Archive for June 24th, 2007
 1)’We are not to be amazed that in the archaeological material of Pelagonia we have a rarely great wealth of reflections of all pronounced cultural events in the relations between middle-Danubian and Graeco-Aegean world
‘Mikulcic,Ivan “Pelagonija”,Skopje,1966,pp.2
‘In a such great chronological distance in the life of ancient Pelagonia two stages are visible: development and existence in the frames of Hellenic culture and later the Roman one’
Ibid.,pp.4
2)
‘The lower part of Vardar is certainly the area south of Demir-Kapija gorge that entered Hellenic cultural sphere very early and already before 600 b.c. the material culture is thoroughly Hellenised.’”
The Valley of Vardar in Ist millennium b.c”,Skopje,1982,pp.2
3)’Even in the last decades of 5th century stabilization in all spheres of social life is established. As first sign of the new time import from Graeco-Macedonian south appeared as well as fortified settlements that later grew into urban centers with character of economic and religious nuclei of the region’”
Guide to the archaeological exhibition”,Skopje,1996,pp.54
4)’For example,Pelagonia,which is naturally oriented to the South, was the first to be subjected to Greek influence, together with the lower part of Vardar’
“Archaeologic Map of the Republic of Macedonia”,Skopje,1996,pp.71
5)‘From the mountains of Epirus Dorian Makednoi (Macedonians) made their advance towards Macedonia, conquering the native tribes who latter gained new, Hellenistic culture and after that are politically organized into a powerful state’
“The Art in Macedonia”,Skopje,1984 pp.26
6)’Paeonians,a people who during the first millennia b.c inhabited border area between the three great paleobalkanic peoples-Illyrians, Thracians and Hellenes‘
Veljanovska,Fanica ” An Attempt at Anthropological Definition of the Paeonians”,Skopje,1994
7)’…Certain proto-populations occupying distinct areas of the Balkans could be distinguished on the territories of the cultural groups :in western part of the Balkans the proto-Illyrians, in the east the proto Thracians, in the south the Hellenes, in the northern part of the Balkans the proto Daco-Mysians and in the southwest of the Central Balkans the proto Bryges.
‘“Bryges on the central Balkans in the 2nd and 1st millennium b.c.” (summary)
“Arheologija” No 1,Skopje 1995
8)’With the end of Iron Age III, i.e. with the total Hellenisation of material culture,the prehistory of Macedonia ends
.‘Sanev,Vojislav “Prehistory of S.R. Macedonia”,Skopje 1977,pp.13
9)”The Art of Antiquity left in the region of Ohrid a great number of traces of its own presence.Illyrian forts imported goods from Greek centers and imitated them in a modest fashion. Political advancement of the Macedonians and their domination enabled cultural influx that manifested itself through products of crafts and alphabet. From the times of Phillip II deeper advances in the area of Lychnidos are attested.Cultural influences of the Graeco-Macedonian world are more present.Rich Hellenistic culture arrived at Illyrian soil”"
Ohrid” by Vera Bitrakova-Grozdanova ,in:”The Art in Macedonia” ,Skopje 1984, pp.85
10)”With the increase of influences from developed cultured south and with the acceptation of Hellenic influences over Paeonia,which already in the V and IV centuries b.c.have committed great changes in the Paeonian culture, usage of Greek Pantheon was also accepted”
Petrova,Eleonora “Cults and symbolism of Paeonian tribes compared with the Illyrian and Thracian ones“in: “Macedoniae Acta Archeologica”,Skopje No.13,pp.129
“Having the central position in this part of the Balkans,Paeonia,apart from receiving influences from the Hellenic south, wasn’t an exception with regard to influences from Illyrian and Thracian sphere”
Ibid.,pp.134
11)”Greek epigraphic monuments created before definitive Roman domination of our area are to be found in modest quantity”
Bitrakova Grozdanova,Vera “Hellenistic Monuments in S.R.Macedonia”,Skopje,1987,pp. 130
“Study of the inscriptions speaks about epigraphic characteristics of the neighboring Macedonian-Hellenic world”
Ibidem. pp.103
12)”During the early arhaic period at the Macedonian territory,the Dorian tribal groups came across over the Pindos mountain,to the area of today’s North-Western Greece and parts of the southern Republic of Macedonia.They established several early principalities partially by chasing away the local Paeonian tribes.Those tribal groups were the ancient Macedonians
“”Macedonian Heritage”,No 1,july 1996,pp.5
13)”The northern periphery of Greek world, inhabited with ancient Macedonians and other peoples and tribes, wasn’t developed for democracy as the most developed social system at that time”
Mikulcic,Ivan “Ancient towns in the Republic of Macedonia”,Skopje,1999,pp.9
”
Our overview was exposed chronologically. The first part embraces the early antiquity in our country, the period from 5th century b.c. up to the middle 3rd century b.c.. Throughout this centuries one can follow the Hellenic spirit and the creation of the Hellenic civilization in our areas, which left a basic imprint on the material artifacts”
Ibidem. pp.10-11
14)”The quantitative ceramic material used to be produced with the usual process including the labor of persons .Partly because of that, partly because of the traditions that had taken roots into our soil, which with centuries before that used to be watered with Hellenic spirit and Hellenistic way of life ,the use of the building ceramics had been brought to minimum”
Lilcic,Viktor “Building ceramics in the Republic of Macedonia during the Roman Period:Scupi,Stobi,Heraclea Lynkestis,Styberra“,Skopje,1996,pp.120
15)”In any case during the classical and Hellenistic periods and especially in the 4th and 3rd centuries b.c. we can no longer speak of Paeonian cult in the Peaonian region ,but of cults adopted by the entire Hellenic civilization, where through the material culture, elements of spiritual life from developed south were adopted. This was followed by the strenghtening of the autochthonous elements above all, the solar cult. Since Paeonians were centrally located in this region of the Balkans,they were influenced from the Hellenic south but they also couldn’t avoid the influences from the Illyrian and Thracian sphere”
Petrova,Eleonora “The cults, symbolism and Deities in Paeonian and neighboring regions
“Macedonia and the neighboring regions from 3rd to1st millennium b.c.-Papers presented at the international symposium in Struga-1997″,Skopje,1999,pp.118
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In response to the misinformation and falsification of history from the site http://faq.macedonia.org we are going to provide references both by Ancient and Modern sources refuting the lies and misinformation from FYROM.
- Ancient Sources -
1 .
“Porus, bringing up his elephants, followed these movements, guided by the
noise, and Alexander gradually led him to make these marches, parallel to
his own, a regular thing. This went on for some time, until Porus, finding that the Greeks never went beyond shouts and yells, gave it up. Clearly, it was afalse alarm; so he ceased to follow the movements of the Greek cavalry and stayed where he was in his original position with lookouts posted at various points along the river.”
Arrian’s Life of Alexander the Great. Penguin Classics. Translated by Aubrey
De Selincourt. Page 172
2.
“Alexander promptly sent for Abisares, adding a threat that, should he fail to appear he would soon see the Greek army and its commander-in-chief and in an unwelcome spot.”
Arrian’s Life of Alexander the Great. Penguin Classics. Translated by Aubrey
De Selincourt. Page 182
3.
Even though Xerxes had a huge host with him, he was a barbarian and was defeated by the prudence of the Hellenes; whereas Alexander the Hellene has already engaged in 13 battles and has not been defeated once.”
<`Pseudo-Kallisthenes' 2.3.4.-5; Oration of Demosthenes>
4.
“And, now, is justly the barbarian praised by the Athenians for capturing Hellenes? As for Alexander who is a Hellene and captured Hellenes, not only did he not imprison his opponents, but enlisted them and made them his allies instead of enemies… ”
`Pseudo-Kallisthenes’ 2.4.5; Oration of Demosthenes
5.
“No king of the Hellenes had ever conquered Egypt with the exception only of Alexander, and that he did without war…”
`Pseudo-Kallisthenes’ 2.4.7-8; Oration of Demosthenes
6.
Mutiny was but a step away when, unperturbed by all this, Alexander summoned a full meeting of his generals and officers in his tent and ordered the Egyptian seers to give their opinion. They were well aware that the annual cycle follows a pattern of changes, that the moon is eclipsed when it passes behind the earth or is blocked by the sun, but they did not give this explanation, which they themselves knew, to the common soldiers. Instead, they declared that the sun represented the Greeks and the moon the Persians, and that an eclipse of the moon predicted disaster and slaughter for those nations.
(Quintus Curtius Rufus 4.10)
7.
Alexander called a meeting of his generals the next day. He told them that no city was more hateful to the Greeks than Persepolis, the capital of the old kings of Persia, the city from which troops without number had poured forth, from which first Darius and then Xerxes had waged an unholy war on Europe. To appease the spirits of their forefathers they should wipe it out, he said.
(Quintus Curtius Rufus 5.6)
8.
“…The Greeks moved on thence, from the sacred island, and were already coasting along Persian territory…”
Arrian, Indica XXXVIII
9. “
…Thence they sailed eight hundred stades, anchoring at Troea; there were small and poverty-stricken villages on the coast. The inhabitants deserted their huts and the Greeks found there a small quantity of corn, and dates from the palms…”
[Arrian, Indica XXIX]
10.
“…he (Alexander) inflicted punishment on the Persians for their outrages on all the Greeks, and how he delivered us all from the greatest evils by enslaving the barbarians and depriving them of the resources they used for the destruction of the Greeks, pitting now the Athenians and now the Thebans against the ancestors of these Spartans, how in a word he made Asia subject to Greece.”
[Polybius, Book IX, 34, 3]
11.
“…Yet through Alexander (the Great) Bactria and the Caucasus learned to revere the gods of the Greeks
Alexander established more than seventy cities among savage tribes, and sowed all Asia with Greek magistracies... Egypt would not have its Alexandria, nor Mesopotamia its Seleucia, nor Sogdiana its Prophthasia, nor India its Bucephalia, nor the Caucasus a Greek city, for by the founding of cities in these places savagery was extinguished and the worse element, gaining familiarity with the better, changed under its influence…”
Plutarch’s Moralia, On the Fortune of Alexander I, 328D, 329A (Loeb, F.C. Babbitt)
12.
“But he said, If I were not Alexandros, I should be Diogenes; that is to say: `If it were not my purpose to combine barbarian things with things HELLENIC, to traverse and civilize every continent, to search out the uttermost parts of land and sea, TO PUSH THE BOUNDS OF MACEDONIA TO THE FARTHEST OCEAN, AND TO DISSEMINATE AND SHOWER THE BLESSINGS OF HELLENIC JUSTICE and peace over every nation, I should not be content to sit quietly in the luxury of idle power, but I should emulate the frugality of Diogenes. But as things are, forgive me Diogenes, that I imitate Herakles, and emulate Perseus, and follow in the footsteps of Dionysos, the divine author and progenitor of my family, and DESIRE THAT VICTORIOUS HELLENES SHOULD DANCE AGAIN in India <...>“
Plutarch’s Moralia, On the Fortune of Alexander, 332A (Loeb, F.C Babbitt)
13.
Similarly, the Thebans voted to drive out the garrison in the Cadmeia and not to concede to Alexander the leadership of the Greeks.
Diodorus of Sicily, 17.3.4
14.
he spoke to them in moderate terms and had them pass a resolution appointing him general plenipotentiary of the Greeks and undertaking themselves to join in an expedition against Persia seeking satisfaction for the offences which the Persians had committed against Greece.
Diodorus of Sicily, 17.4.9
15.
“Alexandros observed that his soldiers were exhausted with their constant campaigns. …The hooves of the horses had been worn thin by steady marching. The arms and armour were wearing out, and the Hellenic clothing was quite gone. They had to clothe themselves in materials of the barbarians,…”
(Diodoros of Sicily 17.94.1-2)
16.
” There are Greek troops, to be sure, in Persian service — but how different is theirs cause from ours ! They will be fighting for pay— and not much of it at that; we on the contrary shall fight for Greece, and our hearts will be in it. As for our foreign troops —Thracians, Paeonians, Illyrians, Agrianes — they are the best and stoutest soldiers of Europe, and they will find as their opponents the slackest and softest of the tribes of Asia.”
Arrian - The Campaigns of Alexander. Alexander talking to the troops before the battle. Book 2-7 Penguin Classics. Page 112. Translation by Aubrey De Seliucourt.
17.
“…so said the military leaders to the camps: `We have made enough war in Persia and conquered Dareios who claimed taxes from the Hellenes, but what are we accomplishing by marching against the Indians, in scary lands and doing things IMPROPER FROM HELLAS? If Alexandros has become full of himself and wishes to be a warrior, and subjugate barbarian peoples why do we follow him? Let him move on alone and engage in wars. Having heard these Alexander separated the Persian host from the MACEDONIANS AND THE OTHER HELLENES and addressed them…”
(`Pseudo-Kallisthenes’ 3.1.2-4)
18.
Alexander (the Great)… after talking to the Thessalians and the other Hellenes,… grabbed his spear with his left hand, shifted his right
hand to pray to the gods, as Kallisthenes reports, wishing, if he is indeed a SON of ZEUS that they SUPPORT the HELLENES. Aristandros, the priest…”
(Plutarchos, Alexander 33)
19.
“Your ancestors invaded Macedonia and the rest of Hellas and did us great harm, though we had done them no prior injury;… I have been appointed hegemon of the Greeks… ”
(Arrian, Anabasis of Alexander II, 14, 4)
20.
.”He sent to Athens three hundred Persian panoplies to be set up to Athena in the acropolis; he ordered this inscription to be attached: Alexander son of Philip and the Hellenes, except the Lacedaemonians, set up these spoils from the barbarians dwelling in Asia”,
(Arrian I, 16, 7)
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