Modern historians on the Ancient Macedonians and ancient Macedonia

[Ptolemy]

In favour of the Greek identity of the Macedonians is what we know of their language: the place-names, names of the months and many of the personal names, especially royal names, which are Greek in roots and form. This suggests that they did not merely use Greek as a lingua franca, but spoke it as natives (though with a local accent which turned Philip into Bilip, for example). The Macedonians' own traditions derived their royal house from one Argeas, son of Macedon, son of Zeus, and asserted that a new dynasty, the Temenids, had its origin in the sixth century from emigrants from Argos in Greece, the first of these kings being Perdiccas. This tradition became a most important part of the cultural identity of Macedon. It enabled Alexander I (d.452) to compete at the Olympic Games (which only true Hellenes were allowed to do); and it was embedded in the policy of Archelaus (d.399) who invited Euripides from Athens to his court, where Euripides wrote not only the Bacchae but also a lost play called Archelaus. (Socrates was also invited, but declined.)

"Alexander the Great" by Richard Stoneman p.14

[Ptolemy]

Macedonian kings were proud of their Greek blood, and it was only jaundiced opponents like Demosthenes the Athenian who ventured to call them "barbarians." They claimed descent from Hêrakles through the Dorian Kings of Argos, and they learned the tales of Troy and of Odysseus, and the songs of the Greek lyric poets, as they learned their letters. Fifty years before Alexander was born, a King of Macedon had been proud to give a home to the aged "modernist" playwright, Euripides, eighty years old and sick and tired of a democracy which had led Athens into defeat and revolution, and whose philistines accused Euripides of preaching atheism and immorality..

"Alexander the Great and the Hellenistic Empire" by A. R. Burn; Macmillan, 1948, p.4

He [Alexander] was a great reader, too. He had been early caught by the glamour of the Tale of Troy, like most Greek boys; and he never grew weary of it. As far as the Oxus and the Indus, he carried with him his personal copy of the Iliad

"Alexander the Great and the Hellenistic Empire" by A. R. Burn; Macmillan, 1948, p.11

[Ptolemy]

The Macedonian conquest gave Hellenic civilization, as a priceless compensation, at least the domination of Asia; and we know what a stimulus to the Greek spirit was this encounter, in the Alexandrian syncretism, with the genius of the East. Unhappily, after a hundred years of splendid progress, the Alexandrianism which, in the third century, had presided over the hellenization of the East, suffered a reversal: the Greek spirit was in turn invaded by oriental ideas. Euclid and Aristarchus had lived at Alexandria, but it was also at Alexandria that the neo-Platonists and gnostics lived. Lucian's outbursts of laughter (in the second century A.D.) were the last protest of the critical spirit against the return of the murkiest pagan mysticism.

Furthermore, when Alexander had made the Greeks masters of the East, they transferred to it their own inability to unite. The Macedonia of the Antigonids, the Syria of the Seleucids and the Egypt of the Ptolemies, like Athens, Sparta and Thebes before them, wore themselves out in an inconclusive struggle which made them fall, one by one, an easy prey to the foreigner -- in this case to the Romans. Not with impunity had the Græco-Macedonian dynasties assumed the mantle of the old oriental despots.

René Grousset, A. Patterson 'The Sum of History', 1951, Page 10

[Ptolemy]

Similar uncertainty surrounds the personality of Alexander. Should we see in him the agent of the Hellenic League about to Hellenize Asia? Or the Macedonian whom the Orient had won over and divested of Greek civilization to the point of making him a Son of Ammon and Great King? Both personalities were present in him. And the whole drama of his brief life lay in the contrast between them. When he forced the passage of the Granicus, he came to Asia, like Agesilaus before him, to take vengeance for the invasion of Xerxes. His first act was to deliver Ionia. He went on to give Hellenism the coasts of the eastern Mediterranean, Syria, and Egypt; that is, the European façade of Asia. And this part of all his conquests was the only one to prove really lasting. Egypt and Syria remained part of Hellas for nine hundred and seventy years after his day, and western Anatolia for sixteen and a half centuries. On the other hand, east of the Euphrates, on the Persian plateau afterwards conquered by Alexander, Hellenism maintained its hold for barely two centuries. And it was there that the Macedonian, for the eight years of life left to him, began to strip himself of his Greek inheritance.

'The Sum of History' Page 153

[Ptolemy]

If the Macedonian kingdoms of Greater Greece had left no other proof of their activity, they would have done enough for ancient civilization by giving it the masters of Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius.

'The Sum of History' Page 156

One of the sons of Antiochus the Great, Antiochus Epiphanes, tried to react ( 175-164 B.C.). How are we to judge him? The superior strength of the Romans made it impossible for him to secure the triumph of Hellenism by force of arms. But the expansion of Greek nationality was the whole raison d'étre of the Seleucids. Antiochus Epiphanes was therefore obliged to undertake the conquest of the oriental soul by introducing Hellenism to the native peoples

'The Sum of History' Page 157

[Ptolemy]

It was the Byzantine Empire which was to realize Alexander's idea -Macedonian Panhellenism -- in face of an Asia in revolt, and realize it for the Greeks

'The Sum of History' Page 159

[Ptolemy]

The history of ancient Egyptian civilisation covers a period from c.3100 BC to the conquest of the country by Alexander the Great in 332 BC. Before the Dynastic Period (beginning c.3100 BC), the communities laid the foundations for the later great advances in technological, political, religious and artistic developments; this is generally referred to as the Predynastic Period (c.5000-3100 BC). After *Alexander the Great conquered Egypt in 332 BC, the country was ruled by a line of Macedonian Greeks who descended from *Alexander’s general, Ptolemy (who became *Ptolemy I). The last of this dynasty, *Cleopatra VII, failed to prevent the absorption of Egypt into the Roman Empire in 30 BC, and subsequently Egypt was ruled by Rome as a province

Anthony E. David 'A Biographical Dictionary of Ancient Egypt'

[Ptolemy]

Ptolemy I, the general whom *Alexander the Great left in charge of Egypt, was also Macedonian in origin, and he and his successors imposed Hellenistic culture on Egypt: large numbers of *Greeks came to settle in Egypt and the Greek language and customs of the conquerors became predominant, although the native population continued with their own language and traditions. Alexandria, the city founded by *Alexander the Great, became the capital and a great centre of culture and intellectualism, and other Greek cities were established throughout Egypt.

Nevertheless, it was essential that the Ptolemies should uphold the tradition that they were pharaohs, and thus they built or reconstructed great temples to the Egyptian gods in which the wall-scenes show them as kings of Egypt, making offerings and doing obeisance to the native deities. This gave them the religious legitimacy to rule the country, but they used this power to impose heavy taxes and drain the natural resources; not surprisingly native opposition to the Ptolemies flared up on two occasions (208-186 BC and 88-86 BC) in the district around Thebes.

Fraser, P.M. Ptolemaic Alexandria. Oxford: 1972; Bevan, E. A History of Egypt under the Ptolemaic Dynasty. London: 1927.

[Ptolemy]

Ptolemy I regarded himself as the regenerator of the country and took the name ‘Soter’ which meant ‘Saviour’. He re-organised Egypt and began a programme of building and restoring the native Egyptian temples, a concept which later *Ptolemies developed to enforce their religious right to rule Egypt. Ptolemy I also intoduced a new god—Serapis—who was a hybrid deity combining features of the Egyptian *Osiris with those of various Hellenistic gods. He also founded a cult of Alexander the Great at Alexandria and, eventually, a temple for his own personal cult was built at Koptos. He founded the Museum and Great Library in the palace quarter at Alexandria, and the Greek city of Ptolemais in Upper Egypt

Bevan, E. A History of Egypt under the Ptolemaic Dynasty. London: 1927; Skeat, T. C. The reigns of the Ptolemies. Munich: 1969

Ptolemy II also inaugurated a detailed system of financial administration in Egypt, and introduced Greek farming communities in the Fayoum district;

Bevan, E. A History of Egypt under the Ptolemaic Dynasty. London: 1927; Skeat, T. C. The reigns of the Ptolemies. Munich: 1969

[Ptolemy]

In Egypt the Greek dynasty of the Ptolemies was the successor to the native Pharaohs, exploiting through a highly organized bureaucracy the great natural resources of the Nile Valley

'The Civilization of Rome' by Donald R. Dudley, Page 57

It is true that under Antiochus III ( 241-187 B.C.) Greek control was re-established over most of the huge kingdom on a firmer basis than at any time since Alexander, but this revival was not to last

page 58