Modern Historians about Macedonia - Lucilla Burn

 

The language spoken by ordinary Macedonians, as opposed to the ruling family, seems at most times to have been a dialect form of Greek. The elite communicaed both with itself and with other elites in standard, probably Attic Greek.

 

Lucilla Burn, “Hellenistic art: from Alexander the Great to Augustus”,page 28

Lucilla Burn

The Hellenistic Age was a new era of Greek civilization that began with the death of Alexander the Great in 323 B.C. and lasted until the Roman emperor Octavian defeated the last independent Hellenistic monarch, Cleopatra VII of Egypt, in 31 B.C. The book traces the development of a distinctive new Hellenistic culture, which was shaped both by artists who spread innovations across the Mediterranean region and by rival monarchs who commissioned luxury articles and sponsored elaborate city developments.

 

This cross-pollination produced great diversity in artistic subjects, techniques, and materials. Alongside sculptures of mythic Greek figures appeared those of new gods, such as the Egyptian Serapis, as well as depictions of common people, such as fishermen and nursemaids. Artists produced works of widely varying sizes, from the colossal statue of Apollo at Rhodes, to pocket-sized table decorations. Technical virtuosity flourished in the fields of pottery, glass, and jewelry.

 

In this illuminating survey, the author argues for a new appreciation of the advances and range of Hellenistic art and the influence it continued to exert on Mediterranean culture into the first centuries of the new millennium.

Modern Historians about Macedonia – Alan Fildes

 

Alexander the Great is one of the most celebrated figures of classical  antiquity. 

 

Born in a remote kingdom in northern Greece, as one of several royal sons,Alexander displayed leadership abilities at an early age and carved out a role for himself as heir to the Macedonian throne.Following the death of his father,Philip II,Alexander III secured the whole of Greece and prepared to lead its allied states against the massive Persian empire.

Alan Fildes and Joann Fletcher, Alexander the Great, Son of the Gods, page 6

 

 

Everywhere he went, Alexander founded Greek cities. By the time he died he ruled over the greatest empire the world has ever seen-an empire composed of millions of ethnically diverse peoples were united by a common Greek tongue.

 

 Alan Fildes and Joann Fletcher, Alexander the Great,Son of the Gods,page 7

 

 

Located in the northern extremity of Greece, and cut off from its neighbours by its mountainous terrain, ancient Macedonia’s relative isolation produced a distinctly seperate culture. Although the Macedonians spoke a Greek dialect, worshipped Greek gods and traced their nation’s origins from Olympian gods, their customes and northern Doric accent were markedly different from those of the people of the rest of Greece, who saw the Macedonia as a largely insignificant, backward monarchy, to be looked upon with suspicion, Yet this was the kingdom that produced Alexander the Great, the most powerful ruler Greece would ever know.

 

Alan Fildes and Joann Fletcher, Alexander the Great, Son of the Gods, page 12

Modern Historians about Macedonia – John Anthony Cramer

 

A geographical and historical description of ancient Greece, with a map and plan of Athens by Cramer, J. A. (1793-1848)

 

Judging from their historical nomenclature, and the few words that have been preserved to us, we may evidently trace a Greek foundation in their language, whatever idiomatic differences might exist between it and the more cultivated dialects of southern Greece.

 

A geographical and historical description of ancient Greece, with a map and plan of Athens by Cramer, J. A. (1793-1848), page 165

 

 

The origin of the Macedonian dynasty is a subject of some intricacy and dispute. There is one point however, on which all the ancient authorities agree; Namely, that the royal family of that country was of the race of the Temenidae of Argos, and descended from Hercules.

The difference of opinion principally regards the individual of that family to whome the honour of founding this illustrious monarchy is to be ascribed.

 

A geographical and historical description of ancient Greece, with a map and plan of Athens by Cramer, J. A. (1793-1848), page 166

 

 

 

The name of Alexander frequently occurs in the history of Herodotus. This prince was enabled to render important services to the  cause of Greece, notwithstanding the occupation of his dominions by an overwhelming force of Persians, which compelled him to limit his exertions to the conveying of such secret intelligence to the greek commanders {...}

 

 

A geographical and historical description of ancient Greece, with a map and plan of Athens by Cramer, J. A. (1793-1848),page 168 

Ancient writers about Macedonia – Velleius Paterculus

 

In this period, sixty-five years before the founding of Rome, Carthage was established by the Tyrian Elissa, by some authors called Dido.

About this time also Caranus, a man of royal race, eleventh in descent from Hercules, set out from Argos and seized the kingship of Macedonia. From him Alexander the Great was descended in the seventeenth generation, and could boast that, on his mother’s side, he was descended from Achilles, and, on his father’s side,from Hercules.

 

Velleius Paterculus,History of Rome,I

Modern Historians about Macedonia – Frederic Harrison

 

The Macedonians were of the same stock as the Greeks.Their language probably did not differ from Greek more than French does from Italian.

The New Calendar of Great Men: Biographies of the 558 Worthies of All Ages & Nations in the Positivist Calendar of Auguste Comte,Frederic Harrison,page 182 

 

Modern historians about Macedonia - Robert Morkot

 

In the years of Macedonian expansion under Philip II (359-336) BC the Athenian orator Demosthenes referred to Greece’s northern neighbors as “barbarians”, claiming that they had only recently ceased to be shepherds. Certainly the Thracians and Illyrians were non - Greek speakers, but 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,The Penguin Historical Atlas of ancient Greece,page70

 

 

Modern historians about Macedonia – John Pentland Mahaffy

 

Quote:

‘’… Philip of Macedon,the father of our hero; nor is  this the bad place in the history of Greece,for with Alexander, the stage of Greek influence spread across the world.’’

 John Pentland Mahaffy,“Alexander’s Empire”,page 2

 The classical scholar J. P. Mahaffy (1839-1919) is known equally for his work on Greek texts and Egyptian papyri (his edition of The Flinders Petrie Papyri is reissued in the Cambridge Library Collection). He graduated from Trinity College, Dublin, and spent the rest of his working life there, ultimately as provost from 1914 until his death.

 In this illustrated 1887 work, Mahaffy describes Alexander's extraordinary conquest of territories in Europe, Africa and Asia, the collapse of his empire after his death, and the later subjugation of the successor kingdoms to the power of Rome. With his American collaborator Arthur Gilman (1837-1909), Mahaffy discusses Alexander's place in history before giving a close account of his career and death. The successor dynasties, and dominant rulers such as Demetrius II and Pyrrhus, their feuds and their attempted resistance to the rise of Rome, are depicted in an engaging and dramatic narrative.

Modern Historians about Macedonia – William Woodthorpe Tarn

 

Quote:

“Through both his parents claimed Greek descend...”

page 1

 

Quote:

 “The primary reason why Alexander invaded Persia  was,  no doubt,  that he  never  thought of not  doing it; it was his inheritance.  Doubtless,  too,  adventure attracted him;  and weight must also  be  given  to the official reason. For officially,  as  is  shown  by  the  political  manifesto  which  he  afterwards sent to Darius  from Marathus (p.36), the invasion was that Pan-hellenic  war of revenge which Isocrates had preached;  and  Alexander  did set out with pan-hellenic ideas:  he was the champion of Hellas. It seems quite certain  that  he had read,  and was influenced by, Isocrates Philippus.”

pages 8-9

Quote:

  “Generally speaking, the  League infantry was used  mainly  for garrisons and communications;  but  the  Cretan archers,  who  were not League  troops, were as indispensable as the Agrianians  themselves,  and  their loss of five commanders successively shows how heavily they were engaged.”                          

page 10

Quote:

  “Besides the Staff,  Alexander  had  about him a body of men of high position  to whom  the name Companions properly belongs, number unknown,…They included his personal friends… Nearchus;  …and a few Greeks  like  Demaratus,  Stasanor  and Laomedon,… as a civilian.”                 

 

      page 12

 

  “Besides his Macedonian generals, Alexander  had with him a number of Greek technicians, of whom  too little is known … seaman,… before Bactra”.

  pages 12-13

 

  “That Asia was not more hellenised  than  it  was arose simply from there not being enough Greeks in the world. They  had  to  be collected into  comparatively few towns;…”

page 134

 

Quote:

  “Most  of  what we know about Alexander’s  towns relates to Alexandria by Egypt, and there it is  impossible to distinguish  what is original and  what not; but the type was doubtless due to Alexander,  for  Ptolemy I’s foundation  Ptolemais was an autonomous Greek city.”       

 

  page 134

 

Quote:

  “What  Alexander  did  achieve  was  again  done through the cities,  both  his  own  and  those  which he inspired Seleucus to found, and it was a great enough achievement; the cities radiated Greek culture throughout Asia  till  ultimately the bulk of the upper classes over considerable districts became partially hellenised, and Demetrius of Bactria  led Greeks  for a second time  beyond the Hindu Kush,  to succeed for a moment    where Alexander had failed  and  rule  northern  India for a few years from Pataliputra to Kathiawar.”                             

 

page 138

 

Alexander the Great,by Tarn, W. W. (William Woodthorpe), 1869-1957

Sir William Woodthorpe Tarn (1869-1957) was a British ancient historian who wrote numerous works on the Hellenistic world. Tarn's Alexander the Great, first published in two volumes during 1948, has become a classic text and its importance for subsequent Alexander studies can hardly be exaggerated. Based on a lifetime's work and elegantly and persuasively written, both volumes evoked immediate admiration - and very soon sharp reaction. Volume I presents a 'comependious' narrative of Alexander's life and achievements; volume II focuses on providing a detailed analysis of sources and discussion relating to key historical cruces. This is a fascinating work that will be of value to anyone with an interest in the writings of Tarn, ancient history and Alexander the Great.

 from back cover