• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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 …”

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."

• 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)?

• 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 …)

• 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

• 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)

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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