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The Macedonians (Greek: Μακεδόνες, Makedónes) were an ancient tribe which inhabited the alluvial plain around the rivers Haliacmon and lower Axius, north of Mount Olympus in Greece. Historians generally agree that the ancient Macedonians, whether they originally spoke a Greek dialect or a distinct language, came to belong to the Koine Greek-speaking population in the Hellenistic period. Whether they were of ultimately Greek origin themselves or were later Hellenized continues to be debated by scholars. However, the Macedonian royal family, known as the Argead dynasty, claimed Greek descent from Argos in the Peloponnese,¹²³⁴ and Macedonians competed in the ancient Olympic Games, an athletic event in which only men of Greek origin were allowed to participate.⁵⁶

Origins

Modern discussions

In 19th century scholarship, it was argued that the Macedonians had an Illyrian or Thracian rather than a Greek origin. Professor William Mitchell Ramsay considered the Macedonians as a tribe of Thrace, the land north-east of Greece, akin to the Thracians. George Rawlinson, stated that the Macedonians were a mixed race, not Paionians, Illyrians or Thracians, but of the three, closest with the Illyrians. Various "mixed" scenarios (e.g. Greco-Illyrian) have also been proposed.

Some modern writers, such as Eugene N. Borza, argue that the ancient Macedonians underwent ethnogenesis synthesizing Greek as well as Thraco-Illyrian cultural elements, though considering a possible proto-Greek origin.⁷

However, following the archaeological discoveries of the 20th century, many modern scholars now believe that the ancient Macedonians were of Greek origin.⁸ Systematic excavations at Aiani since 1983 have brought to light finds that attest the existence of an organised city from the 2nd millennium BC to 100 BC. The excavations have unearthed the oldest pieces of black and white pottery, characteristic of the tribes of northwest Greece, discovered so far.⁹ Found with Μycenaean sherds, they can be dated with certainty to the 14th century BC.⁹ The findings also include some of the oldest samples of writing in Macedonia, among them inscriptions bearing Greek names like Θέμιδα (Themida). The inscriptions demonstrate that the society of Upper Macedonia spoke and wrote Greek before the 5th century BC.⁹¹⁰

Ancient sources

The pseudo-Hesiodic Catalogue of Women lists the mythical progenitor and eponymous ancestor of the Macedonians, Makednos, as a descendant of Deucalion's daughter Thyia and Zeus, thus excluding him from direct descent via Hellen. On the other hand, Hellanicus of Lesbos' later genealogy lists Makednos as the son of Aeolus and thus a grandson of Hellen.¹¹

Herodotus provides the chief traditions on the origins of the Macedonians, from whom he claims originate the Dorians, when he describes the history of the Lacedaemonians. He writes in the first book of his Histories that the Macedonians were a Greek tribe left behind during the great Dorian invasion:¹²

On the origins of the Macedonian Royalty, Herodotus holds a record about the youngest of three brothers from Argos, and how he, through his skill in accepting omens, tricked an oppressive monarch out of his kingdom. The story apparently describes the genealogical connection between the Macedonian royal house (or Macedonians in general) and legendary Greek heroes. This theory was fully accepted among the scholars of antiquity.¹³

Herodotus mentions in other points of his work the Greek origin of the Macedonians, paralleling them with the Dorians:¹⁴

Polybius relates the racial kinship between Aetolians, Achaeans and Macedonians in the speech of Lyciscus the Acarnanian addressing Cleonicus and Chlaeneas, the Aetolian envoys, at the assembly of Sparta:¹⁶

During antiquity, the Greekness of the Macedonians was famously disputed by Demosthenes, the leader of the anti-Macedonian party in Athens and sworn enemy of Philip II. His words, often perceived as an effort to slander Philip, seem to be in disagreement with Herodotus' theories regarding the kinship between the Dorians and the Makednoi.

Titus Livius in his work The History of Rome says that Macedonians spoke the same language as that of Aetolians and Acarnanians, undoubtedly Greek tribes:¹⁷

Atticisation in the 5th to 4th centuries

Macedon was heavily Atticised from the time of Alexander the Great. Moreover, there are indications that there were pan-Hellenic influences in the Macedonian kingdom as early as the 5th century BC. King Archelaus established the new capital at Pella, a festival in honor of Zeus at Dion, a city right next to Mt. Olympus, and welcomed southern Greek intellectuals into the kingdom. Athenian playwriters such as Euripides and Agathon and the famous painter Zeuxis all were influential in the early kingdom. Euripides wrote his last two tragedies at Archelaus' court. ¹⁸

Participation in Pan-Hellenic events

A passage in book five of Herodotus' Histories concerns the exclusion of Macedonians from panhellenic events such as the Ancient Olympic Games.¹⁹ In 504 or 500 BC, the Macedonian king Alexander I attempted to participate in the Olympic Games, and met with resistance by competitors, who regarded him as a non-Hellene. According to Herodotus, Alexander argued that his family was of ultimately Greek (Argive) descent, and Elean Hellanodikai determined that it is so. Other kings of Macedon like Archelaus I and Philip II also took part in the Games. A list of Macedonians competed in the Olympics:²⁰

Other Macedonian competitors recorded are Ptolemy I, Ptolemy II, Arsinoe, Berenike I, Berenike II, Etearchus, Molykos, Trygaius, Plaggon.²⁰

Language

Due to the fragmentary attestation various interpretations are possible. The tongue of the area's inhabitants prior to the 5th century BC is attested in some hundred words from various glosses, mainly those of Hesychius of Alexandria, 5th century, as well as placenames (toponyms), personal names (anthroponyms) and local inscriptions. The Koine Greek dialect was standardised as the language of formal discourse and official communication by the 4th century BC.²²

However, all inscriptions found within the boundaries of the kingdom of Macedon or the Empires of the Diadochi that can be ascribed to Macedonians prior to Roman conquest, are written in Attic, the Koine Greek and much more rarely in the Doric Greek dialect (see also Pella curse tablet).

References

^ Herodotus. Histories, 5.20.4, 5.22.1, 9.45.
^ Arrian. Anabasis Alexandri. Book II, 14, 4.
^ Quintus Curtius Rufus, "Historiae Alexandri Magni", 6.3.11.
^ Polybius. The Histories, 7.9.4, 18.4.8.
^ Pausanias. Description of Greece, 5.8.11.
^ Pan-Macedonian Association USA, Inc - List of Macedonian Olympic winners (in Greek)
^ Borza, E. N. In the shadow of Olympus; The emergence of Macedon, p. 78, ISBN 0691008809. "We have seen that the "Makedones" or "highlanders" of mountainous western Macedonia may have been derived from northwest Greek stock. That is, northwest Greece provided a pool of Indo-European speakers of proto-Greek from which emerged the tribes who were later known by different names as they established their regional identities in separate parts of the country. Thus the Macedonians may have been related to those peoples who at an earlier time migrated south to become the historical Dorians, and to other Pindus tribes who were the ancestors of the Epirotes or Molossians. If it were known that Macedonian was a proper dialect of Greek, like the dialects spoken by Dorians and Molossians, we would be on much firmer ground in this hypothesis."
^ A. R. Burn, Alexander the Great and the Hellenistic Empire, Macmillan, 1948; George Cawkwell, Philip of Macedon, Faber & Faber, London, 1978; Francois Chamoux, Hellenistic Civilization, Blackwell Publishing Professional, 2002; Victor Ehrenberg, The Greek State, Methuen, (July 2000); Malcolm Errington, A History of Macedonia, University of California Press, February 1993; Alan Fildes and Joann Fletcher, Alexander the Great: Son of the Gods, Getty Trust Publications, J. Paul Getty Museum, 2004; John V.A. Fine, The Ancient Greeks: A Critical History, Harvard University Press, 1983; Robin Lane Fox, Alexander the Great; Jonathan M. Hall, Ethnic Identity in Greek Antiquity, Cambridge University Press, 1998; N G L Hammond, A History of Greece to 323 BC, Cambridge University, 1986; Archer Jones, The Art of War in Western World (University of Illinois Press, 2000); Robin Osborne, Greek History, Routledge, 2004; Jacques Pirenne, The Tides of History Vol. 1, E. P. Dutton, 1962; Michael M. Sage, Warfare in Ancient Greece, Routledge; Chester G. Starr, A History of the Ancient World, Oxford University Press, 1991; Hilding Thylander, Den Grekiska världen, (Svenska humanistiska förbundet, 1985); Arnold J. Toynbee, The Greeks and Their Heritages, Oxford University Press, 1981; Ulrich Wilcken, Alexander the Great; Ian Worthington, Alexander the Great, Routledge, 2002.
^ ^a ^b ^c "Encyclopedia Britannica - Hellenism in Macedonia".
^ Aegeo-Balkan Prehistory - The Late Bronze Age in Aiani
^ M. Hall, Jonathan (2002). Hellenicity: Between Ethnicity and Culture, The University of Chicago Press. pp.165. ISBN 0-226-31330-1.
^ Herodotus. Histories, 1.56.1.
^ Herodotus. Histories, 8.137.
^ Herodotus. Histories, 8.43.1.
^ Polybius. The Histories, 7.9.4.
^ Polybius. The Histories, 9.37.2.
^ Livy. The History of Rome, Book XXXI, 29
^ The Iphigenia Cycle
^ Herodotus. Histories, 5.22
^ ^a ^b "Macedonians Olympic Winners" (in Greek). Pan-Macedonian Association USA. Retrieved on 2008-04-04.
^ Hornblower, Simon. Thucydides and Pindar: Historical Narrative and the World of Epinikian Poetry. Oxford University Press, 2006 ISBN 0199298289, p. 13.
^ Borza, Eugene N. In the Shadow of Olympus.

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