Appendix I.
On the settlements, origin, and early history of the Macedonian nation.
General outline of the country.[1875]
1. In the Thermaic bay, the modern gulf of Salonichi, three rivers of considerable size fall into the sea at very short distances from one another, but which meet in this place in very different directions. The largest of the three comes from the north-west, and is now called (as indeed it was in the time of Tzetzes and Anna Comnena) the Bardares (or Vardar), and was in ancient days celebrated under the name of Axius. Its stream is increased by large tributary branches on both sides, and chiefly by the Erigon, which flows from the mountains of Illyria.[1876] The river next in order runs from the west; it is now called in the interior of the country Potova, and on the coast Carasmac: its ancient name, as is evident from passages in Herodotus and Strabo, was Lydias, or Ludias.[1877] And, lastly, after many turnings and windings, [pg 452] the Haliacmon, now called Bichlista, flows from the south-west; in the time of Herodotus it fell into the sea through the same mouth as the Lydias, probably being widened by marshes; and in modern maps the interval between the two rivers is represented as very small.[1878] It may be easily conceived that this whole maritime district must have been low and marshy; and by this means Pella, as Livy remarks, was of all towns in the country best fitted for being the fortress of the Macedonian kings, and the place of deposit for their treasure, since it lay, like an island, in the morasses and swamps formed by the neighbouring lakes and rivers. These marshes were called by the expressive name of βόρβορος, or mud.[1879]
2. Although the mouths of these rivers were so near together, the extent of mountains, valleys, and plains which they encompassed in their course was very considerable, amounting, according to modern maps, to 140 geographical miles from north and south, and more than 60 from east to west. The Axius, together with its minor branches, runs from the great Scardian chain, which further on receives the names of Orbelus, Scomius, and Hæmus; while the course of the Haliacmon is close to the heights of mount Olympus (part of which ridge in later times was called the Cambunian mountains), and therefore to the borders of Thessaly. Both ridges run at right angles from the great mountain-chain which cuts the upper part of Greece in a direction from north-west to south-east, its southern parts bearing the name of Pindus, the ridge towards Thessaly and Epirus of Lacmon,[1880] and further to the north-west it is called [pg 453] the Candavian chain[1881] and mount Barnus.[1882] It stretches behind the whole of the district just named, and forms, as it were, the spine, to which the mountains of Illyria, Epirus, Macedonia, and Thessaly are attached like ribs. From this chain the two lines of mountains proceed, which separate the valleys of the Haliacmon and the Axius. The name of the ridge between the Haliacmon and the Lydias is known by the mention of mount Bermius above Berœa;[1883] and Berœa is certainly the modern Veria, or Cara Veria,[1884] near the northern bank of the Haliacmon. It will be shown presently that Dysorum was the name of the mountain which divided the Lydias and the Axius.[1885] And the ridge, which, stretching southward from the Scardian chain, parted the valley of the Axius from the plains to the east, was called (in one point at least), as we know from Thucydides'[1886] account of the Odrysian king's march, Cercine.
3. The valleys beyond the last-mentioned ridge are those of the Strymon and the Angites. As the Axius falls into the sea in a gulf to the west, so does the Strymon join the sea to the east of the Chalcidian peninsula. Not far from its mouth the Strymon forms a lake, into which the Angites runs; a stream of considerable size, its course lying westward of the Strymon. For that the eastern stream is the ancient Strymon (notwithstanding the opinion of most modern geographers) is, in the first place, evident from its size; secondly, from the name Struma, which it now bears; and, thirdly, from the statement of Herodotus,[1887] that the district of Phyllis reached southwards to the Strymon, and westward to the Angites; it lay, therefore, above the confluence [pg 454] of the two rivers and the lake which they formed by their junction. The ridge which lies to the east of the Strymon was called, at least where it widens along the coast, Pangæum.[1888]
Thus much is sufficient to give a general notion of the geographical structure of the region, the ancient inhabitants of which form the subject of the present inquiry.
Ancient names of the several districts.
4. We will now chiefly follow the full and accurate accounts of Herodotus respecting the districts situated near the mouths of the three rivers just mentioned. First, Mygdonia, on the Thermaic bay, and round the ancient city of Therma, extended, according to Herodotus, to the Axius, which divided this district from Bottiaïs;[1889] and it agrees with this statement that the small river Echeidorus (probably the modern Gallico), which fell into the sea at the marshes near the Axius, in the lower part of its course passed through Mygdonia.[1890] To the east this district extended still further; lake Bolbe, beyond Chalcidice, was either in or near Mygdonia.[1891] Thucydides, indeed, makes Mygdonia reach as far as the Strymon;[1892] but this cannot be reconciled with the account of Herodotus (who appears to have possessed a very accurate knowledge of this region), that both the maritime district, west from the Strymon, in which was the Greek city of Argilus, and the land further to the interior, was called Bisaltia.[1893] On the other side, above Mygdonia, was situated (according to Herodotus) the district of Crestonica, from which the river Echeidorus flowed down to the coast.[1894]
5. Beyond the Axius, to the west of the stream, immediately after Mygdonia, came Bottiais, which district was on the other side bounded by the united mouth of the Haliacmon and the Lydias;[1895] and thus towards the sea it terminated in a narrow wedge-shaped strip. On this tongue of land were the cities of Ichnæ and Pella,[1896] the first of which was celebrated for an ancient temple;[1897] while Pella became afterwards the royal residence, situated on the lake of the Lydias, at the distance of 120 stadia from the river's mouth,[1898] and may now be recognised by these marks of its position and some ruins. According to Strabo,[1899] also, the river Axius made the boundary of Bottiæa, and divided it from the district of Amphaxitis, which was the name of the opposite and more elevated side of the Axius.[1900] Thucydides also calls this tract of country Bottiæa;[1901] and distinguishes it from the more recent settlements of the Bottiæans, near Olynthus, in Chalcidice,[1902] which he calls Bottica.[1903]
6. The united mouth of the Lydias and Haliacmon, according to Herodotus,[1904] divided Bottiaïs from Macedonis; for he can only mean this common mouth when he says that “the rivers Lydias and Haliacmon divide the districts [pg 456] of Bottiaïs and Macedonis, uniting their waters in the same channel.” Further on in the interior the Lydias alone must have been the boundary of Bottiaïs, since otherwise this district would not end in a narrow strip of land; Macedonis, therefore, began on the western bank of the Lydias. In this place nothing more can be said as to the meaning of the word Macedonis, before the precise signification of some other names has been determined.
7. Proceeding along the coast, Pieria borders upon Macedonis, the district under Mount Olympus,[1905] which ridge, where it approaches this coast, splits into two branches, the one stretching towards the mouth of the Peneus, the other towards those of the three rivers. Herodotus cannot make Pieria reach as far as the Haliacmon,[1906] as they are here separated by Macedonis Proper;[1907] he probably supposes it to begin just at the rise of mount Olympus, and divides the narrow plain on the sea-coast from the tracts to the interior. The southern boundary of Pieria is stated by Strabo[1908] and Livy[1909] to have been the district of Dium;[1910] so that these writers leave a narrow and mountainous strip of land, stretching towards Tempe, which belonged neither to Pieria nor Thessaly. The chief place in Pieria was Pydna, also called Cydna (according to Stephanus Byz.), and in later times Citron (according to the epitomizer of Strabo),[1911] which name still remains in the same place.
8. Now that we proceed from the divisions of the coast to the interior, we are deserted, indeed, by the excellent account of Herodotus; but there are nevertheless statements [pg 457] sufficiently accurate to determine the ancient name of each district. The high and mountainous valley of the Haliacmon was, according to Livy,[1912] called Elimeia; the inhabitants Elimiots, who are included by Thucydides[1913] among the Macedonians: the district is also called after their name Elimiotis.[1914] From thence proceeds the road to Thessaly over the Cambunian mountains;[1915] and another almost impracticable road to Ætolia over the mountainous country to the south of Elimeia.[1916] To Elimeia succeeded Parauæa, a fertile district, near the sources of the river called Aous, Æas, or Auus;[1917] and to the south again lay Paroræa, which was crossed by the river Arachthus at the beginning of its course from under mount Stympha:[1918] the country near this mountain was called Stymphæa (or Tymphæa), extending to the sources of the Peneus and the land of the Æthicians.[1919] The Atintanians reached beyond the country of the Parauæans, and within that of the Chaonians as far as Illyria.[1920] All these districts are indeed divided from Elimeia by the great chain of Pindus; but, from their connexion with that region, some account of them in this place was indispensable.
9. A small valley in the district of Elimeia, which lay to [pg 458] the north towards the Illyrian Dassaretians,[1921] was inhabited by the Orestian Macedonians,[1922] who doubtless were so called from the mountains (ὄρη) in which they dwelt, and not from Orestes, the son of Agamemnon. The valley of Orestis[1923] contained a lake, in which was the town Celetrum, situated on a peninsula.[1924] Its position coincides with that of the modern Castoria;[1925] and it cannot be doubted that the wild mountain-valley near the source of the Haliacmon was the ancient Orestis. Another valley in Elimeia was called Almopia, or Almonia, an ancient settlement of the Minyans, situated on the confines of Macedonia and Thessaly, apparently not far from Pieria.[1926]
10. Elimeia, together with the surrounding highlands, was cold and rugged, and difficult of cultivation.[1927] The same was the case with the neighbouring district of Lyncestis, the country of the Lyncestæ, who had received their name, according to a Macedonian inflexion,[1928] from Lyncus.[1929] Lyncus was the name of the whole district, and not of any one city, as in early times there were only unfortified villages [pg 459] in this part.[1930] It was surrounded on all sides by mountains; a narrow pass between two heights being the chief road to the coast.[1931] The position of Lyncus is accurately determined by the course of the Egnatian Roman road from Dyrrachium, which, after crossing the Illyrian mountains at Pylon (or the gateway), led by Heraclea Lyncestis, and through the country of the Lyncestæ and Eordians, to Edessa and Pella;[1932] as well as by the fact that the mons Bora of Livy, i.e. the Bermius, lay to the south of it.[1933] Consequently the Lyncestæ must have inhabited the mountains south of the Erigon, and a part of the valley in which that river flowed; which is confirmed by other accounts of ancient writers.[1934] The country of the Eordians is also determined by the direction of the Egnatian way; viz., to the east of Lyncus and west of Edessa, and therefore in the valley of the Lydias, to the north of Elimea[1935] and the Bermius.[1936] In order to go from the valley of the Erigon to Thessaly, the way passed first through Eordæa and then through Elimiotis.[1937]
11. Deuriopus (ἡ Δευρίοπος) was the name of a tract of country along the Erigon,[1938] which was considered as belonging to Pæonia,[1939] and probably lay to the east of Lyncestis [pg 460] and north of Eordæa.[1940] In Pæonia also was situated the rugged district of Pelagonia, to the north of Lyncestis,[1941] having on its northern frontiers narrow passes, which protected it from the incursions of the Dardanians.[1942] As to other parts of the extensive territory of Pæonia (in comparison with which Macedonia was originally very inconsiderable in size), it is only necessary to observe, that, beginning near the source of the Axius, the banks of which river had from early times been occupied by Pæonian tribes, a narrow strip of land extended down to Pella and the coast;[1943] though, according to Herodotus, it could not have actually reached the edge of the sea, as the frontiers of Bottiaïs and Mygdonia at this point came into contact with one another.[1944] Immediately to the north of Lower Macedonia, i.e., to the north of Macedonian Pæonia, Bottiaïs, and Mygdonia, but without the confines of these provinces, was situated, as we learn from Thucydides,[1945] the Pæonian city of Doberus.[1946] The king of the Odrysians arrived, according to the same writer,[1947] at this place after having come from his dominions, which were bounded by the Strymon, over mount Cercine; in which passage he left the Pæonians to the right, and to the left the Sintes and Mædi (Thracian races, supposed by Gatterer to have penetrated hither when the Siropæonians and others crossed over to Asia).[1948] From which notices I have ventured to set down the mountain, the city, and nations just mentioned, as may be seen in the accompanying map.[1949]
Early history of the kingdom of Macedonia.
12. The subject of this dissertation made it necessary for us to enter into the above detail as to the several provinces and divisions of Upper and Lower Macedonia. We must now proceed to inquire into the gradual extension of the kingdom of Macedon; an investigation in which we are fortunately assisted by the clear and accurate account of Thucydides, who lived at no great distance from the country which he describes; and whose words I now transcribe as follows (II. 99.):
“Accordingly, the subjects of Sitalces mustered at Doberus, and prepared for a descent into Lower Macedonia, which country was under the rule of Perdiccas. For to the Macedonians belong[1950] the Lyncestæ and the Elimiots, and other nations in the upper parts of the country, which are the allies and subjects[1951] of these Macedonians,[1952] but have nevertheless princes of their own. The present kingdom of Macedonia, extending along the sea,[1953] was first occupied by Alexander the father of Perdiccas, and his ancestors of the family of Temenus, who came originally from Argos; and ruled over it, having by force of arms expelled the Pierians from Pieria,[1954] and the Bottiæans from the district called Bottiæa. They also obtained in Pæonia a narrow tongue of land, extending along the river Axius down to Pella and the sea: and on the further side of the Axius they possess the district called Mygdonia, as far as the Strymon, of which they dispossessed the Edones. They also dislodged the Eordians from the country still called Eordia, and from Almopia the Almopians. These Macedonians also subdued those other nations which they now possess; viz., Anthemus, together with Crestonia and Bisaltia, and a large part of the Macedonians themselves. The whole of this country together is called Macedonia; and Perdiccas, [pg 462] the son of Alexander, was king of it when Sitalces made his invasion.”
13. This chapter has not by any means been exhausted by those who have written on the growth and size of Macedonia; and therefore it will be convenient to set down some of the chief inferences which may be drawn from it.
In the first place, it is plain that the Macedonians, who made the conquest, and founded the kingdom of Macedon, were not the whole Macedonian nation, but only a part of it. There were in the mountainous districts Macedonian tribes, which had their own kings, and originally were not subject to the Temenidæ. These are the Macedonian highlanders of Herodotus,[1955] from whose district the road passed over mount Olympus (the Cambunian chain) into the country of the Perrhæbians;[1956] and it began, as has been already remarked, in Elimeia.[1957] The Elimiots were, according to Thucydides, one portion of these Macedonians, the Lyncestæ another; both which appellations were merely local, and the full title was “the Macedonians in Lyncus,” or “the Macedonian Lyncestæ.”[1958] Of the remaining Macedonian nations in the mountain-districts we only know the name of the Orestæ;[1959] at least there are no others who can with any certainty be considered as Macedonians.
14. The name of Macedonia was not therefore, as some have supposed, confined to the royal dynasty of Edessa, but was a national appellation; so much so, that it is even stated that those very kings subdued, among other nations, a large portion of the Macedonians. The tribes of Upper Macedonia were long governed by their own princes; thus Antiochus was king of the Orestæ at the beginning of the Peloponnesian war;[1960] the Lyncestæ were under the rule of Arrhibæus, the son of Bromerus,[1961] the great grandfather, by the mother's side, of Philip of Macedon, who derived [pg 463] his descent (not altogether without probability) from the Bacchiadæ, the ancient rulers of Corinth;[1962] and these kings, though properly recognising the supremacy of the Temenidæ, were nevertheless at times their nearest, and therefore most dangerous, enemies.[1963]
15. The Macedonian kingdom of the Temenidæ, on the other hand, began from a single point of the Macedonian territory, concerning the position of which there are various traditions. According to Herodotus, three brothers of the family of Temenus, Gauanes, Aëropus, and Perdiccas, fled from Argos to Illyria, from thence passed on to Lebæa in Upper Macedonia, and served the king of the country (who was therefore a Macedonian) as shepherds. From this place they again fled, and dwelt in another part of Macedonia, near the gardens of Midas, in mount Bermius (near Berœa), from which place they subdued the neighbouring country.[1964] Thucydides so far recognises this tradition, that he likewise considers Perdiccas as the founder of the kingdom, reckoning eight kings down to Archelaus.[1965] The other account, however, that there were three kings before Perdiccas, is unquestionably not the mere invention of later historians, but was derived, as well as the other, from some local tradition. According to this account the Macedonian kingdom began at Edessa,[1966] which had been taken by Caranus, of the family of the Temenidæ, and by him named after a goatherd, who rendered him assistance, Ægæ (or Ægeæ).[1967] Both narrations have equally a traditional character, and were doubtless of Macedonian origin, only that the latter appears to have been combined with an Argive [pg 464] legend of a brother of the powerful Phido having gone to the north. The claim of Edessa is also confirmed by the fact, that, even when it had long ceased to be the royal residence, it still continued the burial-place of the kings of Temenus' race, and, as Diodorus says, the hearth of their empire.[1968]
16. Edessa and the gardens of Midas were both situated between the Lydias and the Haliacmon, in the original and proper country of Macedonia, according to the account of Herodotus.[1969] The manner in which the dominions of the Temenidæ were extended along the sea-coast, and towards the interior, we learn from Thucydides, who comprises in one general view all the conquests of these princes until the reign of Alexander. For to suppose that Alexander, the son of Amyntas, made all these conquests, is an error which is even refuted by the words of Thucydides; although it is very possible that this prince, who began his reign about 488 B.C., at the time of the Persian power, and was the brother-in-law of a Persian general,[1970] added considerably to the territory which he had inherited.[1971] But when Xerxes undertook his great expedition against Greece, the power of Macedon was as great as it is described by Thucydides; nor was its territory much enlarged during the interval between the Persian and Peloponnesian wars.[1972] For at the time of the Persian war (481 B.C.) the Pierians were already settled in New Pieria, especially in the fortified towns of Phagres and Pergamus, at the foot of mount Pangæum,[1973] whither they retired, after having been driven out of Old [pg 465] Pieria by the Macedonian kings;[1974] in fact, this extension of the territory of Macedon must have taken place at an early period.[1975] Moreover, Olynthus was, according to Herodotus,[1976] at least before 480 B.C., in the hands of the Bottiæans, who had, as we learn from both Herodotus and Thucydides, expelled the Macedonians from the ancient Bottiaïs; consequently this district had been under the rule of the Macedonians before the expedition of Xerxes. Thirdly, Amyntas the Macedonian, in 510 B.C., offered Anthemus in Chalcidice to the Pisistratidæ;[1977] the same argument therefore applies in this case also. Anthemus, however, could hardly have been obtained without Mygdonia: and that this district was then a part of the Macedonian dominions is probable also from the following reasons.[1978] According to Thucydides, the Macedonians drove out the nation of the Edonians[1979] from Mygdonia, between the rivers Axius and Strymon; and accordingly we find the Edonians always mentioned as dwelling to the east of the Strymon, at the foot of mount Pangæum. Now Ennea Hodoi, situated on the eastern bank of the Strymon, was, according to Herodotus,[1980] in the possession of the Edonians in the year 481 B.C.; and Myrcinus, in the same region, was found by Histiæus, when he visited it, to be an Edonian district,[1981] as it was at a later period by Brasidas.[1982] The latter argument is not indeed of itself decisive, as it might be said that the Edonians were [pg 466] only driven together by the conquests of the Macedonians, and had previously been in possession of the further side of the Strymon; but when combined with the former facts, it offers an almost certain proof that the whole country, from lake Bolbè to within a short distance from the Peneus, was subject to the Macedonians before the expedition of Xerxes.[1983] Methone[1984] was on this coast the only interruption to the series of Macedonian possessions; this Eretrian colony had been, about 746 B.C.,[1985] together with the numerous Eubœan settlements in Chalcidice,[1986] at a period when the power of the Macedonians on this line of coast was very insignificant; and it preserved its independence until the reign of Philip the son of Amyntas.[1987]
17. From the facts now ascertained, we may deduce a result of some importance with regard to the language of Herodotus. This historian clearly and precisely distinguishes between Bottiaïs and Macedonia in the time of Xerxes,[1988] although it is certain that Bottiaïs was then in the power of the Macedonians;[1989] Macedonia he classes as a district with Bottiaïs, Mygdonia, and Pieria. He uses the word, therefore, not in a political, but in a national sense; i.e., he restricts it to the territory originally possessed by the Macedonian nation, not applying it to countries which had been obtained by conquest or political preponderance. The Macedonia of Herodotus is consequently the territory of the Macedonians before all the conquests of the Temenidæ. It extended, according to Herodotus, in a narrow tongue down to the sea;[1990] a fact disregarded by Thucydides, when [pg 467] he states that the coast of Lower Macedonia was first reduced by the Temenidæ.[1991] Further from the sea, however, the ancient Macedonia had a much wider extent, and included the districts of Edessa and Berœa, Lyncestis, Orestis, and Elimeia: for Macedonia is stated by Herodotus to have been on the one side bounded by mount Olympus (which ridge, where it borders on Pieria,[1992] was called the Macedonian mountains),[1993] and on the other by mount Dysorum. This last fact is evident from the statement of the same writer, that a very short way led from the Prasian lake to Macedonia, passing first to the mine from which Alexander obtained an immense supply of precious metal; and then, that having crossed mount Dysorum, you were in Macedonia;[1994] i.e., evidently in the original Macedonia, since he expressly excludes from it the mine which had been a subsequent accession. The Prasian lake was in Pæonia;[1995] but in what district of it is not known;[1996] mount Dysorum, however, can only be looked for to the north of Edessa and to the west of the Axius, Macedonia Proper not extending so far as that river. In this manner it is placed in the accompanying map; in which also the ancient boundaries of the Macedonian race are laid down according to the results obtained by these researches.
18. On the other conquests of the Macedonians little need be said. The occupation of Bisaltia and Crestonica was subsequent to the expedition of Xerxes. The Thracian king of these districts fled away,[1997] and left his kingdom a prey to the ambition of Alexander, who thus extended his empire to the mouth of the Strymon, which was the boundary of Macedonia in the days of Thucydides and of Scylax, and remained so until the time of Philip. At what time the Macedonian kings reduced that part of Pæonia which stretched along the Axius, Eordæa, Almopia, and a large part of the Macedonians themselves, we are nowhere informed; [pg 468] and to infer from Thucydides that these conquests succeeded that of Mygdonia and preceded that of Anthemus, would be laying too much weight upon the order in which he arranges the events; in which, although he doubtless paid some regard to chronology, the context required that the conquests on the coast should be mentioned before those of the interior. Eordæa was probably subjugated at a very early period, since it lay, as it were, in a bay of the Macedonian territory; and a very credible tradition has been preserved by Dexippus,[1998] that Caranus had in early times made an alliance with the Orestæ against the Eordians, and founded his kingdom by the subjugation of that nation. In fact, the first nation with whom the king of Edessa had to contend was these Eordians. They were, according to Thucydides, nearly annihilated by a war of extermination; a small number of them escaped to Physca in Mygdonia;[1999] which district therefore was not as yet under the power of the Macedonians.
19. Among those parts of Macedonia Proper which were reduced by the Temenidæ, Elimeia may be particularly mentioned, as is evident from the following circumstances. Perdiccas, the son of Alexander, was at war with his brother Philip, with whom he was to have divided his kingdom,[2000] and also with Derdas.[2001] The brothers of Derdas, before the beginning of the Peloponnesian war, in alliance with the Athenians, made a descent from the highlands, that is, from one of the districts Elimeia, Orestis, or Lyncus, into the dominions of Perdiccas.[2002] Now Derdas[2003] was the son of Arrhibæus, and cousin of Perdiccas; and it is plain that the Temenidæ reduced Elimeia; and a branch of the same family received this district as their peculiar possession.[2004] [pg 469] A separate king of Elimeia also existed in the time of Archelaus,[2005] who doubtless belonged to the same family. For a later Derdas occurs as prince of the Elimiots in the time of Agesilaus,[2006] who perhaps was the same as, or rather was the father of, the Derdas, whose sister Phila Philip married.[2007] In like manner, there was a separate sovereignty in Stymphæa and the neighbouring Æthicia, which was held by the family of Polysperchon, the general and guardian of the kingdom.[2008] Although in later times all these separate sovereignties, both of the Temenidæ and of other princes, were suppressed, and Upper and Lower Macedonia were equally ruled from the city of Pella; yet the tribes of the highlands still remained to a certain degree distinct. Even at the battle of Arbela, the Elimiots, Lyncestæ, Orestæ, and Tymphæans fought in separate bodies;[2009] and several persons are denoted in the history of Macedon by the surname of Lyncestes. Perdiccas came from Orestis, Ptolemy from Eordæa.[2010] Those in the lowlands, on the other hand, were known by the general name of Macedonians; and it should be observed, that there were also Macedonians dwelling in Pieria, Bottiaïs, Mygdonia, Eordæa, and Almopia,[2011] who had, according to Thucydides, driven out the native inhabitants; while Pæonia and Bisaltia, together with Anthemus and Crestonica, remained in the possession of those tribes which had been settled there before the conquest of Macedonia.[2012]
On the national affinity of the original Macedonians.
20. From what has been already said it is plain that there was, independently of the extension of the empire of the Temenidæ, a Macedonian nation possessing from early times a territory of considerable size, viz., the Macedonia of Herodotus; the area of which in the accompanying map amounts to 2400 geographical square miles.
We now proceed to the most important question to be considered in this treatise, viz., to what national family these Macedonians belonged.
21. The ancient writers distinguish in these regions the following nations; and in so marked a manner that it is evident that they differed from one another in their costume, language, and mode of living.[2013]
First, the Thracians. This great nation extended to the north as far as the Danube, where it included the Getæ;[2014] to the east beyond the sea, since the Thynians and Bithynians were Thracians;[2015] to the west within mount Hæmus as far as the Strymon, where it bordered on the Pæonians, widening still more as it receded from the coast, since it also included the Triballians.[2016] On the west bank of the Strymon the Sintians and Mædians were of Thracian origin;[2017] to which nation the Bisaltæ and Edones must also be referred.[2018] Thrace is often represented as having in early times extended to Thessaly and Bœotia[2019] but merely in reference to the settlements of the Pierians at the foot of Olympus and Helicon; and there are many reasons against considering these Pierians as of the same race as the other [pg 471] Thracians,[2020] although they were called Thracians at an early period.[2021] Homer at least distinguishes between these two nations when he makes Here go from Olympus to Pieria, then to Emathia, and afterwards to the snowy mountains of the Thracians;[2022] by which he must mean the mountains of the Bisaltæ to the north of Edessa, since the goddess next rests her foot on mount Athos and the island of Lemnos.
Secondly, the Pæonians. A numerous race divided into several small nations,[2023] inhabiting the districts on the rivers Strymon and Axius and the countries to the north of Macedonia,[2024] together with Pannonia, according to the Greeks.[2025] This race, according to their own tradition (if Herodotus's account is correct),[2026] derived their origin from the ancient Teucrians in the Troad; in their passage from which country they had been accompanied, according to Herodotus, by the Mysians, the same people that afterwards gave their name of Mœsians to a great province.[2027]
Thirdly, the Illyrians extended southward as far as the Acroceraunian mountains, eastward to the mountain-chain known in its southern parts by the name of Pindus, and northward as far as the Save and the Alps, if Herodotus is correct in considering the Venetians as of Illyrian origin.[2028]
Fourthly, Nations of Grecian descent.
22. Since the Macedonians evidently belonged to some one of these four races, our present object is to ascertain which. Now in the first place the Greeks may be excluded, since, although it is certain that a large portion of the Macedonian nation was of Grecian origin, the Macedonians were always considered by the Greeks as barbarians.—Alexander the Philhellene,[2029] the father of Perdiccas, represented [pg 472] himself to the Persians (according to Herodotus)[2030] as a Greek, and satrap over Macedonians; the same person who was driven off the course at Olympia for being a barbarian, until he proved his Argive descent.[2031] The mouth of the Peneus, or the Magnesian mountain of Homolè, was on the eastern side considered as the boundary of Greece,[2032] unless Magnesia also was excluded. Fabulous genealogies, representing Macedon as the son of Zeus and Thyia the daughter of Deucalion, or of a descendant of Æolus, are of no weight against the prevailing opinion of the Greeks; nor are they necessarily of greater antiquity than the fortieth Olympiad (620 B.C.),[2033] at which time Danaus and Ægyptus, and other races equally unconnected, were made the members of the same family, when the Scythians were derived from Hercules,[2034] and even the whole known world was comprised in extensive genealogies. It would be unreasonable to suppose, on the credit of these genealogies, that there was any other migration of Greeks into Macedonia except that of the Temenidæ.
23. Secondly, with regard to the Pæonians: it may be shown that the Macedonians did not belong to that nation.[2035] The possessions of the Macedonians in Pæonia are accurately described by ancient writers; these were, until the time of Perdiccas, only a narrow strip of land;[2036] Pelagonia and Pæonia on the Axius were subdued at a later date. As the Pæonian race was not aboriginal in this district, its [pg 473] peculiarities were probably easy to be recognised in the time of Thucydides, and hence this national name occurs more frequently than those of the separate provinces. For this reason great importance should be attached to the circumstance that the ancients never refer the Macedonians themselves to the Pæonian race; and it should perhaps be considered as decisive. On the other hand, with aboriginal races having a large territory and numerous connexions, such a separation hardly warrants this inference, since otherwise the Macedonians, whom both Herodotus and Thucydides mention together with Thracians and Illyrians,[2037] could not have belonged to either of those two tribes, and therefore to no great national division of the human race. It is, however, plain that the ancients frequently used the national name in a limited sense, merely for the chief mass of the people, and did not apply it to particular portions of it which had acquired a character different from that of the rest of their nation,[2038] without by this meaning to express a diversity of origin. We have therefore now only to ascertain whether the Macedonians were of Thracian or Illyrian descent.
24. We shall gain one step towards a conclusion by inquiring in what region were the original settlements of the Macedonians; a question which should carefully be distinguished from the former investigation as to the first station of the Temenidæ. Now in pursuing this inquiry, we soon perceive that even of Macedonia Proper, from which Bottiæa, Pieria, and Eordæa were conquered, a large part was not always in the possession of the Macedonians. Homer, for example, places Emathia, not Macedonia, between Pieria and Chalcidice.[2039] Several writers state in general that Macedonia [pg 474] had anciently been called Emathia;[2040] but, as will be presently shown, they do not so much mean the highlands as the country about the mouths of the three rivers and near Edessa.[2041] The fabulous name was renewed in later times; and Ptolemy[2042] even mentions the district of Emathia, in which were the towns of Cyrrhus,[2043] Eidomenæ, Gordynia, Edessa, Berrhœa, and Pella. According to Thucydides[2044] and others, Eidomenæ and Gordynia must have been situated in the region near the Axius, in the early subdued country of Pæonia;[2045] whence it may be understood how Polybius[2046] could say that Emathia, at a distance from the coast, had in early times been called Pæonia. For the ancient name of Emathia had evidently been extended to a tract of land belonging to Pæonia, which had, perhaps, previously to the Pæonian conquests, once borne the name of Emathia.
25. Now although the country round Edessa, and nearer to the sea, was not originally called Macedonia, yet we find traces of the existence of the name of the Macedonians under its ancient forms of Μακέται and Μακεδνοὶ, in the hill-country near the ridge of Pindus. Herodotus says that the Doric race, having been driven from Hestiæotis, and dwelling under mount Pindus, was called the Macedonian nation.[2047] By this statement he plainly means that the Dorians were first known by that name in Peloponnesus;[2048] and indeed his other notions on the progress of this people are only [pg 475] suited to the childhood of history. But notwithstanding the erroneous conclusions of the narrator, it is allowable to infer from his statement that the Macedonians had once dwelt at the foot of Pindus—i.e., probably in one of the districts of Upper Macedonia; of which provinces Orestis may be considered (on the faith of a conjectural emendation) as the ancient Maceta.[2049] For it cannot be a Thessalian district that is alluded to, since Maceta was, as we know from certain testimony, in fact a part of Macedonia. This hypothesis is also supported by the ancient patronymic surname of the Macedonian kings, “Argeadæ;” if it is rightly derived by Appian from Argos in Orestis.[2050]
The fact that the ancient country of the Macedonians was near the ridge of mountains on the confines of Illyria, and was at a considerable distance from Thrace, renders it probable that the Macetæ were of Illyrian blood; but this probability would yield to arguments drawn from the language, costume, and manners of the three nations. The question therefore is, whom did the Macedonians in the points most resemble, the Illyrians or the Thracians?
26. There is a passage in Strabo[2051] which, on account of its importance, I will give nearly at full length, omitting only those parts which are not necessary to the context. It contains an account of the population of Epirus.
“Of the nations of Epirus the Chaonians and Thesprotians inhabit the coast from the Ceraunian mountains to the Ambracian gulf; behind Ambracia is Amphilochian Argos. The Amphilochians also are Epirots, together with the tribes lying more in the interior, and joining the mountains of Illyria—viz., the Molotti, the Athamanes, the Æthices, the Tymphæi, the Orestæ, the Paroræi, and [pg 476] the Atintanes, some dwelling nearer to the Macedonians, and others to the Ionian sea. With these the Illyrian nations were mixed which dwelt to the south of the hill-country, as well as those beyond the Ionian sea. For between Epidamnus and Apollonia and the Ceraunian mountains there are the Bylliones,[2052] the Taulantii,[2053] the Parthini,[2054] and the Brygi,[2055] and at a short distance, about the silver mines[2056] of Damastium,[2057] the Perisadies have established their dominion; the Enchelii[2058] and Sesarasii[2059] are also named as dwelling in these parts; and besides these, the Lyncestæ, the land of Deuriopus, the Pelagonian Tripolis,[2060] the Eordi, Elimea, and Eratyra.[2061] Now in early times these tribes had severally rulers of their own; the Enchelians were governed by the descendants of Cadmus, the Lyncestæ were under Arrhibæus, and of the Epirots the Molotti were ruled by Pyrrhus and his descendants, while all the other nations of that tribe were governed by native princes. In process of time, however, as one nation obtained the dominion over others, the whole fell into the Macedonian empire, except a small tract beyond the Ionian sea. Also the country about Lyncestus, Pelagonia, Orestias and Elimea was once called Upper Macedonia, and at a later period the Independent. Some persons, moreover, give to the whole country as far as Corcyra the name of Macedonia, assigning, as their reason, that the inhabitants nearly resemble one another in the mode of wearing the hair, in their dialect, in the [pg 477] use of the chlamys, and in other points of this kind: some of them likewise speak two languages.”
27. Now, although the historical accounts of Strabo, collected at a time when these regions had been ravaged by conquest, and had undergone manifold changes, have not the value which the statements of Herodotus and Thucydides possess, yet it is possible to extract from them much information. In the first place it should be observed that the Epirots and the Illyrians are not considered as two wholly distinct nations. The Epirots, although in early times allied by blood with the Greeks, were always considered as barbarians,[2062] and Ambracia as the last city in Greece;[2063] which fact, since the original inhabitants were the same as in Arcadia, that is, Pelasgians, can only be explained by supposing that there had been a mixture of Illyrians. Hence it might be at that late time difficult to distinguish between the Epirots and the Illyrians; and thus Strabo includes the Atintanes, who according to Scylax[2064] and Appian[2065] were Illyrians, among the Epirot nations. It is more singular that he should consider the Orestæ, whom Polybius[2066] recognises as a Macedonian people, as Epirots; but it may be probably accounted for by the circumstance of their separation from the cause of the Macedonian kings, which procured them their independence in the year of the city 556.[2067] But the other inhabitants of Upper Macedonia, the genuine Macedonians, such as the Lyncestæ and Elimiots (who probably, from being mountaineers, had preserved their national distinctions more than the civilised tribes of the lowlands), were considered by Strabo, as the context plainly shows, as original Illyrians; and it can hardly be doubted that they still bore the characteristic marks of that nation.
28. “Some again,” as Strabo says, “give to the whole country as far as Corcyra the name of Macedonia.” What country this is, is accurately known both from the testimony of other writers, and even of Strabo himself. The Romans called the whole region which opened to them the way to Macedonia[2068] by the name of Macedonia; and made it reach from Lissus (now Alessio) on the river Drilon (now the Drin) either to the Egnatian road,[2069] which begins between Dyrrhachium (or Epidamnus) and Apollonia, or, as Strabo states in the passage quoted in the text, for a short distance beyond.[2070] The inhabitants of this tract of country were beyond all question Illyrians (Taulantii, Parthini, Dassaretii, &c.[2071]); and it is of their dress and language that Strabo here speaks. The importance of these points for the discovery of national affinity is easily perceived. Indeed, many Grecian tribes might be distinguished merely by their mode of wearing the hair.[2072] The chlamys had come to the Greeks from the Thessalians, and Sappho was the first Grecian writer who mentioned it:[2073] afterwards it became a military dress, and supplanted the ἱμάτιον, as in Italy the sagum took the place of the toga, which was originally girt up for military use.[2074] From this passage of Strabo we learn that it was the national habit of the Illyrian tribes above Epirus. In like manner the broad-brimmed, low, flat fur-cap, known by the name of causia, which was equally unlike the conical[2075] κυνέη of the Bœotians and the low, tapering[2076] πέτασος, was worn by these northern nations; it was the [pg 479] ancient dress of state among the Macedonians, and worn by their kings;[2077] and it was likewise the dress of the Ætolians[2078] and Molossians.[2079] But the most remarkable circumstance is, that the same cap which is borne by the riders on the tetradrachms of the first Alexander also adorns the head of the Illyrian king Gentius.[2080] Lastly, the similarity of dialect is a decisive proof. Now that all these things should have been introduced by the Macedonian kings seems highly improbable, when it is remembered that their rule did not even extend over the whole of this tract, that it was also often interrupted, and in general not of a nature to alter the character, language, and costume of the natives.[2081]
From these facts it may, I think, be safely inferred that the Macedonians, viz., the people originally and properly so called, belonged to the Illyrian race.
On the mixture of the Macedonians with other, particularly Greek, races.
29. It is, however, certain, notwithstanding the result which has been established, that the Macedonians in their advance from the highlands dislodged, and partly incorporated other, and particularly Grecian, tribes.
The first to fall in their hands was the ancient Emathia, near Edessa, and downwards to the sea, which Herodotus [pg 480] includes in his Macedonia. The name of the country appears to be Grecian;[2082] and since Justin[2083] distinctly affirms that the ancient inhabitants of Emathia were Pelasgians, and as Æschylus, a poet greatly versed in traditional lore, also makes the kingdom of the Pelasgians extend through Macedonia as far as the Strymon,[2084] it must be considered that, according to ancient tradition, the early inhabitants of this country were of the Pelasgic race. It is likewise fair, by the guidance of several parallel cases in the Greek mythology, to interpret the legend that Lycaon the Arcadian hero had once ruled in Emathia, and was the father of Macedon,[2085] as signifying merely the succession, according to order of time, of the Pelasgians and Macedonians in the occupation of this country; which the language of mythology expressed by placing the respective races in a genealogical connexion. So Thessalus is called a son of Jason, although the Thessalians belonged to a different race from the early rulers of the country, the Minyæ of Iolcus, of whom Jason was one. Hence it is highly probable that at the first conquest of this tract of land, viz., of Macedonia Proper, nations akin to the Greeks were mixed with the Illyrians.
30. One of the earliest conquests of the Macedonians was the country of their neighbours[2086] the Phrygians; i.e., according to the most exact statements, the district about mount Bermius, where in the ancient gardens of king Midas, the son of Gordias (in which Silenus had been once taken prisoner), the hundred-leaved rose still flourished at the time of Herodotus.[2087] It is exceedingly probable that, as Herodotus states, this district had been occupied by the Macedonians before the arrival of the Temenidæ;[2088] with [pg 481] which the tradition of an ancient migration of the Phrygians coincides:[2089] yet it is also stated that Caranus the Temenid expelled Midas.[2090] That the Phrygians or Brygians were entirely incorporated in the Macedonian nation cannot be supposed, as we hear quite in late times of a tribe of Brygians (Βρύγοι) in these regions, who then dwelt near the Illyrian mountains beyond Lychnidus, not far from the Erigon, together with the Dassaretians.[2091] The tribe of Mygdonians, which was allied to the Phrygians,[2092] must have been lost in other nations at an early period, since their territory had been occupied by the Edones before it became a part of the Macedonian empire.
31. In their further extension the Macedonians fell in with Grecian, with Pæonian, and with Thracian tribes, which they either subdued or dislodged; but no expulsion was probably so complete that some part of the former population was not left behind. Among the tribes thus driven out were the Bottiæans, who were reported to have come from Athens and Crete;[2093] a tradition which could hardly have arisen, if they had not been a Grecian people. Notice should also be taken of the Grecian and Pelasgic names of the cities on the Axius, viz., Ichnæ, Eidomenæ, Gortynia, Atalante, and Europus,[2094] which cannot have been [pg 482] given by the Pæonians, and therefore must be referred to the ancient Greek population of this region. Beyond the Axius, according to Herodotus,[2095] was Creston, a settlement of Thessalian Pelasgians, whence they do not appear to have been expelled by the victorious Macedonians; which fate befell the Almopians, an ancient branch of the Minyæ.[2096] It has been already shown that the common population of Leibethrum and Pieria was at least nearly related to the Greeks: the names of Λείβηθρα, for a well-watered valley, Πίμπλη for a full fountain, and of Ἑλικὼν for a winding stream, are evidently Grecian.[2097]
As to the Eordians, the ancient foes of Macedon, it is uncertain whether they should be considered as belonging to the Illyrian or the Pæonian race;[2098] of this latter tribe, in earlier times, a small, and, in later, a considerable portion obeyed the Macedonian kings. And, lastly, the subjection of the Bisaltæ, who even in the time of Perseus formed one of the chief parts of the kingdom of Macedon,[2099] joined to that nation a people of purely Thracian descent; and the Macedonians, in the political meaning of the word, ceased more and more to be a regular nation, or a body of men of the same origin and language.[2100]
On the customs and language of the Macedonians.
32. In order to trace the national character and origin of the Macedonians, it is necessary to distinguish three things; first, their Illyrian descent; secondly, their extension [pg 483] over other, for the most part Grecian countries; and thirdly, the introduction by the ruling family, of the civilisation and refinements of the Greeks; which must have gained great ground when Alexander the Philhellene offered himself as a combatant at the Olympic games, and honoured the poetry of Pindar;[2101] and when Archelaus, the son of Perdiccas,—the same person who first established many fortresses and roads in his dominions, and formed a Macedonian army,[2102] nay, even had it in view to procure a navy,[2103]—had tragedies of Euripides acted at his court under the direction of that poet. These changes must have chiefly affected the regions near the sea; for they could not have equally extended to the Macedonians of Lyncus, &c., who, even in the time of Strabo, had the greatest resemblance to the Dassaretians, Taulantians, &c., and, until the overthrow of the Macedonian monarchy, preserved their ancient savage habits; which Livy only partially accounts for by their intercourse with neighbouring barbarians.[2104]
33. Since the Illyrian tribes were never distinguished for that original invention which imagined new gods and established new modes of worship; while, on the other hand, they readily adopted strange deities;[2105] we find among the Macedonians more traces of foreign than native religion. Certain deities which the Greeks compared with the Sileni they called Sauadæ,[2106] as the Illyrians called them Deuadæ;[2107] a native Macedonian god of health was named Darrhon;[2108] there was also a god called Deipatyrus among the neighbouring [pg 484] Stymphæans.[2109] The wide extension of the worship of Bacchus must be ascribed to the vicinity of, and early intercourse with Pieria: the Macetian women were celebrated as wild and raging Bacchantes.[2110] The worship of Zeus appears to have been early introduced among the Macedonians from mount Olympus.[2111] Hercules, the heroic progenitor of the royal family, was worshipped in their first residence at Edessa:[2112] he was called in Macedonia Aretus.[2113] The worship of Apollo, which was prevalent in Macedonia at an early period,[2114] probably was introduced from Pythium on mount Olympus:[2115] that of Pan, at Pella, was perhaps derived from the Pelasgians.[2116]
34. Many barbarous customs of the northern nations, as, for example, that of tattooing, which prevailed among the Illyrians and Thracians,[2117] must have fallen into disuse in Macedonia at a very early date: for the Greeks would not have forgotten to mention such evident proofs of barbarian descent. Even the usage of the ancient Macedonians, that every person who had not killed an enemy should wear some disgraceful badge, had been discontinued in the time of Aristotle.[2118] Yet at a very late date no one was permitted to lie down at table who had not slain a wild boar without the nets.[2119] It is greatly to be lamented that we know much less of the ancient customs of the Illyrians than of the Thracians, of whose singular and almost Asiatic usages we are sufficiently well informed. The doctrine of the immortality of the soul in the worship of Zalmoxis, the lamentations of the Trausi at the birth of a man,[2120] and the slaughter [pg 485] of the dearest wife on the grave of her husband among the Sintes and Mædi,[2121] point to a particular view of human life, foreign to the Grecian character, but familiar to many eastern nations.[2122] The prevailing custom of polygamy,[2123] the buying and inheriting of women, the selling of children as slaves,[2124] and the delight in intoxication,[2125] are traces of a genuine barbarian character; no one of which, as far as I am aware, can be discovered among the Macedonians: with whom, moreover, the Thracian names (e.g., Cotys, and those ending in cetes and sades) never occur.
35. On the other hand, a military disposition, which still distinguished the Macedonians in the time of Polybius, personal valour, and a certain freedom of spirit, were the national characteristics of this people. Long before Philip organised his phalanx, the cavalry of Macedon was greatly celebrated, especially that of the highlands, as is shown by the tetradrachms of Alexander the First. In smaller numbers they attacked the close array of the Thracians of Sitalces, relying on their skill in horsemanship and on their defensive armour.[2126] Teleutias the Spartan also admired the cavalry of Elimea;[2127] and in the days of the conquest of Asia the custom still remained that the king could not condemn any person without having first taken the voice of the people or of the army.[2128]
36. It is difficult to treat of the Macedonian language, as not only the ancient period of the native dialect must be distinguished from the second, in which the Grecian language was partially introduced, after Archelaus, Philip, and Alexander made their people acquainted with Athenian civilisation, but also from a third, in which many barbarous words were adopted from the mixture of the Macedonians [pg 486] with Indians, Persians, and Egyptians.[2129] Nevertheless it is possible to form a well-grounded opinion as to the form of the Macedonian language in the first period. In the first place, they had many barbarous words for very simple and common objects,[2130] which may be certainly considered as Illyrian, since among the very scanty relics of the Illyrian and Athamanian dialects[2131] there are some words which are also mentioned as Macedonian.[2132] Indeed, without supposing some barbarous foundation of this kind, we could hardly account for the Macedonian language being still unintelligible to the Greeks in the time of Alexander the Great.[2133] Yet it cannot be doubted that the Greek had passed into the Illyrian dialect before the introduction of Athenian literature, and that their combination produced the mongrel language which was afterwards called Macedonian. The nominatives in α, such as ἱππότα, πολῖτα, &c., could not have been derived from the Athenians; but the Thessalians, the Dryopians, and probably all the Pelasgians, used that form.[2134] That some mixture of Greek had taken place at an early period seems also to be proved by the great and almost inexplicable change which the Grecian words experienced in the mouth of the Macedonians, who appear to have been unable to pronounce the letters Φ and Θ, and [pg 487] hence they always substituted Β for the former, and Δ for the latter,[2135] perhaps from a peculiarity of the Illyrian nation. On the other hand, the Macedonian language had a consonant ΟΥ or V, as Volustana, the name of the country round Olympus,[2136] the Candavian mountains,[2137] &c., prove; and thus both in this and the former respect it approximated to the vocal system of the Latin.
Note on the Map of Macedonia.
Since the annexed Map is entirely copied from that of Barbié du Bocage, as far as the country is concerned, I will only remark some important points in which Arrowsmith's great Map of Turkey, which is in part founded on quite different authorities, differs from it. In this Map the small lake to the east of Lychnis, or Lychnitis (the lake of Ochrida), is not connected with any river running to the coast, and the mountains to the west of it stretch uninterruptedly to the south. (Perhaps this is correct: see p. [453], note g. [Transcriber's Note: This is the footnote to “Candavian chain,” starting “Ptolemy.”]) The Haliacmon rises rather more to the north than in Barbié du Bocage's Map. The Cara-Sou, which is certainly the Erigon, runs into the lake of the Lydias. (Incorrect, according to Strabo, quoted in p. [451], note b. [Transcriber's Note: This is the footnote to “mountains of Illyria,” starting “Its rise in these mountains.”]) The Lydias has a longer course, and rises in the Illyrian mountains. The modern river Gallico, which I make the Echeidorus, flows at some distance from the sea through a lake into the Axius. The tributary branch of the Achelous, called by the ancients the Inachus, rises further to the south, under the Pindus-chain (contrary to the authors quoted in p. [452], note f. [Transcriber's Note: This is the footnote to “Epirus of Lacmon,” starting “Or Lacmus.”]). Upon the whole, Barbié du Bocage's Map is without doubt the more accurate.