The History and Antiquities of the Doric Race, Vol. 1 of 2

by Karl Otfried Müller

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.