macedon

Other Definitions
macedon (dict)

  For the modern history of this area see Macedonia.

Macedon (or Macedonia from Gk. 'ΜΑΚΕΔΟΝΙΑ') was an ancient state in the central-northern part of ancient Greece bordering with the Greek state of Epirus on the west and the ancient region of Thrace on the East. Alexander the Great launched his conquest of Persia and his subsequent conquests of the majority of the then civilized western world from Macedon. The "Greek" or "Hellenic" character of the ancient Macedonians is disputed, a scholarly controversy that sometimes takes on polemic and nationalist overtones, and essentially hinges on the exact definition of these terms.

Early kingdom

Out of the mythical kingdom of Midas a historical Macedonian state under the Argead Dynasty emerged around the late 8th or early 7th century BC. After a brief period of Persian overlordship under Darius Hystaspes, the state regained its independence under King Alexander I (495-450 BC). Prior to the 4th century BC, the kingdom covered the region that is to this day the province of Macedonia in Greece.

Hellenization

Under King Philip II of Macedon (359–336 BC), Macedon expanded to incorporate an area including what is currently the Monastir (now Bitola) and Gevgelija districts of what is now the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. In Philip's time strong contrasts remained between the cattle-rich Hellenic coastal plain of Macedon and the fierce isolated tribal mountain clans, allied to the king by marriage ties. They controlled the passes through which barbarian invasions came from Illyria to the north and northwest. In this time, Macedon was heavily influenced by contact with the states of Ancient Greece, but it also retained more archaic features like the palace-culture, first at Aegae (modern Vergina) then at Pella, resembling Mycenaean culture more than classic Hellenic city-states, and other archaic customs, like Philip's multiple wives in addition to his Epirote queen Olympias, mother of Alexander. Philip's son Alexander III (the Great) (336–323 BC) managed to briefly extend Macedon power not only over all Greek city-states, but also to the Persian empire, including Egypt and lands as far east as the fringes of India. Alexander's adoption of the styles of government of the conquered territories was counterbalanced by the spread of Greek culture and learning through his vast empire: although the empire fell apart shortly after his death, his conquests left a lasting legacy, not least in the new cities founded across Persia's western territories, heralding in the Hellenistic period.

Decline

In 215 BC Macedon became involved in the first of three wars with the rising power of Rome: defeat in the second (197 BC) and third (168 BC) led to the deposition of the Macedonian dynasty and the establishment of Roman client republics. Macedonian independence came to an end with the country's annexation as a province of Rome (146 BC). Under Roman rule as the province of Macedonia, its culture became largely Latinized. When the Emperor Constantine made Byzantium the imperial residence in 330 AD, the inhabitants called themselves Romans and spoke Latin. During the great migrations the country was temporarily devastated by Goths and Avars, but the waves of Slavonic immigration (6th - 7th centuries AD) resulted in permanent Slav settlement. In the 9th and 10th centuries the Byzantines contested for Macedonia with the Bulgars, whose chief Krum (802–814) controlled central Macedonia, and were pushed back to the coastal region under the brief empire of Simeon I of Bulgaria (893–927). Byzantine rule revived in western Macedonia under Emperor Basil II; from 1014 Greek domination was established for a century and a half. After the taking of Constantinople in the Fourth Crusade (1204), Latins and Bulgars fought over Macedonia, until it was absorbed in the empire of Nicaea in 1234.

Language

See main article: Ancient Macedonian language. The language spoken by the area's inhabitants prior to the 5th century BC, and continued into the early centuries of the Common Era by the rural population, is attested in some hundred glosses only, mainly by Hesychius of Alexandria (5th century). The language is most closely related to Greek, perhaps even a dialect of Greek. There was certainly a strong cultural contact with speakers of Doric Greek (see Dorian invasion), and from the 5th century BC Macedonia was closely associated with Greek cultural and political development, resulting in linguistic assimilation. Due to the the fragmentary attestation widely diverging interpretations are possible. The suggested historical interpretations of Macedonian include:

an Illyrian dialect mixed with Greek,
a Greek dialect mixed with Illyrian
a Greek dialect mixed with Illyrian and Thracian
a Greek dialect with a non-Indo-European substratal influence
an independent Indo-European language close to Greek, Thracian and Phrygian.

Hellenic controversy

Herodotus considers the Macedonians a Hellenic tribe left behind during the Dorian invasion: "for during the reign of Deucalion, Phthiotis 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 Macedni, in the chain of Pindus. Hence they once more removed and came to Dryopis; and from Dryopis having entered the Peloponnese in this way, they became known as Dorians." (Histories ?) On the other hand, Herodotus records how the Macedonians were customarily excluded from panhellenic events such as the Olympic Games, entry to which was confined to Greeks. The Macedonian aristocracy, however, clearly saw itself as Greek and Macedonian kings were permitted to participate on that basis. This was evidently somewhat controversial: when Alexander I attempted to compete at Olympia, Herodotus relates how "the Greeks who were to run against him wanted to bar him from the race, saying that the contest should be for Greeks and not for foreigners. Alexander, however, proving himself to be an Argive, was judged to be a Greek." (Histories, 5:22) The controversy whether or not ancient Macedonia should be considered a Hellenic state is at its core a question of linguistics. The classification of the ancient Macedonian language is disputed, but it appears that Macedonian has not participated in at least one sound change common to every other known Greek dialect (the unvoicing of voiced aspirates, leading to *pherenikē as opposed to Macedonian bernikē). Eugene Borza (1999) concludes that the Macedonians were "a unique people in antiquity who gradually became Hellenized, and who are unrelated to any modern people". On the other hand, Olivier Masson in the Oxford Classical Dictionary (1996) sees the phonological peculiarities mentioned above as "local pronunciations" due to Macedon's "marginal position" and tentatively concludes that Macedonian is "a dialect related to North-West Greek"http://www.macedonian-heritage.gr/FAQ.html.