Letter to Archaeology Magazine
Agamemnon
January 22, 2009
Editor, Archaeology Magazine
36-36 33rd Street
Long Island City, NY 11106
U.S.A.
Dear Sir,
I opened the January/February issue of Archaeology today and
eagerly turned to "A Letter from Macedonia" only to discover that it was
actually a letter from ancient Paionia - the land north of Mt. Barmous and
Mt. Orbelos. Livy's account of the creation of the Roman province of
Macedonia (45.29.7 and 12) makes clear that the Paionians lived north of
those mountains (which form today the geographically natural northern limits
of Greece) and south of the Dardanians who were in today's Kosovo. Strabo
(7. frag 4) is even more succinct in saying that Paionia was north of
Macedonia and the only connection from one to the other was (and is today)
through the narrow gorge of the Axios (or Vardar) River. In other words,
the land which is described by Matthew Brunwasser in his "Owning Alexander"
was Paionia in antiquity.
While it is true that those people were subdued by Philip II,
father of Alexander, in 359 B.C. (Diodorus Siculus 16.4.2), they were never
Macedonians and never lived in Macedonia. Indeed, Demosthenes (Olynthian
1.23) tells us that they were "enslaved" by the Macedonian Philip and
clearly, therefore, not Macedonians. Isokrates (5.23) makes the same point.
Likewise, for example, the Egyptians who were subdued by Alexander may have
been ruled by Macedonians, including the famous Cleopatra, but they were
never Macedonians themselves, and Egypt was never called Macedonia (and so
far as I can tell does not seek that name today).
Certainly, as Thucydides (2.99) tells us, the Macedonians had
taken over "a narrow strip of Paionia extending along the Axios river from
the interior to Pella and the sea". One might therefore understand if the
people in the modern republic centered at Skopje called themselves Paionians
and claimed as theirs the land described by Thucydides.
But why, instead, would the modern people of ancient Paionia try
to call themselves Macedonians and their land Macedonia? Mr. Brunwasser (p.
55) touches on the Greek claims "that it implies ambitions over Greek
territory" and he notes that "the northern province of Greece is also called
Macedonia." Leaving aside the fact that the area of that northern province
of modern Greece has been called Macedonia for more than 2,500 years (see,
inter alios, Herodotus 5.17; 7.128, et alibi), more recent history shows
that the Greek concerns are legitimate. For example, a map produced in
Skopje in 1992 (Figure 1) shows clearly the claim that Macedonia extends
from there to Mt. Olympus in the south; that is, combining the ancient
regions of Paionia and Macedonia into a single entity. The same claim is
explicit on a pseudo-bank note of the Republic of Macedonia which shows, as
one of its monuments, the White Tower of Thessalonike, in Greece (Figure 2).
There are many more examples of calendars, Christmas cards, bumper-stickers,
etc., that all make the same claim.
Further, Mr. Brunwasser has reported with approval
(International Herald Tribune 10/1/08) the work of the "Macedonian Institute
for Strategic Research 16:9", the name of which refers "to Acts 16:9, a
verse in the New Testament in which a Macedonian man appears to the Apostle
Paul begging him: 'Come over into Macedonia, and help us.'" But where did
Paul go in Macedonia? Neapolis (Kavala), Philippi, Amphipolis, Apollonia,
Thessaloniki, and Veroia (Acts 16:11-17:10) all of which are in the historic
Macedonia, none in Paionia. What claim is being made by an Institute based
in Skopje that names itself for a trip through what was Macedonia in
antiquity and what is the northern province of Greece today?
I wonder what we would conclude if a certain large island off
the southeast coast of the United States started to call itself Florida, and
emblazoned its currency with images of Disney World and distributed maps
showing the Greater Florida.
Certainly there was no doubt of the underlying point of
"Macedonia" in the mind of U.S. Secretary of State Edward Stettinius on
December 26, 1944, when he wrote:
"The Department [of State] has noted with considerable apprehension
increasing propaganda rumors and semi-official statements in favor of an
autonomous Macedonia, emanating principally from Bulgaria, but also from
Yugoslav Partisan and other sources, with the implication that Greek
territory would be included in the projected state. This government
considers talk of Macedonian "nation", Macedonian "Fatherland", or
Macedonian "national consciousness" to be unjustified demagoguery
representing no ethnic nor political reality, and sees in its present
revival a possible cloak for aggressive intentions against Greece."
[Source: U.S. State Department, Foreign Relations
vol viii, Washington, D.C.,
Circular Airgram (868.014/26Dec1944)]
Mr. Brunwasser (a resident of Bulgaria), however, goes on to
state, with apparent distain, that Greece claims "Alexander III of Macedon
(Alexander the Great) . . . as Greek."
This attitude mystifies me. What is there to "claim"?
Alexander's great-great-great grandfather, Alexander I, was certified as
Greek at Olympia and, in the words of the father of history "I happen to
know that [the forefathers of Alexander] are Greek" (Herodotus 5.22).
Alexander's father, Philip, won several equestrian victories at Olympia and
Delphi (Plutarch, Alexander 4.9; Moralia 105A), the two most Hellenic of all
the sanctuaries in ancient Greece where non-Greeks were not allowed to
compete. If Philip was Greek, wasn't his son also Greek?
When Euripides - who died and was buried in Macedonia
(Thucydides apud Pal. Anth. 7.45; Pausanias 1.2.2; Diodorus Siculus
13.103) - wrote his play Archelaos in honor of the great-uncle of Alexander,
did he write it in Slavic? When he wrote the Bacchai while at the court of
Archelaos did he not write it in Greek even as it has survived to us? Or
should we imagine that Euripides was a "Macedonian" who wrote in Slavic (at
a date when that language is not attested) which was translated into Greek?
What was the language of instruction when Aristotle taught
Alexander? What language was carried by Alexander with him on his
expedition to the East? Why do we have ancient inscriptions in Greek in
settlements established by Alexander as far away as Afghanistan, and none in
Slavic? Why did Greek become the lingua franca in Alexander's empire if he
was actually a "Macedonian"? Why was the New Testament written in Greek
rather than Slavic?
On page 57 of the so-called "Letter from Macedonia" there is a
photograph of the author standing "before a bronze statue of Alexander the
Great in the city of Prilep." The statue is patently modern, but the
question is whether the real historic Alexander could have read the Slavic
inscription beneath his feet. Given the known historic posterity of Slavic
to Greek, the answer is obvious.
While Mr. Brunwasser's reporting of the archaeological work in
Paionia is welcome, his adoption and promotion of the modern political
stance of its people about the use of the name Macedonia is not only
unwelcome, it is a disservice to the readers of Archaeology who are, I
imagine, interested in historic fact. But then, the decision to propagate
this historical nonsense by Archaeology - a publication of the
Archaeological Institute of America - is a disservice to its own reputation.
Let it be said once more: the region of ancient Paionia was a
part of the Macedonian empire. So were Ephesos and Tyre and Palestine and
Memphis and Babylon and Taxila and dozens more. They may thus have become
"Macedonian" temporarily, but none was ever "Macedonia".
Allow me to end this exegesis by making a suggestion to resolve
the question of the modern use of the name "Macedonia." Greece should annex
Paionia - that is what Philip II did in 359 B.C. And that would appear to
be acceptable to the modern residents of that area since they claim to be
Greek by appropriating the name Macedonia and its most famous man. Then the
modern people of this new Greek province could work on learning to speak and
read and write Greek, hopefully even as well as Alexander did.
Sincerely,
Stephen G. Miller
Professor Emeritus,
University of California,
Berkeley
PS: For a more complete examination of the ancient evidence regarding
Paionia, see I. L. Merker, "The Ancient Kingdom of Paionia," Balkan Studies
6 (1965) 35-54
cc: C. Brian Rose, President, Archaeological Institute of America
Hillary Rodham Clinton, Secretary of State of the United States of
America
Dora Bakoyiannis, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Greece
Antonis Samaras, Minister of Culture of Greece
Olli Rehn, European Commissioner for Enlargement
Erik Meijer, Member, European Parliament