Transcript Macedonia

Alexander’s
homeland:
Ancient Macedonia
Macedonia - names
• Ancient Macedonia:
- Land in the Balkans, to the north of
Greece, to the sourth of Illiria and Thrace
• Modern Macedonia:
- 1. Part of Greece
- 2. Former Yugoslav Republic of
Macedonia (FYROM, Skopje), Slavic,
unrecognized internationally as Macedonia
Ancient Macedonia and FYROM
• Territories partially overlap, capital cities
not (Aigai and Pella vs. Skopje)
• Ancient Macedonian Lyncestis and
Pelagonia in south-west of FYROM
• Most of FYROM in antiquity: Paeonians
(Thracians), Dardanians and Illyrians
FYROM
Two Macedonias today
• Conflicting claims to name and heritage:
- Greece and FYROM claim right to name
and heritage of Macedonia
• History in service of modern politics:
- Alexander the Great airport in Skopje
- Statues of Philip II and Alexander the
Great in both countries
Alexander the Great statues:
Thassoloniki and Skopje
Ancient Macedonia
• Lower Macedonia:
- Alluvial plain on rivers Haliakmon, Axios, Ludias
and Gallikos, and the Pieria plain at the foot of
Mount Olympus
- Kingdom of the Argead clan
• Upper Macedonia:
- From Emathia plain to Pindus
- 90% above 500 m, half above 1500 m
- several kingdoms/ principalities: Orestis,
Tymphaea, Elimeia, Lyncestis, Eordaia
Ancient Macedonia - geography
• Thermaic Gulf 30 km inland
• Pella accessible to sea ships via Ludias
river
• Marshland in central portion of Lower
Macedonia: moscitoes, malaria, unsuited
for agriculture
• 1/3 covered in forrest
• Climate: more harsh than in Greece, no
olive trees
Ancient Macedonia: people
• Not uniform ethnically:
- some Illyrian and Greek elements in Upper
Macedonia
- Greek colonies in Lower Macedonia
- eventually large Thracian population
• Social structure:
- Rich horse-riding aristocracy: 800 hetairoi as
rich as 10,000 wealthiest Greeks (under Philip)
- Peasants, poorer than in Greece
Wealth of Macedonia 1
Wealth of Macedonia 2
Macedonian question 1
•
•
-
Were ancient Macedonians Greeks?
Sources:
No Macedonian literature
Almost no Macedonian inscriptions, none
in monumental pre-Hellenistic tombs
- Ancient Macedonians one of ‘mute
nations’ of antiquity
Macedonian question 2
• Classical source evidence (times of Alexander
and Successors):
• Plutarch, Alexander: "But, he [Alexander]
...jumped up on his feet and started to call his
shield bearer in Macedonian [and that was a
sign of great danger]...”
• Plutarch, Eumens: „When Eumenes saw the
close-locked formation of the Macedonian
phalanx … he sent Xennias …, a man whose
speech was Macedonian …”
Macedonian question 3
Q.Curtius Rufus: "The Macedonians are about to pass
judgment upon you; I wish to know whether you will
address them in their native tongue." Thereupon Philotas
replied: "Besides the Macedonians there are many
present who … will more easily understand what I shall
say if I use the same language which you have
employed … [i.e. Greek]." Then said the king: "Do you
not see how Philotas loathes even the language of his
fatherland? For he alone disdains to learn it. But let him
by all means speak in whatever way he desires,
provided that you remember he holds our customs in as
much abhorrence as our language."
Macedonian language 1
• Language:
- Sources: Alexander and other
Macedonians spoke ‘Macedonian’
- ‘Macedonian’ different than standard
Greek
- Separate language (many western
scholars) or dialect of Greek (most Greek,
some western scholars)?
Macedonian language 2
• Sources evidence:
- Literary sources: 150 words, half Greek
- Inscriptions: 6300, over 99% in Greek, mostly
Attic and koine, 1 in ‘Macedonian’
• Linguistically:
- Some features non-Greek
- Greek inscriptions: inconclusive, Greek a culture
language of the Mediterranean (among
Thracians, Illyrians, Celts, Jews …)
Macedonian question 4
• Language not the only factor determining
ethnicity – perception counts
• Perception by Greeks:
- Right to participate in Olympic Games
denied to Macedonians
- Alexander’s I (Argead) claim to Greakness
accepted according to Herodotus
- Spurious: Alexander I absent from
Olympic victors’ list
Macedonian question 5
• According to Greeks down to 200 BC:
- Not Greeks – often barbarians
- In Alexander’s army Greeks and
Macedonians
• According to Macedonians:
- Never presented themselves as Greeks
• Macedonians: separate ethnos,
progressively Hellenizing, accepted as
Greeks ca. 200 BC (versus Rome)
History of Macedonia 1
• Occupied continuously since Iron Age (ca. 1150
BC)
• Argea/ Temenid dynasty in Lower Macedonia
since ca. 650 BC
• Argead Macedonia: coastal plane, capital Aegae
(Vergina)
• Dominated by Persia 512-479 BC
• Alexander I (c. 498-454):
- Between Persia and Athens
- Creator of Macedonian state
History of Macedonia 2
• Fifth c. BC: weak and marginal, allied with
Athens in Peloponnesian war
• Archelaus (413-399):
- Reforming state and army (hoplites?)
- Hellenization: theatre in Dion, Euripides,
Agathon, Zeuxis
- Assasinated by male lovers
History of Macedonia 3
• Dominated by Sparta in early fourth c. BC
• Dominated by Thebes of Pelopidas and
Epaminondas: hostages handed over by
Amyntas III in 367/6
• Perdiccas III:
- Son of Amyntas, successful rule
- Killed by Illyrians of Bardylis 360/359 BC
Macedonia in beginning
of Philip’s II rule
• Upper Macedonia largely independent
• Lower Macedonia rural, only one sizable
city (Pella), a few small towns (Edessa,
Dion, Aegae)
• Sea coast controlled by Greek colonies
(Pydna, Methone)
• Powerful neighbours: Greek Chalcidian
League, Illyrians
Philip II
Military reforms of Philip II
• Creating strong infantry:
- Phalanx: amour, spears, hoplite armament
(at king’s expense), training, tactics
- Pezhetairoi/ hypaspists
• Reforming cavalry
- Heavy armed Companion cavalry
(hetairoi), scouts – all armed with sarissai
• Siege warfare
Macedonian phalanx
Macedonian phalanx
Macedonian phalanx