Archive for September 6th, 2007

The following text will expose the lies and deliberate distortion of history coming out from propaganda sites of FYROM.

Falsified claims from the propaganda site historyofmacedonia.org.

http://www.historyofmacedonia.org/AncientMacedonia/Ethnicity.html

Ethnicity of Ancient Macedonians

 

Claim:

contrary to modern greek claims, macedonia was never part of greece, and the ancient macedonians were not regarded as ancient greeks.

In reality the fact that Macedonia was part of Greece and ancient Macedonians were regarded as ancient Greeks arent “modern Greek claims” but are testimonies of ancient Greeks (including ancient Macedonians themselves) and other ancient people.

Ancient sources are clear:

1. Ancient sources about Macedonia as a Greek Land

2. Ancient Greeks references to Macedonians as Greeks

3. Roman testimonies about ancient Macedonian ethnicity being Greek

4. Persian Testimonies about ancient Macedonian Ethnicity being Greek

5. Indian Testimonies about ancient Macedonians being Greek

6. Jewish testimonies about ancient Macedonian ethnicity being Greek

7. Babylonian testimonies about ancient Macedonian ethnicity being Greek

 

quite the opposite – the macedonians conquered greece and enslaved the greeks for centuries until rome conquered macedonia in 168 bc. thepurpose of these pages is to provide the reader with documented evidence for all these assertions above and show that ancient macedonians could not have been greeks based on all documented evidence. it will provide scholarly evidence that the ancient macedonians:[

The Propagandists of FYROM shamefully

 

were just that - macedonians, who did not regard the greeks as their kindred but looked down upon them with contempt.

On the contrary  ancient sources verify ancient Macedonians considered themselves as Greeks.

 

were called barbarians, a label that the ancient greeks attributed only to non-greeks.

 Another unhistorical illusion of modern FYROM propaganda. Truth is ancient sources are clear that also other Greek tribes were labeled barbarians except Macedonians.

conquered greece and enslaved the greeks, not united the greek city-states

Contrary to the wishful thinking of the modern Slavs from FYROM, Philip United the Greek city-states.

pillaged, burnt, razed greek cities to the ground, destroyed greek religious temples and monuments, and sold the greek inhabitants as slaves.

Unfortunately for the propagandists this was a common practise among Greeks. So did certain Greeks against other Greeks. (Atheneans Vs Melians, Thebans Vs Plataeans, etc) It doesnt mean in anyway that Atheneans, Thebans, Spartans, etc were not…Greeks.

garrisoned greek cities just as the thracian and illyrian cities (a sure sign of servitude).

There is enough evidence showing that also certain Greeks garrisoned other Greek cities.

even Greeks like Spartans placed garrisons to other greek cities like Thebes.

Quote:

The events which followed confirmed this suspicion; for when the Thebans had expelled the Spartan garrison and recovered the freedom of their city, Agesilaus declared war against them.

Placing garrisons as shown above was a common practise and this doesnt mean of course in our example Spartans were non-Greeks as FYROM propagandists tend to speculate.

used the greeks just as they used the thracians and the illyrians for their asian conquest.

Another fatuous claim. Macedonians havent declared a pan-thracian/Illyrian campaign against Persia but contrary they united the greek city-states and declared a pan-hellenic campaign. Macedonians didnt spread Thracian or Illyrian language and culture but they spread everywhere they conquered the Greek language and culture.

were asked to evacuate from the whole of greece back to macedonia by the romans.

Romans were aware that Greeks were inhabiting Macedonia.

Quote:

“Caesar judged that he must drop everything else and pursue Pompey where he had betaken himself after his flight, so that he should not be able to gather more forces and renew, and he advanced daily as far as he could go with the cavalry and ordered a legion to follow shorter stages. An edict had been published in Pompey’s name that all the younger men in the province (Macedonia), both GREEKS and Roman citizens, should assemble to take an oath.”

[Civil War 111.102.3]

were hated by the greeks, and that the greeks fought both on the side of the persians and on the side of the romans to expel the macedonians from the whole of greece.

Another pathetic attempt to falsify history. Macedonians were Greeks and the fact that some Greeks could fought against their supremacy in Greece was common also previously against the other great Greek powers who tried to impose their supremacy over the rest of Greece. Atheneans fought on the side of Persians against Spartans (see battle of Cnidus). This doesnt mean Atheneans were not Greeks.

were not regarded as greeks by the greeks, nor they regarded themselves to be greek, but were proud of their macedonian nationality and way of life, and

 Ancient accounts shatters the lies and distortion of history from the modern Slavs of FYROM.

1. Ancient Macedonian Testimonies about their own Ethnicity

2. Ancient Greek references to Macedonians as Greeks

that alexander’s macedonian army was not a greek army, nor that the macedonian conquest of asia wasa greek conquest

Ancient sources again are exposing the lies.

Ancient sources about Alexanders army Greek character

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Taken from the propagandistic site : faq.macedonia org/history/ancient.macedonia/greeklie3.html

Παράθεση:

[1]”[If Philip and Alexander were “uniting” the Greek states, then, why were the Greeks fighting for the liberty of Greece?]”

Because obviously the slogan “fighting for the Liberty of Greece” was too catchy for those greeks who used it since none into the greek world wanted anyone in the top of their heads. The same slogan was used by Spartans to attract as many allies they could among the Greeks.

The Propagandists of FYROM also tend to ignore how the ‘unification’ of Macedonia took place, forgetting there were noumerous attempts prior to Philip’s reign to “unify” lower Macedonia with the upper Macedonian kingdoms through subduction. Hence why we had examples like the one of Lyncestians who prefered to ally with their old enemies Illyrians in order to save their kingdom from the “unification” with the Argead kingdom.

Παράθεση:

[2][If these Macedonians, were “Hellenes”, (as the modern Greeks claim today), then why were they not fighting to safeguard the holy soil of Hellas? Weren’t they of the same Hellenic stock? It is clear they were not, and they fought against Greece]

On the contrary it is clear propagandists of FYROM have no clue about history and they never miss a chance to demonstrate it.

Following the same foolish argument anyone who would read the speech of the Spartan general Brasidas to Acanthians (Thuc. 4.85.1 - 88.1) stating :

Acanthians, the Lacedaemonians have sent out me and my army to make good the reason that we gave for the war when we began it, viz. that we were going to war with the Athenians in order to FREE HELLAS.

or from the same speech

And for myself, I have come here not to hurt but to FREE the Hellenes, witness the solemn oaths by which I have bound my government that the allies that I may bring over shall be independent; and besides my object in coming is not by force or fraud to obtain your alliance, but to offer you mine to help you against your Athenian MASTERS.”

he should conclude that…Atheneans were not Greeks.

To top off the ignorance and misinformation spread by the slavs of FYROM, ancient Macedonians indeed fought to safeguard the security of Greece as we learn from the speech of Lykiskos, the representative of Akarnania to the Lakedaimonians (Spartans):

How highly should we honour the Macedonians, who for the greater
part of their lives NEVER cease from fighting with the barbarians for the sake of the security of Greece
? For who is not aware that Greece would have constantly stood in the greater danger, had we not been fenced by the Macedonians and the honourable ambition of their kings? ”

[The Histories of Polybius, IX, 35, 2 (Loeb, W.R. Paton). ]

Παράθεση:

[3][Ancient Greeks stereotyped and called barbarian all people who were non-Greek, therefore, the Macedonian king Archelaus is not a Greek, but a foreigner who enslaved the Greeks]

The slavs of FYROM are sterotyped as the ultimate clueless persons with anything related to history.

The term “Barbarian” wasnt used solely for non-greeks as the propagandists would love to believe. It was also used as an insult among Greeks and to point out a culturally inferior Greek tribe.

Otherwise we would hve to conclude Boeotians, Thessalians and Eleans were non-Greeks when we read in Athenaios Deipnosophists VIII 350a:

“which were the greatest barbarians, the Boeotians or the Thessalians he said, ” The Eleans.””

or Atheneans were…non-Greeks when Socrates called the Athenean Strepsiades a ‘Barbarian’ in Aristophanes “Nephelai” or when Aeschines calls Demosthenes a ‘Barbarian’ while addressing to him “On the Embassy 2 183

Παράθεση:

[4] and [5][Modern day Greeks would like to dispatch off Demosthenes castigations of Philip II as political rhetoric, and yet Demosthenes was twice appointed to lead the war effort of Athens against Macedonia]. He, Demosthenes, said of Philip that Philip was not Greek, nor related to Greeks but comes from Macedonia where a person could not even buy a decent slave.

Unfortunately for the slavs of FYROM, obviously a political orator, the leader of Anti-Macedonian Athenean party doesnt constitute anything near an unbiased source but on the contrary an extremely biased thus non-credible source if we keep in mind Demosthenes was even tried for taking “Persian gold” to oppose as much he could Macedonian Hegemony. It was already demonstrated the slanders between political orators as the example of Aeschines, who called Demosthenes himself a Barbarian.

Παράθεση:

[6] Book II - Battle of Issus, in Arrian’s “The Campaigns of Alexander”

“Darius’ Greeks fought to thrust the Macedonians back into the water and save the day for their left wing, already in retreat, while the Macedonians, in their turn, with Alexander’s triumph plain before their eyes, were determined to equal his success and not forfeit the proud title of invincible, hitherto universally bestowed upon them. The fight was further embittered by the old racial rivalry of Greek and Macedonian.” [p.119]

There is nowhere in the original greek text the words “racial rivalry” but instead the word “philotimia” who has a completely different meaning. Stick to the original sources.

Παράθεση:

[7] and [8][When one unifies, there is no “yoke” to be thrown off.]

I have already demonstrated more than enough evidence about the slogans like “unification” used to oppose those Greeks who wished to lead Greece. Interestingly the word “yoke” was used to refer to an attempt of a Greek tribe as its clear from the following quote of Isocrates (to Philip, 129)

129] Well, if I were trying to present this matter to any others before having broached it to my own country, which has thrice freed Hellas–twice from the barbarians and once from the Lacedaemonian yoke

Παράθεση:

[9] [When one “unites”, one does not force submission of the conquered people. Boeotia, Thrace, Sparta, the Aecheans, the Peloponnese are all Greeks and all are said to be SUBDUED]

The persistence of FYROM’s propagandists to prove their.. divorce with history is really amusing.

If these comical slavic characters had a clue, they would even know the upper Macedonian kingdoms were “united” with Argead Macedonia but as Herodotus writes in (Herod. 2.99.2)

“These are of the Macedones also Lyncestae and Elimiotae and other tribes further inland who are indeed allied and subjected to them but have their own monarchies”

In reality the greek original text contains the words “ξύμμαχα” and “υπήκοα”. Alliance of course can exist only between independent states and the term “υπήκοα” points out a relation based on subjection.

Παράθεση:

[10]”Starting with Macedonia, I now have power over Greece; I have brought Thrace and the Illyrians under my control; rule the Triballi and the Maedi. I have Asia in my possession from the Hellespont to the Red Sea.” [p.277]

So????

In order not to repeat myself over and over stating the obvious (or not so obvious for some), Unification in classical times was considered at certain cases as Forceful, such the one of the Upper Macedonian kingdoms and the greek city-states. Even before Macedonians, successively Atheneans, Spartans, Thebans, Thessalians partly (Jason of Pherai) tried one way or other to “unite” Greece using forceful techniques for the sole reason as stated before none in the greek world wanted someone else in the top of his head. Nonetheless it proved to be a successful way to the broader plans of Argead monarchs. The PanHellenic conquest of Persia and the spread of Hellenic language and culture!!

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