Macedon

Definition

A country in northern Greece, Macedon (or Macedonia) was first inhabited by the Mackednoi tribe who, according to Herodotus, were the first to call themselves 'Hellenes’ (later applied to all Greeks) and who gave the land their name. For centuries the Mackednoi had little to do with southern Greece. Even after the Persian invasion of 480 (during which Macedonia was under Persian rule) Macedon preferred to remain aloof from the rest of Greece and the squabbles and fighting which constantly took place between the Greek city-states. All of this changed under the rule of King Phillip II (382-336 BCE) who accomplished the seemingly impossible goal of Greek unity by conquering the southern city-states and bringing them under Macedonian dominion.

After Philip’s assassination in 336 his throne passed to his son, Alexander the Great, who would spread Greek culture and civilization across the known world of antiquity. Macedon fell out of favor with southern Greece after the death of Alexander with many Greeks resenting Macedonian rule and virulent antagonism expressed toward anything even remotely Macedonian. Macedon continued as an autonomous and powerful kingdom until it was annexed by Rome, along with the rest of Greece, around 148 BCE.

Written by Joshua J. Mark, published on 02 September 2009 under the following license: Creative Commons: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike. This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon this content non-commercially, as long as they credit the author and license their new creations under the identical terms.

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Illustrations

Macedon Books

• Warfare in the Classical World: An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Weapons, Warriors... John Warry Univ of Oklahoma Pr (Trd) (01 October 1995) Price: $21.83

• The Campaigns of Alexander Arrian Penguin Classics (28 October 1976) Price: $11.44

• Greece and Rome at War Peter Connolly Greenhill Books (01 January 2006) Currently unavailable

• The Echo of Greece Edith Hamilton W. W. Norton & Company (17 February 1964) Price: $13.89

• A History of Greece to 322 B.C. N. G. L. Hammond Oxford University Press, USA (28 August 1986) Price: $61.13