what britannica says about the early populations of the area macedonia history encyclopaedia britannica macedonia owes its name to the ancient kingdom of macedonia or macedon centred in the southern part of the region i e present day northern greece this kingdom seems to have been largely greek speaking with thracian and illyrian admixtures by the th century bc it had extended its rule northward into the balkan peninsula and throughout the mediterranean in the nd century bc macedonia was made into a roman province when the roman empire was divided in the th century ad into eastern and western halves macedonia became part of the eastern half which became the byzantine empire by this time the population of macedonia had been largely christianized macedonia s greek ethnic composition was overturned by the invasion of slavic peoples into the balkans in the th and th centuries ad paionia historical region encyclopaedia britannica paeonia the land of the paeonians originally including the whole axius vardar river valley and the surrounding areas in what is now northern greece republic of macedonia and western bulgaria the paeonians who were probably of mixed thraco illyrian origin were weakened by the persian invasion bc and those tribes living along the strymon river in western bulgaria fell under thracian control the growth of macedonia forced the remaining paeonians northward and in bc they were defeated by philip ii of macedonia the native dynasty however continued to be highly respected about bc king audoleon received athenian citizenship and his daughter married pyrrhus king of epirus under the romans paeonia was included in the second and third districts of the province of macedonia by ad however the paeonians had lost their identity and paeonia was merely a geographic term it is incorrect to citing britannica in this article biased i e only the article about the history of the are which is today northern greece ignoring the article which points to the history of today r of macedonia paionia