Testimonies of Non-Greek ancient people about ancient Macedonians

[Ptolemy]

ROMANS

Quintus Curtius Rufus

Alexander also summoned the delegates of the League of Corinth in order to have himself declared its Hegemon and, when he had obtained their support for his expedition against Persia, he returned to Macedonia (Diod. 17.4.9) The government of Persia had undergone a number of changes since Philip II first organized the Greek crusade against the East.

The History of Alexander - Penguin Classics, Translation by John Yardley, page 20

“They recalled that at the start of his reign Darius had issued orders for the shape of the scabbard of the Persian scimitar to be altered to the shape used by the Greeks, and that the Chaldeans had immediately interpreted this as meaning that rule over the Persians would pass to those people whose arms Darius had copied. “

(Quintus Curtius Rufus 3.3.6)

“For his part Alexander responded much like this: ‘His majesty Alexander to Darius: Greetings. The Darius whose name you have assumed wrought much destruction upon the Greek inhabitants of the Hellespontine coast and upon the Greek colonies of Ionia, and the crossed the sea with a mighty army, bringing the war to Macedonia and Greece. On another occasion Xerxes, a member of the same family, came with his savage barbarian troops, and even when beaten in a naval engagement he still left Mardonius in Greece so that he could destroy our cities and burn our fields though absent himself.�

(Quintus Curtius Rufus 4.1.10)

“Mutiny was but a step away when, unperturbed by all this, Alexander summoned a full meeting of his generals and officers in his tent and ordered the Egyptian seers to give their opinion. They were well aware that the annual cycle follows a pattern of changes, that the moon is eclipsed when it passes behind the earth or is blocked by the sun, but they did not give this explanation, which they themselves knew, to the common soldiers. Instead, they declared that the sun represented the Greeks and the moon the Persians, and that an eclipse of the moon predicted disaster and slaughter for those nations.�

(Quintus Curtius Rufus 4.10.1)

“Alexander called a meeting of his generals the next day. He told them that no city was more hateful to the Greeks than Persepolis, the capital of the old kings of Persia, the city from which troops without number had poured forth, from which first Darius and then Xerxes had waged an unholy war on Europe. To appease the spirits of their forefathers they should wipe it out, he said.�

(Quintus Curtius Rufus 5.6.1)

“One of the latter was Thais. She too had had too much to drink, when she claimed that, if Alexander gave the order to burn the Persian palace, he would earn the deepest gratitude among all the Greeks. This was what the people whose cities the Persians ahd destroyed were expecting she said. As the drunken whore gave her opinion on a matter of extreme importance, one or two who were themselves the worse for drink agreed with her. the king, too, was enthusiastic rather than acquiescent. “Why do we not avenge Greece, then and put the city to the torch?� he asked.�

(Quintus Curtius Rufus 5. 7. 3)

“From here he now moved into Media, where he was met by fresh reinforcement from Cilicia: 5,000 infantry and 1,000 cavalry, both under the command of the Athenian Plato. His foraces thus augmented. Alexander determined to pursue Darius�

(Quintus Curtius Rufus 5. 7. 8)

“As for Alexander, it is generally agreed that, when sleep had brought him back to his senses after his drunken bout, he regretted his actions and said that the Persians would have suffered a more grievous punishment at the hands of the Greeks had they been forced to see him on Xerxes’ throne and in his palace.�

(Quintus Curtius Rufus 5.7.11)

“In pursuit of Bessus the Macedonians had arrived at a small town inhabited by the Branchidae who, on the orders of Xerxes, when he was returning from Greece, had emigrated from Miletus and settled in this spot. This was necessary because, to please Xerxes, they had violated the temple called the Didymeon. The culture of their forebears had not yet disappeared thought they were now bilingual and the foreign tongue was gradually eroding their own. So it was with great joy that they welcomed Alexander, to whom they surrendered themselves and their city. Alexander called a meeting of the Milesians in his force, for the Milesians bore a long-standing grudge against the Branchidae as a clan. Since they were the people betrayed by the Branchidae, Alexander let them decide freely on their case, asking if they preferred to remember their injury or their common origins. But when there was a difference of opinion over this, he declared that he would himself consider the best course of action.
When the Branchidae met him the next day, he told them to accompany him. On reaching the city, he himself entered through the gate with a unit of light-armed troops. The phalanx had been ordered to surround the city walls and, when the signal was given, to sack this city which provided refuge for traitors, killing the inhabitants to a man. The Branchidae, who were unarmed, were butchered throughout the city, and neither community of language nor the olive-branches and entreaties of the suppliants could curb the savagery. Finally the Macedonians dug down to the foundations of the city walls in order to demolish them and leave not a single trace of the city.�

“The gist of the passage was that the Greeks had established a bad practice in inscribing their trophies with only their kings’ names, for the kings’ were thus appropriating to themselves glory that was won by the blood of others.�

(Quintus Curtius Rufus 8.1.29)

“and he [alexander] demonstrated the strength of his contempt for the barbarians by celebrating games in honour of Aesclepius and Athena.�

(Curtius Rufus 3, 7, 3)

“he consecrated three altars on the banks of the river Pinarus to Zeus, Hercules, and Athena,…�

(Curtius Rufus 3, 12, 27)

“About this time there took place the traditional Isthmian games, which the whole of Greece gathers to celebrate. At this assembly the Greeks - political trimmers by temperament - determined that fifteen ambassadors be sent to the king to offer him a victory-gift of a golden crown in honour of his achievements on behalf of the security and freedom of greece.�

(Curtius Rufus 4, 5, 11)

“they also occupied Tenedos and had decided to seize Chios at the invitation of its inhabitants.�

(Curtius Rufus 4, 5, 14)

“Then Alexander’s horses dragged him around the city while the king gloated at having followed the example of his ancestor Achilles in punishing his enemy.�

Curtius Rufus 4,6.29)

� Moreover, as a reward for their exceptional loyalty to him, Alexander reimbursed the people of Mitylene for their war expenses and also added a large area to their territories.�

(Curtius Rufus 4.8.13)

� Furthemore, appropriate honours were accorded the kings of Cyprus who had defected to him from Darius and sent him a fleet during his assault on Tyre.�

(Curtius Rufus 4.8.14)

“Amphoterus, the admiral of the fleet, was then sent to liberate Crete, most of which was occupied by both Persian and Spartan armies�

(Curtius Rufus 4.8.15)

“He did not want her tainting the character and civilized temperament of the Greeks with this example of barbarian lawlessness“
“Alexander advanced from there to the river Tanais, where Bessus was brought to him, not only in irons but entirely stripped of his clothes. Spitamenes held him with a chain around his neck, a sight that afforded as much pleasure to the barbarians as to the Macedonians.�

(Curtius Rufus 7.5.36)

� Meanwhile a group of Macedonians had gone off to forage out of formation and were suprised by some Barbarians who came rushing down on them from the neighbouring mountains.�

(Curtius Rufus 7.6.1)

“Menedemus himself, riding an extremely powerful horse, had repeatedly charged at full gallop into the barbarians’ wedge-shaped contingents, scattering them with great carnage.�

(Curtius Rufus 7.6.35)

Besides the Macedonians there are many present who, I think, will
more easily understand what I shall say if I use the same language which you have employed, for no other reason, I suppose, than in order that you speech might be understood by the greater number

(Curtius 6.9.35)

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2. Titus Livius

“Aetolians, Acarnanians, Macedonians, men of the SAME language

“

(T. Livius XXXI,29, 15)

“General Paulus of Rome surrounded by the ten Commissioners took his official seat surrounded by the whole crowds of Macedonians…Paulus announced in Latin the decisions of the Senate, as well as his own, made by the advice of his council. This announcement was translated into Greek and repeated by Gnaeus Octavius the Praetor-for he too was present.�

(T. Livius,XLV)

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3. Cicero

"For if all the wars which we have carried on against the Greeks are to be despised, then let the triumph of Marcus Curius over king Pyrrhus be derided; and that of Titus Flamininus over Philip; and that of Marcus Fulvius over the Aetolians; and that of Lucius Paullus over king Perses; and that of Quintus Metellus over the false Philip; and that of Lucius Mummius over the Corinthians. But, if all these wars were of the greatest importance, and if our victories in them were most acceptable, then why are the Asiatic nations and that Asiatic enemy despised by you? But, from our records of ancient deeds; I see that the Roman people carried on a most important war with Antiochus; the conqueror in which war, Lucius Scipio, who had already gained great glory when acting in conjunction with his brother Publius, assumed the same honour himself by taking a surname from Asia, as his brother did, who, having subdued Africa, paraded his conquest by the assumption of the name of Africanus. [32] And in that war the renown of your ancestor Marcus Cato was very conspicuous; but he, if he was, as I make no doubt that he was, a man of the same character as I see that you are, would never have gone to that war, if he had thought that it was only going to be a war against women. Nor would the senate have prevailed on Publius Africanus to go as lieutenant to his brother, when he himself; a little while before, having forced Hannibal out of Italy, having driven him out of Africa, and having crushed the power of Carthage, had delivered the republic from the greatest dangers, if that war had not been considered an important and formidable war."

[Orations of Cicero]

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4. Julius Caesar

"Caesar judged that he must drop everything else and pursue Pompey where he had betaken himself after his flight, so that he should not be able to gather more forces and renew, and he advanced daily as far as he could go with the cavalry and ordered a legion to follow shorter stages. An edict had been published in Pompey's name that all the younger men in the province [Macedonia], both Greeks and Roman citizens, should assemble to take an oath."

Caesar, Civil War 111.102.3

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5. Velleius Paterculus

In this period, sixty-five years before the founding of Rome, Carthage was established by the Tyrian Elissa, by some authors called Dido. 5 About this time also Caranus, a man of royal race, eleventh in descent from Hercules, set out from Argos and seized the kingship of Macedonia. From him Alexander the Great was descended in the seventeenth generation, and could boast that, on his mother’s side, he was descended from Achilles, and, on his father’s side, from Hercules.�

[Velleius Paterculus: “The Roman History� Book I, 5]

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6. Marcus Junianus Justinus

Caranus also came to Emathia with a large band of Greeks, being instructed by an oracle to seek a home in Macedonia. Hero, following a herd of goats running from a downpour, he seized the city of Edessa, the inhabitants being taken unawares because of heavy rain and dense fog. Remembering the oracle’s command to follow the lead of goats in his quest for ar empire, Caranus established the city as his capital, and thereafter he made it a solemn observance, wheresoever he took his army, to keep those same goats before his standards in order in have as leaders in his exploits the animals which he had had with him to found the kingdom. He gave the city of Edessa the name Aegaeae and its people the name Aegeads in memory of this service

M.Justinus’ epitome of Pompeius Trogus’ Universal History 7.1

Next he directed the army towards Thebes intending to show the same mercy if he met with similar contrition. But the Thebans resorted to arms rather than entreaties or appeals, and so after their defeat they were subjected to all the terrible punishments associated with a humiliating capitulation. When the destruction of the city was being discussed in council, the Phocians, the Plataeans, the Thespians and the Orchomenians, Alexander’s allies who now shared his victory, recalled the devastation of their own cities and the ruthlessness of the Thebans, reproaching them also with their past as well as their present support of Persia against the independence of Greece. This, they said, had made Thebes an abomination to all the Greek peoples, which was obvious from the fact that the Greeks had one and all taken a solemn oath to destroy the city once the Persians were defeated, Thev also added the tales of earlier Theban wickedness - the material with which they had filled all their plays - in order to foment hatred against them not only for their treachery in the present but also for their infamies in the past.

M.Justinus’ epitome of Pompeius Trogus’ Universal History 11.3.6

7. Ammianus Marcellinus

Nicator Seleucus, after he had occupied that district, increased its prosperity to a wonderful degree, when, after the death of Alexander, king of Macedonia, he took possession of the kingdom of Persia by right of succession; being a mighty and victorious king, as his surname indicates. And making free use of his numerous subjects, whom he governed for a long time in tranquillity, he changed groups of rustic habitations into regular cities, important for their great wealth and power, the greater part of which at the present day, although they are called, by Greek names which were given them by the choice of their founder, have nevertheless not lost their original appellations which the original settlers of the villages gave them in the Assyrian language.

Ammianus Marcellinus, Roman History. London: Bohn (1862) Book 14 VIII

[Ptolemy]

CARTHAGINIANS

TREATY BETWEEN HANNIBAL AND PHILIP V OF MACEDON

In the presence of Zeus, Hera, and Apollo: in the presence of the Genius of Carthage, of Heracles, and Iolaus: in the presence of Ares, Triton, and Poseidon: in the presence of the gods who battle for us and the Sun, Moon, and Earth; in the presence of Rivers, Lakes, and Waters: 3 in the presence of all the gods who possess Macedonia and the REST of Greece: in the presence of all the gods of the army who preside over this oath. 4 Thus saith Hannibal the general, and all the Carthaginian senators with him, and all Carthaginians serving with him, that as seemeth good to you and to us, so should we bind ourselves by oath to be even as friends, kinsmen, and brothers, on these conditions. 5 (1) That King Philip and the Macedonians and the REST of the Greeks who are their allies shall protect the Carthaginians, the supreme lords, and Hannibal their general, and those with p423him, and all under the dominion of Carthage who live under the same laws; likewise the people of Utica and all cities and peoples that are subject to Carthage, and our soldiers and allies 6 and cities and peoples in Italy, Gaul, and Liguria, with whom we are in alliance or with whomsoever in this country we may hereafter enter into alliance. 7 (2) King Philip and the Macedonians and such of the Greeks as are the allies shall be protected and guarded by the Carthaginians who are serving with us, by the people of Utica and by all cities and peoples that are subject to Carthage, by our allies and soldiers and all peoples and cities in Italy, Gaul, and Liguria, who are our allies, and by such others as may hereafter become our allies in Italy and the adjacent regions. 8 (3) We will enter into no plot against each other, nor lie in ambush for each other, but with all zeal and good fellowship, without deceit or secret design, we will be enemies of such as war against the Carthaginians, always excepting the kings, cities, and ports with which we have sworn treaties of alliance. 9 (4) And we, too, will be the enemies of such as war against King Philip, always excepting the Greeks, cities, and people with which we have sworn treaties of alliance. 10 (5) You will be our allies in the war in which we are engaged with the Romans until the gods vouchsafe the victory to us and to you, and you will give us 11 such help as we have need of or as we agree upon. 12 (6) As soon as the gods have given us the victory in the war against the Romans and their allies, if the Romans ask us to come to p425terms of peace, we will make such a peace as will comprise you too, 12 and on the following conditions: that the Romans may never make war upon you; that the Romans shall no longer be masters of Corcyra, Apollonia, Epidamnus, Pharos, Dimale, Parthini, or Atitania: 14 and that they shall return to Demetrius of Pharos all his friends who are in the dominions of Rome. 15 (7) If ever the Romans make war on you or on us, we will help each other in the war as may be required on either side. 16 (8) In like manner if any others do so, excepting always kings, cities, and peoples with whom we have sworn treaties of alliance. 17 (9) If we decide to withdraw any clauses from this treaty or to add any we will withdraw such clauses or add them as we both may agree

The Histories of Polybius, VII, 9, 4 (Loeb, W. R. Paton)

[Nikas]

Aelian:

"When Hephaestion died at Ecbatana (in 324) Alexander placed his weapons upon the funeral pyre, with gold and silver for the dead man, and a robe-which last, among the Persians is a symbol of great honor. He shore off his own hair, as in Homeric grief, and behaved like the Achilles of Homer. Indeed he acted more violently and passionately than the latter, for he caused the towers and strongholds of Ecbatana to be demolished all round. As long as he only dedicated his own hair, he was behaving, I think, like a Greek; but when he laid hands on the very walls, Alexander was already showing his grief in foreign fashion. Even in his clothing he departed from ordinary custom, and gave himself up to his mood, his love, and his tears."

Varia Historia, vii, 8.

“Perdiccas the Macedonian who accompanied Alexander on his expedition was apparently so courageous that he once went alone into a cave where a lioness had her lair. He did not catch the lioness, but he emerged carrying her cubs. Perdiccas won admiration for this feat. Not only Greeks, but barbarians as well, are convinced that the lioness is an animal of great bravery and very difficult to contend with.�
12.37(39)

Aphrahat/Aphraates (c.280-367)

Demonstrations:

5. "Again the ram was lifted up and exalted, and pushed with its horns
towards the west, and towards the north, and towards the south, and humbled many beasts. And they could not stand before him, until the he-goat came from the west and smote the ram and broke his horns and humbled the ram completely. But the ram was the King of Media and Persia, that is, Darius; and the he-goat was Alexander, the son of Philip, the Macedonian. For Daniel saw the ram when he was in the East before the gate of Shushan the fortress that is in the province of Elam, upon the river Ulai. And he was pushing towards the West and
towards the North and towards the South. And none of the beasts could stand before him.(1) And the he-goat of the goats came up from the region of the Greeks, and exalted himself against the ram, And he smote him and broke both his horns, the greater and the lesser. And why did he say that he broke both his horns? Clearly because he humbled both the kingdoms which he ruled; the lesser, that of the Medes, and the greater, that of the Persians. But when Alexander the Greek came, he slew Darius, King of Media and Persia. For thus the angel said to Daniel, when he was explaining the vision to him:--The ram that thou sawest was the King of Media and Persia, and the he-goat the King of
the Greeks. (2) Now, from the time that the two horns of the ram were broken, until this time, there have been six hundred and forty-eight years.(8)

18. And concerning the third beast he said that it was like a leopard,
and it had four birds' wings on its back and that beast had four heads. Now this third beast was Alexander the Macedonian. For he was strong as a leopard. And as for the four wings and the four heads that the beast had, that was because he gave the kingdom to his four friends to govern after him, when he had come and slain Darius and reigned in his stead.

19. And of the fourth beast he said that it was exceedingly terrible and strong and mighty, devouring and crushing and trampling with its feet anything that remained. It is the kingdom of the children of Esau.(4) Because after that Alexander the Macedonian became king, the kingdom of the Greeks was founded, since Alexander also was one of them, even of the Greeks. But the vision of the third beast was fulfilled in him, since the third and the fourth were one. Now Alexander reigned for twelve years. And the kings of the Greeks
arose after Alexander, being seventeen kings, and their years were two hundred and sixty-nine years from Seleucus Nicanor to Ptolemy. And the Caesars were from Augustus to Philip Caesar, seventeen kings. And their 359 years are two hundred and ninety-three years;(1) and eighteen years of Severus."

Demonstration V.--OF WARS


Isodore of Seville, Chronicon

50. Darius ruled for six years. Alexander, conquering Illyricum and Thrace, from there took Jerusalem and, entering the Temple, burned sacrifices to God. The kingdom of the Persians still remained standing. From this point began the kings of the Greeks.
51. Alexander the Macedonian ruled for fifteen years. In his last five years, in the order of years by which they are numbered, he obtained the monarchy of Asia, having destroyed the kingdom of the Persians. His first seven years are thought to have been spent among the kings of the Persians. From this point begin the kings of Alexandria.
53. Ptolemy Philadelphus ruled for thirty-eight years. He released the Jews that were in Egypt and, restoring the holy vase to Eleazar the priest, he sought out seventy translators and translated the divine scriptures into Greek. At the same time Aratus was acknowledged as an astrologer and the silver coins of the Romans were minted for the first time.


"Greece has seven provinces, Dalmatia being the first on the western side, then Epirus, Hellas, Thessaly, Macedonia and finally Achaea and the two provinces of the sea, Crete and the Cyclades." (22)

Etymologiae, XIV, 4, 7 sq. (PL 82, 505)

Josephus:

And when he had said this to Parmenio, and had given the high priest his right hand, the priests ran along by him, and he came into the city. And when he went up into the temple, he offered sacrifice to God, according to the high priest's direction, and magnificently treated both the high priest and the priests. And when the Book of Daniel was showed him (23) wherein Daniel declared that one of the Greeks should destroy the empire of the Persians, he supposed that himself was the person intended. And as he was then glad, he dismissed the multitude for the present; but the next day he called them to him, and bid them ask what favors they pleased of him;

Livy

Or was there any danger of that happening which the most frivolous of the Greeks, who actually extol the Parthians at the expense of the Romans, are so constantly harping upon, namely, that the Roman people must have bowed before the greatness of Alexander's name-- though I do not think they had even heard of him--and that not one out of all the Roman chiefs would have uttered his true sentiments about him, though men dared to attack him in Athens, the very city which had been shattered by Macedonian arms and almost well in sight of the smoking ruins of `Thebes, and the speeches of his assailants are still extant to prove this?

[LIVY, HISTORY OF ROME BOOK 31.7, "ROME AND MACEDON"]

“As for the Argives, apart from their belief that the Macedonian kings were descended from them, most of them were also attached to Philip by individual ties of hospitality and close personal friendships.�

32.22

“General Paulus of Rome surrounded by the ten Commissioners took his official seat surrounded by the whole crowds of Macedonians … Paulus announced in Latin the decisions of the Senate, as well as his own, made by the advice of his council. This announcement was translated into Greek and repeated by Gnaeus Octavius the Praetor – for he too was present.�

Book XLV:XXIX, 1-7

Pliny the Elder:

Such, at all events, were the opinions generally entertained in the reign of Alexander the Great, at a time when Greece was at the height of her glory, and the most powerful country in the world.

Tacitus:

Tacitus, The Annals of Imperial Rome Chapter 8, pg. 221

[6.41] At this same time the Clitae, a tribe subject to the Cappadocian Archelaus, retreated to the heights of Mount Taurus, because they were compelled in Roman fashion to render an account of their revenue and submit to tribute. There they defended themselves by means of the nature of the country against the king's unwarlike troops, till Marcus Trebellius, whom Vitellius, the governor of Syria, sent as his lieutenant with four thousand legionaries and some picked auxiliaries, surrounded with his lines two hills occupied by the barbarians, the lesser of which was named Cadra, the other Davara. Those who dared to sally out, he reduced to surrender by the sword, the rest by drought. Tiridates meanwhile, with the consent of the Parthians, received the submission of Nicephorium, Anthemusias and the other cities, which having been founded by Macedonians, claim Greek names, also of the Parthian towns Halus and Artemita. There was a rivalry of joy among the inhabitants who detested Artabanus, bred as he had been among the Scythians, for his cruelty, and hoped to find in Tiridates a kindly spirit from his Roman training.

[Ptolemy]

PERSIANS

1. Yauna Takabara

A Persian inscription dating from 513 BCE records the European peoples who were, at that date, subject to the Great King. One of these people is described as Yauna Takabara, meaning ‘Ionians whose head-dress is like a shield’. The Persians, like other eastern peoples of antiquity, are known to have applied the term ‘Ionians’ to all Greeks; on the other hand the head-dress resembling a shield has been rightly recognized as that of depicted on Macedonian coins.

According to Cambridge Ancient History Vol 4 "The Greek-speaking people with the shield-like hat were the Macedones, renowned for wearing the sun-hat, as Alexander I did on his fine coins from 478 B.C (look above). The Greek-speaking citizens of the colonial city states on the seaboard were not mentioned; nor did they wear a sun-hat."



2. The Persian story of ZULQARNEEN

Persian Texts in Translation

Packard Humanities Institute - Persian Literature in Translation

It has been mentioned above that, according to the majority of historians, there were no other prophets sent between Nûh and Ebrahim, except Hûd and Sâlah. Some of the ancients, however, tell us that the greater Zulqarneen had been honoured after Sâlah and before Ebrahim with the exalted dignity of ambassadorship and prophecy; and Mujâhad has informed us after A’bdullah Bin O’mar—u. w. b., etc.—that the greater Zulqarneen was one of the prophets sent by God, and that the reason for the truth of this assertion is, because the glorious Lord of unity had honoured him with the allocution, ‘O Zulqar*neen!’* which cannot be addressed except to the perfect essences and virtuous spirits of prophets, u. w. b. p. According to the most correct tradition Zulqarneen was not Alexander the Grecian, whose biography is recorded in the history of the kings of Persia, because his genealogy ascends to Yâfuth the son of Nûh, whereas Alexander the Greek is one of the descendants of A’yss the son of Esahâq, of the children of Sâm the son of Nûh. This view has been adopted by commentators, such as I’mâd-ud-din Bin Kathir in his book entitled ‘Bedâyet wa Nuhâyet,’ and arguments have been adduced in support of the truth of his having been a prophet. Sanân Bin Thâbut Allashbuhi has related in his work entitled ‘Jâmi’ that Zulqarneen had been sent after Sâlah, and that he lived in Europe, possessed of great power and an extensive kingdom, and was constantly engaged in waging wars against infidels, until his noble disposition impelled him to visit various cities and countries. He first undertook an expedition to the West, and, as infidels dwelt there who would not be admonished by his words, nor desist from idolatry, infidelity and sinful acts, he sojourned one year among them, and attacked and exterminated the majority of them with his merciless scimitar. After having established a Musalmân colony in that country, he went to Jerusalem and remained there for some time; then he turned towards the East, and journeyed till he approached the habitations of Yajûj and Majûj.* Zulqarneen there entered a city which contained a large population, governed by a noble, affable and hand*some king, who hastened to meet Zulqarneen; as soon as he was informed of his approach, he brought offerings of nice and acceptable presents, and became a partaker in the obedience to the Lord of both worlds.* Zulqarneen looked at the sovereign and the people of that country with mercy, and rejoiced them with his favours. As they had been for a long time oppressed and injured by Yajûj and Majûj, and were unable to resist them, they were glad to inform Zulqarneen of all this, who, trusting in divine grace, made the necessary preparations to remove the oppression and tyranny of Yajûj and Majûj.

3. Bahram Yasht


If we search at "Zand-i Vohuman Yasht" CHAPTER 3, 34

We will find the following passage.

34.
'And then Mihr of the vast cattle-pastures cries thus: "Of these nine thousand years' support, which during its beginning produced Dahak [Zohak] of evil religion, Frasiyav of Tur, and Alexander the Ruman, the period of one thousand years of those leather-belted demons with disheveled hair is a more than moderate reign to produce

Zand-i Vohuman Yasht, chapter 3

Lets see now what Prof. S. Eddy from University of Nebraska has to tell us about the above passage.

"it must follow that at least a part of the Bahman Yasht, the detailed picture of the apocalyptic conditions brought about by a successful invasion of Iran by foreigners, existed before the time of Ardashir I. But the Bahman Yasht must therefore also have said something of the invasion. In fact it does, and twice names its leader as Alexander the Great. He was not at all a threat to Sassanid prophets living more than half a millennium after his death. The name Alexander, then, is further evidence of Hellenistic date. He is called "Destroyer of the Religion" and "Invader." The first epithet is a parallel to the tradition preserved in the Dinkard, the second to the Sibylline Oracle. Furthermore, the rank and file of the aggressors are once identified as Yunan, which is ancient Near Eastern usage for "Greeks," derived from the word for "Ionians." This word is a Pahlevi vocalization equivalent to Old Persian Yaunā , Elamite Iauna, Hebrew Yāwān, and Hindu Yavanā. Sassanid writers, however, usually referred to Greeks as Rūmi.

It is true that the Bahman Yasht sometimes says that the invaders come from Rum. That is Sassanid editing. It sometimes indicates that they are Muslims. That is post-Sassanid editing. The apocalypse normally refers to them by the cryptic title, "The Demons with Dishevelled Hair of the Race of Wrath." This, from the old Persian point of view, was a good characterization"

Conclusion: Ancient Persian Zoroastrian texts verified what we and the ancient people already know. Alexander the Great was Greek!!!

[Ptolemy]

This is taken from a drawing found in G. Walser's book "Die völkerschaften auf den reliefs von Persepolis" (Verlag Gebr. Mann, Berlin 1966) Falttafel 1 [in Erich F. Schmidt, under Yauna takabara above, Plate 44, No. 26].

Yauna Takabara, No. 26 [Scanned with Dave Gartner, Graduate Assistant];



Now compare no. 26 with depictions of ancient Macedonians wearing their kausia from surviving arcaeological findings.

Macedonian from Aiane.


Aiane again.



Macedonian cavalryman



All the pics are taken from the site of Prof. Elias Kapetanopoulos.

[Ptolemy]

JEWISH

1. In the early Syriac documents the dating is by the "The rule of the Greeks”.

2. In the Greek translation of First Maccabees, one of our earliest witnesses, the dominion of Antiochus Epiphanes and his successors is termed "the king¬dom of the Greeks," (1. Macc. 1:10, and elsewhere)

3. In the Jewish Talmud and Midrash, we have a reference to Yavans (Seleucid Greeks).

4. In Megillah 11a , we have “I did not reject them in the day of the Greeks”, ie. In the name of the Seleucid rule.

5. In Maccabaeus 8:18 we have “the kingdom of the Greeks, «ôçÃ* âáóéëåßáÃ* ôùÃ* ÅëëÞÃ*ùÃ*».
.
6. In 1 Macc. 1:10 where is being mentioned the accession of Antiochus Epiphanes as “he ascended the throne of the Grecian Kingdom in the [Seleucid] year 137”

7. In Dan 11:2 we have a reference in the same sense.

8. In Dan 10:20 we find a passage in which Yavan is used to designate the Greek state in Asia where the Angel Gabriel is foretelling the future to Daniel, saying that as soon as the conflict with Persians is finished, another will begin, namely that with the “Captain of Yavan”

In conclusion noticeably the prophers :
- Daniel (chap.8, 1-22 chap.2 para.39 4-13, 26-28, 31, 38 chap. 7, 2-7)
-Isiaiah chap. 19, 20 chap. 19,23
-Joel chap.3 v.6,
-Jeremy,
-Habacoum chap.2, v.5 and
-the books of the Maccabees (1st book chap. 1, v.1 & 10 chap. 6 v.2, II 8, 20 III 8) include explicit elements for the greek character of Macedonia.

Furthermore Jewish historians like:

-Flavius Josephus makes reference to the Greeks of Macedonia and to Greece or Macedonia, sometimes using the one term and sometimes the other, clearly regarding the Macedonians as Greeks and the Greeks as Macedonians (Antiquities of the Jews book 11 para.337, 109, 148, 286, 184 book 8 para.61, 95 100, 154, 312 book 10 para.273 book 12 para.322 & 414 where he includes these Macedonina kings together with Antiochus the Great in teh conquest if the Greek world by the Romans since he regards Macedonia as a Greek province).

-Philo of Alexandria refers to the Macedonian King Alexander whom he indentifies with the Greeks.

-Maimonides according to whom "thanks to the conquest of Judea by the Greek-Macedonian dynasty the greek learning was transplanted there and contributed to making Hellenism and Judaism acquainted with one another and to the creation of a new philosophical and religious synthesis which opened up new paths and gave new directions to human civilisation".

-Numerous well known rabbis.

[Ptolemy]

INDIANS


Edicts of Ashoka (250 BCE)

An irrefutable evidence of the greek ethnicity of ancient Macedonians comes from the famous "Edicts of Ashoka" (c. 250 BCE) where the Buddhist emperor Ashoka refers to the Greek populations under his rule.

The Rock Edicts V and XIII mention the Yonas (or the Greeks) along with the Kambojas and Gandharas as a subject people forming a frontier region of his empire and attest that he sent envoys to the Greek rulers in the West as far as the Mediterranean, faultlessly naming them one by one.

In the Gandhari original of Rock XIII, the Greek kings to the West are associated unambiguously with the term "Yona":

More precicely we have the following: "Now it is conquest by Dhamma that Beloved-of-the-Gods considers to be the best conquest. And it (conquest by Dhamma) has been won here, on the borders, even six hundred yojanas away, where the Greek king Antiochos rules, beyond there where the four kings named Ptolemy, Antigonos, Magas and Alexander rule, likewise in the south among the Cholas, the Pandyas, and as far as Tamraparni." Rock Edict Nb13 (S. Dhammika)

The distance of 600 yojanas (a yojanas being about 7 miles), corresponds to the distance between the center of India and Greece (roughly 4,000 miles).

1.Antiochos refers to Antiochus II Theos of Syria (261-246 BCE), who controlled the Seleucid Empire from Syria to Bactria, in the east from 305 BCE to 250 BCE, and was therefore a direct neighbor of Ashoka.

2.Ptolemy refers to Ptolemy II Philadelphos of Egypt (285-247 BCE), king of the dynasty founded by Ptolemy I, a former general of Alexander the Great, in Egypt.

3.Antigonos refers to Antigonus II Gonatas of Macedon (278-239 BCE)

4.Magas refers to Magas of Cyrene (300-258 BCE)

5.Alexander refers to Alexander II of Epirus (272-258 BCE).

In the Gandhari original Antiochos is refered as "Amtiyoko nama Yona-raja" (lit. "The Greek king by the name of Antiokos"), beyond whom live the four other kings: "param ca tena Atiyokena cature 4 rajani Turamaye nama Amtikini nama Maka nama Alikasudaro nama" (lit. "And beyond Antiochus, four kings by the name of Ptolemy, the name of Antigonos, the name of Magas, the name Alexander" [1]


From the book "The Cambridge Shorter History of India" of Cambridge Un. Press - 1934

It is evident then, from the testimony of the epigraphic records, that Asoka ruled the whole of India except the extreme south, which was in the hands of the Cholas and Pāndyas. The inscriptions refer also to the nations on the borders of the empire. There were in the south, as already mentioned, the Cholas and Pāndyas, whose lands stretched as far as Tamraparni, i.e. Ceylon; while one edict adds two smaller border chiefs, the Keralaputra, i.e. the king of Kerāla or Malabar, and the Satiyaputra, not yet satisfactorily identified, but probably connected with the āndhras. Mentioned along with these independent kingdoms of the south are the Yavana king, Antiyaka, that is the Seleucid Antiochos Theos, whose lands marched with the Maurya empire on the north-west, and the other Greek kings who were his neighbours. On the outer fringe of the empire, but within the king's territory, were the Yonas, the Greeks in the lands ceded by Seleucus to Chandragupta; other Yavanas are named, along with the Gandhāras, apparently as independent; they were probably the rulers of southern Afghanistan and the land west of the upper Indus. The Kambojas, mentioned with them and located north-west of Gandhāra in the Hindu Kush, spoke a semi-Iranian language and were regarded by Hindus as only half-civilised. Another group of frontier peoples living within the king's territory but probably retaining some vestiges of autonomy, belonged to the south.

[Ptolemy]

BABYLONIANS

According to classical sources, Antiochus IV invaded egypt twice, once in 169 BC and again in the spring of 168 BC. As the Babylonian diaries records, Antiochus and his men, in order to celebrate his victories made "a pompe and activities according to...their Greek customs"

Diary No -168. A14-15: ITU.BI al-te-e um-[ma] An LUGAL ina URU.MES sa KUR Me-luhha sal-ta-nis GIN.GIN IT[U.BI] LU.pu-li-te-e pu-up-pe-e u ep-se-e-tu sa GIM u-sur-tu :U. la-a-man-nu

The translation...

"...In that mont i heard that king Antiochus went victoriously into the cities of Egypt (lit. Ethiopia). In [that] month the citizens [made] a pompe and activities/rituals according to greek custom..."

[Alita]

Teleio ergo, Ptolemy, sigxaritiria.

Just wondering, the passage:

"...crossed the sea with a mighty army, bringing the war to Macedonia and Greece..."

has often been used by Skops in support of their theories.

Do you have any information about how accurately Curtius was quoting from the original? I know he lived in the Roman Empire; I understand that at that time, Macedonia was a separate Roman province to the rest of Greece? If so, how did the Romans' treatment of both provinces differ, if at all?

Any info on this particular question would be greatly appreciated.

[Flipper]

bump, this must be rediscovered...