Refuting their claims on our Macedonian history

[Prokomenos]

Originally hosted on my website HellenicLife.net.

The history of Macedonia is being falsified, no matter how inconceivable and ultimately condemned to failure such an action may at first sight appear to us Greeks. This is pursued continuously and systematically by certain interests, in every possible way and with ample economic means, and now in the whole world.

The original author which we are presenting material from is a Greek by the name of Nicolas K. Martis from his book The Falsification of Macedonian History specifically aimed at the Socialist Republic of Macedonian also known as FYROM or Skopjia and also the Bulgarians. The work that Nicolas has done is amazing. This publication proves that the truth can not be changed. He proves that the creation of a nation through governmental decisions and the appropriation of the name, history and cultural inheritance of other peoples, is simply not possible. Other Slav officials , not of Skopjian affiliation know that Greeks are the only Macedonians and that the Skopjians are wrong for attempting to alter and fabricate Hellenic history to suit their needs. Also the Socialist Republic of Macedonia was created in 1944, and edifice without foundations, since it is based on the artificial concoction of the so called 'Macedonian Nation' , a nation that never existed in recorded history. Also the capital of Socialist Republic of Skopje has never been a part of the Macedonian territory in history. The icing on the cake is the presence of Slavs in Europe was not until 6th century A.D. , meanwhile the Macedonian Greeks were creating history 1,000 years before the Slaves were established in the Balkans. That alone puts an end to the so called Slavic origin of the Macedonians.

Origin of the Macedonians

Their is plenty of documentation as to the roots and Greek descent of the Macedonians. Plenty of documentation written by ancient authors that was preserved till this day, participation of the Macedonians in the Greek Olympics which only Greeks were allowed to participate, and proof that the Macedonians worshipped the same twelve gods that all Greeks worshipped and their role in Greece's history and nation.

Mount Olympus according to Greek mythology, where the twelve gods were located in Greek mythology was located in a mountain in Macedonia. King Pieros of the Pieria, introduced the worship of the Muses and named them after his two daughters. According to Greek mythology, the Muses left Pieria as birds and established themselves on Mount Helicon which is why they renamed Heliconians from Pierians. The conviction of the ancient Macedonians and of the other Greeks that the domicile of the twelve gods was the Macedonian Mount Olympus, and that the nine Muses who were the daughters of King Pieros lived also on the Macedonian Mount Pieria, constitutes a proof that the Greek tribes lived in Macedonia. From there they moved towards the south in search of vital space. Therefore Macedonia must have formed a most important part of Greece. Otherwise it would seem kind of strange that the Greeks would believe in Gods that were worshipped by non Greeks and on non Greek land.

Hesiod refers to Macedon and Magnetas as the children of the Zeus and Thyia, daughter of Deucalion, and had their home on Mounts Pieria and Olympus. Hellene was the son of Deucalion. Hellanicus a historian in his writings states that the end of the fifth century B.C. that Macedon, the ancestor of Macedonians, was the son of Aeolus and that the Macedonians, just like the Thessalians, spoke the same Greek dialect which was Aeolian.

Pindar, Herodotus and other ancient writers say the earliest ancestors of the Dorians were the Makednoi ( Macedonians) who migrated from Doris to Pindos, more precisely from the Lakmos region. Its obvious that the Dorians took their name from Doris, where they formed themselves into one ethnic group by the union of the local inhabitants and the newcomers, it can be said that the name Makednoi and the mention of Pindos as their original homeland do not refer to the whole of the Dorian tribe but just to one of its component groups. Hylleis, one out of the three groups of the Dorians that had settled in present day Sterea Hellas earlier.

Historical Sources

Homer's Iliad is one of the first historical accounts about Macedonians, who wrote the names of various Pelasgian and Greek tribes that lived in Macedonia in his book. He also furnishes information on Macedonia's physical geography. " And he smote Pyraechmes that out of Amydon led Paeonian horsemen from Axius' watery vale." (The Iliad 16, 287) Herodotus wrote: " The descendants of Perdiccas are Greeks, as they themselves desire, and as I know myself chance to know." ( Herodotus V,22,1). Herodotus also says that the Greeks have always spoken Greek throughout their country, and that a part of the Macedonians immigrated to Doris, where they mixed with other Greek tribes; later they invaded the Peloponnese and took Argos, when the conquerors took the name of Dorians: " At the time of King Deucalion they inhabited Pthiotis, and in the reign of Dorus, son of Hellene, the country known as Histiaeotis in the neighborhood of Ossa and Olympus.... they settled in Pindus and were known as Macedonians; thence they migrated to Dryopis from where they came to the Peloponnese, where they got the present name of Dorians."

Since that time, the conquerors of the Peloponnese began to migrate all over Greece, resulting in the extension of the Greek nation. In that chapter Herodotus refers to the Lacedomanians who are of Dorian origin, and who belong to the Greek nation and took part in many migrations. He also refers to the naval battle of Artemisium and he writes: " there took part the Lacedomanians with 16 ships, the Corinthians, the Sikyonians, the Epidaurians, the Troizenians, the Hermionians, all of which except the Hermionians were of Dorian and Macedonian extraction and had recently come from Erineus, Pindus and Dryopis." (Herodotus VIII, 43)

Thucydides mentions that the Macedonians are composed of various Greek tribes under different kings, who lived in Pindus and western Macedonia: " For the Macedonian race includes also the Lyncestians, Elimiotes, and other tribes of the upper country... They defeated and expelled from Pieria the Pierians who after wards took up their abode in Phagres and other places at the foot of Mount Pangaeus beyond the Strymon. "( Thycydides II, 99, 2-3) As a matter of fact the district at the foot of Mount Pangaeus toward the sea is called the Pierian valley.

When Persian ambassadors arrived in Macedonia to visit his father Amyntas who was king at the time, Alexander I said to them: " Tell the king who sent you that a Greek governor of Macedonia received you well." Alexander, son of Amyntas, said to the Athenians: " I am myself a Greek by descent and I have no wish to see Greece exchange her freedom for slavery." ( Herodotus IX,45,2 )

Polybius says that, " The oath which Hannibal gave to the ambassador Xenophanes of Cleomachus, an Athenian sent by King Philip... in the name of all the gods, protectors of Macedonia and of the rest of Greece." ( The Histories of Polybius, VIII, 9, 4 ) That expression 'Macedon and the rest of Greece' as well as the ' the Macedonians and other Greeks' are found also in other writers.


Macedonian Religion and Culture

The Macedonian members of the Delphic Amphictyony ( The League of Greeks ) and as it is well known only Greeks were members of aphictyonies. Pausanias says: " they relate Amphictyon himself united in a common council the following Greek tribes...Macedonians among the Amphictyons... In my time Amphictyons were thirty. The regions of Nicopolis, Macedonia and Thessaly, each sent six representatives." ( Arrian I, 16, 7). Philip as well as Alexander the Great had been appointed protectors of the Delphic Oracle by decisions of the Delphic Amphictyons, equivalent to delegates nowadays.

In the Olympic Games were only Greeks could take part, Macedonians participated. Alexander I the son of Amyntas took part in the 496 B.C. games and came first in the running event, after he had been adjudged and pronounced Greek. In the 99th Olympiad, when they added contests of chariots drawn by foals, it was won by a woman from Macedonia. Pausanias actually says: " It is related that victor for the chariot and pair was Velistiche, a woman from the seaboard of Macedonia." ( Pausanias, Eleia VIII, 11) Archelaus, Phillip II and Ptolemy as well took part of the Olympics. Also Cliton the Macedonian won the stadion race in 328 B.C. Damasias from Amphipolis won the stadion race in 320 B.C.. Lambus from Philippi won the 4 horse chariot race in 304 B.C. Antigonus the Macedonian won the stadion in 292 and 288 B.C. Seleucus the Macedonian was the winner in the stadion race in 268 B.C.

Alexander the Great was worshipped as a god from Greece. Three ancient theaters. One at Dium of the 5th century B.C., one at Vergina (Aegae) of the 4 th century B.C., and one at Philippi. The Greek tragedies were presented at these theaters. These tragedies just like all the others which were performed at these three theatres, were composed in Greek and it was obvious that they were addressed to the Greeks who were watching, the Macedonians. The Macedonians with their peasant and pastoral life, their continuous struggles against barbarians, the disturbances caused by the succession to the throne, and their isolation from the rest of the Greece maintained their manners and customs, but at the start they had no memorable cultural development. The difference was particularly marked when compared to the advanced culture of Athens, but which was developed undisturbed thanks to the sacrifices of the Macedonians in their struggles against barbarians.
Professor A. Daskalakis wrote in his book that if the Macedonians had not actually served as a rampart against every barbarian incursion south of Olympus, Hellenism would not have remained undistracted during so many centuries, in order to lay the foundations of the precepts of freedom, and to achieve the brilliant creations of thought and art inherited by contemporary humanity. In Macedonia, rapid cultural progress dates only from the time of Philip II and is of course due to the efforts of Alexander I Perdiccas and Archelaus.


Macedonians In The Old Testament
The Old Testament also contains irrefutable and confounding textual evidence for all those who alter the history of Macedonians. The Prophet Daniel, about 200 years before the birth of Alexander the Great, predicted that The king of the Medes and of the Persians will be vanquished by a Greek king, and that this first and great king will be succeeded by four kings from the same kingdom. The book Maccabees I begins with Alexander son of Philip the Macedonian defeated the king of the Persians, previously he reigned in Greece. There also many other passages in the Old Testament that refer to the Macedonian Greeks and descendants of Alexander the Great.


Macedonia During Roman Times

After the dissolution of the Kingdom of Macedonia, the Romans sought its political, military and economic annihilation. They established four kingless federated states Amphipolis, Thessaloniki, Pella and Pelagonia in order to destroy its unity. But Greek civilization influenced the Romans and later the separation of the eastern from the western state led to the creation of the Byzantine empire, that had an ecumenical character and slowly transformed itself into an eastern Greek state.

During the early Christian times the word 'Hellene' meant heathen pagan, and for this reason its use was avoided, the Greeks calling themselves Romans or Grecians. But later they began to call themselves again Hellenes. Constantine Palaeologus, the last Greek emperor, who fell fighting the Turks at the walls of the Queen of the cities, Constatinople, in 1453, used to call that city the hope and joy of all Hellenes.

In this new period of Greek history, Hellenism is present in Macedonia, particularly in Thessalonica, which since its foundation during the Hellenistic times up to this day, never ceased to be the ' metropolis ' of Macedonia. Strabo was the first to use this characterization. Since the early Christian times it continuously maintained its importance as the capital of Macedonia and as a commercial but also intellectual centre. It is one city that gave us characteristic examples of Byzantine architecture from the 5th to the 14th century A.D., and justifiably it is called a living museum of Byzantine art of all periods.
In 1222 Thessalonica became the seat of government of the empire in Thessalonica, while simultaneously there were also the Greek empire of Nicaea and the Latin one of Constatinople. According to E. Vasilieve, Thessalonica was the important economic centre of the Byzantine empire after Constatinople. Every year at the end of October on the occasion of the feast of Saint Demetrius, and imposing fair took place in which participated not only Greeks, but Slavs, Italians, Spanish Portuguese, French and other peoples from the distant shores of the Atlantic, who came to sell their wares. This commercial fair which was Demetria was revived again in Thessalonica after World War II as a cultural manifestation.

Vasiliev writes also that the 14th century was the golden age of Thessalonica for the arts and letters. In a word, at the time of political and economic decadence, Hellenism appeared to concentrate all its force in order to show the vitality of classical civilization and to offer hopeful signs for the future Greek renaissance of the 19th century.
Levtchenko, professor of the University of Leningrad, writes in his book, that in spite of the hardships that had befallen it at various times, Thessalonica was still in the 14th century a city with a large population, having 40,000 inhabitants. Its commerce was flourishing and its crafts developed. Just as in earlier times, the city continued to be the port and the market place of the whole Macedonia. There were transported goods from Macedonia, Serbia and Bulgaria.

The great contribution of Byzantine history, writes Yiannis Kordatos in his Introduction to the book of Levtchenko, is that it stood a guardian of Greek Civilization which it imparted to the Slavs and the other peoples of Europe and of the Mediterranean basin, and that Byzantine Civilization is the inheritance of the Hellenistic times. Levtchenko also writes that the greatest conquest of Byzantine civilization from the 9th to 11th century, was the profound and solid penetration into the enormous regions of Eastern Europe that was the result of the Christianization of Russia, and that the religion and culture of Russia are of Byzantine derivation.
Hellenism has thanks not to Athens, Sparta, or Corinth but to the Greeks of Macedonia the unique Monastic State of Ayion Oros, which comprises a continuous spiritual presence in the Greek lands. Ayion Oros, a creation of Byzantine Hellenism, constitutes for over a thousand years an invaluable inheritance of the Greek Nation, with its treasures, works of art and heirlooms.

The Struggle for Macedonian Freedom

The contribution to the Macedonians to the liberation of Greece from Turkish domination is very important, but not too well known. Because during the time of 1860-1872 Macedonian was still enslaved, there was no historical records of the struggles of the Macedonians and for this reason , this Macedonian contributions to Hellenism is not sufficiently mentioned in the first editions of The History of the Greek Nation. After the liberation of Macedonia in 1912-1913, and particularly during the last decades, modern historians are gathering new information from the still un translated Turkish records, from which the great contribution of the Macedonians in the Greek War of Liberation becomes apparent.

The Greeks of Macedonia have shed a lot of blood and contributed a great deal of money to help shake off the Turkish hold, and many centers of revolt wee organized before and after the year of Greek Revolution 1821, reaching a peak during the revolution of Chalkidiki and the holocaust of Naousa. The first revolt of the Macedonians occurred in 1495, when they were informed that the king of France would march against Constatinople. The campaign was cancelled and the Macedonians were severely punished. In 1571, after the defeat of the Turkish navy in Naupactus, a new uprising took place which suppressed. At that time there appeared on the mountains of Macedonia, such as Olympus and Pieria and also on Pindus, the klephts and guerrillas who became better known during the war of independence, in places such as Siastista, Grevena, Kozani, ect. In 1796, Ali Pasha moved against the rebels but was finally defeated. A second attempt in the same year also failed. In 1804 he managed to win and capture Naousa. Nicotsaras from Western Macedonia escaped and began a naval struggle, returning and taking Siderocastro and Neurokopi. In 1808 the Macedonians revolted again. But the main and most effective contributions of the Macedonians to the Greek war of liberation of 1821, were the insurrections of Vermion, Pieria and Plympus and the revolutions of Chalkidiki and Naousa.

Chalkidiki which revolted under the command of Emmanuel Papas from Serres, was severely punished for it, as it appears from Turkish records, about 15,000 Greeks were slaughtered or hanged, 68 towns and villages were completely burned and 17 villages partly burned. In addition, 58 properties belonging to monasteries of Ayion Oros were destroyed.

The fight of Naousa which began in 1795 against the combined forces of Turks and Albanians of Ali Pasha, the first part of which lasted till 1804, constitutes a good example. On the Sunday of Orthodoxy, 19 of February 1822, in the church of Saint Demetrios of Nasousa, the banner of revolt was raised, just as it had happened about a year earlier in the monastery of Ayia Lavra in the Peloponnese. After a victory against the Turks in Verroia, about 5,000 warriors were assembled in Naousa under the Karatsoi, Yiannakis and Tsamis, and Zafeirakis and Gatsos, in order to defend themselves against the Turkish forces of Embu Lumbut Pasha, that included 12,000 men, powerful artillery, large reserves and two heavy guns normally used for the defense of fortifications. The heroic fighters of Nasousa resisted for 27 days, but on the 18th of April 1822 the defense broke, and the Turks entered the city shouting wildly, and they began to slaughter, burn and plunder with unprecedented savagery. One group of fighters broke through the Turkish lines and escaped, just as at Mesolongi. Another small group, after defending itself in Saint Nicolas, they set fire to the powder magazine and were blown up together with the Turks, just as at Kouggi years later. Some Nasoua women, when they were surrounded by the Turks, threw their children down a chasm and themselves into the River Arapitsa, preferring death to surrender and thus repeating the sacrifice of Zalongos. Slaughter and hangings followed, women and children were sold to slavery and 120 towns and villages were burned.

No other city of continental Greece save for Mesolongi had the tragic fate of Naousa, which for this reason has been named a heroic city through a special edict, and its struggle is annually celebrated. The Macedonian area and especially Chalkidiki, Vermion, Olympus were the centres of resistance for about 15 months, so the first bastion of the Greek nation struggling to regain its freedom was then Macedonia.