Modern historians about Macedonia –John Bagnell Bury

 

“In their fortress of Aegae the macedonian kings had ruled for ages with absolute sway over the lands on the northern and north-western coasts of the Thermaic - Gulf,which formed Macedonia in the strictest sense.

The Macedonian people and their kings were of Greek stock, as their traditions and the scanty remains of their language combine to testify.”

John Bagnell Bury,A History of Greece to the Death of Alexander the Great (1900),page 683

A History of Greece To the Death of Alexander the Great

Cambridge Library Collection Classics

 

This book, originally published in 1900, was the major work of the classical historian J. B. Bury. It became a standard textbook on the topic of ancient Greek history to the death of Alexander the Great for almost a century, and in its updated form is still studied today.

 Bury had studied philosophy as well as classics at Trinity College, Dublin, and had travelled widely in Greece, but until the publication of this work was better known for his two-volume History of the Later Roman Empire (also reissued in this series), and many of his other works also deal with the Byzantine period. He describes in the preface his decision to limit the extent of his history: 'compression into a single volume often produces a more useful book'. This magisterial and very readable synthesis of political and military history encompasses nearly three millennia and the whole of the Mediterranean and Near East.

 

Modern Linguists about Macedonia – Sylvain Auroux

 

 

    “Before the times of the national unity installed by the Macedonians around the middle of the 4th century BC, Greece was composed of many regions or city states[…]

 

That they [Dorians] were related to the North-West Dialects (of Phocis, Locris, Aetolia, Acarnania and Epirus) was not perceived clearly by the ancients. “

page 439

 

History of the Language Sciences / Geschichte der Sprachwissenschaften / Histoire des sciences du langage

An International Handbook on the Evolution of the Study of Language from the Beginnings to the Present / Ein internationales Handbuch zur Entwicklung der Sprachforschung von den Anfängen bis zur Gegenwart

Edited by: Sylvain Auroux,E.F.K.Koerner,Hans-Josef Niederehe and Kees Versteegh

Walter de Gruyter GmBH

Linguist Vladimir I. Georgiev:“Introduction to the History of the Indo-European Languages”

 

“Furthermore,the nucleus of the Macedonian vocabulary consists of words which have exact correspondence in Greek.The importance of these words and the archaic phonological character of Macedonian lead to the conclusion that these are not borrowings but inherited words: this fact is confirmed by the genetic unity of Macedonian and Greek.

Moreover, the numerous lexical and phonological isoglosses in Macedonian and the different Greek dialects confirm the supposition of genetic unity.”

Vladimir I. Georgiev, “Introduction to the History of the Indo-European Languages”, Sofia:Pub. House of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, 1981, p. 169

Vladimir Ivanov Georgiev (Bulgarian: Владимир Иванов Георгиев) (1908–1986)  

Modern Linguists about Macedonia – Olivier Masson

 

 

For a long while Macedonian onomastics, which we know relatively well thanks to history, literary authors, and epigraphy, has played a considerable role in the discussion. In our view the Greek character of most names is obvious and it is difficult to think of a Hellenization due to wholesale borrowing. ‘Ptolemaios’ is attested as early as Homer, ‘Αλέξανδρος’ occurs next to Mycenaean feminine a-re-ka-sa-da-ra- (‘Alexandra’), ‘Λάαγος’, then ‘Λαγος’, matches the Cyprian ‘Lawagos’, etc. The small minority of names which do not look Greek, like ‘Αρριδαιος’ or ‘Σαββατάρας’, may be due to a substratum or adstatum influences (as elsewhere in Greece). Macedonian may then be seen as a Greek dialect, characterised by its marginal position and by local pronunciations (like ‘Βερενίκα’ for ‘Φερενίκα’, etc.).

 

 Yet in contrast with earlier views which made of it an Aeolic dialect (O.Hoffmann compared Thessalian) we must by now think of a link with North-West Greek (Locrian, Aetolian, Phocidian, Epirote). This view is supported by the recent discovery at Pella of a curse tablet (4th cent. BC) which may well be the first ‘Macedonian’ text attested (provisional publication by E.Voutyras; cf. the Bulletin Epigraphique in Rev.Et.Grec.1994, no.413); the text includes an adverb ‘οπποκα’ which is not Thessalian. We must wait for new discoveries, but we may tentatively conclude that Macedonian is a dialect related to North-West Greek.

 

Olivier Masson,French linguist,“Oxford Classical Dictionary:Macedonian Language” page.906, 1996

Modern historians about Macedonia – Mary Elsie Thalheimer

 

✍️ Quote:

In 334 B.C. Alexander with his 35.000 Greeks crossed the strait which had been passed by Xerxes, with his five millions, less than 150 years before. The Greek army was scarcely more inferior to the Persian in number than superior in efficiency. It was composed of veteran troops in the highest possible state of equipment and discipline, and every man was filled with enthusiastic devotion to his leader and confidence of success.

“A manual of ancient history” By M. E. Thalheimer, page 99

 

✍️ Quote:

With fresh reinforcements from Greece, he [Alexander] commenced his second campaign, in the spring of 333, by marching through Cappadocia and Cilicia to the gates of Syria.

“A manual of ancient history” By M. E. Thalheimer, page 100

 

✍️ Quote:

 

Alexander was compelled to turn back. His fleet was now ready, and he descended the Hydaspes to the Indus, in the autumn and winter of 327 B. C. His army marched in two columns along the banks, the entire valley submitting with little resistance. Two more cities were founded, and left with Greek garrisons and governors.

“A manual of ancient history” By M. E. Thalheimer, page 205

 

✍️ Quote:

 

The Greek language and literature were planted every-where: every new exploration added to the treasures of science and the enlightenment of the human race.

“A manual of ancient history” By M. E. Thalheimer, page 206 

📖 A manual of ancient history

by Thalheimer,M.E.

Modern Linguists about Macedonia – Friedrich Münzer

 

The problem of the nationality of the Macedonians has been studied a great deal. Otto Hoffman with linguistics as his starting point solved it correctly and decisively when he accepted that the Macedonians were Greeks.

 

Friedrich Münzer , “Die Politische Vernichtung des Griechentums”, Leipzig Dieterich 1925, page. 4