Macedonia History

 We actually know almost nothing about Lucius Ampelius, the author of the Liber Memoralis . Nevertheless, his work has survived the years and is accessible to us. He is the author of the textbook of ancient mythology, geography, and history, and that's pretty much all we know about him—and, of course, that he was a Roman who lived either in the time of Trajan or Constantine. Researchers therefore consider a rather long period of more than two hundred years in which he could have lived—according to Wikipedia, from 98 to 337 AD. But, let's turn to his work Liber Memorialis and jump straight into chapter six, which could be titled "On the Planet Earth". There, Ampelius lists various "most well-known peoples" in a list that, according to him, represents three inhabited continents out of a total of four: Africa (located between the Tanais and the Nile), Libya (between the Nile and the Gulf of Gades), and Europe (between the Strait and the Tanais). We quote the f...

 King Philip II of Macedonia (father of Alexander the Great) was the guarantor for Macedonia's rise, as well as for the later glory that his son Alexander III of Macedonia would reap. When Philip defeated the allied Hellenes at Chaironeia with Alexander's help, it marked a turning point in the history of the "Greek world". From then on the Greeks were led by a stranger: King Philip II of Macedonia, as the "Hegemon of the Corinthian League". In the Corinthian League, Philip gathered all the Greeks he had defeated - The Corinthian League was a federation of states that consisted of the defeated Greeks. Almost all city-states were "united" under the the federal government of the Macedonian king. Macedonia, on the other hand, was not a member of the Confederation. Philipp, however, let himself be determined as the hegemon, as he was the  winner on the battlefield. The German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel reported on these events in his work...

 In his work "History of Greece Vol. 12" (published 1875) Georg Grote wrote, that "The basis of Philip’s character was Macedonian, not Greek!" Who was Georg Grote? George Grote (born November 17, 1794 in Clay Hill near Beckenham, now London, † June 18, 1871 in London) was an English ancient historian. ... Elected to Parliament for London in December 1832, he joined the radical party and surrendered. especially the introduction of the secret ballot for the task, which he proposed every year. However, since he did not succeed in defeating the resistance of the Conservatives and a large part of the Whigs, he resigned his mandate in 1841 and resigned from banking a year and a half later, only to concentrate on drafting his History of Greece (London 1846 -56, 12 vols. Plus 2nd vol. Excursions; 5th ed. 1883, 12 vols .; German, 2nd ed., Berlin 1880, 4 vols .; the sections mythology and antiquities specially translated from it by T. Fischer, Leipzig 1856-60, 4 vols.), Which...

 In the inaugural dissertation "Studies on War and Power Formation in Early Hellenism" (Justus Liebig University, Giessen) we find an important reference to the constant question of whether the ancient Macedonians were actually Greeks, as the modern Greek propaganda claims.  This construction that a foreign king was leader of a Greek league is an absolute novelty In section "5.2.4" Personal union" we read the following passage about the father of Alexander the Great, Phillip II of Macedon: ... The area to which the Argead kings had been of special interest even before Philip was Thessaly, the bridging land between the Hellas of the great Poleis and Macedonia. The rule over Thessaly meant security to the south and was at the same time an offensive position, a gateway against Thebes or Athens, both of which had appeared as intervention powers in Macedonia. But Thessaly had more to offer than just its strategic location; Thessaly had a powerful cavalry, but also a...

  Tsar Samoil is claimed by the Bulgarian historiography, but one is aware that Samoil was nothing more than a Macedonian. His empire extended entirely to "Macedonian territories", his capital of the empire was in Ohrid on the shores of Lake Ohrid. The Tsar's fortress still towers over the city. William Miller left us a brief assessment of what the realm of Samoil looked like. So he writes: The kingdom of Samoil was more Macedonian than Bulgarian READ ALSO:  What did Tsar Samoil look like? Source:  The Balkans / by William Miller

 About an exclusive research by Professor Dr. Milan Boškoski the Macedonian daily Nova Makedonija reported. After a detailed examination of all available medieval drawings and miniatures, it can be said what exactly Samoil, his son Gavrilo Radomir, his daughters Miroslava and Kosara, his wife Agatha, but also his nephew Jovan Vladislav and his wife Marija looked like. All these persons, members of the family of Tsar Samoil, were identified in the miniatures of the so-called Madrid manuscript from the end of the 11th and beginning of the 12th century, i.e. immediately after the death of Tsar Samoil, when his direct descendants were still alive. According to the identification made by Professor Dr. Milan Boškoski from the Institute for National History in Skopje, Tsar Samoil is around the age of 50 at the miniature of his daughter Miroslava's wedding, and this character of his miniature, along with two other drawings, is the only authentic visual testimony to the Macedonian Tsar! The...

Today´s Greeks are on a major offensive campaign, with a huge Hellenic brush in their hands, to show the world, especially here in the West, that the Ancient Macedonians were Greeks. Slogans like "Macedonia is Greece", "Macedonians have always been Greek", "Welcome to Macedonia – Greece" and a countless number of other less visible interventions have saturated the media with unprecedented regularity. Such frantic, almost feverish, drive to prove something is telling. What prompted the Greeks, especially after the mid-eighties, to embark on such a monumental task when they had almost more than one hundred years at their disposal to fix the apparent problem with Macedonia and the Macedonians? Several scenarios forcefully enter the picture:  (a) The Green parties in European Parliament and their push for ethnic recognition of minority populations,  (b) Awakening of the ethnic Macedonians in Greece and  (c) Greece´s realization that she i...

What was Alexander's sexual orientation? PAUL CARTLEDGE Jamie, one aspect of Alexander's life that still arouses huge controversy is what nowadays we'd call his sexuality or sexual identity. I remember that a rather conservative Greek lawyer, convinced that his ancient Greek hero must have been as red-bloodedly heterosexual as he, actually threatened to bring an injunction against Oliver Stone's movie for portraying Alexander as engaging in sex with males. Personally, I think any attempt to categorise Alexander in terms of modern sexual identity is grossly anachronistic, but am I not right that Alexander probably did have sex with at least one male as well as with at least two females? JAMES ROMM Well, I'm not sure whom you mean by the one male -- Bagoas or Hephaestion? I'm guessing the former as the evidence for a sexual relationship is firmer than in the case of Hephaestion (where there is no real evidence, but plenty of assumptions). Even in th...

(First in a series of weekly conversations between historians James Romm [JR] and Paul A. Cartledge [PAC], editor and introduction-author, respectively, of the new Landmark Arrian: The Campaigns of Alexander, just published by Pantheon under series editor Robert Strassler. This discussion was created by the Reading Odyssey, a non-profit that aims to reignite curiosity and lifelong learning for adults through lectures, reading groups and webcasts.) JR: Paul, there are only a few people in history who are universally known as “the Great,” and Alexander of Macedon, who reigned and conquered much of the known world between 336 and 323 B.C., probably tops the list. The word “great” in this context, to my mind, is always positive — implying both that Alexander’s achievements were huge in scale, and that his nature was heroic and awe-inspiring. The question many in the modern world might ask, however, is: Do these two things go hand in hand? Perhaps in the scale of his achieve...

Fourth in a series of weekly conversations between historians James Romm [JR] and Paul A. Cartledge [PC], editor and introduction-author, respectively, of the new Landmark Arrian: The Campaigns of Alexander, just published by Pantheon under series editor Robert Strassler. This discussion was created by the Reading Odyssey, a non-profit that aims to reignite curiosity and lifelong learning for adults through lectures, reading groups and webcasts.) In this episode, Romm and Cartledge try to answer the question: What was the Greek attitude toward Alexander? JAMES ROMM Paul, the attitude of the Greeks toward Alexander seems to me to have been conflicted in the extreme. I’ll cite the example of the city I know best, Athens. When Alexander first took the throne in 336, Athens rejected him as regional hegemon and celebrated the death of his father, Philip; but then as soon as Alexander approached with his army, they sent envoys to hail him as leader and heap honors on him. The...

In 359 B.C., Macedon was an unstable barbarian kingdom on the fringes of the Hellenic world. Macedon’s kings, members of the Argead dynasty, claimed Greek descent and ruled over a mix of different peoples including Macedonians, but many others as well, none of whom were regarded as Hellenes, or members of the Greek national race. To Greeks, the Macedonians were regarded as “barbarians.” Archaeology has revealed that the Macedonians never participated in the material culture of the Greek world since the Late Bronze Age. Greek immigrants and goods were welcomed, but Macedonians remained a distinct, speaking a language unintelligible to Greek. King Archelaus adopted Attic Greek as the court language, built roads, and established market towns, but his subjects remained in habits far closer to their Balkan neighbors Illyrians, Paeonians, and Thracians. Macedonian kings ruled by force over proud lords and vassal kings. Despite natural resources and manpower, the Argead kings of Macedon ...

Third in a series of weekly conversations between historians James Romm [JR] and Paul A. Cartledge [PC], editor and introduction-author, respectively, of the new Landmark Arrian: The Campaigns of Alexander , just published by Pantheon under series editor Robert Strassler. This discussion was created by the Reading Odyssey, a non-profit that aims to reignite curiosity and lifelong learning for adults through lectures, reading groups and webcasts.) PC: Jamie, I’ve been reading the latest book publication by Pierre Briant, probably the world’s leading ancient Persologist (if there’s such a word) – technically he’s ‘Professor of the History and Civilization of the Achaemenid World and the Empire of Alexander the Great’ at the stellar College de France (founded in 1530 in Paris by Francois I). The book’s called Alexander the Great and his Empire, and has been translated for Princeton University Press by another leading Persologist, emeritus London Professor Amelie Kuhrt. What...