Modern historians about Macedonia – A. R. Burn

Quote:

Otherwise Philip was far from uncivilised. Macedonian kings were PROUD OF THEIR GREEK BLOOD, and it was only JAUNDICED opponents like Demosthenes the Athenian who ventured to call them “barbarians.” They claimed descent from Hêrakles through the Dorian Kings of Argos, and they learned the tales of Troy and of Odysseus, and the songs of the Greek lyric poets, as they learned their letters. Fifty years before Alexander was born, a King of Macedon had been proud to give a home to the aged “modernist” playwright, Euripides, eighty years old and sick and tired of a democracy which had led Athens into defeat and revolution, and whose philistines accused Euripides of preaching atheism and immorality

“Alexander the Great and the Hellenistic Empire”, Book by A. R. Burn; Macmillan, 1948, page 4

Quote:

It is revealing that the young Alexander always thought of himself as another Achilles, the hero of his mother’s family. His father’s ancestor Hêrakles had also voyaged to Asia, as well as to all the other corners of the world that Alexander at various times dreamed of;

“Alexander the Great and the Hellenistic Empire”, Book by A. R. Burn; Macmillan, 1948

• “He [Alexander] was a great reader, too. He had been early caught by the glamour of the Tale of Troy, like most Greek boys; and he never grew weary of it. As far as the Oxus and the Indus, he carried with him his personal copy of the Iliad”

“Alexander the Great and the Hellenistic Empire”, Book by A. R. Burn; Macmillan, p11

La Macedonia , che si estendeva intorno alla fertile terra alluvionale del basso Axio , era una regione di robusti contadini e di signorotti dediti all’equitazione, che parlavano un rozzo DIALETTO GRECO , incompresnibile agli Ateniesi e per questo definito “barbaro” “.
ENGLISH TRANSLATION (I’m doing my best): “Macedonia , extended along the fertile land of lower Axios , was a region of robust agricolturs and of nobles devoted in equitation , that spoke a ROUGH GREEK DIALECT , incomprehensible to the Athenians and for that defined “barbarian” “.

Andrew Robert Burn, “A Traveller’s History of Greece” , 1984, Italian edition of 1991 by Arnoldo Mondatori Editore S.p.A. , Milano, page 359  [*]

Thanks to our friend Αιγίδιον Μακεδονίδος for the last quote.