here you can read more confessions about the trouth of Macedonia.
FALLACIES AND
FACTS ON THE MACEDONIAN ISSUE ©2003
BY
Marcus Alexander Templar
Marcus Alexander Templar was born in Thessaloniki, the Capital of the Greek
Province of Macedonia.
He received his BA from Western Illinois University with major in Social
Sciences and Humanities and his MA from Northeastern Illinois University in
Human Resource Development.
He is an established expert on the Balkans and a Slavicist specializing in the
History, People and Language
of the South Slavs (The FYROM) and the Bulgarians. Besides Greek and English, he
speaks Serbocroatian, Bulgarian, and the Slavonic language of The FYROM.
He has authored articles and essays on historical and social issues regarding
the Slavs of the FYROM as well as the former Yugoslavia and Bulgaria. He is best
known for his essay on the "History, People and Language of the former Yugoslav
Republic of Macedonia."
He is former President of the Macedonian Society of Greater Chicago, and an
advisor to the Pan-Macedonian Association of the USA Committees of National
Issues and Strategic Planning.
There have been certain fallacies circulating for the past few years due to
ignorance on the "Macedonian Issue". It is exacerbated by systematic propaganda
emanating from AVNOJ, or communist Yugoslavia and present-day FYROM, and their
intransigent ultra-nationalist Diaspora.
Fallacy #1
The inhabitants of The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (The FYROM) are
ethnic Macedonians, direct descendants of, or related to the ancient
Macedonians.
Fact #1
The inhabitants of The FYROM are mostly Slavs, Bulgarians and Albanians. They
have nothing in common with the ancient Macedonians. Here are some testimonies
from The FYROM's officials:
a. The former President of The FYROM, Kiro Gligorov said: "We
are Slavs who came to this area in the sixth century ... we are not descendants
of the ancient Macedonians" (Foreign Information Service Daily Report, Eastern
Europe, February 26, 1992, p. 35).
b. Also, Mr Gligorov declared: "We are Macedonians but we are
Slav Macedonians. That's who we are! We have no connection to Alexander the
Greek and his Macedonia… Our ancestors came here in the 5th and 6th century"
(Toronto Star, March 15, 1992).
c. On 22 January 1999, Ambassador of the FYROM to USA, Ljubica
Achevska gave a speech on the present situation in the Balkans. In answering
questions at the end of her speech Mrs. Acevshka said: "We do not claim to be
descendants of Alexander the Great … Greece is Macedonia's second largest
trading partner, and its number one investor. Instead of opting for war, we have
chosen the mediation of the United Nations, with talks on the ambassadorial
level under Mr. Vance and Mr. Nemitz." In reply to another question about the
ethnic origin of the people of FYROM, Ambassador Achevska stated that "we are
Slavs and we speak a Slav language."
d. On 24 February 1999, in an interview with the Ottawa
Citizen, Gyordan Veselinov, FYROM'S Ambassador to Canada, admitted, "We are not
related to the northern Greeks who produced leaders like Philip and Alexander
the Great. We are a Slav people and our language is closely related to
Bulgarian." He also commented, "There is some confusion about the identity of
the people of my country."
e. Moreover, the Foreign Minister of the FYROM, Slobodan
Casule, in an interview to Utrinski Vesnik of Skopje on December 29, 2001, said
that he mentioned to the Foreign Minister of Bulgaria, Solomon Pasi, that they
"belong to the same Slav people."
Fallacy #2
The Macedonian Greeks are of the same ethnic group as the "Macedonians" of The
FYROM.
Fact #2
The Macedonian Greeks are NOT of the same ethnic group as the Macedonian Slavs
of The FYROM. The Macedonian Greeks are just that, Greeks who live in or
originate from the geographic area of Macedonia.
They are the only people, that by inheritance, can be called Macedonians.
Fallacy #3
Ancient Macedonians were a tribe similar to the Greeks, but not Greek
themselves.
Fact #3
Ancient Macedonians were one of more than the 230 Hellenic tribes, sub-tribes,
and families of the Hellenic Nation that spoke more than 200 dialects. For more
information see Herodotus, Thucydides, Titus Livius, Strabo, Nevi'im, Ketuvim,
Apocrypha (Macabees I, 1-2). It was not until 1945 that their Hellenism has
been challenged by the Slavs for expansionistic reasons.
Fallacy #4
Ancient Greece was a country, a legal entity, as we understand it today.
Fact #4
No. Hellas (Greece) was first recognized as a nation state or legal entity as
we understand it today in 1830.
From the beginning until that time, the term Hellas was only a geographic term
or an administrative area whose borders were changing depending on the needs of
the Roman, Byzantine, or Ottoman Empires.
Fallacy #5
There was one ancient Greek language and the ancient Macedonians spoke
Macedonian, not Greek.
Fact #5
Linguistically, there is no real distinction between a dialect and a language
without a specific factor. People usually consider the political factor to
determine whether a certain kind of speech is a language or a dialect. Since
the Pan-Hellenic area consisted of many small city- states (Attica, Lacedaemon,
Corinth, etc.), and larger states (Molossia, Thesprotia, Macedonia, Acarnania,
Aetolia, etc.), it was common knowledge at the time that the people of all those
states were speaking different languages, when in fact they were all variations
of the same language, Hellenic or Greek.
The most advanced of all Hellenic dialects was the dialect of Attica (Athens) or
Attic.
When people state "ancient Greek language" they mean the Attic dialect and any
comparison of the Macedonian dialect to ancient Greek is actually a comparison
to the Attic dialect. The difference between Macedonian and Attic was like the
difference between Low and High German. Nobody doubts that both are Germanic
languages, although they differ from one another. Another good example of a
multi-dialectal linguistic regime is present-day Italy.
The official language of Italy is the Florentine, but common people still speak
their own dialects. Two people from different areas of Italy cannot communicate
if both speak their respective dialect, and yet they both speak Italian. Why
should the Hellenic language be treated differently?
At that time, Greeks spoke more than 200 Hellenic dialects or languages, as the
ancient Greeks used to call them.
Some of the well-known dialects were Ionic, Attic, Doric, Aeolic, Cypriot,
Arcadic, Aetolic, Acarnanic, Macedonian and Locric. Moreover, we know that the
Romans considered the Macedonians as Hellenic speaking peoples.
Livy wrote, "…The Aetolians, the Acarnanians, the Macedonians, men of the same
speech, are united or disunited by trivial causes that arise from time to time
…" (Livy, History of Rome, b. XXXI par. XXIX). The Aetolians and Acarnanians
were definitely Hellenic tribes. On another occasion Livy writes "…[General
Paulus] took his official seat surrounded by the whole crowd of Macedonians …
his announcement was translated into Greek and repeated by Gnaeus Octavius the
praetor…". If the crowd of Macedonians were not Greek speaking, why then did
the Romans need to translate Paulus' speech into Greek? (Livy, History of Rome,
b. XLV, para XXIX).
The Macedonian dialect was an Aeolic dialect of the Western Greek language group
(Hammond, The Macedonian State, p. 193). All those dialects differ from each
other, but never in a way that one person could not understand the other. The
Military Yugoslavian Encyclopedia of the 1974 edition (Letter M, page 219), a
very anti-Hellenic biased publication, states, "… u doba rimske invazije, njihov
jezik bio grčki, ali se dva veka ranije dosta razlikovao od njega, mada ne
toliko da se ta dva naroda nisu mogla sporazumevati." (… at the time of the
Roman invasion their language was Hellenic, but two centuries before it was
different enough, but not as much as the two peoples could not understand one
another).
After the death of Alexander the Great, the situation changed in the vast empire
into a new reality. Ptolemy II, Philadelphos (308-246 BC) the Pharaoh (king)
of Egypt realized that the physical unification of the Greeks and the almost
limitless expansion of the Empire required the standardization of the already
widely used common language or Koinē. Greek was already the lingua franca of
the vast Hellenistic world in all four kingdoms of the Diadochi (Alexander's
Successors). It was already spoken, but neither an official alphabet nor
grammar had yet been devised.
Alexandria, Egypt was already the Cultural Center of the Empire in about 280
BC. Ptolemy II assigned Aristeas, an Athenian scholar, to create the grammar of
the new language, one that not only all Greeks, but all inhabitants of the
Empire would be able to speak. Thus, Aristeas used the Attic dialect as basis
for the new language.
Aristeas and the scholars who were assisting him trimmed the language a little,
eliminated the Attic idiosyncrasies and added words as well as grammatical and
syntactical rules mainly from the Doric, Ionic, and Aeolic dialects.
The Spartan Doric, however, was excluded from it (see Tsakonian further down).
So, they standardized THE Hellenic language, called Koine or Common.
The language was far from perfect. Non-Greeks encountered difficulties reading
it since there was no way to separate words, sentences and paragraphs. In
addition, they were unable to express their feelings and the right intonation.
During that time, Greek was a melodic language, even more melodic than Italian
is today.
The system of paragraphs, sentences, and some symbols like ~. ;`'! , were the
result of continuous improvement and enhancement of the language with the
contribution of many Greek scholars from all over the World.
There were a few alphabets employed by various Hellenic cities or states, and
these alphabets included letters specific to the sounds of their particular
dialect. There were two main categories, the Eastern and the Western
alphabets. The first official alphabet omitted all letters not in use any
longer ( sampi, qoppa, digamma also known as stigma in Greek numbering) and
it presented a 24-letter alphabet for the new Koinē language. However, the
inclusion and use of small letters took place over a period of many centuries
after the standardization of Koinē.
After the new language was completed with its symbols, the Jews of Egypt felt
that it was an opportunity for them to translate their sacred books into Greek
since it was the language that the Jews of Diaspora spoke.
So on the island of Pharos, by Alexandria's seaport, 72 Jewish rabbis were
secluded and isolated as they translated their sacred books (Torah, Nevi'im,
Ketuvim, etc.) from Aramaic and Hebrew to the Koinē Greek, the newly created
language. This is known as the Septuagint translation. The Koinē evolved and
in about two to three centuries it became the language that Biblical scholars
call Biblical Greek. In fact, only those who have studied the Attic dialect can
understand the difference between the Septuagint Greek and the Greek of the New
Testament.
Although the Koinē was officially in use, common folk in general continued to
speak their own dialect and here and there one can sense the insertion of
elements of the Attic dialect in various documents such as the New Testament.
The Gospel according to St. John and the Revelation are written in perfect
Attic.
The other three Synoptic Gospels were written in Koinē with the insertion of
some Semitic grammatical concepts (i.e. the Hebrew genitive) and invented words
(i.e. epiousios).
The outcome is that today in Greece there are many variations in speech; of
course not to the point of people not understanding each other, but still there
is divergence in the Greek spoken tongue. Today the Hellenic language accepts
only one dialect, the Tsakonian, which is a direct development of the ancient
Doric dialect of Sparta.
The Demotic is a development of mostly the Doric sound system, whereas the
Katharevousa is a made-up language based on the Classical Attic. Presently, the
speech in various areas of Greece somehow differs from each other and sometimes
an untrained ear might have difficulty understanding the local speech. Pontic
and Cypriot Greek are very good examples to the unacquainted ear. Tsakonian
dialect, the descendant of the Spartan Doric, is almost impossible to understand
if one is not familiar with it.
Over the years, Macedonia had several names. At first the Macedonians gave the
land the name, Emathia, after their leader Emathion. It derives from the word
amathos, amathoeis meaning sand or sandy.
From now on, all of its names are Greek. Later it was called Maketia or Makessa
and finally Makedonia (Macedonia). The latter names are derived from the Doric/Aeolic
word "makos," (in Attic "mēkos) meaning length (see Homer, Odyssey, VII, 106),
thus Makednos means long or tall, but also a highlander or mountaineer. (cf.
Orestae, Hellenes).
In Opis, during the mutiny of the Macedonian Army, Alexander the Great spoke to
the whole Macedonian Army addressing them in Greek (Arrian, Anabasis of
Alexander, VII, 9,10). The Macedonian soldiers listened to him and they were
dumbfounded by what they heard from their Commander-in-Chief. They were upset.
Immediately after Alexander left for the Palace, they demanded that Alexander
allow them to enter the palace so that they could talk to him.
When this was reported to Alexander, he quickly came out and saw their
restrained disposition; he heard the majority of his soldiers crying and
lamenting, and was moved to tears. He came forward to speak, but they remained
there imploring him. One of them, named Callines, whose age and command of the
Companion cavalry made him preeminent spoke as follows: "Sire, what grieves the
Macedonians is that you have already made some Persians your 'kinsmen', and the
Persians are called 'kinsmen' of Alexander and are allowed to kiss you, while
not one of the Macedonians has been granted this honor" (Arrian, Anabasis of
Alexander, VII, 8-11).
The previous story clearly reveals that the Macedonians were speaking Greek
since they could understand their leader. There were thousands of them, not just
some selected few who happened to speak Greek. It would be unrealistic for
Alexander the Great to speak to them in a language they supposedly did not
speak. It would be impossible to believe that the Macedonian soldiers were
emotionally moved to the point that all of them were lamenting after listening
to a language they did not understand. There is no way for the Macedonians to
have taken a crash course in Greek in 20 minutes so that they would be able to
understand the speech simultaneously as Alexander was delivering it.
Furthermore, the Macedonians wore a distinctive hat, the "kausia" (καυσία)
(Polybius IV 4,5; Eustathius 1398; Arrian, Anabasis of Alexander, VII 22; cf.
Sturz, Macedonian Dialect, 41) from the Greek word for heat that separated them
from the rest of the Greeks. That is why the Persians called them "yauna
takabara," which meant "Greeks wearing the hat". The Macedonian hat was very
distinctive from the hats of the other Greeks, but the Persians did not
distinguished the Macedonians, because the Macedonian speech was also Greek
(Hammond, The Macedonian State p. 13 cf. J.M. Balcer, Historia, 37 [1988] 7).
On the mountainsides of the Himalayas and the Indian Caucasus and under
Pakistani and Afghanistan jurisdiction lives a tribe whose people call
themselves Kalash. They claim to be the descendants of Alexander the Great's
soldiers who for various reasons were left behind in the depths of Asia and
could not follow the Great General in his new conquests. Having no contact with
the outside world for almost 23 centuries, they are quite different from any
other neighboring nations.
Light complexioned, and blue eyed in the midst of dark skinned neighbors, their
language, even though it has been affected and influenced by the many Muslim
languages of nations that surround the Kalash tribe, still incorporates
vocabulary and has many elements of the ancient Greek language. They greet
their visitors with "ispanta" from the Greek verb "ασπάζομαι"
(greetings) and they warn them about "heman" from the ancient Greek noun "χειμών"
(winter). These indigenous people still believe in the twelve Olympian gods and
their architecture resembles very much the Macedonian architecture (National
Herald, "A School in the Tribe of Kalash by Greeks", October 11, 1996).
Michael Wood, the British scholar in his In the Footsteps of Alexander the Great
(p.8), quotes the following statement made by a Kalash named Kazi Khushnawaz:
Long long ago, before the days of Islam, Sikander e Aazem came to India. The Two
Horned one whom you British people call Alexander the Great. (sic) He conquered
the world, and was a very great man, brave and dauntless and generous to his
followers. When he left to go back to Greece, some of his men did not wish to go
back with him but preferred to stay here. Their leader was a general called
Shalakash [Seleucus]. With some of his officers and men, he came to these
valleys and they settled here and took local women, and here they stayed. We,
the Kalash, the Black Kafir of the Hindu Kush, are the descendants of their
children. Still some of our words are the same as theirs, our music and our
dances, too; we worship the same gods. This is why we believe the Greeks are our
first ancestors...
(Seleucus was one of the Generals of Alexander the Great. He was born in 358 or
354 BC in the town of Europos, Macedonia and died in August/September 281 BC
near Lysimathia, Thrace.)
The Kalash today worship the ancient Greek gods and especially Di Zau [Dias
Zeus], the great sky god.
Unfortunately, their language died out only in Muslim times. This is further
evidence that Macedonians and Greeks spoke the same language, had the same
religion and the same customs.
Accusations of Macedonians being barbarians started in Athens and they were the
result of political fabrications based on the Macedonian way of life and not on
their ethnicity or language. (Casson, Macedonia, Thrace and Illyria, p158,
Errington, A History of Macedonia, p 4). Demosthenes traveled to Macedonia
twice for a total of nine months. He knew very well what language the
Macedonians were speaking. We encountered similar behavior with Thrasyboulos.
He states that the Acarnanians were barbarians only when the Athenians
encountered a conflict of political interest from the Acarnanians. The
Macedonian way of life differed in many ways from the southern Greek way of
life, but that was very common among the Western Greeks such as Chaones,
Molossians, Thesprotians, Acarnanians, Aetolians and Macedonians (Errington, A
History of Macedonia, p 4.) Macedonian state institutions were similar to those
of the Mycenean and Spartan (Wilcken, Alexander the Great, p 23). Regarding
Demosthenes addressing Philip as "barbarian" even Badian an opponent of the
Greekness of Macedonians states "It may have nothing to do with historical fact,
any more than the orators' tirades against their personal enemies usually have."
(E. Badian, Studies in the History of Art Vol 10: Macedonia And Greece in Late
Classical and Early Hellenistic Times, Greeks and Macedonians).
Fallacy #6
Ancient Macedonia was a nation state.
Fact #6
Before Phillip II, Macedonia was divided into small typical city-states having
adopted the same concept of internal civic structure as the southern Greek
city-states. Each Macedonian city-state or area had its own main city and
government. Philip II united the Macedonian city-states by instituting and
establishing a Homeric style of a Kingdom, maintaining the infrastructure of the
smaller city-states with the various kings paying tribute to the king of all
Macedonia. We know this from the fact that at one time the king of Lyncestis
(present day Bitola - Florina) was Alexander. The point that has to be made
clear is that a man's first loyalty was to his city, not to the King of
Macedonia (Hammond, The Macedonian State, p. 9).
Fallacy #7
Over the years the ancient Macedonians disappeared.
Fact #7
The ancient Macedonians, under the influence of the new common language, the
Koine, as developed over the years, were amalgamated with the rest of the
Hellenes, or Greeks.
Fallacy #8
If the ancient Macedonians were Greeks, why then was Alexander I, the king of
Macedonia, named Philhellene (lover of Greece)? This title is bestowed only to
foreigners.
Fact #8
The king of Macedonia, Alexander I, was named Philhellene by the Theban poet
Pindaros for the same reason Jason of Pherrai and Euagoras of Cyprus were called
Philhellenes (Isocrates 107A, 199A).
The title Philhellene in ancient times meant Philopatris (lover of the homeland)
or simply put "a patriot" (Plato, Politics, 470E; Xenophon, Agesilaus, 7, 4),
which is why Alexander the Great did not touch the traditional house of Pindaros
when he ordered his soldiers to burn Thebes.
Fallacy #9
The ancient Greeks had a Greek or Hellenic national conscience and the
Macedonians, by destroying Greek cities, proved that they were not Greeks.
Fact #9
Greece is an area which lacking geographic continuity fostered alienation of
individual tribes not only in the general sense, but also in a narrower sense.
That explains why the ancient Greeks did not have a common national conscience
which is why they were warring against each other. The Macedonians destroyed or
burned cities belonging to other Greek City States for the same reason the
Athenians, the Thebans, and the Spartans battled one another.
They knew that somehow they were related, but local conscience was much stronger
than a Pan- Hellenic one. Ancient Greeks, of the Hellenic mainland, were united
before an enemy attack that could endanger the common freedom and welfare. This
fact was displayed anytime the Persians attacked the Hellenic lands.
Greeks from Ionia and Aeolia (present day Aegean shores of Turkey), however,
were mostly Persian allies in opposition to the Mainland Greeks.
It was common practice for various Hellenic states to form political/military
alliances with each other and against each other, but they did not develop
ethnic partnerships. There are plenty of such alliances in the ancient Hellenic
world.
A few centuries went by until the Greeks began developing a national
conscience. The Greeks definitely achieved the completion of a national
conscience by the time Justinian was crowned the Emperor of Byzantium.
Very few ancient Greeks, such as Pericles, Demosthenes and Phillip II of
Macedonia had the vision of a united country, but each one wanted to see his own
state as the leading force of such a union. Pericles dreamed of it, Demosthenes
advocated it, but Phillip II materialized it. Also, the Macedonians had common
religious practices and customs as the Spartans.
Fallacy #10
The ancient Macedonians were one of the Illyrian tribes.
Fact #10
Although there is a lot of evidence (mostly indirect) regarding the language of
the ancient Macedonians, there is one piece of evidence offered by Polybius in
book XXVIII, paragraphs 8 and 9, where it states that the Macedonians were using
translators when they were communicating with the Illyrians. This means the
Macedonians and the Illyrians did not speak the same language. For instance,
Perseus, the Macedonian
king, sent Adaeus of Berroia (who spoke only Greek) and Pleuratus the Illyrian,
as a translator (because he spoke the Illyrian language) on a mission to the
Illyrian king Genthius (169 BC). Pleuratus was an exile living in Perseus'
court. Moreover there is evidence that the Illyrians and the Macedonians were
vicious enemies.
Fallacy #11
Many of the Greeks living in Greek Macedonia are actually refugees that came to
Macedonia during the First World War and especially during the 1920's and 1930'
from Turkey, the Middle East, Georgia, Russia, Ukraine and Bulgaria.
Fact #11
It is very true that a good number of the Greeks living in Greek Macedonia are
refugees from various Middle Eastern countries. However, it is also true that
these Greeks are descendants of those ancient Greeks, including ancient
Macedonians, who either colonized various areas of what presently are Russia,
Ukraine, Georgia, Bulgaria, Turkey, the Middle East, or followed the greatest
General of all times, Alexander the Great. These Greeks simply came home after
at least two and one half millennia of spreading the Greek spirit, culture,
language and civilization. Mother Greece made her lands available to her
returning and thought to be lost offspring. It was the least she could do.
After all they had every right to come home, just as the Jews did and they are
still going home to Israel.
Fallacy #12
Sts. Cyril and Methodius were Slavs and that is the rationale why they are
called
"the Apostles of the Slavs" and also "the Slav Apostles."
Fact#12
The term "Slav Apostles" or the "Apostles of the Slavs" does not mean that the
two brothers were Slavs.
St. Thomas is called "the Indian Apostle," but we all know that he was not an
Indian. He simply taught Christianity to the Indians. The Greek brothers from
Thessaloniki taught Christianity to the Slavs, they gave them the alphabet
(presently called Cyrillic), and they translated the sacred and liturgical books
of Christianity into the Old Church Slavonic, otherwise known as Old
Bulgarian.
Pope John Paul II in his Encyclical Epistles of December 31, 1980, and June 2,
1985, while he was commemorating the two brothers, affirmed the fact that both
were Greeks from Thessaloniki.
Professors Ivan Lazaroff, Plamen Pavloff, Ivan Tyutyundzijeff and Milko
Palangurski of the Faculty of History of Sts. Cyril and Methodius University in
Veliko Tŭrnovo, Bulgaria in their book, Kratka istoriya na bŭlgarskiya narod
(Short History of the Bulgarian Nation, pp 36-38), state very explicitly that
the two brothers were Greeks from Thessaloniki. The late Oscar Halecki,
Professor of Eastern European History, in his book Borderlands of Western
Civilization, A History of East Central Europe (chapter Moravian State and the
Apostles of the Slavs) agrees with the authors of Kratka istoriya na bŭlgarskiya
narod.
Fallacy #13
The present day Emblem of the FYROM is the lion. This lion is the same lion
that Alexander the Great is depicted wearing above his head imprinted on some
old coins.
Fact #13
There is nothing in common between The FYROM's lion and the lion's skin that
Alexander the Great wears in some coins. The FYROM's lion is actually the
Bulgarian lion, which is depicted in the Bulgarian Coat of Arms.
Alexander's lion is the lion's skin that Heracles killed in Nemea, which is one
of the 12 deeds executed by the mythological hero. The lion skin that Alexander
the Great wears signifies his ancestral relationship to Heracles (Hercules).
There is an unpublished inscription from Xanthos dating from the third century
BC (cf. Robert, Amyzon, 1,162, n 31) where the Ptolemies refer to their
Ancestors as "Herakleidas Argeadas"
(Errington, A History of Macedonia, p 265, n 6).
Fallacy #14
In other coins we see Alexander the Great having two horns on his head and this
signifies that he was a very bad man.
Fact #14
In the Middle Eastern tradition a horned man meant that he was powerful. Darius
in his letters to Alexander the Great called him, Zul-Al-Kurnain or Double
Horned one. Thus the horns on Alexander's head means that he was recognized as
most powerful.
Fallacy #15
After the battle of Granicus, Alexander sent the Athenians 300 full suits of
Persian armor as a present, with the following inscription: "Alexander, son of
Philip, and the Greeks, except the Lacedaemonians, dedicate these spoils, taken
from the Persian who dwell in Asia." J.R. Hamilton in a note on this event
states, "In view of the small part, which the Greeks had played in the battle
the inscription [with the omission of any mention of the Macedonians] must be
regarded as propaganda designed for his Greek allies. Alexander does not fail
to stress the absence of the Spartans."
Fact #15
J.R. Hamilton's assumption is unconvincing. Alexander the Great had no reason
to please anyone because the troops from South Greece were only 9,400, and as he
admits, they only played a small part in the battle. Being the master of the
expeditionary force and ignoring his Macedonians while exalting the "foreign
Greeks",
Alexander would have faced the same angry Macedonians that he was confronted
with in Opis when he appointed foreigners (Persians and Medes) to high ranks and
offices in his Army and administration. However, none of the Macedonians
complained about the inscription after the battle of Granicus because they
considered themselves included in it.
The fact is that Alexander the Great considered himself and his Macedonians,
Greek. He claimed ancestry on his mother's side from Achilles and on his
father's side from Hercules (Heracles). His ancestor, Alexander I, stated that
he was Greek (Herodotus, Histories, V, 20, 22; VIII, 137; IX, 45).
The Macedonians themselves were Greek speaking peoples
(see: Papazoglu, Makedonski Gradovi, p 333 and Central Balkan Tribes, p 135;
Casson, Macedonia, Thrace and Illyria, pp157-162; NGL Hammond, The Macedonian
State, pp 12-15 and 193; Cavaignac, Histoire de l' antiquité, i, p 67; Hoffman,
Die Makedonen, p. 259; Errington, A History of Macedonia, p 3; Yugoslavian
Military Encyclopedia 1974 "Antička Makedonija"; Hogarth, Philip and Alexander,
p.5, n 4),
Urlich Wilcken, Alexander the Great, II pp 23 and 24, Botsford, Hellenic
History, p 237).
Some of the scholars mentioned above initially were not sure about the Greekness
of the Macedonians (i.e. NGL Hammod). Newly discovered artifacts and monuments
that were excavated indicating the Macedonians were actually Greek made them
admit their previous error. NGL Hammond explains the reason why scholars like
Badian do not consider the Macedonians Greeks in his book, The Macedonian State
(page 13, note 29). Hammond states that most recently E. Badian in Barr-Sharrar
(pp 33-51) disregarded the evidence as explained in A History of Macedonia (NGL
Hammond and G. T. Griffith, 1979 pp 39-54). In Barr-Sharrar, Badian holds the
view that the Macedonians (whom he does not define) spoke a language other than
Greek. Badian keeps ignoring evidence that is against his beliefs and
convictions choosing only certain proof and ignoring other relevant proof.
That is exactly the pattern others, like E. Borza, P. Green, etc. have chosen to
follow.
All names, whether members of the royal family or not, including names of other
simple Macedonian citizens, i.e. Kallinis (Arrian, Anabasis of Alexander, VII
par 11), Limnos from Chalastra (Plutarch, Parallel Lives of Famous Greeks and
Romans, chap. Alexander) and all toponymies in the area of the Macedonian
homeland were Greek. The Macedonian homeland included the city-states of
Imathia, Pieria, Bottiea, Mygdonia, Crestonia, Bisaltia, Sintiki, Odomantis,
Edonis, Elimea, Orestis, Eordea, Almopia, Lyncestis, Pelagonia and Macedonian
Paeonia. Macedonian Paeonia is the part of Paeonia which lies south of the
narrow pass at the area of Demir Kapija (The FYROM).
Fanula Papazoglu indirectly agrees with the concept of the above borderlines
stating, "… it is often forgotten that ancient Macedonia occupied only a
relatively small part of the Yugoslav Macedonia" (Papazoglu, Central Balkan
Tribes, p. 268). Papazoglu's two maps at the end of her doctoral dissertation (Makedonski
gradovi u rimsko doba, Skoplje, 1957) portray only Macedonian territories under
Roman rule.
Macedonia conquered the already Hellenized Paeonia in 217 BC under King Philip
V, 106 years after the death of Alexander the Great. Any map that incorporates
Paeonia into Macedonia before that year is absolutely false.
All inscriptions and artifacts excavated, including those in Trebenište and
Oleveni near Bitola, are in pure Greek.
With a few exceptions, the only time one sees non-Greek names and toponymies is
in areas that constituted the expansion of Macedonia, i.e. Paeonia, Thrace, etc.
Any non-Greek names, words or toponymies found in the Macedonian homeland are
remnant of Thracians, Phrygians or Paeonians that used to live there before
their expulsion by the Macedonians.
Participation in the Olympic Games was unequivocally and definitely a function
that only athletes of strictly Hellenic origin could partake. Archelaus had won
in the Olympic and Pythian Games (Solinus 9, 16) and Alexander I had also won in
the Olympic Games (Herodotus, Histories, V, 22).
It is stated by Herodotus (Histories VIII, 43) that a number of Peloponnesian
cities inhabited by Lacedaemonians, Corinthians, Sicyonians, Epidaurians,
Troezinians, and Hermionians and that with the exception of Hermionians all
others were of Dorian and Macedonian blood. The above people were living in
cities located in Peloponnesus, which makes the Macedonians as Greek as the
Dorians.
The answer as to why Alexander sent the 300 full suits of Persian armor to
goddess Athena, goes back to the battle of Thermopylae and all events that
followed. But in order for one to understand it better, one has to know the
story of the battle of Thermopylae.
The Persian Army and Navy, headed by Xerxes, won the battle against the 1300
Greeks (1000 from Phocis) lead by the 300 Spartans whose commander was Leonidas.
It is important for one to note that the Persians were victorious only when a
local Greek, Ephialtes, betrayed a secret passage to the enemy who came from
behind and thus surrounded the few Greeks. It is also important to know that
according to Lycourgos' laws, Spartans were not allowed to leave the battlefield
for any reason, nor they were allowed to follow anyone in the battle. That's
why the Spartans did not follow Alexander against the Persians.
Herodotus (Histories b. VIII, 114) tells us:
… the Spartans upon the urging of the Oracle of Delphi sent a messenger to
Xerxes demanding reparations for the death of Leonidas. The man who obtained an
interview with Xerxes said to him: 'My lord, King of the Medes, the
Lacedaemonians and the house of Heracles in Sparta demand satisfaction for
blood, because you killed their king while he was fighting in defense of
Greece.'
Xerxes laughed, and for a time did not answer…
The royal house of Sparta (Herodotus VII, 204), and the royal house of Macedonia
(cf. Fact #13) both claimed descent from Heracles (Hercules).
Taking into consideration all of the above, we come to the conclusion that
Alexander the Great, being victorious at the battle of Granicus, sent 300 full
armor uniforms to goddess Athena who was also the goddess of war, and in this
way he AVENGED the 300 Spartans who died defending Greece.
Conclusion:
An abundance of information regarding the ancient Greek past comes to us from
the Greek Mythology. Unfortunately, Mythology cannot be a dependable source
since it cannot furnish trustworthy information which would help us reconstruct
the Hellenic past. However, it does not mean it is completely useless either.
It elucidates through symbolism truths leading us to the right path while
searching for historical facts through written or unwritten monuments. Such
monuments are the only ones accepted by historians in their attempt to unlock
hidden elements that hold the key to the reconstruction of the past of all
Hellenic group of nations.
Countries are products of historical events, which is why they are born and
die. Nations do not. Nations are entities that take a very arduous time to
evolve. The same thing is true for their appellation. Nations cannot be given
birth and receive names whenever politicians wish by legislation, as it is the
case of the FYROM.
The present-day Hellenic nation is the result of social, civic and linguistic
amalgamation of more than 230 tribes speaking more than 200 dialects that
claimed descent from Hellen, son of Deukalion. The Hellenic nation is blessed
to espouse in its lengthy life great personalities such as politicians,
educators, soldiers, philosophers and authors. They have all contributed in
their own way to the molding of their nation. They are the result of natural
maturity and a consequence of historical, social, civic, linguistic and
political developments that have taken place in the last 4,000 years.
"When we take into account the political conditions, religion and morals of the
Macedonians, our conviction is strengthened that they were a Greek race and akin
to the Dorians. Having stayed behind in the extreme north, they were unable to
participate in the progressive civilization of the tribes which went further
south..." (Wilcken,
Alexander the Great, p 22). Most historians have assessed the Macedonian state
of affairs in a similar fashion. The Macedonians were a Hellenic group of tribes
belonging to the Western Greek ethnic group.
The Macedonians incorporated the territory of the native people into Macedonia
and forced the Pieres, a Thracian tribe, out of the area to Mt. Pangaeum and the
Bottiaiei from Bottiaia. They further expelled the Eordi from Eordaia and the
Almopes from Almopia and they similarly expelled all tribes (Thracian, Paeonian,
Illyrian) they found in areas of Anthemus, Crestonia, Bysaltia and other
lands. The Macedonians absorbed the few inhabitants of the above tribes that
stayed behind. They established their suzerainty over the land of Macedonia
without losing their ethnicity, language, or religion (Thucydides, II, 99).
They also incorporated the lands of the Elimeiotae, Orestae, Lyncestae,
Pelagones, and Deriopes all tribes living in Upper Macedonia who were Greek
speakers, but of a different (Molossian) dialect from that spoken by the
Macedonians (Hammond, The Macedonian State, p. 390). Then, living with savage
northern neighbors such as Illyrians, Thracians, Paeonians and later Dardanians,
the Macedonians physically deflected their neighbors' hordes forming an
impenetrable fence denying them the opportunity to attack the Greek city-states
of the south, which is why they are considered the bastion of Hellenism.
N. G. L. Hammond states:
What language did these `Macedones' speak? The name itself is Greek in root and
in ethnic termination. It probably means `highlanders', and it is comparable to
Greek tribal names such as `Orestai' and `Oreitai', meaning 'mountain-men'. A
reputedly earlier variant, `Maketai', has the same root, which means `high', as
in the Greek adjective makednos or the noun mekos. The genealogy of eponymous
ancestors which Hesiod recorded […] has a bearing on the question of Greek
speech. First, Hesiod made Macedon a brother of Magnes; as we know from
inscriptions that the Magnetes spoke the Aeolic dialect of the Greek language,
we have a predisposition to suppose that the Macedones spoke the Aeolic dialect.
Secondly, Hesiod made Macedon and Magnes first cousins of Hellen's three sons -
Dorus, Xouthus, and Aeolus-who were the founders of three dialects of Greek
speech, namely Doric, Ionic, and Aeolic. Hesiod would not have recorded this
relationship, unless he had believed, probably in the seventh century, that the
Macedones were a Greek speaking people.
The next evidence comes from Persia. At the turn of the sixth century the
Persians described the tribute-paying peoples of their province in Europe, and
one of them was the `yauna takabara', which meant `Greeks wearing the hat'.
There were Greeks in Greek city-states here and there in the province, but they
were of various origins and not distinguished by a common hat. However, the
Macedonians wore a distinctive hat, the kausia. We conclude that the Persians
believed the Macedonians to be speakers of Greek. Finally, in the latter part of
the fifth century a Greek historian, Hellanicus, visited Macedonia and modified
Hesiod's genealogy by making Macedon not a cousin, but a son of Aeolus, thus
bringing Macedon and his descendants firmly into the Aeolic branch of the
Greek-speaking family. Hesiod, Persia, and Hellanicus had no motive for making a
false statement about the language of the Macedonians, who were then an obscure
and not a powerful people.
Their independent testimonies should be accepted as conclusive (N.G.L. Hammond,
The Macedonian State, p.12-13).
The evidence above shows that the ancient Macedonians were one of the Hellenic
groups of tribes speaking a Greek dialect and having the same institutions as
the Spartans and especially the Greeks of the Western group of nations. Thus,
the fallacies emanated from the FYROM and its diaspora are strongly repudiated.
Marcus A. Templar
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THE MACEDONIAN HOMELAND
By Marcus A. Templar
Borders of Macedonia (Philip V) by N. G. L. Hammond
Borders of Macedonia (in 167 BC)
By Dr. Fanula Papazoglu. (Legend translated by Marcus A. Templar)
Borders of Macedonia (during Roman times)
By Dr. Fanula Papazoglu. (Legend translated by Marcus A. Templar)
Genealogy
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