Modern Historians about Macedonia – René Grousset

 

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The Macedonian conquest gave Hellenic civilization, as a priceless compensation, at least the domination of Asia; and we know what a stimulus to the Greek spirit was this encounter, in the Alexandrian syncretism, with the genius of the East.

 

Unhappily, after a hundred years of splendid progress, the Alexandrianism which, in the third century, had presided over the hellenization of the East, suffered a reversal: the Greek spirit was in turn invaded by oriental ideas. Euclid and Aristarchus had lived at Alexandria, but it was also at Alexandria that the neo-Platonists and gnostics lived. Lucian’s outbursts of laughter (in the second century A.D.) were the last protest of the critical spirit against the return of the murkiest pagan mysticism.

 

Furthermore, when Alexander had made the Greeks masters of the East, they transferred to it their own inability to unite.

 

The Macedonia of the Antigonids, the Syria of the Seleucids and the Egypt of the Ptolemies, like Athens, Sparta and Thebes before them, wore themselves out in an inconclusive struggle which made them fall, one by one, an easy prey to the foreigner — in this case to the Romans.

 

Not with impunity had the Græco-Macedonian dynasties assumed the mantle of the old oriental despots.

 

René Grousset, A. Patterson ‘The Sum of History’, 1951,page 10

 

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Similar uncertainty surrounds the personality of Alexander. Should we see in him the agent of the Hellenic League about to Hellenize Asia? Or the Macedonian whom the Orient had won over and divested of Greek civilization to the point of making him a Son of Ammon and Great King?

 

Both personalities were present in him. And the whole drama of his brief life lay in the contrast between them. When he forced the passage of the Granicus, he came to Asia, like Agesilaus before him, to take vengeance for the invasion of Xerxes. His first act was to deliver Ionia. He went on to give Hellenism the coasts of the eastern Mediterranean, Syria, and Egypt; that is, the European façade of Asia. And this part of all his conquests was the only one to prove really lasting. Egypt and Syria remained part of Hellas for nine hundred and seventy years after his day, and western Anatolia for sixteen and a half centuries.

 

On the other hand, east of the Euphrates, on the Persian plateau afterwards conquered by Alexander, Hellenism maintained its hold for barely two centuries. And it was there that the Macedonian, for the eight years of life left to him, began to strip himself of his Greek inheritance.

 

‘The Sum of History’,page 153

 

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If the Macedonian kingdoms of Greater Greece had left no other proof of their activity, they would have done enough for ancient civilization by giving it the masters of Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius.

 

‘The Sum of History’,page 156

 

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One of the sons of Antiochus the Great, Antiochus Epiphanes, tried to react ( 175-164 B.C.). How are we to judge him? The superior strength of the Romans made it impossible for him to secure the triumph of Hellenism by force of arms. But the expansion of Greek nationality was the whole raison d’étre of the Seleucids. Antiochus Epiphanes was therefore obliged to undertake the conquest of the oriental soul by introducing Hellenism to the native peoples.

 

‘The Sum of History’,page 157

 

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It was the Byzantine Empire which was to realize Alexander’s idea -Macedonian Panhellenism — in face of an Asia in revolt, and realize it for the Greeks.

 

‘The Sum of History’ ,page 159 

Modern historians about ancient Macedonia - Richard Billows

Macedon was a region which had lagged behind the rest of the Greek world socially, economically, and culturally, failing to develop the polis or city-state institutions characteristic of the most advanced regions of Greece, but remaining instead a tribal society ruled by kings and dominated by a land-owning aristocracy.Indeed,there is some question as to whether Macedon should at this time be counted as part of the Greek world at all, for it has been doubted whether the Macedonians were a Greek-speaking people, on the basis of a few passages in ancient sources that appear to speak of a Macedonian “language”.These passages can equally well be understood to refer to a Macedonian “dialect,” however, and though it cannot at present be formally proved that the Macedonians were Hellenic in race and language, I think it highly likely that they were, for three reasons: the overwhelming majority of personal names known to have been used by Macedonians were good Greek names; the names of the months in the Macedonian calendar were basically Greek in form; and the religion of the Macedonians was largely the same as that of the Greeks, with Zeus, Herakles, and Dionysos being particularly prominent.

The Macedonians, then, were probably a Greek people (though certainly with an admixture of Illyrians and Thracians) akin in language and culture to their neighbors to the south and west, the Thessalians and Epeirots.Like the Epeirots, they were divided into several tribes and ruled over by a tribal monarchy. The main division in Macedon was between the lowland Macedonians, living in the plains of Pieria, Bottiaia, and the Amphaxitis, and the highland Macedonians, who were themselves divided into a number of “cantons”: from south to north, Tymphaia, Elimiotis, Orestis, Eordaia, Lynkos, and Pelagonia .The kings came from a royal family known as the Argeadai, who claimed descent from Herakles, but the Argead house was rooted in lower Macedon and the cantons of upper Macedon had dynastic families of their own who frequently claimed to rule as independent kings over their own regions.Like the Thessalians, the Macedonians never developed beyond the aristocratic form of society typical of early Greece and probably depicted in Homer’s epics.

The Homeric appearance of certain elements of Macedonian society has been widely noted; the chief of these elements is the so-called hetaireia, an institution which bound together the king and the nobility: it was the privilege and duty of the nobles to attend the king as his hetairoi (companions) both in war and peace, as cavalry fighters and officers, or as councillors and boon companions.That this institution was deeply rooted in Macedon is shown by the existence of a religious festival named the Hetairidia, and it is clear that the hetairoi formed a noble class of major importance in the state.Although as chief priest, chief judge, commander in chief, and political leader, the king embodied the state, he was constrained in practice to function in consultation with his hetairoi.

 

 Thus the chief organ of state policy was the synedrion or council of the king and his friends, in which the king took the lead and made the decisions, but would find it hard to decide against a consensus of his nobles.In particular, actions against the lives of leading members of the hetairos class could normally be risked by a king only with strong backing from his friends, and at times the king might prefer to hand over the decision on a capital charge against a great noble to the synedrion of his friends.The basis of the social and economic standing of the hetairos class was clearly landed wealth: Theopompos tells us that the 800 hetairoi of Philip II, for example, owned as much land as the 10,000 wealthiest men of the rest of Greece put together (FGrH, no. 115 F 225b). Being proprietors of great estates gave them an inherited status within their regions, and hence in the kingdom as a whole. In particular,like the Thessalian nobility, the Macedonian hetairoi raised horses on their estates, and provided the cavalry forces of the Macedonian state, riding in to support the king in time of war, each noble with a mounted following of his own.

Since Macedon before the time of Philip II had no significant infantry force, but relied almost exclusively on cavalry for its defense, their domination of the cavalry gave the Macedonian nobility great political influence.This was especially true when a weak king was on the throne, when factions of nobles often coalesced around other members of the royal house claiming the throne and reduced the state to near anarchy.

 

“Antigonus the One-Eyed” By Richard Billows,pages 18-20

Μακεδονικός τάφος στον Φοίνικα - Macedonian tomb at Phoinikas

 

Από τους πιο σημαντικούς και εντυπωσιακούς μακεδονικούς τάφους στην ευρύτερη περιφέρεια της Θεσσαλονίκης είναι αυτός στο Φοίνικα, νοτιοανατολικά της πόλης. Πρόκειται για το αρχαιότερο δείγμα μακεδονικού τάφου στην περιοχή της Θεσσαλονίκης, αλλά και για ένα από τα αρχαιότερα μνημεία αυτού του τύπου, όπου ο δωρικός ρυθμός βρίσκει την πληρέστερη έκφρασή του. Παρά το γεγονός ότι ο τάφος βρέθηκε συλημένος, η μορφή του και τα ανασκαφικά δεδομένα δείχνουν ότι ετοιμάσθηκε με ιδιαίτερη φροντίδα μέσα στο τελευταίο τέταρτο του 4ου αι. π.Χ. για να δεχθεί έναν αναμφίβολα επιφανή νεκρό, πιθανότατα ανώτατο στέλεχος του μακεδονικού στρατού, και τη γυναίκα του.

 

Πρόκειται για επιβλητικό μονοθάλαμο οικοδόμημα, κατασκευασμένο από πωρόλιθο και επιχρισμένο με ασβεστοκονίαμα. Ένας βαθμιδωτός δρόμος, που έχει λαξευθεί στο φυσικό βράχο, οδηγεί στη θύρα του τάφου, που ήταν φραγμένη με έξι επάλληλους ογκόλιθους. Εσωτερικά ο τάφος έκλεινε με ξύλινη δίφυλλη πόρτα. Η πρόσοψη του μνημείου, που σώζεται σχεδόν ακέραια, είναι ιδιαίτερα εντυπωσιακή. Έχει πλάτος 4,96 μ. και ύψος 5,68 μ. και είναι επιχρισμένη με λευκό μαρμαροκονίαμα. Ο δωρικός ρυθμός εδώ αναδεικνύεται σε όλη του τη μεγαλοπρέπεια, καθώς οι αρχιτεκτονικές λεπτομέρειες της ανωδομής τονίζονται με πολύχρωμα κονιάματα. Βαθυκύανα τρίγλυφα πλαισιώνουν τις λευκές μετόπες, όπου με χρυσαφιές πινελιές επαναλαμβάνεται η εικόνα μιας μεταλλικής φιάλης. Το διάκοσμο της πρόσοψης ολοκλήρωνε η ζωγραφική παράσταση του αετώματος, που είχε, δυστυχώς, φθαρεί σε μεγάλο βαθμό λόγω της καταστροφής του επαέτιου γείσου από τους αρχαιοκάπηλους. Η εσωτερική διαμόρφωση του θαλάμου, όπου δεσπόζουν δύο βωμόσχημα βάθρα επάνω σε ορθογώνιες βάσεις, είναι πραγματικά μοναδική. Τα εντυπωσιακά βάθρα, με πολύχρωμο γραμμικό διάκοσμο σε μαύρο φόντο, είχαν επίσης υποστεί μεγάλη φθορά από τους αρχαιοκάπηλους, που αφαίρεσαν τα τεφροδόχα σκεύη και διασκόρπισαν τα καμένα οστά των νεκρών. Την εικόνα του χώρου συμπληρώνουν δύο κτιστά θρανία, για την εναπόθεση προσφορών προς τους νεκρούς.

 

Το μνημείο ήλθε στο φως την άνοιξη του 1987, ακριβώς πίσω από το Νοσοκομείο Άγιος Παύλος, στο χώρο απ' όπου θα περνούσε τμήμα της ανατολικής περιφερειακής οδού. Μετά την ανασκαφή η κατασκευή του δρόμου ολοκληρώθηκε, ενώ μια ελαφρά υπερυψωμένη γέφυρα στέγασε τον τάφο. Σήμερα, ο ειδικά διαμορφωμένος υπόγειος χώρος περιλαμβάνει επίσης έκθεση εποπτικού υλικού σχετικά με την ανασκαφή του μνημείου αλλά και με την ευρύτερη περιοχή, καθώς και παρουσίαση των γνωστών και άγνωστων μακεδονικών τάφων στην περιφέρεια της Θεσσαλονίκης ώστε ο επισκέπτης να αποκομίσει ολοκληρωμένη εικόνα για το θέμα. Σε απόσταση λίγων μέτρων νοτιοανατολικά του τάφου ορθωνόταν ένας ταφικός τύμβος, παλαιότερα γνωστός ως «Τούμπα Κις», ενώ όλη η περιοχή εντάσσεται σε νεκροταφείο κλασικών και πρώιμων ελληνιστικών χρόνων, που καταστράφηκε από αυθαίρετες αμμοληψίες στις προηγούμενες δεκαετίες. Παρά την καταστροφή, οι σωστικές ενέργειες τις ΙΣΤ΄ Εφορείας Προϊστορικών και Κλασικών Αρχαιοτήτων απέδωσαν αρκετούς ασύλητους τάφους του 4ου και 3ου αι. π.Χ. 

 

One of the significant and most impressive Macedonian tombs in the Thessaloniki metropolitan area is situated in Phinikas settlement, to the southeast of the town. This is the oldest tomb in Thessaloniki and the surroundings, one of the earliest of its type, giving full expression to the Doric order. Despite the lootings, both its form and the excavation evidence prove that it was prepared with great care during the last quarter of the fourth century BC to host an undoubtedly renowned defunct, probably a senior official of the Macedonian army and his wife.

 

This is an impressive single-chambered building of poros stone plastered with lime mortar. A stepped way hewn into the rock leads to the tomb entrance, sealed with six successive blocks. Internally it closed by a wooden double-leaf door. The fa?ade, almost entirely preserved, is very impressive: 4.96m wide and 5.68m high, it is covered with white stucco. The Doric order is sumptuously emerging as the architectural elements of the superstructure are highlighted with colourful mortars. Dark-blue triglyphs flank white metopes ornate with the repeated motif of a metallic gold-painted phiale. The decoration of the fa?ade was brought to completion through the painted representation on the pediment; unfortunately, the latter was largely worn out due to the destruction of the gabled cornice by antiquities looters. The internal shape of the burial chamber, dominated by two altar-like pedestals on rectangular bases, is truly unmatched. The impressive pedestals of multicolour linear decoration upon black background had been also damaged by illicit antiquities traders, who removed the burial urns and dispersed the ashes of the deceased. The picture also captures two stone-built benches for the placement of offerings to the defunct.

 

The monument was uncovered in the spring of 1987, right behind the Agios Pavlos (St. Paul) Hospital, where the east ring road would pass according to schedule. After the excavation, the road was completed and the tomb was sheltered under a slightly elevated bridge. Today, the accordingly arranged subterranean space includes an exhibition of visual material about the excavation of the monument and the wider area, and a presentation of known and unknown Macedonian tombs located within Thessaloniki prefecture, in order to provide a complete picture to the visitor. A few metres to the southeast of the tomb stood a burial tumulus earlier known as ‘’Toumba Kis’’: it makes part of the surrounding cemetery dated to the Classical and Early Hellenistic periods, which was destroyed by arbitrary earth clearings in previous decades. Despite the destruction, the preservation efforts made by the sixteenth Ephorate for Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities bore fruits, i.e. uncovered several non-looted tombs of the fourth and third century BC.