It is quite true that “Macedonian national identity is one of the most complex in the Balkans”.[1] The present-day Macedonians are having a century and a half identity disputes with their neighbors, especially with the Greeks and the Bulgarians but as well as and self-identity problems within the territory of the state of Macedonia which was proclaimed as an independent in November 1991 on the foundation of ex-Yugoslav socialist republic (1945−1991) under the same name. Today, only about 64% of Macedonia’s citizens claim to be the Macedonians in ethnolinguistic terms while the rest of population reject this name even from the national-political point of view – i.e., to be called Macedonians just as the citizens of the state of Macedonia. Bulgaria does not recognize the existence of ethnolinguistic Macedonians under the claim that all the Slavs of Macedonia are of the Bulgarian ethnolinguistic origin while Greece rejects to recognize any ethnolinguistic Macedonians on its own state’s territory using the term Slavophone Greeks for those Greece’s inhabitants who are claimed by Skopje to be Macedonian diaspora in neighboring Greece. Even the world is divided in regard to the official name of the state of Macedonia as some countries recognized it as the Republic of Macedonia but other states prefer rather the term the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM). Therefore, this country is the only state in the world to be officially recognized by other states or international organizations as the Former…[2]
This article is dealing with the conflicting claims to Macedonian identity primarily asserted by both Greeks and Slavo-Macedonians. The long-time conflict between Greeks and Slavo-Macedonians over the question which ethnic group has the right to identify itself as being Macedonian is, in fact, a political dispute over the name, flag, history, and territory but, in essence, it is a dispute over the question who has the right to use the terms Macedonia and Macedonians.[3]
Terminology
Macedonia is a geographical and historical area which name originates from the antique time and which is mentioned as a land at several points in the Bible. Writing on the problem of who the contemporary Macedonians are and/or who they are not is quite a controversial issue from both academic and political sides. From a very practical point of view, there are three standpoints of identifying those people who are today either calling themselves as Macedonians or living within the territory of some Macedonia:
- Macedonians are those who are living within a multiethnic geographic area of Macedonia[4] that is bounded to the north by Skopska Crna Gora Mts. and Shara Mts.; to the east by the Rila Mts. and Rhodope Mts.; to the south by the coast of the Aegean Sea around the city of Thessaloniki, Olympus Mts. and Pindus Mts.; and to the west by the lakes of Ohrid and Prespa. This territory is today politically divided between FYROM, Bulgaria, Albania, and Greece (as a consequence of the Balkan Wars in 1912−1913) while geographically it is composed by Lower (south) and Upper (north) Macedonias.
- Macedonians are those who are today living in FYROM as the citizens of this political entity called as such by a temporary name as a result of Macedonian-Greek diplomatic negotiations from 1991 to 1993.
- Macedonians are all those who are calling themselves by such ethnonational name no matter they are living in FYROM or in geographic-historical Macedonia.[5]
The Antique Macedonians
To deal with the identity issue of the modern-day Macedonians requires firstly to draw attention to the difference between the ancient Macedonians and the contemporary Macedonian nation. In one word, these two ethnic groups have nothing in common except the same ethnic name due to the very fact that the modern Macedonians accidentally live on the part of the territory once populated by the ancient Macedonians of Philip the Macedon and Alexander the Great. It means that three thousand years ago a people called the Macedonians lived at the Balkan peninsula among whom Alexander the Great (336−323 BC) is, for sure, the best well-known representative of these ancient Macedonians, who created in the 4th century BC the first global empire by connecting the provinces of three continents[6] – the empire in which the ancient Greek language became the first global lingua franca with the Greek culture as the first universal culture of civilized world.[7] The ancient Macedonians originally lived north of the ancient Greeks (north of Olympus Mts.) up to the southern parts of the central Balkans and had their own language and traditions.[8] However, the upper class (aristocracy) was fairly Hellenized and used the ancient Greek language for official purposes followed by worshiping of the ancient Greek gods.[9]
It is of quite a fake assumption that southernmost ex-Yugoslav republic was named as Macedonia because it covered the territory of the ancient Kingdom of Macedon and, therefore, the so-called Macedonians of Yugoslavia had historical rights for cultural and identity legacy of Macedonia and Macedonians from the time of Antique. To be clear, the present-day state of Macedonia is located not on the territory of ancient Kingdom of Macedon but rather on the territory of the Roman Province of Macedonia which was composed by vast territory including present-day Albania, Greek Thessaly, FYROM, and parts of Bulgaria up to Rhodope Mts.[10] The archeological sites on the territory of FYROM (for instance, Stobi or in Bitola) of the Antique time belong to the Roman but not to the Macedon period. These facts suggest that FYROM Macedonians have nothing to do either with the territory of the ancient Kingdom of Macedon or with its historical and cultural legacy. In other words, the name of a present-day state of Macedonia is, in fact, empty of the real ancient Macedon inheritance. The Greek historiographers are basically right with their claim that the Yugoslav historiography for the very political purpose simply extended Antique Macedon state “…much further towards the north than the borders of historical Macedon, in such a way as to include actual Slavic regions that have never been parts of Macedonia in antiquity, but were actually districts of ancient Dardania”.[11]
A real ethnolinguistic origin of the ancient Macedonians is not clearly fixed. There are many unproven theories on their origin: Greek, Illyrian, Thracian or mixture of all of them. However, in the course of time, the ancient Macedonians became enough different from the Greeks, especially from the matter of their spoken language, that even majority of the Greek intellectuals of the time considered Macedonians as barbarians – not the Greeks by blood, i.e., those who did not speak Greek language as a native one. The most prominent figures of those well-known Greeks who perceived Macedonians as not Greeks, and therefore being barbarians, are Thucydides (the author of famous “Poloponnese Wars”), Demosthenes (384−322 BC)[12] and (pro-Philip) Isocrates (436−338 BC). However, as a matter of fact, there were thousand years of continuous presence of Hellenic culture and civilization on the territory of the Kingdom of Macedon that many Greeks considered, like today, ancient Macedonians as one of many Greek tribes.[13] According to Prof. M. Rostovtzeff, Greeks hardly understood Macedon language but, anyway, it was a dialect of Greek with many foreign words.[14]
The Slavo-Macedonians
If the ancient Macedonians were not the ethnolinguistic Greeks, they have not been as well as the ethnolinguistic Slavs like the modern Macedonians are. In other words, self-called Macedonians who today inhabit the Balkan peninsula, are the Slavic people, having nothing in common with the ancient Macedonians of Philip II (Philip of Macedon) and his son Alexander the Great.[15] From the late Antique onward there were several different ethnic groups who became settled at the Balkan peninsula as, for instance, Celts, Huns, Bulgars, Germanic tribes, Slavic tribes, Mongols or Ottoman Turks. Surely, they either drove away or assimilated the autochthonous population, or even became assimilated (like the Asiatic Bulgars who became ethnolinguistic Slavs).[16] The Slavs, divided into many tribes, were settled in the Balkan peninsula from the end of 6th century AD (from around 580 up to 624) and the autochtonous people living in the land of Roman Province of Macedonia (at that time under Byzantine administration) became soon assimilated by these Slavic tribes who became settled even on the Peloponnesus peninsula (today in South Greece). However, no single historical source of the time recorded any Slavic tribe under the name of “Macedonians” or “Bosnians” (well- known were the “Serbs” and “Croats”). Therefore, modern Macedonia’s people, whom we know under the national name of “Macedonians”, differ in ethnic point of view from the ancient Macedonians, with a different language and culture.[17] Subsequently, FYROM’s Macedonians should be called as Slavo-Macedonians for the matter of difference with the Antique Macedonians.
In essence, the present-day Macedonians are the Slavs who to a certain degree assimilated pre-Slavic population of Macedonia but borrowed the ancient name of the settled land (of Roman Province of Macedonia and Byzantine Theme of Macedonia) as their new national one.[18] However, the problem of political-national nature arose when after the WWII Yugoslav Macedonians started to claim a national, historical and cultural legacy of the ancient Macedonians and their state with whom they, in fact, had nothing in common. However, one can say that something similar goes about the Greeks as well. The ethnic nature of contemporary Greece is in no close match to the ethnic nature of the area at the time of Alexander the Great. New peoples in the Middle Ages entered Greek territories and merged with the existing peoples. Whereas in FYROM there is a majority of people of mixed ethnic stock who speak a Slavic language and have a predominantly Slavic culture (about 2/3 out of total population), in Greece, there is a majority of people of mixed ethnic stock who speak Greek language and sharing Greek culture. Therefore, as both FYROM and Greece have changed dramatically in the ethnic mixture over the past 1500 years, like all other Balkan regions, it cannot be claimed that there is a pure and not interrupted the ethnonational continuity of any Balkan modern nation with the ethnic groups from the past. Moreover, the Balkans “…is one of the most ethnically, linguistically and religiously complex areas of the world. Its geographic position has historically resulted in it being disrupted by invaders moving from Asia Minor to Europe or vice-versa”.[19]
[1] Stephen Barbour, Cathie Carmichael (eds.), Language and Nationalism in Europe, New York: Oxford University Press, 2000, 229.
[2] James Pettifer (ed.), The New Macedonian Question, New York: Palgrave, 2001, 3−59.
[3] Loring M. Danforth, Ethnic Nationalism in a Transnational World, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1997, 6.
[4] About Ottoman Macedonia’s ethnolinguistic and multiconfessional composition, see [Henry N. Brailsford, Macedonia: Its Races and Their Future, London: Methuen & Co., 1906].
[5] Hough Poulton, Who are the Macedonians?, Hong Kong: Hurst & Company London, 1995, 1−2.
[6] Hans-Erich Stier et al (eds.), Westermann Großer Atlas zur Weltgeschichte, Braunschweig: Westermann Schulbuchverlag GmbH, 1985, 22−23.
[7] On this issue, see in [Philip Freeman, Alexander the Great, New York: Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 2011; Thomas R. Martin, Christopher W. Blackwell, Alexander the Great: The Story of an Ancient Life, New York: Cambridge University Press, 2012].
[8] In the 5th and 4th centuries BC, biggest portion of the present-day state of Macedonia was not part of the ancient Kingdom of Macedon and it was covered by the territory known as Paeonia that was populated by the ancient Illyrians but not by the Macedonians [Giuseppe Motta (ed.), Atlante Storico, Novara: Istituto Geografico de Agostini S.p.A., 1979, 13].
[9] On ancient Macedonians, see in [Eugene N. Borza, In the Shadow of Olympus: The Emergence of Macedon, Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1992; Joseph Roisman, Ian Worthington (eds.), A Companion to Ancient Macedonia, Chichester, West Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell, 2010].
[10] Hans-Erich Stier et al (eds.), Westermann Großer Atlas zur Weltgeschichte, Braunschweig: Westermann Schulbuchverlag GmbH, 1985, 38−39.
[11] Nicolas K. Martis, The Falsification of Macedonian History, Athens: Graphic Arts, 1984, 13.
[12] “Demosthenes viewed the peoples of Macedonia as barbarous riffraff led by a king (Philip II) who not only did not belong and was unrelated to the Greeks but could not even boast a respectable foreign heritage” [John Crossland, Diana Constance, Macedonian Greece, London: Batsford Ltd, 1982, 9,15].
[13] Michael B. Sakellariou (ed.), Macedonia. 4,000 Years of Greek History and Civilization, Athens: Aristide d Caratzas Publ., 1988, 63.
[14] Михаил Ростовцев, Историја старога света: Грчка, Рим, Нови Сад: Матица српска, 1990, 155.
[15] This was recently recognized by a mayor of Skopje who sincerely gave a statement that today’s Slavo-Macedonians have nothing in common with Macedonians of Philip the Macedon and Alexander the Great.
[16] The modern Bulgarians are of Turkic origin who migrated to the Balkans from their homeland found north of the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov. They crossed the Danube in the late 7th century (679−681) and inhabited the territory of present-day North Bulgaria, which was at that time already settled by seven Slavic tribes. By the early 10th century Turkic Bulgars became assimilated by the local Slavs but their ethnic name was given to such amalgam of Bulgar-Slavic people. From the 10th century onward the Bulgarians (mixture of Bulgars and Slavs) are considered as a Slavic people who were speaking Slavonic language [John V. A. Fine, JR., The Early Medieval Balkans: A Critical Survey from the Sixth to the Late Twelfth Century, Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 1994, 305].
[17] Here it has to be noted that the fundamental dogma of the FYROM historiography about the origin of the modern Macedonians clearly confirms that they are the Slavs and even the oldest Slavic nation [James Pettifer (ed.), The New Macedonian Question, New York: Palgrave, 2001, 55].
[18] The modern ethnonym Macedonian is derived from the ancient toponym Macedon. Similar it happens with today ethnonym Bosniak that is derived from a toponym Bosnia (a name of the land Bosnia comes from Bosnia [Bosna] river). Therefore, modern ethnonyms Macedonian and Bosniak are not grounded on the ethnic foundations but rather on the territorial.
[19] Hugh Poulton, The Balkans: Minorities and States in Conflict, London: Minority Rights Publications, 1994, 1.
Reposts are welcomed with the reference to ORIENTAL REVIEW.
http://www.pollitecon.com/html/ebooks/From-Sanskrit-to-Macedonskrit.pdf
The article above includes an extended glossary of Macedonian words that prove that today’s Macedonian langugae is not only the basis of all Slavic languages but also shares common origins with Sanskrit.
As for the author, Soros shill, Sotirović, I see he is still peddling his petty wares. Some things will never change under the same. Poganštija, seušte gi plukaš svoite Makedonci? Bravos, Janičaru, parata e slatka neli??
“The relationship between Sanskrit and Macedonic implies a common origin for these language families and their constituent languages, and presumably a common Proto-language homeland, occupied by speakers of the notional ancestral language at a date well prior to the formation of the daughter families and their languages. Sanskrit evidence is very important for the reconstruction of the Macedonic languages dating and assembly. By comparing the modern Macedonic languages with Sanskrit we can see their remarkable internal archaicity. Unlike hypothetical reconstructions, Macedonic and Vedic Sanskrit are real languages going back to at least 6000 years ago. Similar to the Macedonic script called Glagolithic ( attested as of 4th century AD ) variants of script called Nāgarī, recognizably close to Devanagari, are first attested from the 1st Century AD, Rudradaman inscriptions in Sanskrit, while the modern standardized form of Devanagari was in use by about 1000 AD, corresponding to Cyrillic script as of 9th Century. Thus, according to these development similarities traced by Comparative Linguistics it can be deduced that the “language split” must have occurred long before the supposed appearance of Aryan languages, which are the natural post-product of this diversification.”
http://www.pollitecon.com/html/ebooks/From-Sanskrit-to-Macedonskrit.pdf
“Among Indo-European family the continuity of Macedonic languages is uniquely attested. It is the only European language that has clearly distinguished and recognisable features of all 5 stages of development defined by the modern comparative linguistics: Proto-language, Pre-Language, stage of the Common Language unity, Old Language and Modern Language. According to the comparative linguistics, he timeline of these stages shpould be roughly as follows:
1. Pre-Historic ( ie; Proto-language ) Macedonic, until the 1st millenium BCE;
2. Ancient Macedonian, ie; Pre-language ( analogue to Indo-European Common language stage, 1st millenium BCE
until 5th century AD );
3. Macedonic Common-language stage ( east Roman Empire and Samoil’s Macedonian empire, 5-13 century AD);
4. Old Church “Slavonic”, ie; Old-language ( under the Turkish invasion, 14-18 century AD ); and
5. Modern Macedonian language ( 18-21 century AD ).
http://www.pollitecon.com/html/ebooks/From-Sanskrit-to-Macedonskrit.pdf
“Who are not modern day Macedonians…” Only a semi-literate hack would dream up such a stupid title. Just to let you know, you now have to prove a negative. No one has ever proven a negative. Good luck with that.
Dimitar as usually is spreading out false info on Macedonians taken from quasi-academic sites payed by Skopje government. For Dimitar Adam and Eve in Paradise were speaking standardized Macedonian language of FYROM
Very objective text on the problem of Macedonian identity – balanced, neutral and academic. Bravo Mr Sotirovic!
Dear Dimitar, what is your proposal in regard to the title of the article? Maybe “FYROM Macedonians All and Everywhere”?
Yes Dimitar, all human races are originating in Slavic Macedonians and FYROM is the birth place of Adam & Eve!
“…false info on Macedonians”, prove that its false! Opinions are a dime a dozen,
Slavic and Macedonian are synonymous terms. There is no such thing as “Greek Macedonian”, if there was, why the prefix “greek”? Putin himself thanked Macedonian President Ivanov in April 2017 for giving Russia her alphabet. Look at the Glossary in the ebook I have posted, of course if your brave “Greek” heart can stand it. Otherwise shut the f.ck up with your idiotisms. The way you drag everything into the gutter shows only that you cannot rise above the most base emotional level with your infantile spewings of insults etc. etc. A waste of oxygen.
Sanskrit Macedonian English
Yatr Yatrva Husband’s brother’s wife
Snoha Snaa Daughter in Law
Svakr Svekor Father in Law
Devr Dever Brother in Law
Brathr Brath Brother
Suna Sin Son
Serde Sred Centre
Bruza Brzo Quickly
Dzveri Dvzer Beast
Zelkia Zelka Cabbage
Avaha Navaka Over here
Agni Ogin Fire
Adhivita Odvitka (Un)wrapped up
Anga Noga Leg
Antar Kantar Balance for measuring weights
Aksa Oko Eye
Asta Ostay Left, thrown, set aside
Arati Orati To plow
Balaksa Bleska To shine
Bagata Bogata Rich
Bhava Biva Being
Bhaga Boga God
Bhala Bela White
Bharami Barame Searching
Bhruva Obvra Eyebrow
Bhur Buren Convulsive, quiver
Bhudi Budi Awakens
Vāri Vari Boiling in Water
Vad Vodi Leads
Vratana Vrat Neck
I have given thirty words in Sanskrit, in Macedonian and their meaning in English. For starters. If any of you can disprove that these words are not of the same origin, go ahead. Arguments please, leave your petty bullshit ad hominem attacks and racism at the door.
“POLICRATICUS..%#” Nice try. My answer to you is in the abbreviated glossary contained in my comment @ 11/05/2018 at 11:16 AM. What is your answer to that?
There is only one Macedonia and that is part of Greece after 1913 – “Aegean” Macedonia. Present day former Yugoslav Macedonia does not have right to be called Macedonia. It can be called only Paeonia. What Yugoslavs did after 1945 is falsification of Macedonian history.
Sanskrit has nothing common with Macedonian language and vice versa. What FYROM is doing during last 25 years is a continuation of Tito’s policy in Macedonia: falsifying the truth for political purposes.
“Papajorgos”, and before 1913? “Sanimideg”; even the Gods bow down before the truth, but fools will always be fools. Let all who come here see that truth and make their own judgements.
“The striking similarities in Sanskrit and Macedonian indicate that during some pristine period of history the speakers of the two languages lived close together. According to linguist and author W.R.Rishi, the relation between these two languages is very close and correspondence between them is so minute that it cannot be attributed to mere chance. It was not by chance that Aleksandar the Great embarked on his monumental Macedonic campaign toward India. At the end, he was just reuniting the pieces of the one and the same urheimat ( homeland ), where the people could understand him and his companions. How else could he have possibly enrolled the Persian military forces immediately under Macedonian command, or hold the Persian state administration under controlif they didn’t understand a word of ancient Macedonian idiom? He conquered the ancient oriental world, but the Occidental Macedonian and Oriental Persian worlds didnt clash. Aleksandar’s conquest was followed by a slow and peaceful process of mutual Occidental-Oriental contacts. His biographers have brought to us notions of his eloquent encounters with the Indian Brahmans, with Indian kings and Bhaktrian princesses. Apame, the wife of his successor in Persia, Selevk ( lat. Seleucus ) brings to us the notion of yet another Macedonic/Persian word – ‘xarenah’, ie; ‘tsarina’ in plain Macedonian, which survived unchanged till nowadays.”
http://www.pollitecon.com/html/ebooks/From-Sanskrit-to-Macedonskrit.pdf
“Sanskrit and Macedonian has nothing in common and vice versa…” so says some Greek going by the name of “Sanimideg”. But, according to linguist and author W.R.Rishi, “…the relation between the two languages is very close and cannot be attributed to mere chance”. As an art student some thirty years ago, my first professor, a Danish national who also happened to be a Vedantist, spoke to me about the common basis of the Sanskrit and Macedonian languages. One of my solicitors, a Pole, when as a boy asking his mother about “Aleksandar the Great” was told, “Aleksandar Makedonski e naš, on ne e Grk”, “Aleksandar is a Slav, he is not a ‘Greek'”. Russians too know of the connection between Sanskrit and their language. Seems that the famous Greek sensitivity where their identity is concerned has a basis. I believe the same Greek sensitivity is because they themselves know that their identity has been ready made and imposed by the West, while they themselves, in the vast majority were Arnaut, Turk, Vlav, etc etc. This explains what Ionnis Michelatos meant when he said that, “…everyone’s grandparents in Greece knew another language”. He was trying to paint the modern Greek as some sort of cosmopolitan race, but in fact, today’s “Greeks” are a creation by the West, whose original identities were subsumed into the project “modern Greece”, created by sugar daddys, Great Britain, France, Germany. When Greeks are confronted by evidence such as Ive presented above, they automatically go into “attack mode”. Their subconscious minds kick in and out comes the usual drivel, “Tito created…” “FYROM…” “Macedonia is Greece” etc etc etc.
The Slavo- Macedonians certainly made a good choice in freely calling their country Makodonija because they are the direct desendents of the ancient Macedonians and Alexander the Great was a Slavo – Macedonian.The Serbian Internet has proven this with innumerable presentations Looks like Mr. Sotirovic reads Cvorovic and Radic whom nobody listens to anymore and other corrupt,paid,official historians in occupied Serbia. Todays libraries are full of British Imperialists writing false histories about the Balkans which Mr. Sotirovic refers us to.When i was in Thesalonika i noticed the British and Greeks hated Makedonija. They would not even pronounce the name.
1)Macedonia comes from the greek word makednos(μακεδνός,μήκος=length),meaning long.
Τhis is because macedonians were on average taller than the other three greek tribes Aeolians,Achaeans,ionians.
This is still visible in Greece.
2)Alexander was Greek from both sides:father Philip and mother Olympias.
Olympias was a princess from Epirus.
3)Ancient macedonian was a Greek DIALECT ,NOT a separate language.
I guess everyone with reasonable education,intelligence and common sense understands the difference between dialect and separate language.
4)The boundaries of the modern regionof macedonia shown on the map are completely subjective.
5)The best name would be Paeonia
Sotirovic = Serb. ‘Nuff said.
Ancient Macedonia was a Greek kingdom on the northern Greek peninsula inhabited by Greek speaking people with Greek names and Greek culture. Modern Macedonia is a Greek province on the northern Greek peninsula inhabited by Greek speaking people with Greek names and Greek culture. The mix of multi ethnic people who live north of historical Macedonia, speak an unrelated Slavic language and have unrelated Slavic names, and Slavic culture. They began invading the region a thousand years after the Macedonian Greeks were absorbed into the rest of Greece. The nonsense timelines and pseudo-connections spouted by the propagandists of this former Yugoslav Republic and its Diaspora is beyond belief and unsupported by any credible and validated academic.
Slavic skopian (slavo-“Macedonian”) naturally has similarities with Sanskrit as does Greek, Latin, German, person, and other languages stretching to India as they all descend from the original Indo-European Sanskrit. Any idea of a proto Indo-eauropean language is Europe-centrism;proto Indo-European does not even exist-it is completely concocted by so-called scholars in invory towers.
That area of FYROM/Vardarska/Skopje ie “North Macedonia” was called Paeonia and was greek speaking for millennia many of whom are still there are slavo/bulgophones. After the Balkan wars the great powers wanted Macedonia divided evenly despite the majority Greek speakers as well as Greek victories in the region during the world wars, because they feared Greece would lead the Balkans to revive a new Byzantine empire as the greek secret societies discussed; Russians had similar ideas for an orthodox empire ruled from Constantinople Thracian/Illyrian dna is not really around; they have burial samples. Those peoples became Greco-latins and were always part of south European dna. FYROM is Southern Europe/Slav and a couple other things. Albanians came from the Caucasus in the last few hundred years; there is a region and people called Albanian there. Ottomans settled them in that staging post Defoe jihad into Northern Europe. Also to help secure the Balkans, whose population always outnumbered the Muslims. For example Albanian has no native coastal words which would be the case if they were native to the Damarion coast. That area was basically mostly Latin with Greek influence near by.
Greeks always distinguished between themselves and their Greek neighbors like Athens, Sparta, Thebes, Macedonia, Syracuse (Magna Greacia). They even referred to Spartans as barbarians at times, but anyone who reads even the Peloponesian war can understand Epirotes and Macedonians were Greek. They want to emulate the ancient pedigree and glory of the Greeks and other Europeans, but you are committing a great and disgraceful fraud only they believe (Albanians dubiously claiming they are Illyrians like Vardaskans’ claim to be Alexander’s descendants, although I think a dna test would prove otherwise (such as a Slavic pedigree).
And let’s say for the sake of argument the Macedonians once upon a time were separate peoples. By the time of the romans-what to speak of the modern age-they were thoroughly Greek. Certainly the Vadarskans have nothing to do with them. Not even FYROM’s present borders fall within the range of traditional Macedonia. The idea was terrorist IMRO Bulgarian propaganda because the Bulgarians wanted to expand at the turn of the 19th century. They are trying to fill the cultural vacuum they live in with someone else’s achievements. The communists simply carried on the propaganda during the Cold War. Communists were infamous for such ridiculous rewriting of history. Just like they tried to create a separate identity for for the East Germans as a completely different ethnic and cultural group with centuries of separate history (sound familiar?) No real scholars took them seriously ; they are just the poor victims of politics.
Even the symbol on the FYROM flag they use is an ancient pan Hellenic one used throughout all Greece found everywhere including helmets (Of Helios the sungod.)
The communists also tried to give East Germany a separate identity and history, just as some try to say Africans founded Greece and Egypt (mummy dna shows Egyptians were Indo-european; Their culture/religion was, and they had extensive contact with other Indoeuropeans who lived in the Mideast at the time like the Hittites and kingdom of Mittani).
1. “We must remember that Alexander and Philip were Greeks, descended from Heracles; they wished to be recognized as benefactors of the Greeks even as Heracles had been.”
He goes on, “Since childhood he [Alexander] had worshipped the Heracles, son of Zeus, and a mortal woman and through his mother he was descended from Achilles, son of goddess Thetis and a mortal Peleus.” Nicholas G. Hammond, The Genius of Alexander the Great, p.257
2. “Macedon is a Greek speaking kingdom in northern Greece, populated by people using Greek names, Greek months of the year, worshipping Greek gods. Those who live in Skopje and say that they are Macedonia and Alexander’s home are as ignorant and outrageous as if someone were to say that Oxford was in Belarus and that Oxford is Minsk.” Dr. Robin Lane Fox
“In the northwest, the peoples of Molossis, Orestis and Lynkestis spoke west Greek and although they absorbed other groups into their territory, they were essentially “Greeks”. The main difference between Macedonia and the city states of the south was that it was ruled by a king and powerful nobility.” Robert Morkot, Penguin Historical Atlas of Ancient Greece, p.70
“A fourth century BC curse tablet from Pella shows word forms which are clearly Doric, but a different form of Doric from any of the west Greek dialects of areas adjoining Macedon. Three other, very brief, fourth century inscriptions are also indubitably Doric. These show that a Doric dialect was spoken in Macedon, as we would expect from the West Greek forms of Greek names found in Macedon. And yet later Macedonian inscriptions are in Koine avoiding both Doric forms and the Macedonian voicing of consonants. The native Macedonian dialect had become unsuitable for written documents.” – James O’Neil, University of Sydney, Doric Forms in Macedonian Inscriptions, 2005
The early history of Macedonia remains unknown and what is known starts from the 6th century bc., unless of course you take the traditional account given by the Macedonia’s themselves, whose ancestors were argive Greeks from the Peloponnesus daring to Homeric times. The birth-place of the Macedonians was Orestis, where, according to ancient tradition, their royal dynasty originated. The dynasty had two names: Argeades and Timenides. Due to the fact that Timenes was also the name of the leader of the Dorians of Argos, the tradition evolved that the origins of the Macedonian Kings were Peloponnesian Argos.
It was to Homer the Macedonians looked to for their values.** Their language, alphabet, and gods were Greek. Alexander’s mother was said to be descended from Achilles (herself being a princess from Epirus, and a priestess of the Mysteries).
FYROM (Former Yugoslavic Republic of Macedonia) is demographically made up mostly of Albanian and Bulgarian descent. The language of FYROM is also closest to the original Church Slavonic (the oldest form of the language) which itself is derived from medieval Bulgarian.* This is why throughout its modern history Macedonia was claimed by Bulgaria and IMRO (the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization) that operated in the 20th century and was based out of Bulgaria.
The borders of modern FYROM also don’t fall within the classical borders of Macedonia. Technically it exists in the area known as Paeones (Paeonia), a territory north of Macedonia eventually integrated into the Macedonia of antiquity by the Macedonian Kings.
*Bulgarians had one of the most advanced kingdoms in Europe along w Serbia who many scholars credit as being one of the first sparks of the renaissance (in their famous monastery paintings of the 14th cent). These courts were modeled after the imperial Byzantine court and had complex and shifting relations to each other.
**The patriarchal line of succession of the Kings, belonging to the Homeric epoch, was maintained in Macedonia. The king was the chief of the army, as well as high priest and judge. The power of the king was mainly dependent on the noble land owners, who served in the cavalry and bore the honorary title “errors (the king’s companions.)” the assembly of the army was also powerful. The assembly would approve the election of the new king and also approve trials for high treason.
Alexander’s Letter to Darius III
“Your ancestors invaded Macedonia and the rest of Greece and did us harm although we had not done you any previous injury. I have been appointed commander-in-chief of the Greeks and it is with the aim of punishing the Persians that I have crossed into Asia, since you are the aggressors.
[2.14.5] You gave support to the people of Perinthus, who had done my father harm, and Ochus sent a force to Thrace, which was under our rule. My father died at the hand of conspirators instigated by you, note as you yourself boasted to everybody in your letters, you killed Arses with the help of Bagoas and gained your throne through unjust means, in defiance of Persian custom and doing wrong to the Persians. You sent unfriendly letters to the Greeks about me, to push them to war against me,
[2.14.6] and sent money to the Spartans and some other Greeks, which none of the other cities would accept apart from the Spartans. Your envoys corrupted my friends and sought to destroy the peace which I established among the Greeks. I therefore led an expedition against you, and you started the quarrel.
[2.14.7] But now I have defeated in battle first your generals and satraps, and now you in person and your army, and by the grace of the gods I control the country. All those who fought on your side and did not die in battle but came over to me, I hold myself responsible for them; they are not on my side under duress but are taking part in the expedition of their own free will.
[2.14.8] Approach me therefore as the lord of all Asia. If you are afraid of suffering harm at my hands by coming in person, send some of your friends to receive proper assurances. Come to me to ask and receive your mother, your wife, your children and anything else you wish. Whatever you can persuade me to give shall be yours.
[2.14.9] In future whenever you communicate with me, send to me as king of Asia; do not write to me as an equal, but state your demands to the master of all your possessions. If not, I shall deal with you as a wrongdoer. If you wish to lay claim to the title of king, then stand your ground and fight for it; do not take to flight, as I shall pursue you wherever you may be.”
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