24. We shall gain one step towards a conclusion by inquiring in what region were the original settlements of the Macedonians; a question which should carefully be distinguished from the former investigation as to the first station of the Temenidæ. Now in pursuing this inquiry, we soon perceive that even of Macedonia Proper, from which Bottiæa, Pieria, and Eordæa were conquered, a large part was not always in the possession of the Macedonians. Homer, for example, places Emathia, not Macedonia, between Pieria and Chalcidice.2039 Several writers state in general that Macedonia [pg 474] had anciently been called Emathia;2040 but, as will be presently shown, they do not so much mean the highlands as the country about the mouths of the three rivers and near Edessa.2041 The fabulous name was renewed in later times; and Ptolemy2042 even mentions the district of Emathia, in which were the towns of Cyrrhus,2043 Eidomenæ, Gordynia, Edessa, Berrhœa, and Pella. According to Thucydides2044 and others, Eidomenæ and Gordynia must have been situated in the region near the Axius, in the early subdued country of Pæonia;2045 whence it may be understood how Polybius2046 could say that Emathia, at a distance from the coast, had in early times been called Pæonia. For the ancient name of Emathia had evidently been extended to a tract of land belonging to Pæonia, which had, perhaps, previously to the Pæonian conquests, once borne the name of Emathia.

25. Now although the country round Edessa, and nearer to the sea, was not originally called Macedonia, yet we find traces of the existence of the name of the Macedonians under its ancient forms of Μακέται and Μακεδνοὶ, in the hill-country near the ridge of Pindus. Herodotus says that the Doric race, having been driven from Hestiæotis, and dwelling under mount Pindus, was called the Macedonian nation.2047 By this statement he plainly means that the Dorians were first known by that name in Peloponnesus;2048 and indeed his other notions on the progress of this people are only [pg 475] suited to the childhood of history. But notwithstanding the erroneous conclusions of the narrator, it is allowable to infer from his statement that the Macedonians had once dwelt at the foot of Pindus—i.e., probably in one of the districts of Upper Macedonia; of which provinces Orestis may be considered (on the faith of a conjectural emendation) as the ancient Maceta.2049 For it cannot be a Thessalian district that is alluded to, since Maceta was, as we know from certain testimony, in fact a part of Macedonia. This hypothesis is also supported by the ancient patronymic surname of the Macedonian kings, “Argeadæ;” if it is rightly derived by Appian from Argos in Orestis.2050

The fact that the ancient country of the Macedonians was near the ridge of mountains on the confines of Illyria, and was at a considerable distance from Thrace, renders it probable that the Macetæ were of Illyrian blood; but this probability would yield to arguments drawn from the language, costume, and manners of the three nations. The question therefore is, whom did the Macedonians in the points most resemble, the Illyrians or the Thracians?

26. There is a passage in Strabo2051 which, on account of its importance, I will give nearly at full length, omitting only those parts which are not necessary to the context. It contains an account of the population of Epirus.

“Of the nations of Epirus the Chaonians and Thesprotians inhabit the coast from the Ceraunian mountains to the Ambracian gulf; behind Ambracia is Amphilochian Argos. The Amphilochians also are Epirots, together with the tribes lying more in the interior, and joining the mountains of Illyria—viz., the Molotti, the Athamanes, the Æthices, the Tymphæi, the Orestæ, the Paroræi, and [pg 476] the Atintanes, some dwelling nearer to the Macedonians, and others to the Ionian sea. With these the Illyrian nations were mixed which dwelt to the south of the hill-country, as well as those beyond the Ionian sea. For between Epidamnus and Apollonia and the Ceraunian mountains there are the Bylliones,2052 the Taulantii,2053 the Parthini,2054 and the Brygi,2055 and at a short distance, about the silver mines2056 of Damastium,2057 the Perisadies have established their dominion; the Enchelii2058 and Sesarasii2059 are also named as dwelling in these parts; and besides these, the Lyncestæ, the land of Deuriopus, the Pelagonian Tripolis,2060 the Eordi, Elimea, and Eratyra.2061 Now in early times these tribes had severally rulers of their own; the Enchelians were governed by the descendants of Cadmus, the Lyncestæ were under Arrhibæus, and of the Epirots the Molotti were ruled by Pyrrhus and his descendants, while all the other nations of that tribe were governed by native princes. In process of time, however, as one nation obtained the dominion over others, the whole fell into the Macedonian empire, except a small tract beyond the Ionian sea. Also the country about Lyncestus, Pelagonia, Orestias and Elimea was once called Upper Macedonia, and at a later period the Independent. Some persons, moreover, give to the whole country as far as Corcyra the name of Macedonia, assigning, as their reason, that the inhabitants nearly resemble one another in the mode of wearing the hair, in their dialect, in the [pg 477] use of the chlamys, and in other points of this kind: some of them likewise speak two languages.”

27. Now, although the historical accounts of Strabo, collected at a time when these regions had been ravaged by conquest, and had undergone manifold changes, have not the value which the statements of Herodotus and Thucydides possess, yet it is possible to extract from them much information. In the first place it should be observed that the Epirots and the Illyrians are not considered as two wholly distinct nations. The Epirots, although in early times allied by blood with the Greeks, were always considered as barbarians,2062 and Ambracia as the last city in Greece;2063 which fact, since the original inhabitants were the same as in Arcadia, that is, Pelasgians, can only be explained by supposing that there had been a mixture of Illyrians. Hence it might be at that late time difficult to distinguish between the Epirots and the Illyrians; and thus Strabo includes the Atintanes, who according to Scylax2064 and Appian2065 were Illyrians, among the Epirot nations. It is more singular that he should consider the Orestæ, whom Polybius2066 recognises as a Macedonian people, as Epirots; but it may be probably accounted for by the circumstance of their separation from the cause of the Macedonian kings, which procured them their independence in the year of the city 556.2067 But the other inhabitants of Upper Macedonia, the genuine Macedonians, such as the Lyncestæ and Elimiots (who probably, from being mountaineers, had preserved their national distinctions more than the civilised tribes of the lowlands), were considered by Strabo, as the context plainly shows, as original Illyrians; and it can hardly be doubted that they still bore the characteristic marks of that nation.

[pg 478]

28. “Some again,” as Strabo says, “give to the whole country as far as Corcyra the name of Macedonia.” What country this is, is accurately known both from the testimony of other writers, and even of Strabo himself. The Romans called the whole region which opened to them the way to Macedonia2068 by the name of Macedonia; and made it reach from Lissus (now Alessio) on the river Drilon (now the Drin) either to the Egnatian road,2069 which begins between Dyrrhachium (or Epidamnus) and Apollonia, or, as Strabo states in the passage quoted in the text, for a short distance beyond.2070 The inhabitants of this tract of country were beyond all question Illyrians (Taulantii, Parthini, Dassaretii, &c.2071); and it is of their dress and language that Strabo here speaks. The importance of these points for the discovery of national affinity is easily perceived. Indeed, many Grecian tribes might be distinguished merely by their mode of wearing the hair.2072 The chlamys had come to the Greeks from the Thessalians, and Sappho was the first Grecian writer who mentioned it:2073 afterwards it became a military dress, and supplanted the ἱμάτιον, as in Italy the sagum took the place of the toga, which was originally girt up for military use.2074 From this passage of Strabo we learn that it was the national habit of the Illyrian tribes above Epirus. In like manner the broad-brimmed, low, flat fur-cap, known by the name of causia, which was equally unlike the conical2075 κυνέη of the Bœotians and the low, tapering2076 πέτασος, was worn by these northern nations; it was the [pg 479] ancient dress of state among the Macedonians, and worn by their kings;2077 and it was likewise the dress of the Ætolians2078 and Molossians.2079 But the most remarkable circumstance is, that the same cap which is borne by the riders on the tetradrachms of the first Alexander also adorns the head of the Illyrian king Gentius.2080 Lastly, the similarity of dialect is a decisive proof. Now that all these things should have been introduced by the Macedonian kings seems highly improbable, when it is remembered that their rule did not even extend over the whole of this tract, that it was also often interrupted, and in general not of a nature to alter the character, language, and costume of the natives.2081

From these facts it may, I think, be safely inferred that the Macedonians, viz., the people originally and properly so called, belonged to the Illyrian race.

On the mixture of the Macedonians with other, particularly Greek, races.

29. It is, however, certain, notwithstanding the result which has been established, that the Macedonians in their advance from the highlands dislodged, and partly incorporated other, and particularly Grecian, tribes.

The first to fall in their hands was the ancient Emathia, near Edessa, and downwards to the sea, which Herodotus [pg 480] includes in his Macedonia. The name of the country appears to be Grecian;2082 and since Justin2083 distinctly affirms that the ancient inhabitants of Emathia were Pelasgians, and as Æschylus, a poet greatly versed in traditional lore, also makes the kingdom of the Pelasgians extend through Macedonia as far as the Strymon,2084 it must be considered that, according to ancient tradition, the early inhabitants of this country were of the Pelasgic race. It is likewise fair, by the guidance of several parallel cases in the Greek mythology, to interpret the legend that Lycaon the Arcadian hero had once ruled in Emathia, and was the father of Macedon,2085 as signifying merely the succession, according to order of time, of the Pelasgians and Macedonians in the occupation of this country; which the language of mythology expressed by placing the respective races in a genealogical connexion. So Thessalus is called a son of Jason, although the Thessalians belonged to a different race from the early rulers of the country, the Minyæ of Iolcus, of whom Jason was one. Hence it is highly probable that at the first conquest of this tract of land, viz., of Macedonia Proper, nations akin to the Greeks were mixed with the Illyrians.

30. One of the earliest conquests of the Macedonians was the country of their neighbours2086 the Phrygians; i.e., according to the most exact statements, the district about mount Bermius, where in the ancient gardens of king Midas, the son of Gordias (in which Silenus had been once taken prisoner), the hundred-leaved rose still flourished at the time of Herodotus.2087 It is exceedingly probable that, as Herodotus states, this district had been occupied by the Macedonians before the arrival of the Temenidæ;2088 with [pg 481] which the tradition of an ancient migration of the Phrygians coincides:2089 yet it is also stated that Caranus the Temenid expelled Midas.2090 That the Phrygians or Brygians were entirely incorporated in the Macedonian nation cannot be supposed, as we hear quite in late times of a tribe of Brygians (Βρύγοι) in these regions, who then dwelt near the Illyrian mountains beyond Lychnidus, not far from the Erigon, together with the Dassaretians.2091 The tribe of Mygdonians, which was allied to the Phrygians,2092 must have been lost in other nations at an early period, since their territory had been occupied by the Edones before it became a part of the Macedonian empire.

31. In their further extension the Macedonians fell in with Grecian, with Pæonian, and with Thracian tribes, which they either subdued or dislodged; but no expulsion was probably so complete that some part of the former population was not left behind. Among the tribes thus driven out were the Bottiæans, who were reported to have come from Athens and Crete;2093 a tradition which could hardly have arisen, if they had not been a Grecian people. Notice should also be taken of the Grecian and Pelasgic names of the cities on the Axius, viz., Ichnæ, Eidomenæ, Gortynia, Atalante, and Europus,2094 which cannot have been [pg 482] given by the Pæonians, and therefore must be referred to the ancient Greek population of this region. Beyond the Axius, according to Herodotus,2095 was Creston, a settlement of Thessalian Pelasgians, whence they do not appear to have been expelled by the victorious Macedonians; which fate befell the Almopians, an ancient branch of the Minyæ.2096 It has been already shown that the common population of Leibethrum and Pieria was at least nearly related to the Greeks: the names of Λείβηθρα, for a well-watered valley, Πίμπλη for a full fountain, and of Ἑλικὼν for a winding stream, are evidently Grecian.2097

As to the Eordians, the ancient foes of Macedon, it is uncertain whether they should be considered as belonging to the Illyrian or the Pæonian race;2098 of this latter tribe, in earlier times, a small, and, in later, a considerable portion obeyed the Macedonian kings. And, lastly, the subjection of the Bisaltæ, who even in the time of Perseus formed one of the chief parts of the kingdom of Macedon,2099 joined to that nation a people of purely Thracian descent; and the Macedonians, in the political meaning of the word, ceased more and more to be a regular nation, or a body of men of the same origin and language.2100

On the customs and language of the Macedonians.

32. In order to trace the national character and origin of the Macedonians, it is necessary to distinguish three things; first, their Illyrian descent; secondly, their extension [pg 483] over other, for the most part Grecian countries; and thirdly, the introduction by the ruling family, of the civilisation and refinements of the Greeks; which must have gained great ground when Alexander the Philhellene offered himself as a combatant at the Olympic games, and honoured the poetry of Pindar;2101 and when Archelaus, the son of Perdiccas,—the same person who first established many fortresses and roads in his dominions, and formed a Macedonian army,2102 nay, even had it in view to procure a navy,2103—had tragedies of Euripides acted at his court under the direction of that poet. These changes must have chiefly affected the regions near the sea; for they could not have equally extended to the Macedonians of Lyncus, &c., who, even in the time of Strabo, had the greatest resemblance to the Dassaretians, Taulantians, &c., and, until the overthrow of the Macedonian monarchy, preserved their ancient savage habits; which Livy only partially accounts for by their intercourse with neighbouring barbarians.2104

33. Since the Illyrian tribes were never distinguished for that original invention which imagined new gods and established new modes of worship; while, on the other hand, they readily adopted strange deities;2105 we find among the Macedonians more traces of foreign than native religion. Certain deities which the Greeks compared with the Sileni they called Sauadæ,2106 as the Illyrians called them Deuadæ;2107 a native Macedonian god of health was named Darrhon;2108 there was also a god called Deipatyrus among the neighbouring [pg 484] Stymphæans.2109 The wide extension of the worship of Bacchus must be ascribed to the vicinity of, and early intercourse with Pieria: the Macetian women were celebrated as wild and raging Bacchantes.2110 The worship of Zeus appears to have been early introduced among the Macedonians from mount Olympus.2111 Hercules, the heroic progenitor of the royal family, was worshipped in their first residence at Edessa:2112 he was called in Macedonia Aretus.2113 The worship of Apollo, which was prevalent in Macedonia at an early period,2114 probably was introduced from Pythium on mount Olympus:2115 that of Pan, at Pella, was perhaps derived from the Pelasgians.2116

34. Many barbarous customs of the northern nations, as, for example, that of tattooing, which prevailed among the Illyrians and Thracians,2117 must have fallen into disuse in Macedonia at a very early date: for the Greeks would not have forgotten to mention such evident proofs of barbarian descent. Even the usage of the ancient Macedonians, that every person who had not killed an enemy should wear some disgraceful badge, had been discontinued in the time of Aristotle.2118 Yet at a very late date no one was permitted to lie down at table who had not slain a wild boar without the nets.2119 It is greatly to be lamented that we know much less of the ancient customs of the Illyrians than of the Thracians, of whose singular and almost Asiatic usages we are sufficiently well informed. The doctrine of the immortality of the soul in the worship of Zalmoxis, the lamentations of the Trausi at the birth of a man,2120 and the slaughter [pg 485] of the dearest wife on the grave of her husband among the Sintes and Mædi,2121 point to a particular view of human life, foreign to the Grecian character, but familiar to many eastern nations.2122 The prevailing custom of polygamy,2123 the buying and inheriting of women, the selling of children as slaves,2124 and the delight in intoxication,2125 are traces of a genuine barbarian character; no one of which, as far as I am aware, can be discovered among the Macedonians: with whom, moreover, the Thracian names (e.g., Cotys, and those ending in cetes and sades) never occur.

35. On the other hand, a military disposition, which still distinguished the Macedonians in the time of Polybius, personal valour, and a certain freedom of spirit, were the national characteristics of this people. Long before Philip organised his phalanx, the cavalry of Macedon was greatly celebrated, especially that of the highlands, as is shown by the tetradrachms of Alexander the First. In smaller numbers they attacked the close array of the Thracians of Sitalces, relying on their skill in horsemanship and on their defensive armour.2126 Teleutias the Spartan also admired the cavalry of Elimea;2127 and in the days of the conquest of Asia the custom still remained that the king could not condemn any person without having first taken the voice of the people or of the army.2128

36. It is difficult to treat of the Macedonian language, as not only the ancient period of the native dialect must be distinguished from the second, in which the Grecian language was partially introduced, after Archelaus, Philip, and Alexander made their people acquainted with Athenian civilisation, but also from a third, in which many barbarous words were adopted from the mixture of the Macedonians [pg 486] with Indians, Persians, and Egyptians.2129 Nevertheless it is possible to form a well-grounded opinion as to the form of the Macedonian language in the first period. In the first place, they had many barbarous words for very simple and common objects,2130 which may be certainly considered as Illyrian, since among the very scanty relics of the Illyrian and Athamanian dialects2131 there are some words which are also mentioned as Macedonian.2132 Indeed, without supposing some barbarous foundation of this kind, we could hardly account for the Macedonian language being still unintelligible to the Greeks in the time of Alexander the Great.2133 Yet it cannot be doubted that the Greek had passed into the Illyrian dialect before the introduction of Athenian literature, and that their combination produced the mongrel language which was afterwards called Macedonian. The nominatives in α, such as ἱππότα, πολῖτα, &c., could not have been derived from the Athenians; but the Thessalians, the Dryopians, and probably all the Pelasgians, used that form.2134 That some mixture of Greek had taken place at an early period seems also to be proved by the great and almost inexplicable change which the Grecian words experienced in the mouth of the Macedonians, who appear to have been unable to pronounce the letters Φ and Θ, and [pg 487] hence they always substituted Β for the former, and Δ for the latter,2135 perhaps from a peculiarity of the Illyrian nation. On the other hand, the Macedonian language had a consonant ΟΥ or V, as Volustana, the name of the country round Olympus,2136 the Candavian mountains,2137 &c., prove; and thus both in this and the former respect it approximated to the vocal system of the Latin.

[pg 488]

Note on the Map of Macedonia.

Since the annexed Map is entirely copied from that of Barbié du Bocage, as far as the country is concerned, I will only remark some important points in which Arrowsmith's great Map of Turkey, which is in part founded on quite different authorities, differs from it. In this Map the small lake to the east of Lychnis, or Lychnitis (the lake of Ochrida), is not connected with any river running to the coast, and the mountains to the west of it stretch uninterruptedly to the south. (Perhaps this is correct: see p. 453, note g. [Transcriber's Note: This is the footnote to “Candavian chain,” starting “Ptolemy.”]) The Haliacmon rises rather more to the north than in Barbié du Bocage's Map. The Cara-Sou, which is certainly the Erigon, runs into the lake of the Lydias. (Incorrect, according to Strabo, quoted in p. 451, note b. [Transcriber's Note: This is the footnote to “mountains of Illyria,” starting “Its rise in these mountains.”]) The Lydias has a longer course, and rises in the Illyrian mountains. The modern river Gallico, which I make the Echeidorus, flows at some distance from the sea through a lake into the Axius. The tributary branch of the Achelous, called by the ancients the Inachus, rises further to the south, under the Pindus-chain (contrary to the authors quoted in p. 452, note f. [Transcriber's Note: This is the footnote to “Epirus of Lacmon,” starting “Or Lacmus.”]). Upon the whole, Barbié du Bocage's Map is without doubt the more accurate.