I have a grandma who lives close to me, and says she has lived in 5 different countries: Turkey, Bulgaria, Serbia, Yugoslavia, and R. Macedonia. She has never moved her house...But, she has ALWAYS called herself Macedonian.
So have the Greeks living in the area, so have the Turks, so have the Bulgarians, so have the Serbians. I live in Sydney and refer to myself as a Sydney-ite. That does not mean there is an ethnicity called Sydney-ite, it is merely a geographic reference.
People who have lived here have always thought of themselves by the land they live, no matter who the ruling party is or was. It is not an identity crisis, it is not a crime. It is a final and needed chance to claim who they have always been, despite the last 100 years of political propoganda on all sides to distort and twist this identity into something unknown.
You start out with the geographic reference, but it becomes clear that you wish it to be an ethnic reference which it never was, not even for the Ancient Macedonians who were as Greek as the Ancient Spartans or the Ancient Athenians.
However, based on your convenient quotes of one perspective of history, I offer another, much based on the ancient orators and historians themselves. They have a much different view, and who is to say they didn't know thier own time better than modern historians do:
or rather your out of context interpretation of their views.
Not according to the Greek statesmen at the time:
Demosthenes, the great Greek statesman and orator, spoke of Philip II as:
"... not only no Greek, nor related to the Greeks, but not even a barbarian from any place that can be named with honors, but a pestilent knave from Macedonia, whence it was never yet possible to buy a decent slave." [Third Philippic, 31]
The Macedonian "barbarian" defeated Greece at the battle of Chaeronea in August 338 BC and appointed himself "Commander of the Greeks".
There is another oration made by Demosthenes titled "Against Aristogeiton". In this oration Demosthenes calls another opponent of his,the Athenian orator , Aristagoras, a barbarian.[II. 26.17]
Another Athenian orator, Aeschines ( 389314 BC), was also an adversary of Demosthenes.In his oration "On the Embassy" [2 183]he calls Demosthenes himself a barbarian!(fortune cast my lot with a slanderer, a barbarian, who cared not for sacrifices nor libations nor the breaking of bread together)
Stratonicus of Athens, was a distinguished musician of the time of Alexander the Great (336323 BC).He called the Eleans (Greeks who lived in the area of Olympia in the Pelopponese) barbarians:
And when he was asked again, according to the account given by Hegesander, which were the greatest barbarians, the Boeotians or the Thessalians, Stratonicus said, The Eleans.
References
Athenaeus,Deipnosophistae VIII 350a
James A. Towle, Commentary on Plato: Protagoras 341c.
Sophie Minon, Les Inscriptions Éléennes Dialectale - Reviewed by Stephen Colvin
Notice in the previous example of even a hint of calling the Thessalians barbarians by Hegesander(an Athenian tragic actor for Euripides)
The AEOLIANS (Greeks who lived in Boeotia (a region in Central Greece), and in Lesbos (an island close to Asia Minor) and in other Greek colonies.
In Protagoras (dialogue) 341c of Plato, Prodicus (465 BC - 415 BC) a Greek philosopher) labelled the Aeolic dialect as barbarian:
He didn't know to distinguish the words correctly, being from Lesbos, and having been raised with a barbarian dialect
References
Athenaeus,Deipnosophistae VIII 350a
James A. Towle, Commentary on Plato: Protagoras 341c.
Sophie Minon, Les Inscriptions Éléennes Dialectale - Reviewed by Stephen Colvin
The EPIROTES
(Greeks living in the Northwestern mainland):
Alexander's mother was from Epirus.The Epirotes though Greek-speaking seem to have been regarded with some disdain by the Athenians.The 5th century BC Athenian historian Thucydides describes them as "barbarians" due to the fact they allied themselves with the Spartans during the Peloponnesian War.Greek and Roman writers such as Apollodorus, Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Frontinus, Pausanias, Ptolemy, Cassius Dio and Eutropius, describe them as Greeks.
References:
The term barbaros, "A Greek-English Lexicon" (Liddell & Scott), at Perseus
Apollodorus, TheLibrary, 3.7.6-3.7.7 at Theoi Project
Dionysius of Halicarnassus,Roman Antiquities, Book XX, 10 (19.11) at LacusCurtius
Frontinus, Stratagems, Book II, V. On ambushes, 10, 19 at LacusCurtius
Pausanias, Description of Greece, 1.11.7-1.12.2 (Jones translation) at Theoi Project
Ptolemy, The Geography, Epirus: "Greece starts at Oricus and the most ancient part of Greece is Epirus."
So by your interpretation we must conclude that:
Aristogeiton is not Greek because Demosthenes called him a barbarian;
Demosthenes is not Greek because Aeschines caled him a barbarian;
The Eleans are not Greek because Stratonicus called them barbarians;
The Thessalians are not Greek because Hegesander called them barbarians;
The Aeoleans are not Greek because Prodicus called them barbarians;
The Epirotes are not Greek because Thucydides called them barbarians;
The question of the use of the ancient Macedonian language was raised by Alexander himself during the trial of Philotas, one of his generals accused of treason. This is what Alexander has said to Philotas:
"The Macedonians are about to pass judgement upon you; I wish to know weather you will use their native tongue in addressing them." Philotas replied: "Besides the Macedonians there are many present who, I think, will more easily understand what I shell say if I use the same language which you have employed." Than said the king: "Do you not see how Philotas loathes even the language of his fatherland? For he alone disdains to learn it. But let him by all means speak in whatever way he desires, provided that you remember that he holds out customs in as much abhorrence as our language" (Curtius).
--Quintus Curtius Rufus
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Roman Historian[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]The History of Alexander - Penguin Classics[/FONT]
Every region of Greece had its own dialect. Even today there are several dialects in use across Greece while the core of the language combines elements of Attic, Doric, Aeolic and other dialects in both its vocabulary and grammar. The thing I find strangest about your arguments, however, is that while you go on about your right to self identify as Macedonians, you deny Alexander the Great the same right to self identify as Greek. Just one example among several:
"I am myself a Greek by ancient descent."
Alexander I of Macedonia,in Herodotos' book Kalliopi,IX,45.
Want more evidence?? The local museum here has coins, tablets, and other writings from the period whose written language was definately NOT ancient Greek unearthed from the area near where I live. I'll take pictures and upload them.
Please do, I'd love to see them.
John
