General outline of the country.1875

1. In the Thermaic bay, the modern gulf of Salonichi, three rivers of considerable size fall into the sea at very short distances from one another, but which meet in this place in very different directions. The largest of the three comes from the north-west, and is now called (as indeed it was in the time of Tzetzes and Anna Comnena) the Bardares (or Vardar), and was in ancient days celebrated under the name of Axius. Its stream is increased by large tributary branches on both sides, and chiefly by the Erigon, which flows from the mountains of Illyria.1876 The river next in order runs from the west; it is now called in the interior of the country Potova, and on the coast Carasmac: its ancient name, as is evident from passages in Herodotus and Strabo, was Lydias, or Ludias.1877 And, lastly, after many turnings and windings, [pg 452] the Haliacmon, now called Bichlista, flows from the south-west; in the time of Herodotus it fell into the sea through the same mouth as the Lydias, probably being widened by marshes; and in modern maps the interval between the two rivers is represented as very small.1878 It may be easily conceived that this whole maritime district must have been low and marshy; and by this means Pella, as Livy remarks, was of all towns in the country best fitted for being the fortress of the Macedonian kings, and the place of deposit for their treasure, since it lay, like an island, in the morasses and swamps formed by the neighbouring lakes and rivers. These marshes were called by the expressive name of βόρβορος, or mud.1879

2. Although the mouths of these rivers were so near together, the extent of mountains, valleys, and plains which they encompassed in their course was very considerable, amounting, according to modern maps, to 140 geographical miles from north and south, and more than 60 from east to west. The Axius, together with its minor branches, runs from the great Scardian chain, which further on receives the names of Orbelus, Scomius, and Hæmus; while the course of the Haliacmon is close to the heights of mount Olympus (part of which ridge in later times was called the Cambunian mountains), and therefore to the borders of Thessaly. Both ridges run at right angles from the great mountain-chain which cuts the upper part of Greece in a direction from north-west to south-east, its southern parts bearing the name of Pindus, the ridge towards Thessaly and Epirus of Lacmon,1880 and further to the north-west it is called [pg 453] the Candavian chain1881 and mount Barnus.1882 It stretches behind the whole of the district just named, and forms, as it were, the spine, to which the mountains of Illyria, Epirus, Macedonia, and Thessaly are attached like ribs. From this chain the two lines of mountains proceed, which separate the valleys of the Haliacmon and the Axius. The name of the ridge between the Haliacmon and the Lydias is known by the mention of mount Bermius above Berœa;1883 and Berœa is certainly the modern Veria, or Cara Veria,1884 near the northern bank of the Haliacmon. It will be shown presently that Dysorum was the name of the mountain which divided the Lydias and the Axius.1885 And the ridge, which, stretching southward from the Scardian chain, parted the valley of the Axius from the plains to the east, was called (in one point at least), as we know from Thucydides'1886 account of the Odrysian king's march, Cercine.

3. The valleys beyond the last-mentioned ridge are those of the Strymon and the Angites. As the Axius falls into the sea in a gulf to the west, so does the Strymon join the sea to the east of the Chalcidian peninsula. Not far from its mouth the Strymon forms a lake, into which the Angites runs; a stream of considerable size, its course lying westward of the Strymon. For that the eastern stream is the ancient Strymon (notwithstanding the opinion of most modern geographers) is, in the first place, evident from its size; secondly, from the name Struma, which it now bears; and, thirdly, from the statement of Herodotus,1887 that the district of Phyllis reached southwards to the Strymon, and westward to the Angites; it lay, therefore, above the confluence [pg 454] of the two rivers and the lake which they formed by their junction. The ridge which lies to the east of the Strymon was called, at least where it widens along the coast, Pangæum.1888

Thus much is sufficient to give a general notion of the geographical structure of the region, the ancient inhabitants of which form the subject of the present inquiry.

Ancient names of the several districts.

4. We will now chiefly follow the full and accurate accounts of Herodotus respecting the districts situated near the mouths of the three rivers just mentioned. First, Mygdonia, on the Thermaic bay, and round the ancient city of Therma, extended, according to Herodotus, to the Axius, which divided this district from Bottiaïs;1889 and it agrees with this statement that the small river Echeidorus (probably the modern Gallico), which fell into the sea at the marshes near the Axius, in the lower part of its course passed through Mygdonia.1890 To the east this district extended still further; lake Bolbe, beyond Chalcidice, was either in or near Mygdonia.1891 Thucydides, indeed, makes Mygdonia reach as far as the Strymon;1892 but this cannot be reconciled with the account of Herodotus (who appears to have possessed a very accurate knowledge of this region), that both the maritime district, west from the Strymon, in which was the Greek city of Argilus, and the land further to the interior, was called Bisaltia.1893 On the other side, above Mygdonia, was situated (according to Herodotus) the district of Crestonica, from which the river Echeidorus flowed down to the coast.1894

5. Beyond the Axius, to the west of the stream, immediately after Mygdonia, came Bottiais, which district was on the other side bounded by the united mouth of the Haliacmon and the Lydias;1895 and thus towards the sea it terminated in a narrow wedge-shaped strip. On this tongue of land were the cities of Ichnæ and Pella,1896 the first of which was celebrated for an ancient temple;1897 while Pella became afterwards the royal residence, situated on the lake of the Lydias, at the distance of 120 stadia from the river's mouth,1898 and may now be recognised by these marks of its position and some ruins. According to Strabo,1899 also, the river Axius made the boundary of Bottiæa, and divided it from the district of Amphaxitis, which was the name of the opposite and more elevated side of the Axius.1900 Thucydides also calls this tract of country Bottiæa;1901 and distinguishes it from the more recent settlements of the Bottiæans, near Olynthus, in Chalcidice,1902 which he calls Bottica.1903

6. The united mouth of the Lydias and Haliacmon, according to Herodotus,1904 divided Bottiaïs from Macedonis; for he can only mean this common mouth when he says that “the rivers Lydias and Haliacmon divide the districts [pg 456] of Bottiaïs and Macedonis, uniting their waters in the same channel.” Further on in the interior the Lydias alone must have been the boundary of Bottiaïs, since otherwise this district would not end in a narrow strip of land; Macedonis, therefore, began on the western bank of the Lydias. In this place nothing more can be said as to the meaning of the word Macedonis, before the precise signification of some other names has been determined.

7. Proceeding along the coast, Pieria borders upon Macedonis, the district under Mount Olympus,1905 which ridge, where it approaches this coast, splits into two branches, the one stretching towards the mouth of the Peneus, the other towards those of the three rivers. Herodotus cannot make Pieria reach as far as the Haliacmon,1906 as they are here separated by Macedonis Proper;1907 he probably supposes it to begin just at the rise of mount Olympus, and divides the narrow plain on the sea-coast from the tracts to the interior. The southern boundary of Pieria is stated by Strabo1908 and Livy1909 to have been the district of Dium;1910 so that these writers leave a narrow and mountainous strip of land, stretching towards Tempe, which belonged neither to Pieria nor Thessaly. The chief place in Pieria was Pydna, also called Cydna (according to Stephanus Byz.), and in later times Citron (according to the epitomizer of Strabo),1911 which name still remains in the same place.

8. Now that we proceed from the divisions of the coast to the interior, we are deserted, indeed, by the excellent account of Herodotus; but there are nevertheless statements [pg 457] sufficiently accurate to determine the ancient name of each district. The high and mountainous valley of the Haliacmon was, according to Livy,1912 called Elimeia; the inhabitants Elimiots, who are included by Thucydides1913 among the Macedonians: the district is also called after their name Elimiotis.1914 From thence proceeds the road to Thessaly over the Cambunian mountains;1915 and another almost impracticable road to Ætolia over the mountainous country to the south of Elimeia.1916 To Elimeia succeeded Parauæa, a fertile district, near the sources of the river called Aous, Æas, or Auus;1917 and to the south again lay Paroræa, which was crossed by the river Arachthus at the beginning of its course from under mount Stympha:1918 the country near this mountain was called Stymphæa (or Tymphæa), extending to the sources of the Peneus and the land of the Æthicians.1919 The Atintanians reached beyond the country of the Parauæans, and within that of the Chaonians as far as Illyria.1920 All these districts are indeed divided from Elimeia by the great chain of Pindus; but, from their connexion with that region, some account of them in this place was indispensable.

9. A small valley in the district of Elimeia, which lay to [pg 458] the north towards the Illyrian Dassaretians,1921 was inhabited by the Orestian Macedonians,1922 who doubtless were so called from the mountains (ὄρη) in which they dwelt, and not from Orestes, the son of Agamemnon. The valley of Orestis1923 contained a lake, in which was the town Celetrum, situated on a peninsula.1924 Its position coincides with that of the modern Castoria;1925 and it cannot be doubted that the wild mountain-valley near the source of the Haliacmon was the ancient Orestis. Another valley in Elimeia was called Almopia, or Almonia, an ancient settlement of the Minyans, situated on the confines of Macedonia and Thessaly, apparently not far from Pieria.1926

10. Elimeia, together with the surrounding highlands, was cold and rugged, and difficult of cultivation.1927 The same was the case with the neighbouring district of Lyncestis, the country of the Lyncestæ, who had received their name, according to a Macedonian inflexion,1928 from Lyncus.1929 Lyncus was the name of the whole district, and not of any one city, as in early times there were only unfortified villages [pg 459] in this part.1930 It was surrounded on all sides by mountains; a narrow pass between two heights being the chief road to the coast.1931 The position of Lyncus is accurately determined by the course of the Egnatian Roman road from Dyrrachium, which, after crossing the Illyrian mountains at Pylon (or the gateway), led by Heraclea Lyncestis, and through the country of the Lyncestæ and Eordians, to Edessa and Pella;1932 as well as by the fact that the mons Bora of Livy, i.e. the Bermius, lay to the south of it.1933 Consequently the Lyncestæ must have inhabited the mountains south of the Erigon, and a part of the valley in which that river flowed; which is confirmed by other accounts of ancient writers.1934 The country of the Eordians is also determined by the direction of the Egnatian way; viz., to the east of Lyncus and west of Edessa, and therefore in the valley of the Lydias, to the north of Elimea1935 and the Bermius.1936 In order to go from the valley of the Erigon to Thessaly, the way passed first through Eordæa and then through Elimiotis.1937

11. Deuriopus (ἡ Δευρίοπος) was the name of a tract of country along the Erigon,1938 which was considered as belonging to Pæonia,1939 and probably lay to the east of Lyncestis [pg 460] and north of Eordæa.1940 In Pæonia also was situated the rugged district of Pelagonia, to the north of Lyncestis,1941 having on its northern frontiers narrow passes, which protected it from the incursions of the Dardanians.1942 As to other parts of the extensive territory of Pæonia (in comparison with which Macedonia was originally very inconsiderable in size), it is only necessary to observe, that, beginning near the source of the Axius, the banks of which river had from early times been occupied by Pæonian tribes, a narrow strip of land extended down to Pella and the coast;1943 though, according to Herodotus, it could not have actually reached the edge of the sea, as the frontiers of Bottiaïs and Mygdonia at this point came into contact with one another.1944 Immediately to the north of Lower Macedonia, i.e., to the north of Macedonian Pæonia, Bottiaïs, and Mygdonia, but without the confines of these provinces, was situated, as we learn from Thucydides,1945 the Pæonian city of Doberus.1946 The king of the Odrysians arrived, according to the same writer,1947 at this place after having come from his dominions, which were bounded by the Strymon, over mount Cercine; in which passage he left the Pæonians to the right, and to the left the Sintes and Mædi (Thracian races, supposed by Gatterer to have penetrated hither when the Siropæonians and others crossed over to Asia).1948 From which notices I have ventured to set down the mountain, the city, and nations just mentioned, as may be seen in the accompanying map.1949

“Accordingly, the subjects of Sitalces mustered at Doberus, and prepared for a descent into Lower Macedonia, which country was under the rule of Perdiccas. For to the Macedonians belong1950 the Lyncestæ and the Elimiots, and other nations in the upper parts of the country, which are the allies and subjects1951 of these Macedonians,1952 but have nevertheless princes of their own. The present kingdom of Macedonia, extending along the sea,1953 was first occupied by Alexander the father of Perdiccas, and his ancestors of the family of Temenus, who came originally from Argos; and ruled over it, having by force of arms expelled the Pierians from Pieria,1954 and the Bottiæans from the district called Bottiæa. They also obtained in Pæonia a narrow tongue of land, extending along the river Axius down to Pella and the sea: and on the further side of the Axius they possess the district called Mygdonia, as far as the Strymon, of which they dispossessed the Edones. They also dislodged the Eordians from the country still called Eordia, and from Almopia the Almopians. These Macedonians also subdued those other nations which they now possess; viz., Anthemus, together with Crestonia and Bisaltia, and a large part of the Macedonians themselves. The whole of this country together is called Macedonia; and Perdiccas, [pg 462] the son of Alexander, was king of it when Sitalces made his invasion.”

In the first place, it is plain that the Macedonians, who made the conquest, and founded the kingdom of Macedon, were not the whole Macedonian nation, but only a part of it. There were in the mountainous districts Macedonian tribes, which had their own kings, and originally were not subject to the Temenidæ. These are the Macedonian highlanders of Herodotus,1955 from whose district the road passed over mount Olympus (the Cambunian chain) into the country of the Perrhæbians;1956 and it began, as has been already remarked, in Elimeia.1957 The Elimiots were, according to Thucydides, one portion of these Macedonians, the Lyncestæ another; both which appellations were merely local, and the full title was “the Macedonians in Lyncus,” or “the Macedonian Lyncestæ.”1958 Of the remaining Macedonian nations in the mountain-districts we only know the name of the Orestæ;1959 at least there are no others who can with any certainty be considered as Macedonians.

14. The name of Macedonia was not therefore, as some have supposed, confined to the royal dynasty of Edessa, but was a national appellation; so much so, that it is even stated that those very kings subdued, among other nations, a large portion of the Macedonians. The tribes of Upper Macedonia were long governed by their own princes; thus Antiochus was king of the Orestæ at the beginning of the Peloponnesian war;1960 the Lyncestæ were under the rule of Arrhibæus, the son of Bromerus,1961 the great grandfather, by the mother's side, of Philip of Macedon, who derived [pg 463] his descent (not altogether without probability) from the Bacchiadæ, the ancient rulers of Corinth;1962 and these kings, though properly recognising the supremacy of the Temenidæ, were nevertheless at times their nearest, and therefore most dangerous, enemies.1963

15. The Macedonian kingdom of the Temenidæ, on the other hand, began from a single point of the Macedonian territory, concerning the position of which there are various traditions. According to Herodotus, three brothers of the family of Temenus, Gauanes, Aëropus, and Perdiccas, fled from Argos to Illyria, from thence passed on to Lebæa in Upper Macedonia, and served the king of the country (who was therefore a Macedonian) as shepherds. From this place they again fled, and dwelt in another part of Macedonia, near the gardens of Midas, in mount Bermius (near Berœa), from which place they subdued the neighbouring country.1964 Thucydides so far recognises this tradition, that he likewise considers Perdiccas as the founder of the kingdom, reckoning eight kings down to Archelaus.1965 The other account, however, that there were three kings before Perdiccas, is unquestionably not the mere invention of later historians, but was derived, as well as the other, from some local tradition. According to this account the Macedonian kingdom began at Edessa,1966 which had been taken by Caranus, of the family of the Temenidæ, and by him named after a goatherd, who rendered him assistance, Ægæ (or Ægeæ).1967 Both narrations have equally a traditional character, and were doubtless of Macedonian origin, only that the latter appears to have been combined with an Argive [pg 464] legend of a brother of the powerful Phido having gone to the north. The claim of Edessa is also confirmed by the fact, that, even when it had long ceased to be the royal residence, it still continued the burial-place of the kings of Temenus' race, and, as Diodorus says, the hearth of their empire.1968

16. Edessa and the gardens of Midas were both situated between the Lydias and the Haliacmon, in the original and proper country of Macedonia, according to the account of Herodotus.1969 The manner in which the dominions of the Temenidæ were extended along the sea-coast, and towards the interior, we learn from Thucydides, who comprises in one general view all the conquests of these princes until the reign of Alexander. For to suppose that Alexander, the son of Amyntas, made all these conquests, is an error which is even refuted by the words of Thucydides; although it is very possible that this prince, who began his reign about 488 B.C., at the time of the Persian power, and was the brother-in-law of a Persian general,1970 added considerably to the territory which he had inherited.1971 But when Xerxes undertook his great expedition against Greece, the power of Macedon was as great as it is described by Thucydides; nor was its territory much enlarged during the interval between the Persian and Peloponnesian wars.1972 For at the time of the Persian war (481 B.C.) the Pierians were already settled in New Pieria, especially in the fortified towns of Phagres and Pergamus, at the foot of mount Pangæum,1973 whither they retired, after having been driven out of Old [pg 465] Pieria by the Macedonian kings;1974 in fact, this extension of the territory of Macedon must have taken place at an early period.1975 Moreover, Olynthus was, according to Herodotus,1976 at least before 480 B.C., in the hands of the Bottiæans, who had, as we learn from both Herodotus and Thucydides, expelled the Macedonians from the ancient Bottiaïs; consequently this district had been under the rule of the Macedonians before the expedition of Xerxes. Thirdly, Amyntas the Macedonian, in 510 B.C., offered Anthemus in Chalcidice to the Pisistratidæ;1977 the same argument therefore applies in this case also. Anthemus, however, could hardly have been obtained without Mygdonia: and that this district was then a part of the Macedonian dominions is probable also from the following reasons.1978 According to Thucydides, the Macedonians drove out the nation of the Edonians1979 from Mygdonia, between the rivers Axius and Strymon; and accordingly we find the Edonians always mentioned as dwelling to the east of the Strymon, at the foot of mount Pangæum. Now Ennea Hodoi, situated on the eastern bank of the Strymon, was, according to Herodotus,1980 in the possession of the Edonians in the year 481 B.C.; and Myrcinus, in the same region, was found by Histiæus, when he visited it, to be an Edonian district,1981 as it was at a later period by Brasidas.1982 The latter argument is not indeed of itself decisive, as it might be said that the Edonians were [pg 466] only driven together by the conquests of the Macedonians, and had previously been in possession of the further side of the Strymon; but when combined with the former facts, it offers an almost certain proof that the whole country, from lake Bolbè to within a short distance from the Peneus, was subject to the Macedonians before the expedition of Xerxes.1983 Methone1984 was on this coast the only interruption to the series of Macedonian possessions; this Eretrian colony had been, about 746 B.C.,1985 together with the numerous Eubœan settlements in Chalcidice,1986 at a period when the power of the Macedonians on this line of coast was very insignificant; and it preserved its independence until the reign of Philip the son of Amyntas.1987

17. From the facts now ascertained, we may deduce a result of some importance with regard to the language of Herodotus. This historian clearly and precisely distinguishes between Bottiaïs and Macedonia in the time of Xerxes,1988 although it is certain that Bottiaïs was then in the power of the Macedonians;1989 Macedonia he classes as a district with Bottiaïs, Mygdonia, and Pieria. He uses the word, therefore, not in a political, but in a national sense; i.e., he restricts it to the territory originally possessed by the Macedonian nation, not applying it to countries which had been obtained by conquest or political preponderance. The Macedonia of Herodotus is consequently the territory of the Macedonians before all the conquests of the Temenidæ. It extended, according to Herodotus, in a narrow tongue down to the sea;1990 a fact disregarded by Thucydides, when [pg 467] he states that the coast of Lower Macedonia was first reduced by the Temenidæ.1991 Further from the sea, however, the ancient Macedonia had a much wider extent, and included the districts of Edessa and Berœa, Lyncestis, Orestis, and Elimeia: for Macedonia is stated by Herodotus to have been on the one side bounded by mount Olympus (which ridge, where it borders on Pieria,1992 was called the Macedonian mountains),1993 and on the other by mount Dysorum. This last fact is evident from the statement of the same writer, that a very short way led from the Prasian lake to Macedonia, passing first to the mine from which Alexander obtained an immense supply of precious metal; and then, that having crossed mount Dysorum, you were in Macedonia;1994 i.e., evidently in the original Macedonia, since he expressly excludes from it the mine which had been a subsequent accession. The Prasian lake was in Pæonia;1995 but in what district of it is not known;1996 mount Dysorum, however, can only be looked for to the north of Edessa and to the west of the Axius, Macedonia Proper not extending so far as that river. In this manner it is placed in the accompanying map; in which also the ancient boundaries of the Macedonian race are laid down according to the results obtained by these researches.

18. On the other conquests of the Macedonians little need be said. The occupation of Bisaltia and Crestonica was subsequent to the expedition of Xerxes. The Thracian king of these districts fled away,1997 and left his kingdom a prey to the ambition of Alexander, who thus extended his empire to the mouth of the Strymon, which was the boundary of Macedonia in the days of Thucydides and of Scylax, and remained so until the time of Philip. At what time the Macedonian kings reduced that part of Pæonia which stretched along the Axius, Eordæa, Almopia, and a large part of the Macedonians themselves, we are nowhere informed; [pg 468] and to infer from Thucydides that these conquests succeeded that of Mygdonia and preceded that of Anthemus, would be laying too much weight upon the order in which he arranges the events; in which, although he doubtless paid some regard to chronology, the context required that the conquests on the coast should be mentioned before those of the interior. Eordæa was probably subjugated at a very early period, since it lay, as it were, in a bay of the Macedonian territory; and a very credible tradition has been preserved by Dexippus,1998 that Caranus had in early times made an alliance with the Orestæ against the Eordians, and founded his kingdom by the subjugation of that nation. In fact, the first nation with whom the king of Edessa had to contend was these Eordians. They were, according to Thucydides, nearly annihilated by a war of extermination; a small number of them escaped to Physca in Mygdonia;1999 which district therefore was not as yet under the power of the Macedonians.

19. Among those parts of Macedonia Proper which were reduced by the Temenidæ, Elimeia may be particularly mentioned, as is evident from the following circumstances. Perdiccas, the son of Alexander, was at war with his brother Philip, with whom he was to have divided his kingdom,2000 and also with Derdas.2001 The brothers of Derdas, before the beginning of the Peloponnesian war, in alliance with the Athenians, made a descent from the highlands, that is, from one of the districts Elimeia, Orestis, or Lyncus, into the dominions of Perdiccas.2002 Now Derdas2003 was the son of Arrhibæus, and cousin of Perdiccas; and it is plain that the Temenidæ reduced Elimeia; and a branch of the same family received this district as their peculiar possession.2004 [pg 469] A separate king of Elimeia also existed in the time of Archelaus,2005 who doubtless belonged to the same family. For a later Derdas occurs as prince of the Elimiots in the time of Agesilaus,2006 who perhaps was the same as, or rather was the father of, the Derdas, whose sister Phila Philip married.2007 In like manner, there was a separate sovereignty in Stymphæa and the neighbouring Æthicia, which was held by the family of Polysperchon, the general and guardian of the kingdom.2008 Although in later times all these separate sovereignties, both of the Temenidæ and of other princes, were suppressed, and Upper and Lower Macedonia were equally ruled from the city of Pella; yet the tribes of the highlands still remained to a certain degree distinct. Even at the battle of Arbela, the Elimiots, Lyncestæ, Orestæ, and Tymphæans fought in separate bodies;2009 and several persons are denoted in the history of Macedon by the surname of Lyncestes. Perdiccas came from Orestis, Ptolemy from Eordæa.2010 Those in the lowlands, on the other hand, were known by the general name of Macedonians; and it should be observed, that there were also Macedonians dwelling in Pieria, Bottiaïs, Mygdonia, Eordæa, and Almopia,2011 who had, according to Thucydides, driven out the native inhabitants; while Pæonia and Bisaltia, together with Anthemus and Crestonica, remained in the possession of those tribes which had been settled there before the conquest of Macedonia.2012

21. The ancient writers distinguish in these regions the following nations; and in so marked a manner that it is evident that they differed from one another in their costume, language, and mode of living.2013

First, the Thracians. This great nation extended to the north as far as the Danube, where it included the Getæ;2014 to the east beyond the sea, since the Thynians and Bithynians were Thracians;2015 to the west within mount Hæmus as far as the Strymon, where it bordered on the Pæonians, widening still more as it receded from the coast, since it also included the Triballians.2016 On the west bank of the Strymon the Sintians and Mædians were of Thracian origin;2017 to which nation the Bisaltæ and Edones must also be referred.2018 Thrace is often represented as having in early times extended to Thessaly and Bœotia2019 but merely in reference to the settlements of the Pierians at the foot of Olympus and Helicon; and there are many reasons against considering these Pierians as of the same race as the other [pg 471] Thracians,2020 although they were called Thracians at an early period.2021 Homer at least distinguishes between these two nations when he makes Here go from Olympus to Pieria, then to Emathia, and afterwards to the snowy mountains of the Thracians;2022 by which he must mean the mountains of the Bisaltæ to the north of Edessa, since the goddess next rests her foot on mount Athos and the island of Lemnos.

Secondly, the Pæonians. A numerous race divided into several small nations,2023 inhabiting the districts on the rivers Strymon and Axius and the countries to the north of Macedonia,2024 together with Pannonia, according to the Greeks.2025 This race, according to their own tradition (if Herodotus's account is correct),2026 derived their origin from the ancient Teucrians in the Troad; in their passage from which country they had been accompanied, according to Herodotus, by the Mysians, the same people that afterwards gave their name of Mœsians to a great province.2027

Thirdly, the Illyrians extended southward as far as the Acroceraunian mountains, eastward to the mountain-chain known in its southern parts by the name of Pindus, and northward as far as the Save and the Alps, if Herodotus is correct in considering the Venetians as of Illyrian origin.2028

Fourthly, Nations of Grecian descent.

22. Since the Macedonians evidently belonged to some one of these four races, our present object is to ascertain which. Now in the first place the Greeks may be excluded, since, although it is certain that a large portion of the Macedonian nation was of Grecian origin, the Macedonians were always considered by the Greeks as barbarians.—Alexander the Philhellene,2029 the father of Perdiccas, represented [pg 472] himself to the Persians (according to Herodotus)2030 as a Greek, and satrap over Macedonians; the same person who was driven off the course at Olympia for being a barbarian, until he proved his Argive descent.2031 The mouth of the Peneus, or the Magnesian mountain of Homolè, was on the eastern side considered as the boundary of Greece,2032 unless Magnesia also was excluded. Fabulous genealogies, representing Macedon as the son of Zeus and Thyia the daughter of Deucalion, or of a descendant of Æolus, are of no weight against the prevailing opinion of the Greeks; nor are they necessarily of greater antiquity than the fortieth Olympiad (620 B.C.),2033 at which time Danaus and Ægyptus, and other races equally unconnected, were made the members of the same family, when the Scythians were derived from Hercules,2034 and even the whole known world was comprised in extensive genealogies. It would be unreasonable to suppose, on the credit of these genealogies, that there was any other migration of Greeks into Macedonia except that of the Temenidæ.

23. Secondly, with regard to the Pæonians: it may be shown that the Macedonians did not belong to that nation.2035 The possessions of the Macedonians in Pæonia are accurately described by ancient writers; these were, until the time of Perdiccas, only a narrow strip of land;2036 Pelagonia and Pæonia on the Axius were subdued at a later date. As the Pæonian race was not aboriginal in this district, its [pg 473] peculiarities were probably easy to be recognised in the time of Thucydides, and hence this national name occurs more frequently than those of the separate provinces. For this reason great importance should be attached to the circumstance that the ancients never refer the Macedonians themselves to the Pæonian race; and it should perhaps be considered as decisive. On the other hand, with aboriginal races having a large territory and numerous connexions, such a separation hardly warrants this inference, since otherwise the Macedonians, whom both Herodotus and Thucydides mention together with Thracians and Illyrians,2037 could not have belonged to either of those two tribes, and therefore to no great national division of the human race. It is, however, plain that the ancients frequently used the national name in a limited sense, merely for the chief mass of the people, and did not apply it to particular portions of it which had acquired a character different from that of the rest of their nation,2038 without by this meaning to express a diversity of origin. We have therefore now only to ascertain whether the Macedonians were of Thracian or Illyrian descent.