Alexander’s homeland:

Ancient Macedonia

Macedonia - names

• Ancient Macedonia:

- Land in the Balkans, to the north of Greece, to the sourth of Illiria and Thrace

• Modern Macedonia:

- 1. Part of Greece

- 2. Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM, Skopje), Slavic, unrecognized internationally as Macedonia

Ancient Macedonia and FYROM

• Territories partially overlap, capital cities not (Aigai and Pella vs. Skopje)

• Ancient Macedonian Lyncestis and Pelagonia in south-west of FYROM

• Most of FYROM in antiquity: Paeonians (Thracians), Dardanians and Illyrians

FYROM

Two Macedonias today

• Conflicting claims to name and heritage:

- Greece and FYROM claim right to name and heritage of Macedonia

• History in service of modern politics:

- Alexander the Great airport in Skopje

- Statues of Philip II and Alexander the Great in both countries

Alexander the Great statues: Thassoloniki and Skopje

Ancient Macedonia

• Lower Macedonia:- Alluvial plain on rivers Haliakmon, Axios, Ludias

and Gallikos, and the Pieria plain at the foot of Mount Olympus

- Kingdom of the Argead clan• Upper Macedonia:- From Emathia plain to Pindus- 90% above 500 m, half above 1500 m- several kingdoms/ principalities: Orestis,

Tymphaea, Elimeia, Lyncestis, Eordaia

Ancient Macedonia - geography

• Thermaic Gulf 30 km inland• Pella accessible to sea ships via Ludias

river• Marshland in central portion of Lower

Macedonia: moscitoes, malaria, unsuited for agriculture

• 1/3 covered in forrest• Climate: more harsh than in Greece, no

olive trees

Ancient Macedonia: people

• Not uniform ethnically:- some Illyrian and Greek elements in Upper

Macedonia- Greek colonies in Lower Macedonia- eventually large Thracian population• Social structure:- Rich horse-riding aristocracy: 800 hetairoi as

rich as 10,000 wealthiest Greeks (under Philip) - Peasants, poorer than in Greece

Wealth of Macedonia 1

Wealth of Macedonia 2

Macedonian question 1

• Were ancient Macedonians Greeks?

• Sources:

- No Macedonian literature

- Almost no Macedonian inscriptions, none in monumental pre-Hellenistic tombs

- Ancient Macedonians one of ‘mute nations’ of antiquity

Macedonian question 2

• Classical source evidence (times of Alexander and Successors):

• Plutarch, Alexander: "But, he [Alexander] ...jumped up on his feet and started to call his shield bearer in Macedonian [and that was a sign of great danger]...”

• Plutarch, Eumens: „When Eumenes saw the close-locked formation of the Macedonian phalanx … he sent Xennias …, a man whose speech was Macedonian …”

Macedonian question 3

Q.Curtius Rufus: "The Macedonians are about to pass judgment upon you; I wish to know whether you will address them in their native tongue." Thereupon Philotas replied: "Besides the Macedonians there are many present who … will more easily understand what I shall say if I use the same language which you have employed … [i.e. Greek]." Then said the king: "Do you not see how Philotas loathes even the language of his fatherland? For he alone disdains to learn it. But let him by all means speak in whatever way he desires, provided that you remember he holds our customs in as much abhorrence as our language."

Macedonian language 1

• Language:

- Sources: Alexander and other Macedonians spoke ‘Macedonian’

- ‘Macedonian’ different than standard Greek

- Separate language (many western scholars) or dialect of Greek (most Greek, some western scholars)?

Macedonian language 2

• Sources evidence:- Literary sources: 150 words, half Greek- Inscriptions: 6300, over 99% in Greek, mostly

Attic and koine, 1 in ‘Macedonian’• Linguistically:- Some features non-Greek- Greek inscriptions: inconclusive, Greek a culture

language of the Mediterranean (among Thracians, Illyrians, Celts, Jews …)

Macedonian question 4

• Language not the only factor determining ethnicity – perception counts

• Perception by Greeks:- Right to participate in Olympic Games

denied to Macedonians- Alexander’s I (Argead) claim to Greakness

accepted according to Herodotus- Spurious: Alexander I absent from

Olympic victors’ list

Macedonian question 5

• According to Greeks down to 200 BC:- Not Greeks – often barbarians- In Alexander’s army Greeks and

Macedonians• According to Macedonians:- Never presented themselves as Greeks• Macedonians: separate ethnos,

progressively Hellenizing, accepted as Greeks ca. 200 BC (versus Rome)

History of Macedonia 1

• Occupied continuously since Iron Age (ca. 1150 BC)

• Argea/ Temenid dynasty in Lower Macedonia since ca. 650 BC

• Argead Macedonia: coastal plane, capital Aegae (Vergina)

• Dominated by Persia 512-479 BC• Alexander I (c. 498-454):- Between Persia and Athens- Creator of Macedonian state

History of Macedonia 2

• Fifth c. BC: weak and marginal, allied with Athens in Peloponnesian war

• Archelaus (413-399):

- Reforming state and army (hoplites?)

- Hellenization: theatre in Dion, Euripides, Agathon, Zeuxis

- Assasinated by male lovers

History of Macedonia 3

• Dominated by Sparta in early fourth c. BC

• Dominated by Thebes of Pelopidas and Epaminondas: hostages handed over by Amyntas III in 367/6

• Perdiccas III:

- Son of Amyntas, successful rule

- Killed by Illyrians of Bardylis 360/359 BC

Macedonia in beginning of Philip’s II rule

• Upper Macedonia largely independent

• Lower Macedonia rural, only one sizable city (Pella), a few small towns (Edessa, Dion, Aegae)

• Sea coast controlled by Greek colonies (Pydna, Methone)

• Powerful neighbours: Greek Chalcidian League, Illyrians

Philip II

http://www.philipofmacedon.org/

Military reforms of Philip II

• Creating strong infantry:

- Phalanx: amour, spears, hoplite armament (at king’s expense), training, tactics

- Pezhetairoi/ hypaspists

• Reforming cavalry

- Heavy armed Companion cavalry (hetairoi), scouts – all armed with sarissai

• Siege warfare

Macedonian phalanx

Macedonian phalanx

Macedonian phalanx