Modern historians on the Ancient Macedonians and ancient Macedonia

[Spartan]

For the FULL 3rd Philipic go to the following:

Other Greek Issues Forum> General Greek History> Demosthenes

[Ptolemy]

ALEXANDER OF MACEDON 356-323 B.C. A HISTORICAL BIOGRAPHY by Peter Green published by UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS

… The men of Lower Macedonia worshipped Greek gods; the royal family claimed descent from Heracles. ….The Molossian dynasty of Epirus, on the marches of Orestis and Elimiotis, claimed descent from Achilles, through his grandson Pyrrhus - a fact destined to have immeasurable influence on the young Alexander, whose mother Olympias was of Molossian stock…. "

Page 5

….. He (Alexander 1st) worked hard to get Macedonia accepted as a member of the Hellenic family (mainly by establishing a fictitious link between the Argead dynasty and Argos), and encouraged Greeks to domicile themselves on Macedonian soil, a policy which both Perdiccas and Archelaus followed…..

Page 8-9

… In particular with the grim struggle for the succession still fresh in their minds, they urged - very reasonably - that before leaving Macedonia he should marry and beget an heir. However, the king rejected this motion out of hand, a decision which was to cause untold bloodshed and political chaos after his death. It would be shameful, he told them, for the captain - general of the Hellenes, with Philip's invincible army at his command, to idle his time away on matrimonial dalliance…."

Page 152

[Ptolemy]

THE NATURE OF ALEXANDER by Mary Renault, published by GEORGE RAINBIRD

…..Philip, on campaign in Thrace, got the news along with two other messages. His general, Parmenion, had soundly defeated the Illyrians in the west; and his racehorse had won at the Olympic Games. The right of Olympic entry was a prized inheritance of the kings of Macedon. The Games were only open to Greeks; and Macedonians were not recognized in the south as the offshoots of the original stock which in fact they were. They were regarded as semi-barbarous (the actual term 'barbarian' was reserved for Persians) and the royal house had just scraped in on the strength of a remote Argive ancestry. For Philip, to whom acceptance in the Greek world was a lifelong dream, this news may have been the most welcome item of the three…..

Page 28-29

…… The wedding plans were resplendent. High ranking guests and state envoys were invited from all over Greece, as befitted Philip's of pan Hellenic war leader. Festival games in honour of the twelve Olympian gods were to be dedicated at a ceremony in the theatre at Aegae, near modern Edessa, the ancient capital……

Page 61

[Ptolemy]

HISTORY OF THE WORLD by J.M. ROBERTS, published by OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS 1993

The history of Greece rapidly becomes less interesting after the fifth century. It is also less important. What remains important is the history of Greek civilization and the shape of this, paradoxically, was determined by a kingdom in northern Greece which some said was not Greek at all: Macedon. In the second half of the fourth century it created an empire bigger than any yet seen, the legatee of both Persia and the city-states. It organized the world we call Hellenistic because of the preponderance and uniting force within it of a culture. Greek in inspiration and language. Yet Macedon was a barbarous place, perhaps centuries behind Athens in the quality of its life and culture…. ……….Whether this was a state which was a part of the world of Hellenes was disputed; some Greeks thought Macedonians barbarians, though their kings claimed descent from Greek houses (one going back to Heracles) and their claim was generally recognized. Philip himself sought status; he wanted Macedon to be thought of as Greek. When he became regent of Macedon in 359 BC he began a steady acquisition of territory at the expense of other Greek states………….."

Page 168

……Alexander was a creative mind, but self-absorbed, obsessed with his pursuit of glory, and something of a visionary. With great intelligence he combined almost reckless courage; he believed his mother's ancestor to be Homer's Achilles and strove to emulete the hero. He was ambitious as much to prove himself in men's eyes - or perhaps those of his forceful and repellent mother - as to win new lands. The idea of Hellenic crusade against Persia undoubtedly had reality for him, but he was also, for all his admiration of the Greek culture of which he had learnt from his tutor Aristotle, too egocentric to be a missionary, and his cosmopolitanism was grounded in an appreciation of realities……

Page 171

[Ptolemy]

ALEXANDER THE GREAT by Frank Lipsius, published by SATURDAY REVIEW PRESS, NEW YORK

….The immediate goal of the journey <Alexander's expedition> was to liberate the Greek cities of Asia Minor from Persian rule. The Pan-Hellenic nature of the enterprise was emphasized by the inclusion of Thracian javelin throwers, one thousand Agrianians (whom Alexander particularly valued and kept close to him), fifteen hundred Thessalians and five hundred Cretan archers. The Macedonian troops, the core of the army, numbered twelve thousand infantry and eighteen hundred cavalry. The resolution to avenge Xerxes' conquest of the Greeks one hundred and fifty years before had been Philip's reason for marshalling troops for the expedition.….

[Ptolemy]

From Cambridge Ancient Histories:

The evidence for the language of the Macedonians has been reviewed and discussed by Kalleris and Hammond, Griffith, and many others, all contending that it was a dialect of Greek. The increasing volume of surviving public and private inscriptions makes it quite clear that there was no written language but Greek. There may be room for argument over spoken forms, or at least over local survivals of earlier occupancy, but it is hard to imagine what kind of authority might sustain that. There is no evidence for a different "Macedonian" language that cannot be as easily explained in terms of dialect or accent.

M.Justinus' epitome of Pompeius Trogus' Universal History:

Macedonia was formerly called Emathia,... Caranus also came to Emathia with a large band of Greeks, being instructed by an oracle to seek a home in Macedonia

[HellenicPride]

Originally Posted by akritas

Paul Cartledge in Great Alexander, Chapter12

"While Alexander's posthumous presence is ubiquitous, there are 5 areas of particular influebnce & contention. The was a politico-ethnic issue in his own day as to whether or not counted, wholly or in part, as a 'Greek' under the act. This aspect of his legacy exploded again, very recently in the early 1990's with the disolution of the former Yugoslav establishment, on part of it's ruins, a new state: the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, but known unofficially (by it's government) as just Macedonia.
This name is shared with the province of Macedonia in today's contemporary Hellenic Republic, which was once part of ancient Macedon.
The new, putative Macedonians compounded thier heinous - in official & unofficial Greek eyes - offence by appropriating major symbols drawn from thier name sake.
For example, the iconic (originally Venetian or Turkish) White Tower of Thessaloniki, a city founded soon after Alexander's death, was pressed into service, as was the 16-pointed star that appears conspicuously on the gold-coffin found in the 'tomb of Philip' at Vergina."

Also the book is published in the Greek language

I just purchased the book but have not had to the time to read it, Im looking forward to it.

[HellenicPride]

Originally Posted by PhiliptheUniterchaeronea

Just for the record. Paul Cartledge does state that Macedonia was Hellenic. There are many references to that. Macedonian, without question was Greek. It was however, without question, a distinct dialect.

"Demosthenes (384-322) called him a 'barbarian'. or non-Greek speaker,... But even in the narrowest linguistic terms of Greek culture, this was strictly inaccurate. Philip was perfectly capable of conversing in standard Greek and reading Greek literature, even though the local Macedonian dialect was so interlarded with non-Greek (especially Illyrian) linguistic forms that it could be unintelligible to standard Greek-speakers."

Alexander the Great, Paul Cartledge p.64

Look at the language of the Inscription frm Calindoea on p.65 All in Greek, and this is from Macedonia

Thats why I bought the book, I quickly browsed through it to make sure before I spend money on it. I believe its somewhere towards the last chapters that he does say Alexander was indeed Greek. I will find it , scan it and post it.

[akritas]

Macedonians and Molossians were Greeks....whether some people like it or not !.:thumbs:
Robin Lane Fox "Historian-Author" In Interview with newspaper TO BHMA

Can you hear it?

[Ptolemy]

At the end of the Early Iron Age kings still reigned in Argos, Messenia, Epirus and Macedonia, and at Sparta there was the curious system of two co-regnant kings. But most Greek states were governed by aristocracies with annual magistrates of limited functions and a permanent council, whether hereditary or chosen..

"The Greeks until Alexander" by R. M. Cook 1962, p. 65

..Macedonia and Epirus were the buffers of Greece in Europe..

"The Greeks until Alexander" by R. M. Cook 1962, p. 23