Lower Macedonia: Difference between revisions

 

Line 1: Line 1:

{{No footnotes|date=July 2009}}

{{No footnotes|date=July 2009}}

”’Lower Macedonia”’ ({{langx|el|Κάτω Μακεδονία}}, ”Kato Makedonia”) or ”’Lower Macedon”’ or ”’Macedonia proper”’ or ”’Emathia”’ is a geographical term used in [[Classical antiquity|Antiquity]] referring to the coastal plain watered by the rivers [[Haliacmon]], [[Vardar|Axius]] and [[Loudias]], stretching along the coast of the [[Thermaic Gulf]], which was the core and defined the center of the [[Argead dynasty|Argead]] kingdom of [[Macedon]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Thomas|first=Carol G.|chapter=The Physical Kingdom|title=A Companion to Ancient Macedonia|pages=65–80|location=Oxford|publisher=Wiley-Blackwell|year=2010|isbn=978-1-4051-7936-2|chapter-url=https://archive.org/stream/AncientMacedonia/Ancient%20Macedonia#page/n401/mode/2up| editor-given1 = Joseph | editor-surname1 = Roisman| editor-given2 = Ian | editor-surname2 = Worthington}}{{harvnb|Thomas|2010|pp=65–80}}.</ref> Its districts were: [[Emathia (Macedonia)|Emathia]], [[Pieria (regional unit)#History|Pieria]], [[Bottiaea]], [[Almopia]], [[Amphaxitis]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Girtzy |first=Maria |title=HISTORICAL TOPOGRAPHY OF ANCIENT MACEDONIA |publisher=UNIVERSITY STUDIO PRESS |year=2001}}</ref>

”’Lower Macedonia”’ ({{langx|el|Κάτω Μακεδονία}}, ”Kato Makedonia”) or ”’Lower Macedon”’ or ”’Macedonia proper”’ or ”’Emathia”’ is a geographical term used in [[Classical antiquity|Antiquity]] referring to the coastal plain watered by the rivers [[Haliacmon]], [[Vardar|Axius]] and [[Loudias]], stretching along the coast of the [[Thermaic Gulf]], which was the core and defined the center of the [[Argead dynasty|Argead]] kingdom of [[Macedon]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Thomas|first=Carol G.|chapter=The Physical Kingdom|title=A Companion to Ancient Macedonia|pages=65–80|location=Oxford|publisher=Wiley-Blackwell|year=2010|isbn=978-1-4051-7936-2|chapter-url=https://archive.org/stream/AncientMacedonia/Ancient%20Macedonia#page/n401/mode/2up| editor-given1 = Joseph | editor-surname1 = Roisman| editor-given2 = Ian | editor-surname2 = Worthington}}{{harvnb|Thomas|2010|pp=65–80}}.</ref> Its districts were: [[Emathia (Macedonia)|Emathia]], [[Pieria (regional unit)#History|Pieria]], [[Bottiaea]], [[Almopia]], [[Amphaxitis]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Girtzy |first=Maria |title=HISTORICAL TOPOGRAPHY OF ANCIENT MACEDONIA |publisher=UNIVERSITY STUDIO PRESS |year=2001}}</ref>

Most of the region corresponds roughly to the modern Greek region of [[Central Macedonia]], except for the [[Chalcidice]] peninsula.

Most of the region corresponds roughly to the modern Greek region of [[Central Macedonia]], except for the [[Chalcidice]] peninsula.

[[File:Growth of the ancient Greek Kingdom of Macedon (English).svg|thumb|Growth of the kingdom of Macedon]]

[[File:Growth of the ancient Greek Kingdom of Macedon (English).svg|thumb|Growth of the kingdom of Macedon]]

==History==

==History==

The [[History of Macedonia (ancient kingdom)|kingdom of Macedonia]] was originally situated along the [[Haliacmon]] and [[Loudias]] rivers in Lower Macedonia, north of [[Mount Olympus]] and west of the [[Pierian Mountains]] and the [[Vermio Mountains]]. According to Maria Girtzy, the only ancient source referring indirectly to Emathia’s boundaries was by Herodotus’ testimony that Macedonis lay between Loudias and Haliacmon; thus Emathia (as alternative name to the district of Macedonis) was bounded by Loudias to the north and the plateau of [[Edessa, Greece|Edessa]] to the northwest, the valley of Haliacmon to the south along with Vermio Mountains to the southwest, and the Thermaic Gulf to the east.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Girtzy |first=Maria |title=HISTORICAL TOPOGRAPHY OF ANCIENT MACEDONIA |publisher=UNIVERSITY STUDIO PRESS |year=2001}}</ref> Historian [[Robert Malcolm Errington]] suggests that one of the earliest Argead kings established [[Aegae (Macedonia)|Aigai]] (modern [[Vergina]]) as their capital in the mid-7th century{{nbsp}}BC.<ref>{{cite book|last=Errington|first=Robert Malcolm|author-link=Robert Malcolm Errington|title=A History of Macedonia|location=Berkeley|publisher=University of California Press|year=1990|translator=Catherine Errington|isbn=978-0-520-06319-8|url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_PYgkqP_s1PQC}}{{harvnb|Errington|1990|p=2}}.</ref> Pieria took its name from the Pieres, a Thracian<ref>{{cite book|title=Orpheus and Greek Religion: A Study of the Orphic Movement |series=Mythos: The Princeton/Bollingen Series in World Mythology|last= Guthrie|first=William Keith|editor-last=Alderink|editor-first=Larry J.|date=1993|page=62|location=[[Princeton, New Jersey]]|publisher=[[Princeton University Press]]|isbn=978-0691024998|quote=… assigned, Pieria, was originally inhabited by a Thracian tribe, the Pieres, who according to Thucydides (ii. …}}</ref> tribe that was expelled<ref name=”arceretria04″>{{cite book|title=Archaic Eretria: A Political and Social History from the Earliest Times to 490 BC |last=Walker|first=Keith G.|date=2004|location=[[London]] |page=154|publisher=[[Routledge]] |isbn=9780415285520 |quote=… 498-54)12′ had incorporated coastal Pieria into Macedonia and expelled the ‘Pieres’, who afterwards took up their abode in areas at Mt.Pangaion…}}</ref> by the Macedonians in the 8th century BC<ref>{{cite book|title=An Inventory of Archaic and Classical Poleis, An Investigation Conducted by The Copenhagen Polis Centre for the Danish National Research Foundation |first1=Mogens Herman|last1=Hansen |first2=Thomas Heine |last2=Nielsen |date=2005 |orig-date=1st edition 2004 |page= 865|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |isbn=978-0-19-814099-3}}</ref> from their original seats. Sometime, during the [[Archaic Greece|Archaic]] period, [[Bottiaeans]] were also expelled by Macedonians from [[Bottiaea]] to [[Bottike]].

The [[History of Macedonia (ancient kingdom)|kingdom of Macedonia]] was originally situated along the [[Haliacmon]] and [[Loudias]] rivers in Lower Macedonia, north of [[Mount Olympus]] and west of the [[Pierian Mountains]] and the [[Vermio Mountains]]. According to Maria Girtzy, the only ancient source referring indirectly to Emathia’s boundaries was by Herodotus’ testimony that Macedonis lay between Loudias and Haliacmon; thus Emathia (as alternative name to the district of Macedonis) was bounded by Loudias to the north and the plateau of [[Edessa, Greece|Edessa]] to the northwest, the valley of Haliacmon to the south along with Vermio Mountains to the southwest, and the Thermaic Gulf to the east.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Girtzy |first=Maria |title=HISTORICAL TOPOGRAPHY OF ANCIENT MACEDONIA |publisher=UNIVERSITY STUDIO PRESS |year=2001}}</ref> the as in .<ref> </ref> Pieria took its name from the Pieres, a Thracian<ref>{{cite book|title=Orpheus and Greek Religion: A Study of the Orphic Movement |series=Mythos: The Princeton/Bollingen Series in World Mythology|last= Guthrie|first=William Keith|editor-last=Alderink|editor-first=Larry J.|date=1993|page=62|location=[[Princeton, New Jersey]]|publisher=[[Princeton University Press]]|isbn=978-0691024998|quote=… assigned, Pieria, was originally inhabited by a Thracian tribe, the Pieres, who according to Thucydides (ii. …}}</ref> tribe that was expelled<ref name=”arceretria04″>{{cite book|title=Archaic Eretria: A Political and Social History from the Earliest Times to 490 BC |last=Walker|first=Keith G.|date=2004|location=[[London]] |page=154|publisher=[[Routledge]] |isbn=9780415285520 |quote=… 498-54)12′ had incorporated coastal Pieria into Macedonia and expelled the ‘Pieres’, who afterwards took up their abode in areas at Mt.Pangaion…}}</ref> by the Macedonians in the 8th century BC<ref>{{cite book|title=An Inventory of Archaic and Classical Poleis, An Investigation Conducted by The Copenhagen Polis Centre for the Danish National Research Foundation |first1=Mogens Herman|last1=Hansen |first2=Thomas Heine |last2=Nielsen |date=2005 |orig-date=1st edition 2004 |page= 865|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |isbn=978-0-19-814099-3}}</ref> from their original seats. Sometime, during the [[Archaic Greece|Archaic]] period, [[Bottiaeans]] were also expelled by Macedonians from [[Bottiaea]] to [[Bottike]].

[[Almopia]] was incorporated into the kingdom and [[Almopes]] that originally inhabited the area before were expelled from the region during the reign of [[Alexander I of Macedon|Alexander I]] (r. 498–454 BC).<ref>Thucydides, ”History of the Peloponnesian War”, [[wikisource:History of the Peloponnesian War/Book 2|II.99]]</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last1=Roisman|first1=Joseph|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QsJ183uUDkMC|title=A Companion to Ancient Macedonia|last2=Worthington|first2=Ian|date=2011-07-07|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|isbn=978-1-4443-5163-7|pages=75|language=en}}</ref> [[Amphaxitis]] was also added. The eastern districts of [[Crestonia]], [[Mygdonia]] and [[Bisaltia]] were also added to the kingdom later. There were also included the subregions [[Anthemous]] and [[Crousis]] in it which were originally part of [[Chalcidice]] but were annexed earlier. Additionally [[Eordaea]] was incorporated to the Argead kindgom earlier than the rest of Upper Macedonia.

[[Almopia]] was incorporated into the kingdom and [[Almopes]] that originally inhabited the area before were expelled from the region during the reign of [[Alexander I of Macedon|Alexander I]] (r. 498–454 BC).<ref>Thucydides, ”History of the Peloponnesian War”, [[wikisource:History of the Peloponnesian War/Book 2|II.99]]</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last1=Roisman|first1=Joseph|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QsJ183uUDkMC|title=A Companion to Ancient Macedonia|last2=Worthington|first2=Ian|date=2011-07-07|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|isbn=978-1-4443-5163-7|pages=75|language=en}}</ref> [[Amphaxitis]] was also added. The eastern districts of [[Crestonia]], [[Mygdonia]] and [[Bisaltia]] were also added to the kingdom later. There were also included the subregions [[Anthemous]] and [[Crousis]] in it which were originally part of [[Chalcidice]] but were annexed earlier. Additionally [[Eordaea]] was incorporated to the Argead kindgom earlier than the rest of Upper Macedonia.

With their capital at Aigai, the [[Makedones]] conquered gradually the [[Thracians|Thracian]]-inhabited areas east of the Axius in the 5th and 4th centuries BC. The two capitals of Macedon, first [[Aegae (Macedon)|Aigai]] and then [[Pella]], lay in Lower Macedonia. The regions of [[Edonis (region)|Edonis]], [[Sintice]], [[Odomanti]]s and Pieris, conquered by [[Philip II of Macedon|Philip II]], were termed in [[Latin]] ”Macedonia Adjecta” (Επίκτητος Μακεδονία). [[Upper Macedonia]] is a geographical and tribal term to describe the upper/western of the two parts in which, together with Lower Macedonia, the ancient kingdom of Macedon was roughly divided.<ref>Joseph Roisman, ”Ancient Greece from Homer to Alexander: The Evidence”, Wiley-Blackwell, 2011, p.520</ref><ref>Eugene N. Borza, ”In the shadow of Olympus: the emergence of Macedon”, Princeton University Press, 1991, p.31</ref><ref>Michael M. Sage, [https://books.google.com/books?id=CsCAGNUURUoC&dq=%22upper+macedonia%22&pg=PA162 ”Warfare in ancient Greece: a sourcebook”], Routledge, 1996, p.162</ref>

With their capital at Aigai, the [[Makedones]] conquered gradually the [[Thracians|Thracian]]-inhabited areas east of the Axius in the 5th and 4th centuries BC. The regions of [[Edonis (region)|Edonis]], [[Sintice]], [[Odomanti]]s and Pieris, conquered by [[Philip II of Macedon|Philip II]], were termed in [[Latin]] ”Macedonia Adjecta” (Επίκτητος Μακεδονία). [[Upper Macedonia]] is a geographical and tribal term to describe the upper/western of the two parts in which, together with Lower Macedonia, the ancient kingdom of Macedon was roughly divided.<ref>Joseph Roisman, ”Ancient Greece from Homer to Alexander: The Evidence”, Wiley-Blackwell, 2011, p.520</ref><ref>Eugene N. Borza, ”In the shadow of Olympus: the emergence of Macedon”, Princeton University Press, 1991, p.31</ref><ref>Michael M. Sage, [https://books.google.com/books?id=CsCAGNUURUoC&dq=%22upper+macedonia%22&pg=PA162 ”Warfare in ancient Greece: a sourcebook”], Routledge, 1996, p.162</ref>

Miltiades Hatzopoulos has suggested that the [[Ancient Macedonian language|Macedonian dialect]] of the 4th century BC spoken in Macedonia proper, as attested in the [[Pella curse tablet]], was a sort of Macedonian ‘koine’ resulting from the encounter of the idiom of the ‘[[Aeolic Greek|Aeolic]]’-speaking populations around [[Mount Olympus]] and the [[Pierian Mountains]] with the [[Northwest Greek]]-speaking [[Argead dynasty|Argead]] Macedonians hailing from [[Argos Orestiko]]n, who founded their kingdom in Lower Macedonia.<ref name= Hatzopoulos2017>{{cite book | last = Hatzopoulos | first = Miltiades B. | chapter = Recent Research in the Ancient Macedonian Dialect: Consolidation and New Perspectives | title = Studies in Ancient Greek Dialects: From Central Greece to the Black Sea | editor1-last = Giannakis | editor1-first = Georgios K. | editor2-last = Crespo | editor2-first = Emilio | editor3-last = Filos | editor3-first = Panagiotis | date = 2017 | publisher=Walter de Gruyter | chapter-url = https://books.google.com/books?id=XXFLDwAAQBAJ&q=ancient+macedonian+speech&pg=PT301 | pages=321–322 | isbn = 978-3-11-053081-0 }}</ref> However, according to Hatzopoulos, B. Helly expanded and improved his own earlier suggestion and presented the hypothesis of a (North-)'[[Mycenaean Greece|Achaean]]’ substratum extending as far north as the head of the [[Thermaic Gulf]], which had a continuous relation, in prehistoric times both in [[Ancient Thessaly|Thessaly]] and [[Macedonia (ancient kingdom)|Macedonia]], with the Northwest Greek-speaking populations living on the other side of the [[Pindus]] mountain range, and contacts became cohabitation when the Argead Macedonians completed their wandering from [[Orestis (region)|Orestis]] to Lower Macedonia in the 7th c. BC.<ref name= Hatzopoulos2017 /> According to this hypothesis, Hatzopoulos concludes that the [[Ancient Macedonian dialect]] of the historical period, which is attested in inscriptions such as Pella curse tablet, is a sort of koine resulting from the interaction and the influences of various elements, the most important of which are the North-[[Mycenaean Greek|Achaean]] substratum, the [[Northwest Greek]] idiom of the [[Argead dynasty|Argead]] [[Ancient Macedonians|Macedonians]], and the [[Thracian language|Thracian]] and [[Phrygian language|Phrygian]] adstrata.<ref name= Hatzopoulos2017 />

Miltiades Hatzopoulos has suggested that the [[Ancient Macedonian language|Macedonian dialect]] of the 4th century BC spoken in Macedonia proper, as attested in the [[Pella curse tablet]], was a sort of Macedonian ‘koine’ resulting from the encounter of the idiom of the ‘[[Aeolic Greek|Aeolic]]’-speaking populations around [[Mount Olympus]] and the [[Pierian Mountains]] with the [[Northwest Greek]]-speaking [[Argead dynasty|Argead]] Macedonians hailing from [[Argos Orestiko]]n, who founded their kingdom in Lower Macedonia.<ref name= Hatzopoulos2017>{{cite book | last = Hatzopoulos | first = Miltiades B. | chapter = Recent Research in the Ancient Macedonian Dialect: Consolidation and New Perspectives | title = Studies in Ancient Greek Dialects: From Central Greece to the Black Sea | editor1-last = Giannakis | editor1-first = Georgios K. | editor2-last = Crespo | editor2-first = Emilio | editor3-last = Filos | editor3-first = Panagiotis | date = 2017 | publisher=Walter de Gruyter | chapter-url = https://books.google.com/books?id=XXFLDwAAQBAJ&q=ancient+macedonian+speech&pg=PT301 | pages=321–322 | isbn = 978-3-11-053081-0 }}</ref> However, according to Hatzopoulos, B. Helly expanded and improved his own earlier suggestion and presented the hypothesis of a (North-)'[[Mycenaean Greece|Achaean]]’ substratum extending as far north as the head of the [[Thermaic Gulf]], which had a continuous relation, in prehistoric times both in [[Ancient Thessaly|Thessaly]] and [[Macedonia (ancient kingdom)|Macedonia]], with the Northwest Greek-speaking populations living on the other side of the [[Pindus]] mountain range, and contacts became cohabitation when the Argead Macedonians completed their wandering from [[Orestis (region)|Orestis]] to Lower Macedonia in the 7th c. BC.<ref name= Hatzopoulos2017 /> According to this hypothesis, Hatzopoulos concludes that the [[Ancient Macedonian dialect]] of the historical period, which is attested in inscriptions such as Pella curse tablet, is a sort of koine resulting from the interaction and the influences of various elements, the most important of which are the North-[[Mycenaean Greek|Achaean]] substratum, the [[Northwest Greek]] idiom of the [[Argead dynasty|Argead]] [[Ancient Macedonians|Macedonians]], and the [[Thracian language|Thracian]] and [[Phrygian language|Phrygian]] adstrata.<ref name= Hatzopoulos2017 />

Lower Macedonia (Greek: Κάτω Μακεδονία, Kato Makedonia) or Lower Macedon or Macedonia proper or Emathia is a geographical term used in Antiquity referring to the coastal plain watered by the rivers Haliacmon, Axius and Loudias, stretching along the coast of the Thermaic Gulf, which was the core and defined the center of the Argead kingdom of Macedon.^[1] The two capitals of Macedon, first Aigai and then Pella, lay in Lower Macedonia. Its districts were: Emathia, Pieria, Bottiaea, Almopia, Amphaxitis.^[2]
Most of the region corresponds roughly to the modern Greek region of Central Macedonia, except for the Chalcidice peninsula.

The kingdom of Macedonia was originally situated along the Haliacmon and Loudias rivers in Lower Macedonia, north of Mount Olympus and west of the Pierian Mountains and the Vermio Mountains. Historian Robert Malcolm Errington suggests that one of the earliest Argead kings established Aigai (modern Vergina) as their capital in the mid-7th century BC.^[3] According to Maria Girtzy, the only ancient source referring indirectly to Emathia’s boundaries was by Herodotus’ testimony that Macedonis lay between Loudias and Haliacmon; thus Emathia (as alternative name to the district of Macedonis) was bounded by Loudias to the north and the plateau of Edessa to the northwest, the valley of Haliacmon to the south along with Vermio Mountains to the southwest, and the Thermaic Gulf to the east.^[4] Some ancient geographers give Emathia as the name of a town in the region, or as a name in alternation with Macedon.^[5] Pieria took its name from the Pieres, a Thracian^[6] tribe that was expelled^[7] by the Macedonians in the 8th century BC^[8] from their original seats. Sometime, during the Archaic period, Bottiaeans were also expelled by Macedonians from Bottiaea to Bottike.

Almopia was incorporated into the kingdom and Almopes that originally inhabited the area before were expelled from the region during the reign of Alexander I (r. 498–454 BC).^[9][10] Amphaxitis was also added. The eastern districts of Crestonia, Mygdonia and Bisaltia were also added to the kingdom later. There were also included the subregions Anthemous and Crousis in it which were originally part of Chalcidice but were annexed earlier. Additionally Eordaea was incorporated to the Argead kindgom earlier than the rest of Upper Macedonia.

With their capital at Aigai, the Makedones conquered gradually the Thracian-inhabited areas east of the Axius in the 5th and 4th centuries BC. The regions of Edonis, Sintice, Odomantis and Pieris, conquered by Philip II, were termed in Latin Macedonia Adjecta (Επίκτητος Μακεδονία). Upper Macedonia is a geographical and tribal term to describe the upper/western of the two parts in which, together with Lower Macedonia, the ancient kingdom of Macedon was roughly divided.^[11][12][13]

Miltiades Hatzopoulos has suggested that the Macedonian dialect of the 4th century BC spoken in Macedonia proper, as attested in the Pella curse tablet, was a sort of Macedonian ‘koine’ resulting from the encounter of the idiom of the ‘Aeolic‘-speaking populations around Mount Olympus and the Pierian Mountains with the Northwest Greek-speaking Argead Macedonians hailing from Argos Orestikon, who founded their kingdom in Lower Macedonia.^[14] However, according to Hatzopoulos, B. Helly expanded and improved his own earlier suggestion and presented the hypothesis of a (North-)’Achaean‘ substratum extending as far north as the head of the Thermaic Gulf, which had a continuous relation, in prehistoric times both in Thessaly and Macedonia, with the Northwest Greek-speaking populations living on the other side of the Pindus mountain range, and contacts became cohabitation when the Argead Macedonians completed their wandering from Orestis to Lower Macedonia in the 7th c. BC.^[14] According to this hypothesis, Hatzopoulos concludes that the Ancient Macedonian dialect of the historical period, which is attested in inscriptions such as Pella curse tablet, is a sort of koine resulting from the interaction and the influences of various elements, the most important of which are the North-Achaean substratum, the Northwest Greek idiom of the Argead Macedonians, and the Thracian and Phrygian adstrata.^[14]

• A Manual of Ancient Geography. by Heinrich Kiepert, George Augustin. Macmillan. p 182 ISBN 1-146-40082-9
• The Greek World in the Fourth Century. by Lawrence A. Tritle. p 167 ISBN 0-415-10583-8
• The Classical Gazetteer. Hazlitt. p 210