as the brightly-colored tomb paintings ofAgios Athanasios, Thessalonikishowing figures wearing headgear ranging fromfeathered helmetstokausiaandpetasoscaps.
Aside from metalwork and painting,mosaicsserve as another significant form of surviving Macedonian artwork, especially those discovered atPelladating to the 4th century BC.TheStag Hunt Mosaicof Pella, with its three dimensional qualities and illusionist style, show clear influence frompainted artwork and wider Hellenistic art trends, although the rustic theme of hunting was tailored for Macedonian tastes.The similar Lion Hunt Mosaic of Pella illustrates either a scene of Alexander the Great with his companionCraterus, or simply a conventional illustration of the generic royal diversion of hunting.Mosaics with mythological themes include scenes of Dionysus riding a panther andHelen of Troybeing abducted byTheseus, the latter of which employs illusionist qualities and realistic shading similar to Macedonian paintings.Common themes of Macedonian paintings and mosaics include warfare, hunting and aggressive masculine sexuality (i.e. abduction of women for rape or marriage). In some instances these themes are combined within the same work, indicating a metaphorical connection that seems to be affirmed bylater Byzantine Greek literature.
Philip II was assassinated by hisbodyguardPausanias of Orestisin 336 BC at thetheatreofAigai, Macedoniaamid games and spectacles held inside that celebrated the marriage of his daughterCleopatra of Macedon.Alexander the Great was allegedly a great admirer of both theatre and music.He was especially fond of theplaysbyClassical AtheniantragediansAeschylus,Sophocles, andEuripides, whose works formed part of a properGreek educationfor his new eastern subjects alongside studies in the Greek language andepicsofHomer.While he and his army were stationed atTyre(in modern-day Lebanon), Alexander had his generals act as judges not only for athletic contests but also stage performances of Greek tragedies.The contemporaneous famousactorsThessalusand Athenodorus performed at the event, despite Athenodorus risking a fine for being absent from the simultaneousDionysiafestival of Athens where he was scheduled to perform (a fine that hispatronAlexander agreed to pay).
Musicwas also appreciated in Macedonia. In addition to theagora, thegymnasium, thetheatre, andreligious sanctuariesandtemplesdedicated to Greek gods and goddesses, one of the main markers of a true Greek city in theempire of Alexander the Greatwas the presence of anodeonformusical performances.This was the case not only forAlexandriainEgypt, but also cities as distant asAi-Khanoumin what is now modern-dayAfghanistan.
Perdiccas II of Macedonwas able to host well-known Classical Greek intellectual visitors at his royal court, such as the lyric poetMelanippidesand the renowned medical doctorHippocrates, whilePindar'senkomionwritten forAlexander I of Macedonmay have been composed at his court.YetArchelaus I of Macedonreceived a far greater number of Greek scholars, artists, and celebrities at his court than his predecessors, leading M. B. Hatzopoulos to describe Macedonia under his reign as an "active centre of Hellenic culture."His honored guests included thepainterZeuxis, thearchitectCallimachus, the poetsChoerilus of Samos,Timotheus of Miletus, andAgathon, as well as the famous AthenianplaywrightEuripides.Although Archelaus was criticized by the philosopherPlato, supposedly hated bySocrates, and the first known Macedonian king to be insulted with the label of abarbarian, the historianThucydidesheld the Macedonian king in glowing admiration for his accomplishments, including his engagement inpanhellenicsports and fostering of literary culture.The philosopherAristotle, who studied at thePlatonic Academyof Athens and established theAristotelian school of thought, moved to Macedonia, and is said to have tutored the young Alexander the Great, in addition to serving as an esteemed diplomat for Alexander's father Philip II.Among Alexander's retinue of artists, writers, and philosophers wasPyrrho of Elis, founder ofPyrrhonism, the school ofphilosophical skepticism.During the Antigonid period,Antigonos Gonatasfostered cordial relationships withMenedemos of Eretria, founder of theEretrian schoolof philosophy, andZenon, the founder ofStoicism.
In terms of earlyGreek historiographyand laterRoman historiography,Felix Jacobyidentified thirteen possible ancienthistorianswho wrote histories about Macedonia in hisFragmente der griechischen Historiker.Aside from accounts in the works ofHerodotusand Thucydides, the works compiled by Jacoby are only fragmentary, whereas other works are completely lost, such as the history of anIllyrianwar fought byPerdiccas III of Macedonwritten by the Macedonian general and statesmanAntipater.The Macedonian historiansMarsyas of PellaandMarsyas of Philippiwrote histories of Macedonia, while thePtolemaickingPtolemy I Soterauthored a history about Alexander andHieronymus of Cardiawrote a history about Alexander's royal successors.Following theIndian campaign of Alexander the Great, the Macedonian military officerNearchuswrote a work of hisvoyagefrom the mouth of theIndus riverto thePersian Gulf.The Macedonianhistorian Crateruspublished a compilation of decrees made by thepopular assemblyof theAthenian democracy, ostensibly while attending the school of Aristotle.Philip V of Macedonhad manuscripts of the history of Philip II written byTheopompusgathered by his court scholars and disseminated with further copies.
When Alexander I of Macedon petitioned to compete in thefoot raceof the ancient Olympic Games, the event organizers at first denied his request, explaining that only Greeks were allowed to compete. However, Alexander I produced proof of anArgeadroyalgenealogyshowing ancientArgiveTemenidlineage, a move that ultimately convinced the OlympicHellanodikaiauthorities of his Greek descent and ability to compete, although this did not necessarily apply to common Macedonians outside of his royal dynasty.By the end of the 5th century BC, the Macedonian king Archelaus I was crowned with theolive wreathat bothOlympiaandDelphi(in thePythian Games) for winningchariot racingcontests.Philip II allegedly heard of the Olympic victory of his horse (in either an individualhorse raceor chariot race) on the same day his son Alexander the Great was born, on either 19 or 20 July 356 BC.In addition to literary contests, Alexander the Great also stagedcompetitions for musicand athletics across his empire.The Macedonians created their own athletic games and, after the late 4th century BC, non-royal Macedonians competed and became victors in theOlympic Gamesand other athletic events such as the ArgiveHeraean Games. However, athletics were a less favored pastime compared to hunting.
Ancient Macedonia produced very few fine foods or beverages that were highly appreciated elsewhere in the Greek world, namelyeelsfrom theStrymonian Gulfand specialwinebrewed inChalcidice.The earliest known use of flat bread as a plate for meat was made in Macedonia during the 3rd century BC, which perhaps influenced the later'trencher' breadofmedieval Europeif not Greekpitaand Italianpizza.Cattleandgoatswere consumed, although there was no notice of Macedonian mountaincheesesin literature until theMiddle Ages.As exemplified by works such as the plays by the comedic playwrightMenander, Macedonian dining habits penetratedAthenianhigh society; for instance, the introduction of meats into thedessertcourse of a meal.The Macedonians also most likely introducedmattyeto Athenian cuisine, a dish usually made of chicken or other spiced, salted, and sauced meats servedduring the wine course.This particular dish was derided and connected with licentiousness and drunkenness in a play by the Athenian comic poetAlexisabout the declining morals of Athenians in the age ofDemetrius I of Macedon.
Thesymposium(plural:symposia) in the Macedonian and wider Greek realm was a banquet for the nobility and privileged class, an occasion for feasting, drinking, entertainment, and sometimesphilosophical discussion.Thehetairoi, leading members of the Macedonianaristocracy, were expected to attend such feasts with their king.They were also expected to accompany him on royal hunts for the acquisition ofgame meatas well as for sport.Symposia had several functions, amongst which was providing relief from the hardship of battle and marching. Symposia were Greek traditions sinceHomerictimes, providing a venue for interaction amongst Macedonian elites. An ethos of egalitarianism surrounded symposia, allowing all male elites to express ideas and concerns, although built-up rivalries and excessive drinking often led to quarrels, fighting and even murder. The degree of extravagance and propensity for violence set Macedonian symposia apart from classical Greek symposia.Like symposia, hunting was another focus of elite activity, and it remained popular throughout Macedonia's history. Young men participating in symposia were only allowed to recline after having killed their firstwild boar.
For administrative and political purposes,Attic Greekseems to have operated as alingua francaamong the ethno-linguistically diverse communities of Macedonia and the north Aegean region, creating adiglossic linguistic area.Attic Greek was standardized as the language of the court, formal discourse and diplomacy from as early as the time of Archelaus at the end of the 5th century BC.Attic was further spread by Macedonia's conquests.Although Macedonian continued to be spoken well intoAntigonidtimes,it became the prevalent oral dialect in Macedonia and throughout the Macedonian-ruled Hellenistic world.However, Macedonian becameextinctin either the Hellenistic or the Roman period, and entirely replaced byKoine Greek.For instance,Cleopatra VII Philopator, the last active ruler of the Ptolemaic dynasty in Egypt, spoke Koine Greek as a first language, and by her reign (51–30 BC), or some time before it, the Macedonian language was no longer used.
Attempts to classify Ancient Macedonian are hindered by the lack of surviving Ancient Macedonian texts; it was a mainly oral language and most archaeological inscriptions indicate that in Macedonia there was no dominant written language besides Attic and later Koine Greek.All surviving epigraphical evidence from grave markers and public inscriptions is in Greek.Classification attempts are based on a vocabulary of 150–200 words and 200 personal names assembled mainly from the 5th century lexicon ofHesychius of Alexandriaand a few surviving fragmentary inscriptions, coins and occasional passages in ancient sources.Most of the vocabulary is regular Greek, with tendencies towardDoric GreekandAeolic Greek. There can be found someIllyrianandThracianelements.
ThePella curse tablet, which was found in 1986 at Pella and dates to the mid-4th century BC or slightly earlier,is believed to be the only substantial attested text in Macedonian. The language of the tablet is a distinctly recognizable form ofNorthwest Greek. The tablet has been used to support the argument thatancient Macedonianwas a Northwest Greek dialect and mainly a Doric Greek dialect.Hatzopoulos's analysis revealed some tendencies toward the Aeolic Greek dialect.Hatzopoulos also states that the native language of the ancient Macedonians also betrays a slightphoneticinfluence from the languages of the original inhabitants of the region who wereassimilatedor expelled by the invading Macedonians.He also asserts that little is known about the languages of these original inhabitants aside fromPhrygianspoken by theBryges, who migrated toAnatolia.However, according to Hatzopoulos, Bruno Helly expanded and improved his own earlier suggestion and presented the hypothesis of a (North-)'Achaean' substratum extending as far north as the head of theThermaic Gulf, which had a continuous relation in prehistoric times, both inThessalyand Macedonia, with the Northwest Greek-speaking populations living on the other side of thePindusmountain range, and contacts became cohabitation when the Argead Macedonians completed their wandering fromOrestisto Lower Macedonia, in the 7th century BC.According to this hypothesis, Hatzopoulos concludes that the Macedonian dialect of the 4th century BC, as attested in the Pella curse tablet, was a sort of Macedonian 'koine' resulting from the encounter of the idiom of the 'Aeolic'-speaking populations aroundMount Olympusand thePierian Mountains, whose phonetics had been influenced by a non-Greek (possibly Phrygian or Pelasgian) adstratum, with the Northwest Greek-speakingArgeadMacedonians hailing fromArgos Orestikon, who founded the kingdom ofLower Macedonia.
In Macedonianonomastics, most personal names are recognizably Greek (e.g. Alexandros, Philippos, Dionysios, Apollonios, Demetrios), with some dating back to Homeric (e.g.Ptolemaeos) or Mycenean times and there are also a few non-Greek names (Illyrian or Thracian; e.g. "Bithys"). This material supports the observation that Macedonian personal names have a predominantly Greek character.Macedonian toponyms and hydronyms are mostly of Greek origin (e.g. Aegae, Dion, Pieria, Haliacmon), as are the names of the months of the Macedonian calendar and the names of most of the deities the Macedonians worshiped. Hammond states that these are not late borrowings.
Macedonian has a close structural and lexical affinity with other Greek dialects, especially Northwest Greek and Thessalian.Most of the words are Greek, although some of these could represent loans or cognate forms.Alternatively, a number of phonological, lexical and onomastic features set Macedonian apart.These latter features, possibly representing traces of asubstrate language, occur in what are considered to be particularly conservative systems of the language.
Several hypotheses have consequently been proposed as to the position of Macedonian, all of which broadly regard it as either a peripheral Greek dialect, a closely related but separate language (seeHellenic languages),or a hybridized idiom incorporating Brygian, Northwest Greek andThessalian Greek.Drawing on the similarities between Macedonian, Greek and Brygian,Fanula Papazogluwrote that she formed anIndo-Europeanmacro-dialectical group,which, according to Georgiev, split before circa 14th–13th century BC before the appearance of the main Greek dialects.The same data has been analyzed in an alternative manner, which regards the formation of the main Greek dialects as a later convergence of related but distinct groups. According to this theory, Macedonian did not fully participate in this process, making its ultimate position—other than being a contiguous, related 'minor' language—difficult to define.Hatzopoulos, who offers a critical review of recent research on Macedonian speech, argues that all available evidence points to the conclusion that Macedonian is a Greek dialect of the North-West group.
Another source of evidence ismetalinguisticsand the question of mutual intelligibility. The available literary evidence has no details about the exact nature of Macedonian; however it suggests that Macedonian and Greek were sufficiently different that there were communication difficulties between Greek and Macedonian contingents, necessitating the use of interpreters as late as the time of Alexander the Great.Based on this evidence, Papazoglou has written that Macedonian could not have been a Greek dialect,however, evidence for non-intelligibility exists for other ancient Greek dialects such asAetolianand Aeolic Greek.Hornblower suggests that Greeks were intelligible to Macedonians without an interpreter,as supported by the Athenian oratorAeschines.Livywrote that whenAemilius Pauluscalled together representatives of the defeated Macedonian communities, his Latin pronouncements were translated for the benefit of the assembled Macedonians into Greek.According to Hatzopoulos, the sole direct attestation of Macedonian speech preserved in an ancient author, is a verse in a non-AtticGreek dialectthat the 4th century BC Athenian poetStrattisin his comedy 'The Macedonians' places a character, presumably Macedonian, to give as an answer to the question of an Athenian: –ἡ σφύραινα δ’ ἐστὶ τίς;(‘the sphyraena, what's that?’) –κέστραν μὲν ὔμμες, ὡτικκοί, κικλήσκετε(‘it's what ye in Attica dub cestra’).Georgios Giannakis writes that recent scholarship has established the position of ancient Macedonian within the dialect map ofNorth-West Greek.
Most ancient sources on the Macedonians come from outside Macedonia.According toEugene N. Borza, most of these sources are either ill-informed, hostile or both, making the Macedonians one of the "silent" peoples of the ancient Mediterranean.Ernst Badiannotes that nearly all surviving references to antagonisms and differences between Greeks and Macedonians exist in the written speeches ofArrian, who lived during a period (i.e. theRoman Empire) in which any notion of an ethnic disparity between Macedonians and other Greeks was incomprehensible.Most of the literary evidence comes from later sources focusing on the campaigns of Alexander the Great rather than on Macedonia itself. Most contemporaneous evidence on Philip is Athenian and hostile.Moreover, most ancient sources focus on the deeds of Macedonian kings in connection with political and military events such as thePeloponnesian War. Evidence about the ethnic identity of Macedonians of lower social status from the Archaic to the Hellenistic period is highly fragmentary and unsatisfactory.For information about Macedonia before Philip, historians must rely on archaeological inscriptions and material remains, a few fragments from historians whose work is now lost, occasional passing mentions inHerodotusandThucydides, and universal histories from the Roman era.
InHomer, the termArgeadwas used as a collective designation for the Greeks ("Ἀργείων Δαναῶν",ArgiveDanaans).The earliest version of the Temenid foundation myth was circulated byAlexander Ivia Herodotus during his apparent appearance at the Olympic Games.Despite protests from some competitors, theHellanodikai("Judges of the Greeks") accepted Alexander's Greek genealogy, as did Herodotus and later Thucydides. Alexander had proved to the judges that he was an Argive Greek (descendant from the mythical king ofArgos,Temenus).Surviving fragments of thePindaric odeseem to confirm his participation, by praising "his pentathlon victory".Nevertheless, the historicity of Alexander I's participation in the Olympics has been doubted by some scholars, who see the story as a piece of propaganda engineered by the Argeads and spread by Herodotus. Alexander's name does not appear in anylist of Olympic victors.That there were protests from other competitors suggests that the supposed Argive genealogy of the Argeads "was far from mainstream knowledge".Although some have formulated that the appellation "Philhellene" was "surely not an appellation that could be given to an actual Greek",ancient Greek authors had confirmed that the term "philhellene" (fond of Greece) was also used as a title for Greek patriots.Whatever the case, according to Hall, "what mattered was that Alexander had played the genealogical gameà la grecqueand played it well, perhaps even excessively".
The emphasis on the Heraclean ancestry of the Argeads served to heroicize the royal family and to provide a sacred genealogy which established a "divine right to rule" over their subjects.The Macedonian royal family, like those of Epirus, emphasized "blood and kinship in order to construct for themselves a heroic genealogy that sometimes also functioned as a Hellenic genealogy".
Pre-Hellenistic Greek writers expressed an ambiguity about the Greekness of Macedonians —specifically their monarchic institutions and their background of Persian alliance—often portraying them as a potential barbarian threat to Greece.For example, the late 5th century sophistThrasymachus of Chalcedonwrote, "we Greeks are enslaved to the barbarian Archelaus" (Fragment 2).This fragment is an adaptation of a verse fromEuripides' tragedyTelephoswhich was destined to become a stock expression. Hatzopoulos states that given the fragment's conventional character, it can hardly be taken literally as ethnological or linguistic evidence.The issue of Macedonian Hellenicity and that of their royal house was particularly pertinent in the 4th century BC regarding the politics of invading Persia.Demosthenesregarded Macedonia's monarchy to be incongruous with an Athenian-led Pan-Hellenic alliance. He castigated Philip II for being "not only no Greek, nor related to the Greeks, but not even a barbarian from any place that can be named with honor, but a pestilent knave from Macedonia, whence it was never yet possible to buy a decent slave".
This was obvious political slander and is regarded as "an insulting speech",but "the orator clearly could not do this, if his audience was likely to regard his claim as nonsense: it could not be said of a Theban, or even aThessalian";however, he also callsMeidias, an Athenian statesman, "barbarian"and in an event mentioned byAthenaeus, theBoeotians, the Thessalians and theEleanswere labeled "barbarians".Demosthenes regarded only those who had reached the cultural standards of southern Greece as Greek and he did not take ethnological criteria into consideration,and his corpus is considered by Eugene N. Borza as an "oratory designed to sway public opinion at Athens and thereby to formulate public policy."Isocratesbelieved that only Macedonia was capable of leading a war against Persia; he felt compelled to say that Phillip was a "bona fide"Helleneby discussing his Argead and Heraclean heritage.Aeschinesalso sought to defend Philip and publicly described him at a meeting of theAthenian popular assemblyas being "entirely Greek".Moreover, Philip, in his letter to the council and people of Athens, mentioned by Demosthenes, places himself "with the rest of the Greeks".
The earliest reference about Greek attitudes towards the Macedonianethnosas a whole comes fromHesiod'sCatalogue of Women. The text maintains that the Macedonians descended fromMakedon, son ofZeusandThyia(daughter ofDeucalion), and was therefore a nephew ofHellen, progenitor of the Greeks.Magnes, brother of the eponymous Makedon, was also said to be a son of Zeus and Thyia.The Magnetes, descendants of Magnes, were anAeoliantribe; according to Hammond this places the Macedonians among the Greeks.Engels also wrote that Hesiod counted the Macedonians as Greeks, while Hall said that "according to strict genealogical logic, [this] excludes the population that bears [Makedon's] name from the ranks of the Hellenes".Two later writers deny Makedon a lineage from Hellen:Apollodorus(3.8.1) makes him a son of Lycaon, son of earth-bornPelasgus, whilstPseudo–Scymnos(6.22) makes him born directly from the earth;Apollodorus (3.8.1), however, is technically identifying Makedon with the Greek royalty of Arcadia, thus placing Macedonia within the orbit of the most archaic of Greek myths.At the end of the 5th century BCHellanicus of Lesbosasserted Macedon was the son ofAeolus, the latter a son of Hellen and ancestor of theAeolians, one of the majortribesof the Greeks.Hellanicus modified Hesiod's genealogy by making Makedon the son of Aeolus, firmly placing the Macedonians in the Aeolic Greek-speaking family.In addition to belonging to tribal groups such as the Aeolians,Dorians,Achaeans, andIonians, Anson also stresses the fact that some Greeks even distinguished their ethnic identities based on thepolis(i.e. city-state) they originally came from.
These early writers and their formulation of genealogical relationships demonstrate that before the 5th century, Greekness was defined on an ethnic basis and was legitimized by tracing descent from eponymous Hellen.Subsequently, cultural considerations assumed greater importance.
Herodotus regarded the Macedonians as either northern Greeks, or an intermediate group between "pure" Greeks and barbarians.In theHistories(5.20.4) Herodotus calls king Alexander I ananēr Hellēn, Makedonōn huparchos(Ancient Greek:ἀνὴρ Ἕλλην, Μακεδόνων ὕπαρχος), which translates to either a "Greek viceroy of Macedonia",or "a Greek who ruled over Macedonians".In 7.130.3, he says that the Thessalians were the "first of the Greeks" to submit to Xerxes.In the first book of theHistories, Herodotus recalls a reliable tradition according to which the Greekethnos, in its wandering, was called "Macedonian" when it settled around Pindus and "Dorian" when it came to the Peloponnese,and in the eighth book he groups several Greek tribes under "Macedonians" and "Dorians", implying that the Macedonians were Greeks.
In parts of his work, Thucydides placed the Macedonians on his cultural continuum closer to barbarians than Hellenes,or an intermediate category between Greeks and non–Greeks.In other parts, he distinguishes between three groups fighting in the Peloponnesian War: The Greeks (including Peloponnesians), the Macedonians and the barbarian Illyrians.RecountingBrasidas' expedition toLyncus, Thucydides considers Macedonians separate from the barbarians; he says, "In all there were about three thousand Hellenic heavy infantry, accompanied by all the Macedonian cavalry with the Chalcidians, near one thousand strong, besides an immense crowd of barbarians",and "night coming on, the Macedonians and the barbarian crowd took fright in a moment in one of those mysterious panics to which great armies are liable".More explicit is his recounting of Brasidas' speech where he tells his Peloponnesian troops to dispel fear of fighting against "barbarians: because they had already fought against Macedonians".Euripides, in his workArchelaus, tells us that the Macedonians were Greeks.
Ancient geographers differed in their views on the size of Macedonia and on the ethnicity of the Macedonians.Most ancient geographers did not include the core territories of the Macedonian kingdom in their definition of Greece, the reasons for which are unknown. For example,Strabosays that while "Macedonia is of course part of Greece, yet now, since I am following the nature and shape of the places geographically, I have chosen to classify it apart from the rest of Greece".Strabo supports the Greek ethnicity of the Macedonian people and wrote of the "Macedonians and the other Greeks",as does Pausanias, the latter of which did not include Macedonia in Hellas as indicated in Book 10 of hisDescription of Greece.Pausanias said that the Macedonians took part in theAmphictyonic Leagueand that Caranus of Macedon—the mythical founder of the Argead dynasty—set up a trophy after the Argive fashion for a victory against Cisseus.
Isocrates defended Philip's Greek origins but perhaps did not think the same of his people. In Hall's version, he wrote, "He (Perdiccas I) left the Greek world alone completely, but he desired to hold the kingship in Macedonia; for he understood that Greeks are not accustomed to submit themselves to monarchy whereas others are incapable of living their lives without domination of this sort ... for he alone of the Greeks deemed it fit to rule over an ethnically unrelated population".On the other hand,Michael Cosmopoulosreports that Isocrates clearly states that the Macedonians were Greeks,as inGeorge Norlin's translation, Isocrates describes Perdiccas' people as being rather of "kindred race" with the Greeks.Nevertheless, Philip named the federation of Greek states he created with Macedon at its head—nowadays referred to as theLeague of Corinth—as simply "The Hellenes" (i.e. Greeks). The Macedonians were granted two seats in the exclusively GreekGreat Amphictyonic Leaguein 346 BC when thePhocianswere expelled. Badian sees it as a personal honour awarded to Phillip and not to the Macedonian people as a whole.Aeschines said that Phillip's fatherAmyntas IIIjoined other Greeks in the Panhellenic congress of the Lacedaemonian allies, known as the "Congress of Sparta", in a vote to help Athens recover possession of Amphipolis.Amyntas' son and Phillip's older brother,Perdiccas III, served astheorodokos(Ancient Greek:θεωρόδοκος or θεαροδόκος) in thePanhellenic Gamesthat took place inEpidaurusaround 360/359 BC.
With Philip's conquest of Greece, Greeks and Macedonians enjoyed privileges at the royal court, and there was no social distinction among his courthetairoi, although Philip's armies were only ever led by Macedonians. The process of Greek and Macedonian syncretism culminated during the reign of Alexander the Great, and he allowed other Greeks to command his armies.In his speech at thebattle of Issus, mentioned in Arrian'sAnabasis, Alexander is seen to place himself among the Greeks, further acknowledging that, while the Greek allies ofDarius IIIfight for pay, his own army fights for the Greek cause.The persisting antagonism between Macedonians and other Greeks however, continued into Antigonid times.Some Greek citizens continued to rebel against their Macedonian overlords throughout the Hellenistic era.They rejoiced on the death of Phillip IIand they revolted against Alexander's Antigonid successors. The Greeks called this conflict theHellenic War.However, Pan-Hellenic sloganeering was used by Greeks against Antigonid dominance and also by Macedonians to corral popular support throughout Greece. Those who considered Macedonia as a political enemy, such asHypereidesandChremonides, likened theLamian WarandChremonidean War, respectively, to the earlierGreco-Persian Warsand efforts to liberate Greeks from tyranny.Yet even those who considered Macedonia an ally, such as Isocrates, were keen to stress the differences between their kingdom and the Greek city states, to assuage fears about the extension of the Macedonian-style monarchism into the governance of their poleis.
After the 3rd century BC, and especially in Roman times, the Macedonians were consistently regarded as Greeks.To begin with,Polybiusconsiders the Macedonians as Greeks and sets them apart from their neighboring non-Greek tribes.For example, in hisHistories, theAcarnaniancharacter Lyciscus tells the Spartans that they are "of the same tribe" as the Achaeans and the Macedonians,who should be honoured because "throughout nearly their whole lives are ceaselessly engaged in a struggle with the barbarians for the safety of the Greeks".Polybius also used the phrase "Macedonia and the rest of Greece",and says thatPhilip V of Macedonassociates himself with "the rest of the Greeks".In his textHistory of Rome, Livy states that the Macedonians, Aetolians and Acarnanians were "all men of the same language".Similar opinions are shared by Arrian,Dionysius of Halicarnassus,StraboandPlutarch, who wrote of Aristotle advising Alexander "to have regard for the Greeks as for friends and kindred";more specifically, to be "a leader to the Greeks and a despot to the barbarians, to look after the former as after friends and relatives, and to deal with the latter as with beasts or plants".M. B. Hatzopoulos points out that passages in Arrian's text also reveal that the terms "Greeks" and "Macedonians" were at times synonymous. For instance, when Alexander the Great held a feast accompanied by Macedonians and Persians, with religious rituals performed by Persianmagiand "Greek seers", the latter of whom were Macedonians.Any preconceived ethnic differences between Greeks and Macedonians faded soon after theRoman conquest of Macedoniaby 148 BC and thenthe rest of Greecewith the defeat of theAchaean Leagueby theRoman Republicat theBattle of Corinth (146 BC).
The Persians referred to both Greeks and Macedonians asYauna("Ionians", their term for "Greeks"), though they distinguished the "Yauna by the sea and across the sea" from theYaunã Takabaraor "Greeks with hats that look like shields", ostensibly referring to the Macedoniankausiahat.According to another interpretation, the Persians used such terms in a geographical rather than an ethnic sense.Yaunaand its various attributes possibly referred to regions to the north and west of Asia Minor.Overall, Persian inscriptions indicate that the Persians considered the Macedonians to be Greeks.In Hellenistic times, most Egyptians and Syrians included the Macedonians among the larger category of Greeks, as the Persians had done earlier.
Modern scholarly discourse has produced several hypotheses about the Macedonians' place within the Greek world. Considering material remains of Greek-style monuments, buildings, inscriptions dating from the 5th century and the predominance of Greek personal names, one school of thought says that the Macedonians were "truly Greeks" who had retained a more archaic lifestyle than those living in southern Greece. This cultural discrepancy was used during the political struggles in Athens and Macedonia in the 4th century.This has been the predominant viewpoint since the 20th century. Worthington wrote, "... not much need to be said about the Greekness of ancient Macedonia: it is undeniable".Hatzopoulos argues that there was no real ethnic difference between Macedonians and Greeks, only a political distinction contrived after the creation of theLeague of Corinthin 337 BC (which was led by Macedonia through the league's electedhegemonPhilip II, despite him not being a member of the league itself).Hatzopoulos stresses the fact that Macedonians and other peoples such as theEpirotesandCypriots, despite speaking a Greek dialect, worshiping in Greek cults, engaging in panhellenic games, and upholding traditional Greek institutions, nevertheless occasionally had their territories excluded from contemporary geographic definitions of "Hellas" and were even considered non-Greek barbarians by some.Other academics who concur that the difference between the Macedonians and Greeks was a political rather than a true ethnic discrepancy include Michael B. Sakellariou,Robert Malcolm Errington,and Craige B. Champion.
Another perspective interprets the literary evidence and the archaeological-cultural differences between Macedonia and central-southern Greece before the 6th century and beyond as evidence that the Macedonians were originally non-Greek tribes who underwent a process of Hellenization.Accepting that political factors played a part, they highlight the degree of antipathy between Macedonians and Greeks, which was of a different quality to that seen among other Greek states—even those with a long-term history of mutual animosity (e.g. Sparta and Athens).According to these scholars, the Macedonians came to be regarded as "northern Greeks" only with the ongoing Hellenization of Macedonia and the emergence of Rome as a common enemy in the west.  This coincides with the period during which ancient authors such as Polybius and Strabo called the ancient Macedonians "Greeks".By this point, to have been a Greek could have defined a quality of culture and intelligence rather than a racial or ethnic affinity.In the context of ethnic origins of the companions of theAntigonid kings, James L. O'Neil distinguishes Macedonians and Greeks as separate ethnic groups, the latter becoming more prominent in Macedonian affairs and the royal court after Alexander the Great's reign.
Others have adopted both views. According to Sansone, "there is no question that, in the fifth and fourth centuries, there were noticeable difference between the Greeks and the Macedonians," yet the issue of Macedonian Hellenicity was ultimately a "political one".Hall adds, "to ask whether the Macedonians 'really were' Greek or not in antiquity is ultimately a redundant question given the shifting semantics of Greekness between the 6th and 4th centuries BC. What cannot be denied, however, is that the cultural commodification of Hellenic identity that emerged in the 4th century might have remained a provincial artifact, confined to the Balkan peninsula, had it not been for the Macedonians."Eugene Borza emphasized the Macedonians "made their mark in antiquity asMacedonians, not as a tribe of some other people"but argued that "the 'highlanders' or 'Makedones' of the mountainous regions of western Macedonia are derived from northwest Greek stock."Worthington concludes that "there is still more than enough evidence and reasoned theory to suggest that the Macedonians were racially Greek."Anson argues that some Hellenic authors expressed complex if not ever-changing and ambiguous ideas about the exact ethnic identity of the Macedonians, who were considered by some as barbarians, and by others as semi-Greek or fully Greek.Panagiotis Filos notes that the term "barbarian" was often used by ancient Greek authors in a very broad sense, referring not only to non-Greek populations, but also to Greek populations on the fringe of the Greek world with dialectal differences, such as the Macedonians.The term was also known for being used in a pejorative and politically motivated manner, especially by the Athenians, to deride other Greek tribes and states such as Epirotes, Eleans, Boeotians and Aeolic-speakers.Roger D. Woodard asserts that in addition to persisting uncertainty in modern times about the proper classification of the Macedonian language and its relation to Greek, ancient authors also presented conflicting ideas, such as Demosthenes when labeling Philip II of Macedon inaccurately as a "barbarian",whereas Polybius called the Achaeans and Macedonians ashomophylos(i.e. part of the same race orkin).Carol J. King elaborates that finding the reason why "ancient Greeks themselves differentiated between Greeks and Macedonians" is limited by the fact that "if one seeks historical truth about an ancient people who have left no definitive record, one may have to let go of the hope for a definitive answer" especially considering that ancient Macedonia was composed of Greeks, people akin to Greeks and non-Greeks.Simon Hornblowersupports the Greek identity of the Macedonians, taking into consideration their origin, language, cults and customs.