History of Ancient Macedonia

[Prokomenos]

The shores of the Macedonian plain are washed by the Aegean Sea, which has linked this region with southern Greece, the islands, and Asia Minor since ancient times. According to Thucydides (II, 99), the Macedonian state was founded in the seventh century a.c. and comprised the region bounded by Mount Olympus and the sea, and the Peneus and Haliacmon Rivers. Hesiod, writing in the same period, tells of Macedon, the first ancestor of the Macedonians, and Magnes, the founder of the Thessalian Magnesians, two brothers who lived in the area around Pieria and Olympus. Herodotus recalls the relations between the Macedonians and the Thessalians and speaks of the Dorians of Thessaly (I, 56). The kings of Macedonia were Dorians, "Temenids with ancient roots in Argos" lThuc. II. 991. and descendants of Heracles.

The few but valuable testimonies of the seventh and fifth centuries a.c. acquire a special significance now that archaeological explorations in Pieria and on Mount Olympus have revealed Mycenaean cemeteries with finds which enable us to recognise this region's relations with the north- eastern Peloponnese during the last great era of Mycenaean culture. Extensive burial grounds with a surprising number of finds provide information about the so-called "dark ages" (1000-700 B.C.) in this area.

By the fifth century B.C., the coastal Macedonians had organised themselves into a dynamic and powerful state and advanced as far as the River Strymon. At a much earlier date, they had already crossed the Haliacmon, acquired Almopia and Eordaea, and crossed the Axios too; by the sixth century a.c., they had reached Therme (which was later to become Thessaloniki).


The mountainous part of the country, Upper Macedonia, consisted of small, local Macedonian principalities (such as Elimia, Orestis, Lyncestis), which were linked to the Temenid state of Lower Macedonia either as allies or as vassals.
Aegae (now Vergina), in the west Pierian foothills, was the capital of the state, and Dion, in the foothills of Mount Olympus, was its religious centre. The archaic tombs at Vergina, not far from the royal tombs of the fourth century B.C., contain finds of vital significance for the reconstruction of early Macedonian culture. Similar finds have been discovered in the cemeteries of Sindos, Ayia Paraskevi, and Therme near Thessaloniki, and also at Aeane in Upper Macedonia. Recent excavations at Aeane, which was the capital of Elimia, have brought to light splendid evidence of the Greek art of the archaic period.

Two sacred structures in the sanctuary of Demeter, goddess of the harvest, at Dion also date from this period: long, narrow halls with a chamber and an antechamber, they belong to an architectural type which was particularly important and widespread in Greece in the Mycenaean and Geometric periods. Among the offerings to the goddess was a Mycenaean gemstone angraved with a representation pf a lion (15th c. B.C), a memento of the region's more ancient history. On the site where Thessaloniki was later to be built, a splendid Ionic temple was erected in archaic times (C. 500 B.C.), a veritable beacon for those approaching the innermost reaches of the Thermaic Gulf. The Persian Wars of the early fifth century B.C. opened a new chapter in Greek history. Xerxes and his army passed through Macedonia on their way to southern Greece.

According to Herodotus (IX, 45), King Alexander I helped the southern Greeks in various ways, particularly when he revealed the Persians' plans on the eve of the great battle at Plataea. Alexander dedicated golden statues of himself at Olympia and Delphi and took part in the Olympic Games. The Athenians, with whom the Macedonians were already on friendly terms by the sixth century, named Alexander an honorary official and benefactor of their city.

One prominent figure of the late fifth century B.C set the stage for what was to become the Macedonia of Philip and Alexander. This was Archelaus, innovative ruler of Macedonia, whom his contemporary, Thucydides, described as having achieved more than his eight predecessors put together (II, 100). The Macedonian state, which had been loosely structured hitherto, was organised more systematically. The royal seat was transferred from Aegae to the more strategic site of Pella (which was closer to the eastern provinces and the sea) , and Upper Macedonia was linked by a network of military roads to the capital, which was thus able more easily to supervise local rulers in distant areas. Finally, fortifications were built and the army fully equipped with both horses and weapons. The King of Pella, as befits a great ruler, now entertained a greater number of writers and artists at his court.

The leading lights of the period were invited to stay at the palace for long periods: they included the painter Zeuxis from Heraclea and the tragic poet Euripides from Athens.

Archelaus' good relations with Athens are also known from inscriptions, in which the Athenians express their gratitude to Archelaus for providing them with Macedonian wood, which was so good for shipbuilding. Philip II ascended the throne in 359 B.C. A highly gifted ruler, he enhanced his prestige immeasurably by protecting the Macedonian mountain-dwellers from the incursions af barbarian tribes from the north, particularly the Paeonians and the Illyrians. Philip's state became a strongly cohesive, stable, central power. The rulers of Upper Macedonia now started sending their young princes to be brought up in the palace at Pella. The Macedonians strengthened their relations with the Epirotes, who spoke a related dialect and had a similar political system. In 357 B.C. Philip married Olympias, a member of the royal family of the Molossians, who, like the lowland Macedonians, had gained sway over the other tribes of Epirus. Within a few years, Olympias' brother Alexander was organising a campaign similar to that of Alexander the Great, though his sights were set on the West.

To the East, Philip was achieving notable successes. He used the excuse of protecting Crenides from the Thracians for military intervention in the region beyond the Strymon; he then renamed Crenides Philippi and took over the Pangaeum goldmines. He also col nised the region and annexed the area between the Strymon and the Nestus thus consolidating Macedonian presence in the heart of Thrace. Finally, having secured his election as ruler of Thessaly for life, Philip now felt strong enough to join in the southern Greeks' struggle for the leadership of Greece, which had hitherto passed through the hands of the Athenians, the Spartans, and the Thebans. In Athens, opinions about Philip were divided. The fiery anti-Philip polemic of Demosthenes and his followers was answered by Aeschines and his moderate circle. Atter his victory at Chaeronea in 338 B.C., Philip's first political act as leader of the Greeks was to espouse a cause for which the Athenian orators had been agitating for many decades: to organise a Panhellenic campaign against the Persians in order to liberate the Greek cities of Asia Minor and establish security there.

In 336 B.C. Philip was assassinated. However, his death did not stem the tide of events. In 334 B.C., having consolidated his succession to the throne and his hegemony over the southern Greeks, Philip's son Alexander launched the campaign
such as Leochares' gold and ivory statues in the Philippeum at Olympia, and Lysippus' twenty-five bronze statues of the Macedonian generals who fell at the Battle of Granicus in the sanctuary of Zeus at Dion.

The large subterranean royal tombs against the Persians. He confirmed his initial purpose by sending 300 Persian shields from the Battle of Granicus as a gift to Athena Parthenus, with the promise that he would later send from Persia back to Greece the symbol of Athenian democracy the statues of the Tyrant-slayers which Xerxes had seized and taken to Susa. With the submission of Persia and the death of Darius in 330 B.C., the goal of the great Panhellenic programme had been achieved. However, Alexander went even further: he made Macedonia a worid power and took Greek culture beyond all geographical boundaries.

[Prokomenos]

The large subterranean royal tombs at Aegae were also constructed, and adorned with painted facades and marble doors. Splendid metalwork was also being produced at this time, as well as miniature artefacts, magnificent paintings, and mosaics floors with marvellous representations. The palaces at Vergina and PeIla are outstanding examples of royal architecture, characterised as they are by large peristyles, spacious, elaborately decorated men's quarters, great banqueting halls, and balconies offering a view of the landscape. The fine arts were expected to express the ideology of the new leaders who had proved victorious in the Panhellenic political arena. Thus was the Hellenistic phase of Greek art born. Alexander died suddenly in Babylon in 323 B.C. In Macedonia, after the brief reigns of Antipater and Cassander, a new dynasty was founded, the Antigonids, who continued the Argead tradition. The central figure was Antigonus Gonatas, who strengthened Macedonia and enhanced its prestige so that it could stand as an equal with the other great kingdoms which had emerged from Alexander's legacy: the Ptolemies in Egypt, the Seleucids in Asia, and the Attalids in Asia Minor. At the beginning of the second century B.C., Macedonia was menaced by a grave threat from the West. In 197 B.C., the Romans defeated Philip V at the Battle ofCynoscephalae, and he was then compelled to restrict his kingdom to its traditional borders between the Peneus and the Nestus. In 167 B.C., after the Romans had prevailed once and for all, Macedonia was divided into four autonomous parts; and in 148 B.C. it became a province of the Roman Empire.
The Antigonid period has bequeathed us numerous artistic and architectural monuments, including the final construction phase of the palace at Pella and most of the Macedonian royal tombs. In King Perseus' reign (179-168 A.C.), Dion was a city full of statues of gods and Macedonian kings and public buildings. One typical Upper Macedonian settlement from this period has been uncovered by excavations at Petres between Edessa and Florina. The turbulence of the first century a.c., when Macedonia did not remain aloof from the Romans' civil conflict (Battle of Philippi, 44 B.C.), was followed by decades of peace and prosperity. Meanwhile, Thessaloniki, the city which Cassander had built, became the new centre, the capital of Macedonia. It boasted the laraest harbour in the whole reaion and stood on the spot where the great road from the north met the main east-west artery. Many foreign merchants lived temporarily or permanently in this rich commercial centre. With its public buildings, copies of classical works, portraits of philosophers, and sarcophagi decorated with mythological representations, Thessaloniki presented the image of a major urban centre of the Roman period, strongly flavoured with the Hellenic tradition. Galerius, the ruler of one of the two parts of the Eastern Roman Empire, chose Thessaloniki as his imperial seat in A.D. 300. The large palatial complex in the eastern part of the city, the busts of aristocrats, and the metalwork produced by the royal workshops attest a period of renewed prosperity for Thessaloniki the Macedonian metropolis which, from the third century onwards, revived admiration for the splendours of the past and the cult of Alexander the Great.

by D. Pandermalis
Professor of Archaeology
Source

[nsminc]

Oraio file.