Question:
What do Macedonians think about the Greeks?
anonymous
2007-11-07 08:58:43 UTC
When they tell historical Macedonian lands belong to Greece, there are no Macedonians but Fryomians, etc...
28 answers:
Vergina
2007-11-07 15:58:57 UTC
Hello, since you asked such a provocative question we ought to answer you:

Macedonia is a municipality of Greece.In other words it's part of the Greek country.

Greeks do not have any tendencies to expand their borders, they are very content with who the are in history and dont need to prove anything.

The small country to their north border though, the one newly formed after Yugoslavia was dissolved, was missing identity and they decided to name their country after a name that was given to a small area during Tito's regime,Makedonia.

Of course the country hiding behind the iron courtain,so nobody had any idea of this (and clearly nobody thought was a big deal then, when they found out after communism fell)

Now, that small tiny country, was finally independent but was lacking identity and of course...name.

So it's citizens decided to name it after a very famous neighboring area,Macedonia, maybe in hopes that some day they finally will be able to have access to the Aegean sea by convincing everybody with their claims.

See, they think if they are subjecting the world to lies and false claims,eventually everyone will be so confused that they will hand them this part of Greece and they will be able to finally expand.

Unfortunatelly for them, this didn't happen and will never happen,thanks to the Greeks' awakening and stopping this injustice before it happened.

You see, there was always only one Macedonia and one Macedonian king, Phillip and his successor, his son Alexander.Their kingdom was located in Pella, whose ruins are still present in a small village near Veroia.

Phillips' grave was discovered in Vergina and is on diplay as a public museum today, along with other atrifacts from that era.Everything is written in ancient Greek whic h proves again that that part was Greek

I asume a small part of that Macedonia is inhabited nowadays by Albanians (who did not voice any claims to the real Macedonia) Boulgarians (same thing) and former Yougoslavians, who are very verbal and try to throw mud and confuse the public opinion.

They (Yugoslavians) use sneaky techniques, low attacks on the internet and cheap fliers but so far they have not succed much other than to be given the temporary name "former yugoslav republic of macedonia"ony until they have an official name not related to any neighboring country.

Now, If they insist and they still claim Macedonia as their own, the day may come when Greeks will realize that yes, that part of land was indeed their own and claim it (or even better go and get it)to unite it with the bigger part of Macedonia

But my question to you is: Where will the people of that area go then?

(because they are not Greeks and of course dont belong in a Greek land).

So, think...before you speak next time

There is only one Macedonia and is in Greece, and if you disagree with this we can settle our differences otherwise and not to your liking.
nana
2016-02-16 16:12:39 UTC
to better explain to everyone. Just because you speak English that doesn't mean youre an Englishman, correct? So just because Alexander spoke Greek didn't mean that he was Greek. Hopefully this unbiased educated and historically sourced link will help explain some truth.

http://www.historyofmacedonia.org/AncientMacedonia/greeklie6.html
micco
2016-09-28 16:48:27 UTC
nicely, ultimately somebody who speaks out of his curious techniques and not out of his hatred or jealousy for Greeks... i think of. i can't commend for the finished united states yet in my case,the certainty that i could not be unique Greek consistently made me think of. So what I did next, I took the try! confident, confident the DNA try, the single that "islander" has a link to. After a rapid cheek swab, a pair of hundred funds and a few waiting weeks ...voila! the outcomes have been definitive and proved my united states of beginning place,interior the Aegean sea. I strongly recommend it to you too, it somewhat is going to clean any techniques and hopes which you are going to have any genetic hyperlinks to us. As for the single with the Slavic nickname above, I recommend she stops counting factors of Greek YA consumers in the different case she'll flow nuts (if she did not already).Now, heavily, who spends slightly too lots time in here? and he or she could save the indoors maximum instructions for herself... to verify English writing :) yet another very final concept: the rustic of beginning place is often the region you have been born and raised in. yet your united states is likewise the region the place your coronary heart is, no count the place your ancestors got here from. it rather is why we Greeks and our young little ones and our young little ones young ones,young ones,young ones will consistently be and (maximum heavily) experience Greek!
MPONO
2007-11-10 23:20:13 UTC
MACEDONIA IS GREEK!!fyromians dont know anything about history...anyway,they liked greeks but now things are different..
Ραχήλ
2007-11-09 06:23:07 UTC
Macedonia is unique and greek. Maybe you mean fyromians... Because macedonian are greeks!
anonymous
2007-11-08 11:07:54 UTC
But Macedonians love Greeks since they are Greeks too! It’s the citizens of FYROM who don’t like them, because they know they will never be real Macedonians! (No offence for using FYROM -Former Yugoslav Republic Of Macedonia- that’s the UN provisional name for your country so you won’t get confused with the real Macedonia in Greece.)



The facts are:



FYROM, a very new -since 1991- state in the Balkans with citizens mainly of Slavic and Albanian origin decides to use and monopolize the Greek terms Macedonia and Macedonians which was given to them by Tito in 1944, despite the fact that those terms are used for 2800 years to describe the actual Macedonia, a Greek land and the actual Macedonians, a Greek people!



The citizens of FYROM would have every right to identify themselves as ‘Macedonians’, only in case they were of Greek origin, which they are not, or in case the term had just a geographical meaning (even if that geographical meaning is very recent, since late Ottoman era…) like as if a man of Italian origin who was born and lives in the USA is an American or a man of English origin who was born and lives in Australia is an Australian. But because the terms Macedonia and Macedonians are used since ancient times to describe Greek land and Greek people, the citizens of FYROM cannot and should not identify themselves as Macedonians because they simply are not Macedonians, like as if an Italian who lives in the USA might be an American, but by no means is a Native American or an English who lives in Australia might be an Australian but by no means is an Aboriginal!!!



FYROM only occupies less that 10% of the actual ancient Macedonia. The middle and northern parts of FYROM (with the capital, Scopje) did NEVER belong to the ancient Kingdom of Macedon. It belonged to ancient Paionia and the ancient Paionians were enemies of the ancient Macedonians. Furthermore, FYROMians are of Slavic and Albanian origin. Then why on earth do they want to call their country “Macedonia” when more than 90% of the historic ancient Macedonia is outside their border??? Why on earth do those Slavic and Albanian people want to identify themselves and their land with a Greek name, -especially when both of these terms, Macedonia and Macedonian are used since antiquity to describe Greek people and Greek land and only recently the person that lives in Geographic Macedonia, yet not ethnically but geographically- while at the same time ATTEMPTING TO MONOPOLIZE that name, despite the fact that it is already in proper use by Greece and Greeks since ever???



Greeks are right on the issue, as anyone who respects truth will agree.
anonymous
2007-11-07 12:09:50 UTC
the Macedonians believed in the Greek Gods like the rest of the Greeks the ones that do not they are not Greeks neither Macedonians!
ester
2007-11-07 10:54:43 UTC
First you should learn lit bit of history!

Balkan wars where Macedonia-which name is bilong to Greece -leand of Macedonian (which was some 500 years on Osmanian empire) shared on three parts = Serbian,Bulgarian and Greek. So now we have country coled FIROM which seperated from Yougoslaviain on last war in Yougoslavia,but agen I must say FIROM is not Macedonia,people of Macedonia are Greeks. No of fence to anyone , and sorry for bed English.
evzenit
2007-11-07 23:24:54 UTC
In my opinion they cannot be called Fyromians because this is not a name. It's like calling people from the Dominican Republic not Dominicans, but Dominicanrepublians!

We should find something else. One thing is for sure: Macedonians were not Slavs.
milan4ever
2007-11-07 11:59:00 UTC
Well,the history,so it is.Alexander the Great is Macedonian. Macedonians hates Greeks and Greeks hates Macedonians.The Macedonians are Macedonians or Jugoslavians,they aren't Greeks,they aren't Albanians,they aren't Bulgarian,they aren't Fyromians.Do you understand now?
Martha
2007-11-09 02:06:07 UTC
Just a quick question to people from FYROM. If you claim Alexander was not Greek, what does his name mean in your language? What does "Philip" (his father's name) mean in your language, what does "Olympia" (his mother's name) mean in your language? Because all these names are Greek with a valid Greek meaning: Alexander: Defender of men, Philip: Friend of horses, Olympia: the female of Olympus. I rest my case.
girl24gr
2007-11-07 11:42:18 UTC
its like asking what the Greeks think about the Greeks

i am from thessaloniki, so i am Macedonian and therefore greek

what do i think about myself?

iam wonderful!!
anonymous
2007-11-07 10:38:43 UTC
There are Greek-Macedonians,

Slav-Macedonians, Albanian-Macedonians and Bulgarian-Macedonians.

The Greek-Macedonians are Greeks and they live in Greece and thy love the Greeks since they are Greeks.

Slav-Macedonians hate the

Albanian-Macedonians and vice verse and they both live in FYROM.

Bulgarian-Macedonians haven't got a problem with anyone.
tribanana
2007-11-08 08:03:10 UTC
Only lyiers and not educated people can say that historical Macedonian lands belong to Greece, there are no Macedonians but Fryomians. So I say let's build schools for them, they have a right to learn!
tom t
2007-11-07 09:55:18 UTC
Macedonians are Greeks.

Do you mean the Slav-Macedonians?

And yes historical Macedonia IS in Greece. The famous region of Macedon.

FYROM Slav-Macedonia is a different country.
kgramova
2007-11-09 19:59:59 UTC
There are only Macedonians and they live in MACEDONIA!!!!!!!
Artemis
2007-11-07 12:15:11 UTC
Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia = FYROM



Or if you're Greek - Skopia.
The_last_Amazona
2007-11-07 17:34:24 UTC
Dear Plostad and Shadow,

(is it 2 persons or just one I wonder?)

We take from you that you are proud and peace loving people representing your nation and you don't want any fights here.

My question to you and all the other Skopjians (did I spell it right?) is: If we are the aggressors in here and you don't want fights since you are so nice...then WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN THE GREEK TRAVEL SECTION?????

Please,prove to all how nice and peace loving you are and get out of here.

We consider this our area, we talk about our country, and if you come here to insult us we consider it as someone coming to our home and spit on our faces.

Remember, Greeks started a war just for a woman that was stolen from them (Trojan war).

Imagine what they'd do if someone tried to steal an inch of land from them !!!!!



Next thing you know........This.......is......,,....,. M-A-C-E-D-O-N-I-A-!!!

OK, a little correction to the above for the reader below: The nation who carries a STOLEN symbol and puts it to its flag I am certain can spread all kinds of lies and rumors.

The ones hiding behind their shadow and eject poison with every word they write cannot be lower than this.

Whether you like it or not this is called the "Greek travel section"and is for Hellenes and all the honest people who come to discuss issues,not for the liars and thieves.Look at the sources below and see what proof you carry that belongs to you?
millie
2007-11-07 13:07:55 UTC
I have to get something straight here SCOPIA WHICH YOU GUYS MEAN AND DON'T KNOW HOW TO SPELL IS SKOPJE!!!! SKOPJE IS THE CAPITAL OF MACEDONIA NOT A NAME OF THE COUNTRY - OPEN THE MAP!



Now, how do we feel about the Greeks - Oddly enough after all the unsults and problems we get from them - we are not the ones hating them it is vice versa. That is sad coz Macedonia is small and not very powerfull so why would they regard us as such a threat and need to hate us?! Go figure!



But let me explain our bilateral relationship for a bit and you will realise who hates whom:

1. Macedonia can't get into NATO coz the Greeks wouldn't allow it!

2. They have developed a nasty habit of distroying our cars whenever we cross the border and leave us pretty nasty flyers with unsults!

3. They wouldn't let the Macedonian people that live in Greek part of Macedonia for about 80 years (since Greece officially was awarded that part of Macedonia) - to speak their own language or have their own traditions or listen to their music. Thank God they appealed to the human rights tribunal in Den Hague and in 2001 actually were allowed to use their native language!

4. For a Macedonian person to get a visa to go to Greece, they need to apply three months before to get scheduled so they could get it, not to mention all the insults they have to put up with to get it! Greeks pass Macedonian border with ID cards - Macedonian Goverment goodwill!



I can go on forever - no point really , coz the Greeks on here will deny it. But the truth out there stands - they have done so much wrong to our country that it is really dumb of us not to hate them - but we still dont!
chrisvoulg1
2007-11-07 10:45:33 UTC
Because that it's the historical truth! Red any serious historical work on this subject ex.Cambridge History of Ancient Greece! but because obviously you won't have as objective to learn about history but to spread lies and hate propaganda you wll receive another report from me! Don't thank me, it's my pleasure!
Denicia
2007-11-08 04:02:07 UTC
Wrong section. nothing, I have never generalise people.

Athens, Greece:

http://www.galenfrysinger.com/Photos/athens09.jpg



Skopie,Macedonia

http://images.realtravel.com/media/lg/56/06/560655d79b1c146c2d7e66e985c4544e.jpg

http://www.makedonija.info/skopje1.jpg

http://k53.pbase.com/o6/90/140690/1/80217694.9dXnGfCJ.Macedonia2007_PICT2684.JPG

http://www.world66.com/europe/macedonia/skopje/lib/gallery/showimage?pic=europe/macedonia/skopje/citty_park_version
dvatwork
2007-11-07 16:01:31 UTC
Makedonia is Greek. And the Makedonians, being Greek, LOVE THE GREEKS!!!! Why wouldn't they? Now the Fyromians are jealous of the Greeks, that is why they steal the name Makedonia and try to be something that they aren't.
?
2007-11-07 09:44:17 UTC
they know the greeks make good salads..and the greeks know macedonians have nice nuts...
₪₪₪AbsolutE₪₪₪
2007-11-07 15:54:55 UTC
Macedonia is GREEK!
plostad
2007-11-07 16:49:14 UTC
Macedonians only feels sorry for the Greeks. They did many bad thing to Macedonia and Macedonians, but we are proud people and we don't hate anybody. We have learned how to forgive and to forget. We knoe that they are trying to harm as only becouse they are affraid of us. So my dear Greeks, don't be affraid from us. We don't care about you and your problems. This summer we tried to help you to solve the problems with the fire, but you refused our help. We didn't fel offended, we don't feel offended with any of your insults to us anymore, becouse the world begins to know the truth about Macedonia. So stop insulting us, stop denying our macedonian identity and stop call us Fyromers. You wan't achieve anything. Nobady takes you seriously anymore. That's why we only feel sorry for you!
anonymous
2007-11-07 15:23:03 UTC
DON'T YOU FYROM ME!!



CALL ME BY MY NAME!!!



MY NAME IS MACEDONIA!!!



www.exploringmacedonia.com

www.macedonialovesyou.eu
anonymous
2007-11-08 10:51:58 UTC
It's not only the Greeks who say that (real) Macedonians are Greeks and (real) Macedonia is in Greece, it's the whole world! And they don’t just say it for the hell of it, they speak on historical facts!

Wicked Apathy: nice try, but I doubt they will read it, because they don’t want to know… However, I will contribute to this educational effort of yours; here is what some (non-Greek) scholars state on the issue:





Ernst Badian, b. August 8, 1925, Austrian classical scholar:



“Philip II, at least from the time of his victory over Phocis, Athens, and their allies in 346, prepared to proclaim himself the champion of a United Greece against the barbarians.” (“Cambridge history of Iran”, p. 421)







A.B. Bosworth, professor of Classics and Ancient History at the University of Western Australia:



“It [Corinthian League] comprised states, which were each bound to Macedon by bilateral treaties; and it was perfectly natural that they should create a general alliance under the leadership of the Macedonian king, acting as the spiritual successors of the Hellenic (Greek) League of 480 BC.” (“Conquest and Empire: The Reign of Alexander the Great", Cambridge University Press, Reissue Edition, March 1993)







George Cawkwell, Emeritus Fellow, University College, Oxford:



“The Macedonians were Greeks. Their language was Greek, to judge by their personal names and by the names of the months of the calendar; Macedonian ambassadors could appear before the Athenian assembly without needing interpreters; in all Demosthenes' sneers about their civilization there is no hint that Macedonians spoke other than Greek. But it was a distinct dialect not readily intelligible to other Greeks; linguistically as geographically, Macedonia was remote from the main stream of Greek life. King Alexander 'the Philhellene' had been allowed to compete in the Olympic Games only after his claim to being Greek had been fortified by the claim that the Macedonian ruling house had originated in Argos in the Peloponnese, which really conceded that those who sneered at Macedonia as 'barbarian' were right. The sneers went on. The sophist Thrasymachus at the end of the fifth century referred even to king Archelaus as a 'barbarian.' Isocrates in the fourth no less than Demosthenes spoke of the Macedonians as 'barbarians.' The truth was that Macedon was as culturally backward as it was linguistically remote, and even the exact Thucydides classed it as 'barbarian.' Archelaus began to change all this and to make clear the Greekness of his country. It was under him that the city of Pella began to be not only the 'greatest city in Macedonia' but also a show-place which Greeks desired to visit, a centre of Greek culture. Archelaus was a generous patron of the arts and the leading literary figures of the age were happy to reside at his court. Euripides spent his last years in Macedon, and wrote there the Bacchae and the Archelaus. At Dium in the foothills of Mount Olympus a Macedonian Olympic Festival was instituted which included a drama competition. There must have been as appreciative audience. Under Archelaus, Macedon had ceased to be a cultural backwater.” ("Philip of Macedon", Faber & Faber, London, 1978, p. 22)







Francois Chamoux, French historian:



“Such a glorious ancestry was in the eyes of Greeks the hallmark of the Hellenic persona of the king of Macedon, who could, on the other hand, rely on fidelity of the people from which he had sprung. The Greek cities did not feel that they were allying with a barbarian, since for generations the Macedonian dynasty had been allowed, as Greeks, to take part in the Olympic Games.” ("Hellenistic Civilization", Blackwell Publishing Professional, 2002, p.8, 9)







R. M. Cook, British archaeologist:



“Macedonia and Epirus were the buffers of Greece in Europe...” ("The Greeks until Alexander", 1962, p. 23)







John Crossland, British archaeologist:



“Herodotus stated quite clearly that Perdiccas, the first recorded king of Macedonia, and his descendants were Greeks and there is no reason why we should not take the Father of History's word on this fundamental point.” (“Macedonian Greece", p.16, W.W. Norton & Company, September 1982)







Victor Ehrenberg, 1891–1976, German historian:



“Alexander and the Macedonians carried Greek civilization into the East. It is, I believe, a historical fact that a command was issued by the king to the Greek states to worship him as a god; with this the monarchy took a new form, which went far beyond the Macedonian or Persian model, and which was destined to have immense importance in world history. How far Alexander deliberately tried to Hellenize the East remains uncertain; but the outcome certainly was that he opened up the world to a Greek.” ("The Greek State", Methuen, July 2000, p.139)







Malcolm Errington, professor of ancient history at the Philipps-Universität in Marburg, Germany:



“The Molossians were the strongest and, decisive for Macedonia, most easterly of the three most important Epirote tribes, which, like Macedonia but unlike the Thesprotians and the Chaonians, still retained their monarchy. They were Greeks, spoke a similar dialect to that of Macedonia, suffered just as much from the depredations of the Illyrians and were in principle the natural partners of the Macedonian king who wished to tackle the Illyrian problem at its roots.” ("A History of Macedonia", University of California Press, February 1993)



“That the Macedonians and their kings did in fact speak a dialect of Greek and bore Greek names may be regarded nowadays as certain.” (“A History of Macedonia", University of California Press, February 1993)







Robin Lane Fox (born 1946), English academic and historian:



“The Macedonian kings, who maintained that their Greek ancestry traced back to Zeus, had long given homes and patronage to Greece's most distinguished artists.” (“Alexander the Great", p.48)



“To his ancestors (to a Persian's ancestors) Macedonians were only known as 'Yona takabara', the 'Greeks who wear shields on their heads', an allusion to their broad-brimmed hats.” (“Alexander the Great", p.104)







David Noel Freedman, American archaeologist:



“The first Greek-speaking people in the southern Balkan Peninsula arrived in Macedonia, Thessaly, and Epirus sometime after 2600 B.C. and developed, probably due to the extreme mountainous nature of the country, their several different dialects.” ("The Anchor Bible Dictionary", Doubleday, 1992, p. 1093)







Nicholas Geoffrey Lemprière Hammond (1907 - 2001), British scholar of Ancient Greece:



“All in all, the language of the Macedonians was a distinct and particular form of Greek, resistant to outside influences and conservative in pronunciation. It remained so until the fourth century when it was almost totally submerged by the flood tide of standardized Greek. ("A History of Macedonia" Vol. ii, 550-336 BC)



“Philip was born a Greek of the most aristocratic, indeed of divine, descent... Philip was both a Greek and a Macedonian, even as Demosthenes was a Greek and an Athenian...The Macedonians over whom Philip was to rule were an outlying family member of the Greek-speaking peoples.” ("Philip of Macedon" Duckworth Publishing, February 1998)







Peter Green, (born 1924) is a British classical scholar:



“Macedonia as a whole was tended to remain in isolation from the rest of the Greeks...” ("Alexander the Great", p. 20)







Otto Hoffmann, German linguist:



“Whoever does not consider the Macedonians as Greeks must also conclude that by the 6th and 5th centuries BC the Macedonians had completely given up the original names of their nation - without any need to do so - and taken Greek names in order to demonstrate their admiration for Greek civilisation. I think it not worth the trouble to demolish such a notion; for any hypothesis of historical linguists which is put forward without taking into account the actual life of a people, is condemned as it were out of its own mouth.” ("Die Makedonen, Ihre Sprache und Ihr Volkstum", Göttingen)



“The names of the genuine Macedonians and those born of Macedonian parents, especially the names of the elitic class and nobles, in their formation and phonology are purely Greek”. (“Die Makedonen, Ihre Sprache und Ihr Volkstum", Göttingen)







David George Hogarth, 1862 - 1927, English archaeologist and scholar:



“The king [of Macedon] was chief in the first instance of a race of plain-dwellers, who held themselves to be, like him, of Hellenic (Greek) stock.” (“Philip and Alexander of Macedon”, p.8)



“From Alexander I, who rode to the Athenian pickets the night before Plataea and proclaimed himself to the generals their friend and a Greek, down to Amyntas, father of Philip, who joined forces with Lacedaemon in 382, the kings of Macedon bid for Greek support by being more Hellenic (Greek) than the Hellenes (Greeks)...” («Philip and Alexander of Macedon”, pp.9-10)







Sir John Pentland Mahaffy (1839-1919), Irish classicist and scholar:



“...for with Alexander, the stage of Greek influence spread across the world.” (“Alexander's Empire", p. 8)





Robert Morkot, British historian:



“Certainly the Thracians and the Illyrians were non-Greek speakers, but in the northwest, the peoples of Molossis (Epirot province), Orestis and Lynkestis spoke West Greek. It is also accepted that the Macedonians spoke a dialect of Greek and although they absorbed other groups into their territory, they were essentially Greeks.” ("The Penguin Historical Atlas of Ancient Greece", Penguin Publishing USA, January 1997)





Michael M. Sage, American historian:



“Little is known of the Macedonian army before the reign of Philip II. Certainly, the area which the earlier Macedonian kings drew their recruits was limited only to lowland Macedonia. The only effective arm appears to have been cavalry. These horsemen, generally acknowledged as the best in Greece, were drawn from the local nobility [...] The only really effective infantry in this period appears to have been drawn from southern Greeks settled within Macedonia's borders who fought as hoplites.” ("Warfare in Ancient Greece", Routledge, pp.163-164)





Ulrich Wilcken, German historian:



“When we take into account the political conditions, religion and morals of the Macedonians, our conviction is strengthened that they were a Greek race and akin to the Dorians. Having stayed behind in the extreme north, they were unable to participate in the progressive civilization of the tribes which went further south...” ("Alexander the Great", p. 22)





W. J. Woodhouse, Australian historian:



“This was Macedonia in the strict sense, the land where settled immigrants of Greek stock later to be called Macedonians.” ("The tutorial history of Greece, to 323 B.C.: from the earliest times to the death of Demosthenes", p.216, University Tutorial Press)







Michael Wood (b. 1948), English historian:



“Long long ago, before the days of Islam, Sikander e Aazem came to India. The Two Horned one whom you British people call Alexander the Great. He conquered the world, and was a very great man, brave and dauntless and generous to his followers. When he left to go back to Greece, some of his men did not wish to go back with him but preferred to stay here. Their leader was a general called Shalakash (Seleucus). With some of his officers and men, he came to these valleys and they settled here and took local women, and here they stayed. We, the Kalash, the Black Kafir of the Hindu Kush, are the descendants of their children. Still some of our words are the same as theirs, our music and our dances, too; we worship the same gods. This is why we believe the Greeks are our first ancestors...” (Statement made by a Kalash named Kazi Khushnawaz, "In the footsteps of Alexander the Great", p.8. i.e.: Seleucus was one of the Generals of Alexander the Great. He was born in 358 or 354 BC in the town of Europos, Macedonia and died in August/September 281 BCE near Lysimathia, Thrace. The Kalash or Kalasha, are an ethnic group that lives in the Hindu Kush region of Pakistan)
Wicked Apathy
2007-11-08 10:20:34 UTC
To all of you ignorant people, open some history books! (That is of course if you care to know...) :





Alexander I of Macedon, king of Macedon from 498 BCE to 454 BCE:



“Tell your king (Xerxes), who sent you, how his Greek viceroy of Macedonia has received you hospitably.” (Herodotus, “Histories”, 5.20.4, Loeb)



“Men of Athens... In truth I would not tell it to you if I did not care so much for all Greece; I myself am by ancient descent a Greek, and I would not willingly see Greece change her freedom for slavery. I tell you, then, that Mardonius and his army cannot get omens to his liking from the sacrifices. Otherwise you would have fought long before this. Now, however, it is his purpose to pay no heed to the sacrifices, and to attack at the first glimmer of dawn, for he fears, as I surmise that your numbers will become still greater. Therefore, I urge you to prepare, and if (as may be) Mardonius should delay and not attack, wait patiently where you are; for he has but a few days' provisions left. If, however, this war ends as you wish, then must you take thought how to save me too from slavery, who have done so desperate a deed as this for the sake of Greece in my desire to declare to you Mardonius' intent so that the barbarians may not attack you suddenly before you yet expect them. I who speak am Alexander the Macedonian.” (From the speech of Alexander I of Macedon when he was admitted to the Olympic games, Herodotus, "Histories", 9.45)





Alexander the Great, king of Macedon, 356 BCE - 323 BCE:



“Your ancestors came to Macedonia and the rest of Greece and did us great harm, though we had done them no prior injury. I have been appointed leader of the Greeks, and wanting to punish the Persians I have come to Asia, which I took from you... (Alexander's letter to Persian king Darius in response to a truce plea, as quoted in "Anabasis Alexandri" by Roman historian Arrian, Book II, 14, 4)



“Holy shadows of the dead, I’m not to blame for your cruel and bitter fate, but the accursed rivalry which brought sister nations and brother people, to fight one another. I do not feel happy for this victory of mine. On the contrary, I would be glad, brothers, if I had all of you standing here next to me, since we are united by the same language, the same blood and the same visions.” (Addressing the dead Greeks of the Battle of Chaeronea, as quoted in “Historiae Alexandri Magni” by Roman historian Quintus Curtius Rufus.)



“If it were not my purpose to combine foreign things with things Greek, 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 Greek 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 Heracles, and emulate Perseus, bands follow in the footsteps of Dionysus, the divine author and progenitor of my family, and desire that victorious Greeks should dance again in India and revive the memory of the Bacchic revels among the savage mountain tribes beyond the Caucasus.” (Plutarch, "Moralia: On the Fortune of Alexander", I, 332a-b, Loeb)



“Youths of the Pellaians and of the Macedonians and of the Greek Amphictiony and of the Lakedaimonians and of the Corinthians… and of all the Greek peoples, join your fellow-soldiers and entrust yourselves to me, so that we can move against the barbarians and liberate ourselves from the Persian bondage, for as Greeks we should not be slaves to barbarians. (Pseudo-Kallisthenes, “Historia Alexandri Magni”, 1.15.1-4)



“Now you fear punishment and beg for your lives, so I will let you free, if not for any other reason so that you can see the difference between a Greek king and a barbarian tyrant, so do not expect to suffer any harm from me. A king does not kill messengers.” (Pseudo-Kallisthenes, “Historia Alexandri Magni”, 1.37.9-13)



“They will be fighting for pay… we, on the contrary, shall fight for Greece, and our hearts will be in it.” (Addressing his troops prior to the Battle of Issus, as quoted in “Anabasis Alexandri” by Roman historian Arrian, Book II, 7)







Philip V, King of Macedon, 221 BC - 179 BC:



“For on many occasions when I and the other Greeks sent embassies to you begging you to remove from your statutes the law empowering you to get booty from booty, you replied that you would rather remove Aetolia from Aetolia than that law” (Polybius, “The Histories”, 18.4.8)





Aeschines, Greek statesman and one of the ten Attic orators, 389–314 BCE:



“For at a congress of the Lacedaemonian allies and the other Greeks, in which Amyntas, the father of Philip, being entitled to a seat, was represented by a delegate whose vote was absolutely under his control, he joined the other Greeks in voting to help Athens to recover possession of Amphipolis. As proof of this I presented from the public records the resolution of the Greek congress and the names of those who voted.” ("On the Embassy", 32)







Diodorus Siculus, Greek historian, born at Agyrium in Sicily, c. 90 BC– c. 30 BCE:



“Such was the end of Philip (II, king of Macedonia) ...He had ruled 24 years. He is known to fame as one who with but the slenderest resources to support his claim to a throne won for himself the greatest empire among the Greeks, while the growth of his position was not due so much to his prowess in arms as to his adroitness and cordiality in diplomacy”. ("Histories", 16.95.1-2)





Gaius Julius Caesar, Roman military and political leader, 100 or 102 BCE – 44 BCE:



“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)







Flavius Josephus, Jewish historian, 1st-century CE:



“And when the book of Daniel was showed to him (Alexander the Great) wherein Daniel declared that one of the Greeks should destroy the empire of the Persians, he supposed that himself was the person intended.” ("Antiquities of the Jews", Book 11.8.5)









Herodotus, Greek historian, 484 BC-ca. 425 BCE:



“Now that these descendants of Perdiccas (Perdiccas I of Macedon, king of Macedonia from about 700 BCE to about 678 BCE) are Greeks, as they themselves say, I myself chance to know and will prove it in the later part of my history.” ("Histories", 5.22.1)



“Alexander (I of Macedon), however, proving himself to be an Argive, was judged to be a Greek. He accordingly competed in the furlong race and tied step for first place.” ("Histories", 5.22.2)



“From Argos (in Peloponnesus, Greece) fled to the Illyrians three brothers of the descendants of Temenus, Gauanes, Aeropus, and Perdiccas; and passing over from the Illyrians into the upper parts of Macedonia they came to the city of Lebaia.” (“Histories”, 8.137-139)







Isocrates, Greek rhetorician and one of the ten Attic orators, 436–338 BCE:



“Therefore, since the others are so lacking in spirit, I think it is opportune for you to head the war against the King; and, while it is only natural for the other descendants of Heracles, and for men who are under the bonds of their polities and laws, to cleave fondly to that state in which they happen to dwell, it is your privilege, as one who has been blessed with untrammelled freedom, to consider all Greece your fatherland, as did the founder of your race, and to be as ready to brave perils for her sake as for the things about which you are personally most concerned.” ("To Philip", 5.127, Loeb)





Titus Livius, known as Livy in English, Roman historian, 59 BCE – CE 17:



“The Aitolians, the Akarnanians, the Macedonians, men of the same speech, are united or disunited by trivial causes that arise from time to time; with aliens, with barbarians, all Greeks wage and will wage eternal war; for they are enemies by the will of nature, which is eternal, and not from reasons that change from day to day...” ("History of Rome", Book XXXI, 29.15)





Lucius Flavius Arrianus 'Xenophon', known in English as Arrian, Roman historian and philosopher, 92-175 CE:

“To Athens also he sent 300 suits of Persian armour to be hung up in the Acropolis as a votive offering to Athena, and ordered this inscription to be fixed over them, "Alexander, son of Philip and all the Greeks except the Lacedaemonians, present this offering from the spoils taken from the foreigners inhabiting Asia”. ("Anabasis Alexandri", I, 16, 7)





Mestrius Plutarchus, better known in English as Plutarch, Greek historian, 46 -127 CE:



“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.” ("Moralia: On the Fortune of Alexander", I, 328d, 329a Loeb)





“And it is said that when he took his seat for the first time under the golden canopy on the royal throne, Demaratus the Corinthian, a well-meaning man and a friend of Alexander's, as he had been of Alexander's father, burst into tears, as old men will, and declared that those Greeks were deprived of great pleasure who had died before seeing Alexander seated on the throne of Dareius.” ("Parallel Lives: Alexander", 37.7)





Polybius, Greek historian, 203–120 BCE:



“In the presence of Zeus, Hera, and Apollo: in the presence of the Genius of Carthage, of Heracles, and Iolaus: in the presence of Ares, Triton, and Poseidon: in the presence of the gods who battle for us and the Sun, Moon, and Earth; in the presence of Rivers, Lakes, and Waters: in the presence of all the gods who possess Macedonia and the rest of Greece: in the presence of all the gods of the army who preside over this oath.” ("Histories", VII, 9.2-3, Loeb)



“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?” ("Histories", IX, 35.2, Loeb)



“Surely it would have been much more dignified and fairer to include Philip's achievements in the history of Greece than to include the history of Greece in that of Philip.” (Statement on Theopompus, "Histories", VIII, 11.4, Loeb)





Quintus Curtius Rufus, Roman historian, 1st century CE:



“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.” (Alexander the Great Speaking to his own Macedonian Commanders, “Historiae Alexandri Magni”, 5.6.1)



Strabo, Greek historian, geographer and philosopher, 64 BCE – 24 CE:



“There remain of Europe, first, Macedonia and the part of Thrace that are contiguous to it and extend as far as Byzantium; secondly, Greece; and thirdly, the Islands that are close by. Macedonia, of course, is a part of Greece, yet now, since I am following the nature and shape of the place geographically, I have decided to classify it apart from the rest of Greece and to join it with that part of Thrace...” ("Geography", VII, Frg. 9, Loeb)



“Three classes inhabited the city (Alexandria in Egypt): first the Egyptian or native stock of people, who were quick-tempered and not inclined to civil life; and secondly the mercenary class, who were severe and numerous and intractable...; and, third, the tribe of the Alexandrians, who also were not distinctly inclined to civil life, and for the same reasons, but still they were better than those others, for even though they were a mixed people, still they were Greeks by origin and mindful of the customs common to the Greeks.” ("Geography", 17.1.12-13)


This content was originally posted on Y! Answers, a Q&A website that shut down in 2021.
Loading...