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