Macedonia 4000 years of Greek history
Kastellion
(1, 56): "(The Dorian ethnos) ... dwelt in Pindos, where it was called
Makednon; from there ... it came to the Peloponnesos, where it took the name of
Dorian". And elsewhere (VIII, 43): "these (that is, the Lacedaimonians,
Corinthians, Sikyonians etc.), except the people of Hermione, were of the
Dorian and Makednon ethnos, and had most recently come from Erineos and Pindos
and Dryopis". A Dorian tribe, then, that expanded steadily to the east of
Pindos and far beyond, conquering areas in which dwelt other tribes, both Greek
and non-Greek.
For many centuries, Macedonia remained on the fringe of the Greek world. In the
mountainous regions of Macedonia, at least, the way of life will have consisted
predominantly of transhumant pasturage. Education will, at best, have been
confined to aristocratic circles and those connected with them. We do not,
therefore, expect to find any written texts of a private nature from the
Archaic period. In the rest of the Greek world, writing is related to the
structure and mechanisms of the city-state, and is used mainly for the
recording of justice in the broadest sense of the word. Under a monarchical
regime like that of Macedonia, however, and in a world of nomads, we would
hardly expect to find public documents.
At about the end of the 6th century BC, the changed socio-economic
circumstances deriving from permanent settlement and the intensification of
economic and cultural relations with the rest of the Greek world led to the
creation of the preconditions for the use of writing, mainly for the purposes
of diplomatic relations. The local dialect a member, as far as we can judge, of
the group known as the north-west Greek dialects, which included Phokian, the
Lokrian dialects, etc., had no written tradition, whether literary or other.
Consequently, the rise of education and culture was to the detriment of the
Macedonian speech. Attic was selected as the language of education, and the
local dialect was "smothered" by the written language, the koine, and was
never, or hardly ever, written down, being restricted to oral communication
between Macedonians. From as early as the time of Alexander the Great,
moreover, Macedonian lost ground to the koine in this sphere too, if we are to
believe the historical sources, and there is certainly no evidence that it was
spoken in the centuries after Christ. Only its memory was perpetuated through
the use of personal names until the 4th century AD
Although very little of the Macedonian tongue has survived, there is no doubt
that it was a Greek dialect. This is clear from a whole series of indications
and linguistic phenomena by which the koine of the region is "colored" which
are not Attic but which can only have derived from a Greek dialect. For
example: The vast majority of even the earliest names, whether dynastic names
or not, are Greek, formed from Greek roots and according to Greek models:
Hadista, Philista, Sostrata, Philotas, Perdikkas, Machatas and hundreds of
others. In general, the remnants of the Macedonian dialect that have come down
to us have a completely different character from Ionic. This circumstance is
patent proof that there can be no question of the ancient Macedonians having
been Hellenised, as has been asserted (Karst), for such Hellenisation could
have been only by the Greek colonies on the Macedonian coast, in which the
Ionian element was predominant (Beloch).
The fact that Roman and Byzantine lexicographers and grammarians cited examples
from Macedonian in order to interpret particular features of the Homeric epics
must mean that Macedonian - or rather, what survived of Macedonian at the
period in question - was a very archaic dialect, and preserved features that
had disappeared from the other Greek dialects; it would be absurd to suggest
that these scholars, in their commentaries on the Homeric poems, might have
compared them with a non-Greek language. The name given to the Macedonian
cavalry - hetairoi tou basileos - "the King's Companions" - is also indicative:
this occurs only in Homer, and was preserved in the historical period only
amongst the Macedonians.
The anonymous compiler of the Etymologicum Magnum notes in the entry on
Aphrodite, probably adopting a comment by the earlier grammarian Didymos: "V is
akin to F. This is clear from the fact that the Macedonians call Philip "Vilip"
and pronounce falakros [bald] "valakros" the Phrygians "Vrygians" and the winds
(fysitas) "vyktas". Homer refers to "vyktas anemous" (blowing winds).
Observations of this type abound. Male and female names occur in Macedonian
ending in -as and -a, where in Attic we have -es and -e: Alketas, Amyntas,
Hippotas, Glauka, Eurydika, Andromacha, and dozens more. A feature bequeathed
by Macedonian to the koine and also to Modern Greek is the genitive of
so-called first declension masculine nouns in -a: Kallia, Teleutia, Pausanea
(the Attic ending was -ou). The long alpha is retained in the middle of words
(as in all dialects other than Ionic-Attic dialects): Damostratos, Damon etc.
and Iaos" rather than the "Ieos" of Ionic Attic, is used to form compounds,
occurring as both the first and the second element. The koine of Macedonia, for
all its conservatism and dialect coloring, follows a parallel path to the koine
of other regions, though not always at the same moment in time. Whatever the
case, all the changes that marked the Greek language in general and the north
Greek dialects in particular, can be followed in the inscriptions of Macedonia.
Classical period
Although Herodotus and Thucydides, both of whom were aware of the genealogy of
the Macedonian Argead or Temenids dynasty, made Perdikkas I the head of the
family, and moreover at tributed to him the foundation of the state (first half
of the 7th century BC), tradition records the names of kings earlier than
Perdikkas (Karanos, Koinos, Tyrimmas). It was, however, only after protracted
clashes with the Illyrians and the Thracians, and temporary subjection to
Persian suzerainty (510-479 BC)- a period during which the Macedonians
established themselves in "Lower Macedonia" - that the country acquired its
definitive form and character. Through the organizational and administrative
abilities of its first great leader, Alexander I, called the Philhellene, whose
timely information to the southern Greeks contributed to the defeat of the
Persian forces of Xerxes and Mardonios, the suzerainty of the Macedonian
kingdom was extended both to the west of the lower Strymon valley and to the
region of Anthemous. This brought economic benefits, including the exploitation
of a number of silver mines in the area of lake Prasias (the first Macedonian
coins were struck at this time), and the independent Macedonian principalities
of west and north Macedonia were united around the central authority,
recognizing the primacy of the Temenids king. The entry of the state into the
history of southern Greece was sealed by the acceptance of Alexander I by the
hellanodikai as a competitor in the Olympic games (probably those of 496 BC),
in which, as we know, only Greeks were allowed to participate.
Perdikkas II, the first-born son of Alexander I, who ruled for forty years
(454-412/13 BC), not only had to face dynastic strife, but also had to be
continuously on the alert to deal with the problems created for him by the
Thracian tribes and the Lynkestai and Elimeiotai on one hand, and on the other
by the doubtful outcome of the Peloponnesian War, which threw the Greek world
into turmoil in the 5th century BC, bringing Athenian and Spartan armies, at
various times, into the heart of Macedonia. Acting always according to the
dictates of political advantage, Perdikkas II proved himself a skillful
diplomat and a wily leader, astute in his decisions and flexible in his
alliances, and set as the aim of his diplomacy the preservation of the
territorial integrity of his kingdom. The completion of the internal tasks that
Perdikkas II was prevented from accomplishing by the external situation fell to
his successor, Archelaos I; he is credited by the ancient sources and modern
scholarship alike with great sagacity and with sweeping changes in state
administration, the army and commerce. During his reign, the defense of the
country was organized, cultural and artistic contacts with southern Greece were
extended, and the foundations were laid of a road network. A man of culture
himself, the king entertained in his new palace at Pella, to where he had
transferred the capital from Aigai, poets and tragedians, and even the great
Euripides, who wrote his tragedies Archelaos and The Bacchae there; he invited
brilliant painters - the name of Zeuxis is mentioned - and at Dion in Pieria,
the Olympia of Macedonia, he founded the "Olympia", a religious festival with
musical and athletic competitions in honor of Olympian Zeus and the Muses. By
399 BC, the year in which he was murdered, Archelaos I had succeeded in
converting Macedonia into one of the strongest Greek powers of his period. In
the forty years following the death of Archelaos I , Macedonia formed a field
for all kinds of conflict and realignments, and was the object of competition
between kings who reigned for very brief periods; the country was ravaged by
the savage incursions of the Illyrians, captured by the Chalkidians, and
obliged to yield to the demands of the Athenians; despite all this, however, it
recovered to some degree with Amyntas III on the throne and, with the accession
of Philip II (359 BC), succeeded in regaining its self-belief and recovering
its former strength. This charismatic ruler, whose strategic genius and
diplomatic ability transformed Macedonia from an insignificant and marginal
country into the most important power in the Aegean and paved the way for the
pan-Hellenic expedition of his son to the Orient, was an expansive leader who
had the breadth of vision to usher the ancient world into the epoch of the
Hellenism of three continents. During the course of his tempestuous life, he
firmly established the power of the central authority in the kingdom,
reorganized the army into a flexible and amazingly efficient unit, strengthened
the weaker regions of his realm through movements of population, and, abroad,
made Macedonia incontestably superior to the institution of the city-state
which, at this precise period, was facing decline. His unexpected death at the
hands of an assassin in 336 BC, in the theater at Aigai on the very day of the
marriage of his daughter Cleopatra to Alexander, the young king of the Molos
sians, brought to an end a brilliant career, the final aim of which was to
unify the Greeks in order to exact vengeance on Persia for the invasion of
481-480 BC; Macedonia, in complete control of affairs in the Balkan peninsula,
was ready to assume its new role. A fascinating sequence of political events
with a highly favorable outcome and military victories with world-wide
repercussions, the resolution of a number of intractable problems of an
inter-state nature, and a series of inspired programs and visions implemented
with great success in a short space of time - these are the component elements
in the panorama of the life of the great general and civilizer Alexander III,
who was justly called the Great and who has passed into the pantheon of legend.
And if his victories at Granikos (334 BC), Issos (333 BC), Gaugamela (331 BC)
and Alexandria Nikaia (326 BC) may be thought of as sons worthy of their
father, bringing about the overthrow of the mighty Persian empire and distant
India, the prosperous cities founded in his name as far as the ends of the
known world were his daughters - centers of the preservation and dissemination
of Greek spirit and culture. From this world of dar ing and passion, of
questing and contradiction the robust Hellenism of Macedonia carried the art of
man to the ends of the inhabited world, bestowing poetry upon the mute and, in
the infancy of mankind, instilling philosophical thought. In the libraries that
were now founded from the Nile to the Indus, in the theaters that spread their
wings under the skies of Baktria and Sogdiana, in the Gymnasia and the Agoras
Homer suckled as yet unborn civilizations, Thucydides taught the rules of the
science of history, and the great tragedians and Plato transmitted the
principle of restraint and morality to absolutist regimes. Alexander's
contribution to the history of the world is without doubt of the greatest
importance: his period, severing the "Gordian Knot" with the Greek past, opened
new horizons whose example would inspire, throughout the centuries that
followed, all those leaders down to Napoleon himself who left their own mark on
the course of mankind in both the East and the West.
Despite the unfavorable outcome of affairs on the external front, however, and
despite the restraining intervention of the Romans at the ex pense of the
territorial integrity of the country, which was deprived of its possessions in
south ern Greece and Asia Minor (197 BC), Philip's V prestige and influence was
revealed long ago by dedications at the most famous Greek sanctuar ies (Delos,
Rhodes, Karia). His dynamism with re gard to the vision of a great and powerful
Mace donia is attested by his internal policy during the final decade of his
rule (188-179 BC): during these years, the planned exploitation of the mines,
the granting to the cities in the kingdom of the right to mint coins, the
imposition of harbor dues, the increasing of taxation and the provision of
grants to encourage child-bearing, all led not only to recovery but also to the
accumulation of wealth.
This prosperity and a sound incomes policy, together with the rise of trade and
the liberalization of local institutions in the major urban centers, filled the
royal treasury with liquid funds and the granaries with stores of grain, and
armed 18,000 mercenaries under the rule of his successor, Perseus, the last
king of Macedonia. The 6,000 talents and the vast quantities of precious
vessels that came into the hands of Aemilius Paulus on the morrow of the
decisive battle of Pydna (168 BC) attest to the economic vigour of the state up
to the very eve of its collapse.
Roman period
This, then, was the end of the kingdom be neath Mount Olympus, which had been
the com mon point of reference for all the Hellenistic king doms of the East
and had supplied succeeding generations with Greek ideals. It was essentially a
nation state, in contrast with the "spear-won" kingdoms of the epigoni
(Successors) in which the Macedonians were always a minority of for eign
conquerors, a conservative country, cer tainly, devoted to its traditional
institutions, so dif ferent from the immense new empires of the Se leucids and
the Ptolemies, with their heterogene ous populations. Far removed from the
deifica tion of leaders, from vainglorious titles, from the appellations and
dooms of excess, Macedonia confronted its destiny as once its Stoic king Anti
gonos II Gonatas had confronted the highest of fice, which had been bestowed
upon him: as glo rious slavery!
A menace to the Roman Senate, the land of Alexander was divided into four
merides (por tions), or economic and administrative districts, and the
possession or sale of landed property between them was forbidden, as was
intermar riage. The Macedonians were described as "free" (in reality, under the
tutelage of the Romans), paid a tax and were obliged to maintain an army only
large enough to protect their own borders against the barbarian tribes of the
north. This re gime, however, lasted no more than twenty years: anti-Roman
sentiments on the one hand, and social friction between the privileged classes
and the masses on the other, and above all the deterioration of the internal
situation led to the re volt of Andriskos, an adventurer who claimed to be the
son of Perseus. With the crushing of his rebellion by the Roman legions (148
BC) Mace donia now belonged to the past, even as a pro tectorate: the senate
decided to turn it into a province (provincia Macedonia)- the first Roman
province in the East - and incorporate it into the Roman empire, installing a
governor with his headquarters at Thessaloniki and an army. The period from 148
BC to the advent of Augustus (27 BC) was undoubtedly one of the most bur
densome for the country which, administratively, now stretched from the Ionian
sea to the Nestos river, and from mount Olympus to the source of the Axios
river: the continuous incursions of bar barian tribes (Skordiskoi, Bessoi,
Thracians) throughout the second century BC, the invasion by the armies of
Mithridates VI, supported by the Maidoi, the Dardanians and the Sintoi, at the
be ginning of the first, and the upheaval, decimation and ravaging inflicted on
it during both the first Civil War (Pompey-Caesar, 49-48 BC) and the second
(Brutus/Antony-Octavian, 42 BC), turned the province into a huge battlefield,
with severely adverse consequences for the land and its inhabitants.
The construction of the Via Egnatia from Dyr rachion to Byzantion (in a second
stage) as a continuation of the Via Appia on the Italian main land, and the
settling of colonists (Dion, Cassan dreia, Pella, Philippoi) and Italian
merchants may have transformed the economic and demograph ic face of the
country, but it did not bring about the latinization of the inhabitants, who
retained their Greek personality and speech to the end.
In a pacified empire, living under the protec tion of the Pax Romana in the
rearguard of mili tary enterprises, and a senatorial province from 27 BC to AD
15 and from AD 44 onwards, Macedonia moved onto a different plane. In the
"free" cities of Thessaloniki, Amphipolis and Sko toussa, as in the tribute
paying (tributariae) cities, the communities in time adjusted to the new state
of affairs ordained by Augustus, while preserving their ancient institutions of
government (assem bly, council and magistrates); new town-plans were laid out,
grand building complexes (agoras, temples) now proclaimed the glory of new gods
and earthly lords, honorific altars were erected for select members and
officials in a display of gratitude, and fine marble funerary buildings were
designed to perpetuate the memory of sim ple mortals and distinguished citizens
after their death. And it is the countless inscriptions - often verbose in
their attempt to flatter - that preserve names, professions, lists of ephebes,
artists' guilds, dedicators, religious associations, immor talizing the passing
moment and completing the mosaic of our knowledge of a region of the Ro man
world that appears to follow the fortune of a disarmed province. It is the
inscriptions that in form us about the existence of koina - those organizations
that stood between the Roman ad ministration and the local authorities; about
the holding of games called Pythia, Actia, Alexan dreia Olympia; about the
occasional transit of emperors and their armies, and the anchoring of fleets.
And of course, about the preservation in the memory of the Macedonians of the
man who glorified their name to the ends of the inhabited world.
Forgotten in its wilderness, the province of Macedonia strengthened the
fortifications of its cities - often, indeed, demolishing the adjacent
buildings - when, in the middle of the 3rd century, the Carpi, the Goths and
the Heruls reached the Aegean, laying everything waste.
In the twilight of the Roman gods, and of all the other deities of oriental or
Egyptian origins for whom the country had provided fertile ground on which to
establish and disseminate themselves, Christianity offered to Thessaloniki,
Philippoi, and Beroia, resignation, redemption and life beyond death, from as
early as 50 BC, when saint Paul the Apostle of the Nations preached the new
religion. It prepared the ground for the resurrection of the dead and also for
the regeneration of the empire. An empire tossing and turning amidst the
instability of opportunistic government by a host of ambitious contenders for
power, an empire in the chaos of economic decline, threatened with the
breaching of the integrity of its borders by the repeated incursions of
barbarian tribes, and humbled by heavy defeats on the field of battle.
The assumption of power by Diocletian in AD 280 - an event that formed a
landmark in the his tory of the Roman empire and laid the founda tions for a
new era - was of the greatest impor tance for Macedonia, as for the rest of the
em pire, leading as it did to a way out of the crisis.
Diocletian's administrative changes returned Macedonia to her natural
boundaries. Part of the diocese of the Moesia was assigned to the praes es
(ruler), who was responsible to the vicarius (vicar), the supreme governor. The
situation was standardized first as a result of the changes made by Constantine
the Great, according to which Macedonia, along with Thessaly, Epirus Vetus and
Epirus Nova, Achaia and Crete formed the diocese of Macedonia, and then in the
second half of the 4th century AD when the dio cese of Macedonia, Dacia and
Pannonia com bined to form the praefecture of Illyricum, with its capital at
Thessaloniki; there were further changes, however, at the beginning of the 5th
century, with Macedonia divided into "Macedonia Prima" and "Macedonia
Salutaris".
Byzantine period
Macedonia's strategic importance at the crossroads of the major arterial roads
in the Bal kan peninsula meant that during the critical peri od marking the
transition from the late Roman to the Byzantine period it was the object of
bene factions from the royal house, despite the gener al upheavals of the
times. Manifestations of this interest included the transfer of the capital to
Thessaloniki by Galerius Maximian, and the erection there of an imposing
palace; the con struction in the same city of a capacious dock yard by
Constantine the Great (AD 322/323), and the choice of the capital of Macedonia
as the headquarters of Theodosius the Great (AD 379/380) for his campaigns
against the Visigoths and Ostrogoths. The economic prosperity of Macedonia in
the 4th and 5th centuries AD is at tested by the large numbers of quarries
(Thasos, Prilep), furnaces for the smelting of metals, work shops for the
construction of weapons and metal objects, pottery workshops and centers
product ing beads of glass-paste; there is also evidence for the existence of
extensive farms, salt-flats, yarn dyers (Stoboi), the organizing of trade fairs
("Demetria") and the carrying on of a trade in leather. This prosperity was
undoubtedly respon sible for the imposing buildings (whether of a re ligious or
secular character) brought to light in many places by the archaeologist's
spade: basili cas, villas and fortifications.
It was upon this world, a world deeply influ enced by Christianity, a world
that slowly and surely cast off its Roman toga to don the Byzan tine purple, a
world sorely tried by the incursions of the Goths, the Avars, and all the
others who had designs on its wealth and power, that faith in mission of the
"God of mercy" erected the thousand-year empire of the East, to guide and
enlighten the West. It raised the cross of the Res urrection as far afield as
the banks of the Da nube, in castles, in churches adorned with mosaics, and in
bath-houses. Proclaiming the glory of men like Justinian I, the courage of a
Heraklios, the majesty of Constantine VII Porphyrogennitus. In the face of the
Avars and the Slavs, the Bul gars and the Arabs.
As the countryside was depopulated by the repeated barbarian incursions and the
majority of the inhabitants sought refuge and protection in the urban centers,
the cities were transformed into centers of intense commercial and cultural
activity. Ports like those of Thessaloniki and Christoupolis (Kavala), with
their granaries and heavy traffic in sea-faring ships, and also pros perous
cities in the hinterland, such as Herakleia Lynkestis, Bargala, Serrhai and
Philippoi, were adorned with brilliant buildings; their fortifications were
strengthened, and their old urban tissue was abandoned as new programs of urban
development were implemented (to which the destructive earthquakes of the 7th
century made their contribution).
It was at this period, moreover, that the ad ministrative system of
"themes"(districts), al ready tested in areas of Asia Minor exposed to great
danger, was introduced to the European regions of the empire. The
characteristic features of this system were the concentrating in one and the
same person of military and political au thority, and a change in the
composition of the ar my. Macedonia was divided between two "themes" - the
"theme of Thessaloniki" (from the Pindos range to the Strymon river) and the
"theme of Strymon" (the modern counties of Ser rhai, Xanthe and Rhodope), the
latter with its capital at Serrhai.
The integration of the Slavs into Byzantine so ciety (9th century AD), the
result partly of their conversion to Christianity by Cyril and Methodios and
partly of the extension of Byzantine influence to the interior of the Balkans,
had direct conse quences for Macedonia, whose cities benefited from the peace
that now prevailed. Thessaloniki evolved into an important cosmopolitan center
to which flowed merchandise from East and West. Churches were erected at
Kastoria and Beroia and adorned with wall-paintings in which were crystallized
the basic elements of large-scale art after the triumph of Orthodoxy and the
triumph of the icons.
Before 1204, the year in which Constantino ple was captured by the crusaders of
the Fourth Crusade, Macedonia was shaken by the uphea vals and the ravaging and
taking of prisoners at tending successive invasions by the Bulgarians, first
under Symeon (AD 894-927) and then under Samuel (AD 989-1018), and suffered the
humiliation of seeing its capital fall into the hands of Arab pirates (AD 904);
almost three hundred years later, the same city, along with others (Kastoria
and Serrhai) was captured after a siege by the Normans of Sicily (AD 1185).
This is the reason that the 9th and 10th centuries in Macedonia have no great
achievements to show in the sphere of cultural activity. A contributing factor
in this was, of course, the strict centraliza tion that informed the policy of
the Macedonian dynasty. By contrast, the 1 1th and 12th centuries bestowed upon
the north Greek administrative division men of the church and of letters, of
the stature of Theophylact Hephaistos (the famous archbishop of Bulgaria, with
his see at Ochrid), Michael Choumnos (metropolitan of Thessaloniki), and
Eustathios Kataphloros (Metropolitan of Thessaloniki and a famous scholiast on
classical texts). They contributed to a flowering of ecclesiastical
architecture and church painting (Beroia, Edessa, Melenikon, Serrhai, Ayios
Achillios, Thessaloniki, Mount Athos, Nerezi, Kastoria and Ochrid) of such
intensity that these churches formed models for creations in other Balkan lands
and as far afield as Russia and Georgia in the East and Sicily and north ern
Italy in the West. Wall-paintings of the quality of Saint Panteleimon at Nerezi
(1162) - a typical example of Komne nan painting, with its pronounced depiction
of passion and its soft lines in the rendering of bod ies, tall and elegant in
their other-worldly Man nerism - or of the Latomos monastery in Thessa loniki
(2nd half of the 12th century), and of the Anargyroi at Kastoria and Saint
Nikolaos Kasnit zes in the same city (12th century), with their re fined
academic style; these are all undoubtedly points of reference for the artistic
production and achievement of this age, before the empire was dismembered by
the Latins and divided into king doms, baronies, and counties. And, of course,
we should not forget the superb compositions of the portable icons and mural
mosaics.
Frankish period
With the collapse of the Byzantine Empire and its dismemberment by the western
crusad ers (Partitio Romaniae), the whole of Macedonia became subject to the
Frankish kingdom of Thes saloniki, of which Boniface, marquis of Montfer rat
was appointed ruler. Despite the fact that they had prevailed, however, the new
lords had to cope both with rivalries amongst themselves, and with the
expansionist visions of Kalojan, the Bulgarian tzar Ioannitzes, who in 1207,
the year of his death, arrived with his armies before the walls of
Thessaloniki, having first captured Ser rhai and taken prisoner Baldwin,
emperor of Con stantinople.
The situation became increasingly confused as time went on: the Bulgarian state
was con sumed by inter-dynastic quarrels and after the death of Boniface, the
Frankish kingdom of Thes saloniki fell into the hands of guardians of mi nors:
the new despot of the so-called "Despotate" of Epirus, the ambitious Theodore
Komnenos Doukas An gelos (121 5-1230), brother of the founder of the state,
Michael II Komnenos Dou kas Angelos, systematically extended his pos sessions
from Skodra in Illyria to Naupaktos (Le panto) and, by steadily advancing his
armies, succeeded in capturing the bride of the Therma ic gulf and dissolving
the second largest Latin bastion in the Balkans (1224). He was defeated,
however, by the Bulgarian tzar lvan Asen II in 1230, at the battle of
Klokotnitsa, as a result of which his kingdom contracted to the area around
Thessaloniki and shortly afterwards became subject to the rising power of the
period, the em pire of Nicaea. In December
Zeek
Boris Docevski wrote in message <362717C3...@earthlink.net>...
>doesn't belong in alt.news.macedonia
Agamemnon
Boris Docevski wrote in message <362717C3...@earthlink.net>...
>doesn't belong in alt.news.macedonia
>
Since anm is a GREEK news group as testified by the Greek name Macedonia
this post does belong here.
Karpo
>
>In article <705te1$sh8$1...@ns1.otenet.gr>,
> "Zeek" <can...@mail.otenet.gr> wrote:
>> Quit spamming!
>If the cap fits wear it! ROMS (ROMAIOI) are the greatest spammers around!
Call me easily influenced but Boris showed me the way.
Boris taught me how to spam. Mindless I know but then
who isn't.
Should I be doing this in caps lock to appear angry with BORIS.
>
>-----------== Posted via Deja News, The Discussion Network ==----------
>http://www.dejanews.com/ Search, Read, Discuss, or Start Your Own
Zeek
Just write as you usually would.
Boris can cap lock all (s)he wants wants.
It is not anger, but instead frustration with the fact that Boris must come
to terms with his(er) Slavic heritage.
Karpo wrote in message <706p8c$pmp$1...@news.cowan.edu.au>...