Strabo –
“Geography”
“There remain of Europe,first,Macedonia and the parts of Thrace that
are contiguous to it and extend as far as Byzantium; secondly, Greece; and
thirdly, the islands that are close by.
Macedonia,
of course, is a part of Greece, yet now, since I am following
the nature and shape of the places geographically, I have decided to classify
it apart from the rest of Greece and to join it with that part of Thrace which
borders on it and extends as far as the mouth of the Euxine and the Propontis.
Then, a little further on, Strabo mentions Cypsela and the Hebrus River, and also
describes a sort of parallelogram in which the whole of Macedonia lies.”
Strabo,Geography,book 7,Fragment 9
“And even to
the present day the Thracians, Illyrians, and Epeirotes live on the flanks of
the Greeks (though this was still more the case formerly than now); indeed most of the country that at the
present time is indisputably Greece is held by the barbarians — Macedonia and
certain parts of Thessaly by the Thracians, and the parts above
Acarnania and Aetolia by the Thesproti, the Cassopaei, the Amphilochi, the
Molossi, and the Athamanes — Epeirotic tribes.”
Strabo, Geography,book 7,VII,1
“What is now called Macedonia was in
earlier times called Emathia. And it took its present name from
Macedon, one of its early chieftains. And there was also a city emathia close
to the sea. Now a part of this country was taken and held by certain of the
Epeirotes and the Illyrians, but most oii by the Bottiaei and the Thracians.
The Bottiaei came from Crete originally, so it is said, along with Botton as
chieftain. As for the Thracians, the Pieres inhabited Pieria and the region
about Olympus; the Paeones, the region on both sides of the Axius River, which
on that account is called Amphaxitis; the Edoni and Bisaltae, the rest of the
country as far as the Strymon. Of these two peoples the latter are called
Bisaltae alone, whereas a part of the Edoni are called Mygdones, a part Edones,
and a part Sithones. But
of all these tribes the Argeadae, as they are called, established themselves as
masters, and also the Chalcidians of Euboea; for the
Chalcidians of Euboea also came over to the country of the Sithones and jointly
peopled about thirty cities in it, although later on the majority of them were
ejected and came together into one city, Olynthus;and they were named the
Thracian Chalcidians.”
Strabo, Geography, book 7, Fragment 11
