MACEDONIANS AND GREEKS THROUGH THE AGES

Throughout antiquity, the Chasia and Kamvounia
mountains, Mount Olympus, and the Vale of Tempe
separated Macedonia from Greece. On the north,
Macedonia extended as far as the Vardar watershed and
along the Struma and Mesta valleys, past the city of
Blagoevgrad to the sources of the Bistrica River in
the Rila Mountain in today's Bulgaria. Macedonia
covered a land area of c. 26,000 square miles.

In the course of the second pre-Christian millennium,
the ancient Greeks descended in several migratory
waves as goatherds and shepherds from the interior of
the Balkans into Greece. Some passed through the
Morava-Vardar Valley and across the plain of Thessaly
on their way south, while others went south through
Epirus. More recent scholars point to Asia Minor as
the original Greek homeland.

There is no evidence that prehistoric Macedonia was
ever occupied by Greeks. (!!!)

The Bronze Age Mycenaean Greek civilization, named so
after the city of Mycenae on the Peloponnesus, thrived
from c. 1400 to 1100 B.C. in mainland Greece and on
the Aegean islands. Archaeological finds from
Macedonia are meager and sporadic; scholars believe
that ancient Macedonia lay beyond the cultural and
ethnic borders of Mycenaean Greece.


The ancient Macedonians claimed kinship with the
Illyrians, Thracians, and Phrygians, not with the
Greeks. In fact, the Brygians of Macedonia were
believed to be the European branch of the people who
in Asia Minor were known as the Phrygians.

Ancient Macedonia was home to many tribes and nations.
Homer did not know the Macedonians by this name. Of
the many Macedonian peoples, Homer only mentions the
Paeones who lived in the heart of Macedonia. In the
Torjan War, the Paeones joined the besieged Trojans,
and indication that they were not Greeks. Greek and
other historians frequently mention the Brygians.
Their name derives from the Macedonian word breg,
"hill/mountain". The Brygians were the "hillsmen" of
Macedonia. Another remarkable people were the
Mygdones, who lived in Aegean Macedonia, in Asia
Minor, and in Upper Mesopotamia.

Greek migrants came to Macedonia, Thrace, and Illyria
after they had exhausted the possibilities of
settlement in Asia Minor, Italy, France, Spain, and
Scythia, known today as Ukraine and Russia. Some
famous ancient Greeks went to Macedonia and Thrace in
search of livelihood or adventure. These included
Pythagoras, Euripides, Herodotus, and Aristotle's
ancestors. However, the Greeks did not consider
Macedonia especially attractive for permanent
settlement. Neither did the Macedonians welcome them
as openheartedly as did the Italians and Scythians.
Perhaps Aristotle who left Macedonia while still a
yong man would have never gone back had the Macedonian
king Philip II (360-336 B.C.) not hired him to be his
son's tutor.