akritas
02-05-2006, 05:37 AM
According to Hesiod, the brothers Magnes and Macedon dwelt around Olympos and Pieria, logically in the valleys between the two ranges. Now, Aegae is on the most northeast slope of Pieria and on the southern approach to Mt. Vermion and the opening to the rich Thermaic Gulf. Both the the Perdikkas and Karanos traditions are consistent with the founding of the Macedonian Kingdom being related to the founding of Aegae and Isocrates ‘To Philip’, although not specific in this regard, does not contradict it.
Hesiod says that Makedon dwelt around Pieria. You have but to pick up a map and see that dwelling between Olympus and Pieria is a distance from Aegae. In the Perdikkas and Karanos (and for that matter the Pindus-Dorian-Macedonian) traditions, this is not contradictory with the Isocratic tale of Philip's ancestors.
The original Argeads, went into non-Hellenic ruled lands and conquered it.
Isocrates has that Philip's ancestor founded a kingdom among non-Hellenes, which is what the Brygians or any of the inhabitants around the new capital could have been prior to the Macedonian takeover. It is again the new land, and not the people that is referred to, especially when we consider that the ancestor did not conquer/found on his own, but needed an army/settlers, which could have been the Macedonians of Pieria (or the oft-wandering Pindus/Dorian/Macedonians if you will) or southern Greeks as per Justin and the Suda. It is the formal beginning of this state on previously 'non-Macedonian' and 'non-Hellenic' land as opposed to the loose collection of Macedonians and Magnesian natives between the great ranges, that is central tradition to the beginnings of the Macedonian kingdom and later empire.
This is re-inforced by Aristotle in The Politics:
"Kingship, as we have remarked, is organized on the same basis as aristocracy: merit-either individual virtue, or birth , or distinguished service, or all these together with a capacity for doing things.For it is just those who have done good servvice or have the capacity to do it, either for states or for foreign nations, that have been honoured with the position of king. Some, like Codrus, saved their people by war from slavery; others, like Cyrus, set them free or acquired territory or settled it, like the kings of the of Lacedaemonians, of the Molossians, and of the Macedonians."
In conclusion, the founding of the Macedonian Kingdom is centered on the founding/conquest of Aegae and the opening up of the Thermaic Gulf and the rest of Macedonia (the future state) thus the Macedonian state was NOT present before the foundation of the kingdom and thus not part of the Hellenic early history according to Thucydides, although the early Macedonian/Dorians populations may have been settled there in the migrations as per Herodotus in a loose and uncentralized collection. Therefore, there is nothing that contradicts the fact that the Macedonians were Greeks.
Hesiod says that Makedon dwelt around Pieria. You have but to pick up a map and see that dwelling between Olympus and Pieria is a distance from Aegae. In the Perdikkas and Karanos (and for that matter the Pindus-Dorian-Macedonian) traditions, this is not contradictory with the Isocratic tale of Philip's ancestors.
The original Argeads, went into non-Hellenic ruled lands and conquered it.
Isocrates has that Philip's ancestor founded a kingdom among non-Hellenes, which is what the Brygians or any of the inhabitants around the new capital could have been prior to the Macedonian takeover. It is again the new land, and not the people that is referred to, especially when we consider that the ancestor did not conquer/found on his own, but needed an army/settlers, which could have been the Macedonians of Pieria (or the oft-wandering Pindus/Dorian/Macedonians if you will) or southern Greeks as per Justin and the Suda. It is the formal beginning of this state on previously 'non-Macedonian' and 'non-Hellenic' land as opposed to the loose collection of Macedonians and Magnesian natives between the great ranges, that is central tradition to the beginnings of the Macedonian kingdom and later empire.
This is re-inforced by Aristotle in The Politics:
"Kingship, as we have remarked, is organized on the same basis as aristocracy: merit-either individual virtue, or birth , or distinguished service, or all these together with a capacity for doing things.For it is just those who have done good servvice or have the capacity to do it, either for states or for foreign nations, that have been honoured with the position of king. Some, like Codrus, saved their people by war from slavery; others, like Cyrus, set them free or acquired territory or settled it, like the kings of the of Lacedaemonians, of the Molossians, and of the Macedonians."
In conclusion, the founding of the Macedonian Kingdom is centered on the founding/conquest of Aegae and the opening up of the Thermaic Gulf and the rest of Macedonia (the future state) thus the Macedonian state was NOT present before the foundation of the kingdom and thus not part of the Hellenic early history according to Thucydides, although the early Macedonian/Dorians populations may have been settled there in the migrations as per Herodotus in a loose and uncentralized collection. Therefore, there is nothing that contradicts the fact that the Macedonians were Greeks.