Boardman J., Hammond N.G. L. The Cambridge Ancient History Volume 3, Part 3: The Expansion of the Greek World, Eighth to Sixth Centuries BC
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MACEDONIA
275
Before
we
proceed with
the
literary evidence,
let us
resume
the
archaeological evidence which was touched upon
in CAH
m.i
2
,
65
iff.
The last Illyrian phase
at
Vergina, c. 700—650 B.C.,
was
marked
by an
increasing number
of
iron spearheads, bronze pendants
and
bronze
beads,
and the
latest group
of
the excavated tumuli
had
many offerings
which were typical
of
the great Illyrian centre, Glasinac:
e.g.
biconical
bronze beads
as in fig. 43,
5, bronze tutuli, slashed-sphere pendants
as
in
fig. 43, 6,
sickle-shaped iron knives
and
whetstones.
At
that time,
and then only, urns, sometimes standing
on two
feet, were used
to
contain
the
remains
of
(perhaps partly) cremated corpses.
27
Within
the
same period Illyrian groups were in occupation of Axioupolis, Gevgheli
and Chauchitsa, all controlling the last defensible entries from the north
into
the
coastal plain.
The two
sets
of
graves
at
Axioupolis yielded
a wider range
of
bronze pendants than those
at
Vergina,
and
also
pendants hanging on pendants (as in
fig.
43,
9
from a Mati valley burial),
a boss
(phalaron)
worn
on a
woman's belt, bronze armlets
and
torque,
and many beads
of
amber (as
in the
Mati valley burials). Beside Grave
18
an
iron spearhead
was
planted point upright, this being
a
practice
of Illyrians
in the
fourth century according
to
Aristotle
(Poet.
146133).
The group
of
graves
at
Gevgheli contained different offerings
but of
the same culture:
e.g.
miniature bronze jugs
as in fig. 43, 10, a
ball-pendant,
a
cross-shaped junction
as in fig. 43, 1
(perhaps
for
harness), and a large biconical bronze bead. The situation
at
Chauchitsa
was different again, because
the
main group
of
burials
was not in
cist-graves
or
trenches, as
at
Axioupolis and Gevgheli,
but
under cairns
of stones, except
for the
central burial which
lay in the
upper stones
of a cairn.
It is
most probable that
a
tumulus
of
soil originally covered
this group
of
burials which
is on a
rock outcrop,
now
heavily eroded,
and that each cairn
of
stones originally covered
a
wooden coffin which
soon rotted away.
28
The offerings spanned
a
longer period
of
time than
those
at
Axioupolis
and
Gevgheli,
and the
warriors differed
in
their
armament;
for
they
had no
spears,
but
there were swords, knives
and sometimes shields
in
their graves.
The
warriors
and
women
of
Chauchitsa
had the
same love
of
pendants
(as in fig. 43, 7), but
little
taste
for
amber.
In
addition
to
this main group
on the
rock outcrop
cist-graves with similar offerings were found nearby, some being
certainly
of
later date.
At
Dedeli,
by the
north-west corner
of
Lake
Doiran, another
set of
cist-graves yielded similar objects, some
con-
temporary with
the
earlier ones
at
Chauchitsa.
From these cemeteries
we can see
that
the
Illyrians acted
as
small
groups, each having its own characteristics within
a
general framework
27
Petsas in Arch. Dell. 18 Chr. 2iyffor T.
LXVI-LXXI;
E 34,
1
396.
28
E 34, 1 348ff; E 42, 74ff.
Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008
276 4°- ILLYRIS, EPIRUS AND MACEDONIA
of Illyrian tastes. This is consistent with the remark of Polybius
(11.
3.2),
made centuries later, that the Illyrians acted
'in
groups '/Like com-
mandos
in
modern war, they were not necessarily armed'alike.
If the Bottiaeans came originally from Crete, we have an explanation
for the appearance in this part of Macedonia of the cult of the double-axe,
whether in the form of
three
miniatures on a pendant or of
a
single one,
a cult which spread
to
Glasinac
and far
into Central Europe.
The
double-axe was not the only Minoan feature; for the importance of the
priestess and the type of head-dress were Minoan too. Among those who
adopted the cult were transhumant pastoralists, e.g. at Spilion and Vitsa
(see CAH
111.1,
649Q. When the Bottiaei were expelled, some time after
650
or so,
they sought refuge
in
Chalcidice and founded Iron Age
Olynthus, where excavation has shown that regular occupation started
not before c. 650 B.C.
29
Seven miniature double-axes
of a
specialized
shape
in
bronze
as in fig. 43, 12
and one
in
bone were found
at
Olynthus. The pottery did not resemble that at Vergina, and the great
number of collared bronze beads was a feature common not to Vergina
but to the Vardar valley sites.
In
the matter of weapons and pendants
the Bottiaeans shared the tastes
of
the Illyrians.
It
would seem, then,
that the Bottiaeans had not made Vergina their capital, although their
influence was strong there.
In
their new home they showed themselves
to be conservative in their
ways,
and in particular they showed no signs
of contact with the Greek colonies
in
their vicinity.
As we leave the coastal area, we may turn first
to
the middle and
upper Haliacmon valley, where Elimeotis, Tymphaea and Orestis were
inhabited
by
Epirotic tribes,
or
more correctly
'
Molossian' tribes
if
the account
in
Strabo was derived from Hecataeus. There Kozani
in
Elimeotis has yielded the most interesting remains. From
a
number of
burials which cover our period
as
well
as
the classical period came
bronze pendants, spectacle-fibulae, heavy and light armlets, biconical
beads,
hair-coils, and
a
triangular plaque with two hooks as in
fig.
43,
1,
which had been attached
to a
woman's leather belt. This last item
was beautifully incised with dot-centred circles, often called 'eyes', and
a larger, elaborately decorated circle in the centre. Similar pieces have
been found, all also in bronze plaque, in women's graves, one at Sianitsi
and two at Axibkastron (Sourdhani) which lie farther up the Haliacmon
valley; one at least at Pateli in Eordaea; several pieces in museums, said
to have come from Macedonia, and one reputedly from Trikkala
in
north-west Thessaly.
It
is probable that these women were priestesses;
for example, the grave
at
Sianitsi where a woman wore this triangular
plaque, contained also
an
anchor-shaped pendant, two long pins,
a
spiralling ring and beads, all of bronze, and
a
bit of iron plaque (as
in
29
D. Robinson,
Excavations
at
Olynthus
v (Baltimore, 1953)
4.
Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008
MACEDONIA
277
priestess burials at Vergina and Vitsa) and three vessels. On the present
evidence the cult was local to the middle and upper Haliacmon valley.
From graves on the west side of the Haliacmon, mainly from the dis-
trict Voion, have come spectacle-fibulae, armlets, bracelets, torques,
spiralling ornaments, finger-rings - some with spiralling ends - long
pins and tweezers, all in bronze; and also boar-tusks.
30
Thus this area
resembles the last phase in the Korce basin (Kuci Zi Tumulus II) in
its preference for bronze, the rareness of iron, the continued use of long
bronze pins, and the habit of not putting weapons with the dead. This
relationship accords with the literary evidence in that the tribes of
Elimeotis, Tymphaea and Orestis were called Epirotic, whereas those
of Eordaea
—
where Pateli was the chief cemetery
—
and of Vergina were
of different stock.
Whereas the wheel
was
in general use at Tren and Kuci Zi in the Korce
area, almost all the pottery at Pateli and Vergina was made by hand,
and this was so too in western Macedonia. From the early seventh
century onwards considerable amounts of wheel-made Grey Ware
appeared at Palaiogratsiano near the Volustana pass from Thessaly, and
several examples at Kozani and Pateli; but none at Vergina from the
tumuli excavated by Andronikos. This ware was found also at
Vardarophtsa and Chauchitsa east of the lower Axius, and at places in
Derriopus by the Crna Reka. /The best explanation of this pattern of
distribution is that Greek trade was penetrating northwards via
Perrhaebia and the Volustana pass into the middle Haliacmon valley,
and from the ports on the eastern side of the Thermaic Gulf into the
lower Axius valley. Such trade may have reached Derriopus either from
the lakeland area or from the Axius valley, or from both. Sherds of
Greek Geometric pottery, while common enough at Vitsa and occurring
on the western side of the Pindus range, e.g. at Bajkaj and Kuci Zi
Tumulus II, were extremely rare on the eastern side: an occasional sherd
at Tsotyli and Boubousti, and a number of pots and sherds at Saraj and
other places in Derriopus; and a pin of Corinthian manufacture off. 750
B.C., found at Titov Veles on the middle Axius.
A collection of bronzes was found during the making of a road
near Titov Veles. Among them were two horse-trappings of Thraco-
Cimmerian type as in fig. 43, 11 and a bronze pendant with a tie-on
lid ('herb-cup') as in fig. 43, 4, such as has been found at Chauchitsa.
A variety of bronze pendants have come from excavations at Radanja
near Stip; also biconical bronze beads, and circular bronze buttons. At
Orlova Cuka near Stip, where two of a cemetery of ten tumuli have
been excavated, one tumulus was found to have a peribolos wall, a large
central burial cist-shaped but with apsidal ends, and five other burials
30
E 34, 1
}44
ff.
Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008
278 4°- ILLYRIS, EPIRUS AND MACEDONIA
in slab-lined cists aligned towards the central burial.
31
These arrange-
ments have
a
resemblance to those at Viso'i (see CAH m. i
2
, 644), and
the objects with the dead were much as at
Viso'i:
e.g. iron sword, bronze
biconical beads, buttons, hair-coils and fibulae. It
seems,
then, that those
who were buried at Orlova Cuka were Illyrians, and that they lingered
on till perhaps
c.
600 B.C., which was the date of the latest burial in the
tumulus.
A
collection
of
bronzes from Kumanovo
on
the Pecinj,
an
eastern tributary
of
the Axius,
is
also markedly Illyrian
in
character:
bronze pendants, armlets, beads, buttons and a junction-piece as in
fig.
43,
1. Other sites with such pendants are Demir Kapija, Fortuna—Stip,
Vucedol near Skopje, Kamen Rapes and Zivojno.
It is probable that two sets of bronze objects which were bought from
a dealer by the British Museum came from the Vardar valley rather than
from
the
alleged site, Potidaea; these range from
an
eighth-century
fibula with
a
catch-plate to
a
variety of Illyrian-type pendants. Farther
to the east, on the route which leads from Lake Doiran to Lake Butkova
in the Strymon valley, bronze beads and buttons and a stone pot with a
loop-handle
of
a Glasinac type were found
in a
tomb
at
Kozlu Dere,
and
a
heavy bronze armlet
at
Houma,
In
the Strymon area, from the
site which became Amphipolis,
a
collection
of
bronzes, now
in the
Vienna Archaeological Museum, included a miniature double-axe as at
Olynthus (fig. 43, 12), miniature jugs (as in
fig.
43, 10), beads, buttons,
armlets,
a
spectacle-fibula and pendants of typical Illyrian kinds, all of
bronze.
32
Thus from the archaeological evidence one can visualize
a
surge of Illyrian warrior-groups which not only overran the areas east
of
the
middle Axius
and
both sides
of the
lower Axius
but
also
overflowed into the Strymon basin. When their power collapsed, they
disappeared from
the
history
of
these regions, except
in the
middle
Strymon valley, where the Maedi
33
lived
on in
the fifth century;
for
their eponymous ancestor, Maedus, figured as
a
son of Illyrius
in
the
genealogy of Appian,
lllyr.
1.
2, which came from an early Greek source.
The successors to the Illyrians in the areas east of the Axius were the
Paeonians
and the
Edoni,
who
were mentioned
as
being both
Thracian
in
the fragment
of
the Strabo epitome (fr. 11 cited above);
but whatever their racial relationships were,
it
is better
to
keep them
separate for historical purposes. The capital
of
the Paeonian kings,
as
we know from later writings, was at Astibus, from which Stip
is
derived,
but a royal cemetery of this period,
c.
750—530 B.C., has not been found.
The lowlands through which
the
Pecinj
and the
Bregalnitsa flow
support larger populations than the high basins to the west of the Axius,
31
E 30;
R.
Pasic-Vintic in
Starinar
21 (1970) 129 (on Orlova Cuka).
32
E 26;
E
10, 289.
33
For the view that the Maedi were not Illyrians
but
Thracians see
CAH
m.2
2
, ch. 53A.
Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008
MACEDONIA
279
and the soil is excellent for agriculture; the Paeonians were primarily
agriculturalists, as we see from the famous oxen on their early coins.
Other Paeonian tribes lay to the east in the upper Strymon valley
—
the
Agrianes and the Laeaei, for instance
—
and communications with them
were relatively easy via Kjustendil. The group of Paeonian tribes was
in control of deposits of gold, silver, copper and iron.
34
The area east
of the Axius to the south of the Demir Kapija was taken over at first
by Thracians, who had been allies of the Cimmerian raiders and had
helped to overthrow the Illyrians.
One object which indicated the presence of Thracians was a
mouthpiece of gold foil as in fig. 43, 15, usually decorated in repousse
style with circles and ridges, which had two strings at either end for
tying over the mouth of a dead person. Seven of these were found at
Chauchitsa in graves covering approximately the period
c.
650—5 50
B.C.;
several at Zeitenlik and Kalamaria near Salonica; one at Ayios Vasilios
in Mygdonia; and two at Kuci Zi Tumulus
II.
35
The example at Ayios
Vasilios was in one of four slab-lined cist-graves which was intact, and
the other objects were a biconical gold bead, an amber amulet, two
bronze finger-rings with spiralling ends, two bronze armlets with
overlapping ends, and pieces of bronze fibulae as in fig. 43, 14, and a
cothon
which has been dated
c.
5
50
B.C.
Another undisturbed grave had
the corpse of
a
man with a knife, a spearhead, and two spear-butts, all
of iron, two small flat bands of gold, and the corpse of a small child.
These unusual offerings and the conjunction of the warrior and the
child, which may be an example of human sacrifice, are different from
anything we have met hitherto in Macedonia. That Thracians raided
southwards is made probable by unusual gold hair-grips (fig. 43, 8) of
a shape well known in central Bulgaria, which were found in burials
at Marmariani in north-east Thessaly.
36
Next in time came the situation which is described in the fragment
of the Strabo epitome, when the Paeonians had broken through the
Thracian sector and reached the. sea by occupying Amphaxitis, the
country on either side of the lower Axius. But the areas farther east,
which came to be known as Crestonia, Mygdonia, Bisaltia and the plain
of the lower Strymon, were still held by the Edoni and the Bisaltae.
The gold-bearing river of Crestonia was called then the Edonus, and
later the Echedorus; from this we may infer that the royal tribe, the
Edones, held Crestonia. The fragment went on to define the Edoni and
the Bisaltae: 'the latter were called just that, Bisaltae, but of the Edoni
34
See Map i in E 34, 1.
35
BSA 26 (1923 5) 23; Albania 2 (1927) 32f and J2f; BSA 24 (1919-21) 21; JHS 41 (1921)
274.
Two pieces from Kuji Zi were on show at the Tirana Museum in 1972.
38
See E 34,
1
443.
Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008
28o 40. ILLYRIS, EPIRUS AND MACEDONIA
some were called Mygdones, some Edones and some Sithones'.
It is
probable that the names Mygdon and (the area) Mygdonia had been
handed down from the Phrygian period, together with the names of
the adjacent areas Crestonia and Crousis; for Mygdon was reputed
to
have had two sons, Grastus and Crousis, and numerous daughters. But
he was put into a new genealogy for the Thracian period, thus becoming
a brother
of
Edonus, Biston and Odomas, The name
of
the Sithones
was preserved
in the
name
of the
middle prong
of the
Chalcidic
peninsula, Sithonia.
The time when
the
Paeones held Amphaxitis
and the
Edones
Crestonia may be fixed approximately within two termini. Of
the
seven
graves at Chauchitsa with gold mouthpieces the latest probably, Grave
(22),
had pieces of
a
cotbon,
and so can be dated approximately 550
B.C.
As these are indicative of Thracian rulers, they give a loose terminus post
quern.
At the other end the Paeones came
to
dominate the whole area
up
to
and including the Strymon basin, and they went
on to
attack
Perinthus on the shore of the Propontis before the Persian entry into
Europe (Hdt.
v. 1;
Strabo vn. fr. 41). Let us then suggest c. 525 B.C.
as
a
terminus ante
quern
the
Edoni
and the
Bisaltae held Crestonia,
Mygdonia and Bisaltia. The positions of the various tribes are shown
on Map 15.
We are left with the Macedones, for whom we have important literary
evidence. Hesiod, Eoeae
fr. 7,
wrote
of
Deucalion's daughter
as
follows: 'she conceived and bare
to
thunder-loying Zeus twin sons,
Magnes and Macedon who joys in horses, and they had their habitations
by Pieria and Olympus'. In the Catalogue of Ships, referring to a very
much later situation, Homer placed the descendants of Magnes by the
Peneus and Mt Pelion
(Iliad
n. 756f). From this we may infer that the
Magnetes
had
been driven
out and the
coast
of
Pieria below
Mt
Olympus had been occupied by the Thracian Pieres before whatever
date
we
care
to
attribute
to the
Catalogue. The Macedones, whom
Homer never mentions, evidently stayed on as inland-neigHbours of the
Pieres. According to their own account, as reported by Herodotus, the
Macedones were neighbours of the Phrygians
or
Briges, as they were
called
in
Europe, when the so-called gardens
of
Midas lay below Mt
Bermium (Hdt. vn. 73 and vn.
13
8.2); also, we may add, when the royal
cemetery
of
the Briges was
at
Vergina on the right bank
of
the lower
Haliacmon. Thus we may define the habitat
of
the Macedones, before
they began
to
expand, as being inland
of
the coastal plain below Mt
Olympus and situated between
Mt
Olympus inclusive and the river
Haliacmon above Vergina, where it emerges from a long gorge, difficult
to traverse. We can arrive independently at this conclusion if we study
the account of the Macedones' expansion in Thucydides
11.
99. For after
Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008
MACEDONIA
28l
mentioning the Elimeotae and the Lyncestae, he described the conquest
of the Pieres, Bottiaei, lower Axius, Eordaea and Almopia. A glance
at Map 15 shows that such conquests could have been made only from
a base between the Elimeotae, the Pieres and the Bottiaei.
The homeland, then, of the Macedones for many centuries was the
hilly and mountainous country bounded in the south by Kato Olympos,
on the west by the Volustana Pass and the Haliacmon river, and on
the north by the spur of Mt Bermium which runs along the southern
side of the great plain towards the mouth of the Haliacmon. This area
contained 'the Makedonikon mountain' of Herodotus vn. 131, which
lay between the coast of Pieria and the Perrhaebi; and it was less large
than 'Makedonis' as Herodotus defined it in vn. 127.i.
37
This area of
country had and has excellent pasture, good timber, and plenty of water;
it was ideally suited for pastoralism and hunting, and had the almost
unique advantage that transhumant pastoralism can be practised within
its own confines, since Olympus, Titarium and the so-called Pierian
Mountains afford an abundance of summer pastures. A special group
of
Vlachs,
speaking their own dialect, held these pastures for centuries,
their largest summer-village at Vlakholivadhi having had some six
thousand inhabitants at its peak.
38
The Macedones must have been
similar in their way of life, and their original capital, Lebaea, was
probably in these hills, similar perhaps to Palaiogratsiano, where much
Grey Ware has been found.
The first step in the expansion of the Macedones was associated with
the adoption of
a
new capital, Aegeae, in place of Lebaea, and an oracle
of Delphi, certainly a
vaticinium post
eventum,
purported to tell the king
how to act:
The noble Temenidae have royal rule over a wealth-producing land; for it is
the
gift of aegis-bearing
Zeus.
But go in haste to the Buteid land of many flocks
and wherever you see gleaming-horned, snow-white goats sunk in sleep,
sacrifice to the gods and found the city of your state on the level ground of
that land. (Diod. Sic. vn fr. 16)
The new capital was named Aegeae, derived in popular etymology
from the goats
(aiges),
and all Macedonian kings were buried there from
that time until the corpse of Alexander the Great was taken to
Alexandria in Egypt. According to the tradition the new name replaced
the old name, Edessa, a Phrygian word. The present writer suggested
in 1968 that Aegeae was at Vergina-Palatitsa, and the suggestion has
been confirmed by the excavation (still incomplete) of what are certainly
royal tombs under the Great Tumulus at Vergina.
39
The capture of this
37
'Macedonia'
in the
same restricted sense
was
used once
by
Thucydides,
at i. 61.3.
38
A. J. B.
Wace
and M. S.
Thompson,
The
Nomads
of the
Balkans
(reprint,
London,
1972) 210.
39
Anc. Mac. 1. 65; M.
Andronikos
in AAA 10
(1977)
iff.
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282 4°- ILLYRIS, EPIRUS AND MACEDONIA
site was followed
by
the conquest
of
the area up
to
the Ludias river,
which then flowed into
the
Haliacmon just before
the
Haliacmon
entered the sea. These rivers
for a
time formed the line between
the
Macedones and the Bottiaei, as
in
Herodotus vn.
127.1.
This expansion
of the
Macedones
was
associated
by
Herodotus
(VIII.
137.1) and Thucydides
(11.
99.3) with
a
royal house, the Temenidae
of Argos
in
the Peloponnese. Thus the Temenidae
of
Macedon (as
in
the oracle we have just cited) were a branch of the Temenidae, the royal
house of
Argos.
Both historians were in agreement also on the number
of generations which divided the first king, Perdiccas, from the reigning
king. Since Thucydides numbered Archelaus {floruit c. 410
B.C.)
the
ninth of the line, we may date
the.
floruit
of the first king
c.
650 on the
basis
of
thirty years
to a
generation. Such
a
date
for the
arrival
of
Perdiccas,
one
incidentally which occurred
in a
Kings List
of the
Macedonians,
is
acceptable on other grounds; for
it
was then that the
Temenid leader, Pheidon
of
Argos, fell from power, and that Illyrian
rule
at
Vergina came
to
an end.
At
the turn
of
the sixth century
the
descent of the Macedonian royal house from the Temenidae
of
Argos
was upheld by the Judges
at
Olympia when Alexander was admitted
as
a
competitor. Interesting links between Argos and Macedon have
been discovered recently. Bronze Age tumuli at Argos, it is now known,
were reused for burial during the Geometric period,
40
and the users were
most probably the then rulers of Argos, the Temenidae. Equally at the
Macedonian capital, Aegeae (now Vergina), royal burials were under
tumuli (see Justin xi. 2.1),
and
tumuli crowned
the
built-tombs
at
Vergina, of which one found by Rhomaios contained
a
marble throne
and another, excavated by Andronikos, had offerings of
a
royal quality.
Then in this last burial there was
a
bronze tripod, dated
c.
460
B.C,
which
had been won
in
the games
at
the Argive Heraeum; and
its
presence
is best explained by supposing that it was a family heirloom connected
with the original homeland
of
the dynasty.
How did these members of the Temenid house win the throne of the
Macedones? Herodotus must have asked that question, and he reported
a part
of
the answer which
he
was given (probably
by
Alexander
I).
It was
in
fact
a
folk-tale, probably
of
Iranian origin (vm. 137-8). But
it contained some pointers: the chronology by generations, the flight
from Argos
to
Illyria,
the
crossing-over
to
Upper Macedonia,
the
pastoral setting
of
horses, cattle
and
sheep,
and the
flight into
'the
Gardens of Midas'. No account at all
of
the actual
coup
d'etatl Perhaps
that was discreditable, having involved the use
of
Illyrian troops;
or
perhaps
it
was not known.
Once
in
power the first Temenid king of the Macedones, Perdiccas,
captured Vergina and subsequently the plain lying between Verria and
40
E.
Deilaki
in
Arcb.
Delt. 28 (1973) [1977] Chr. 95 and 98f.
Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008
MACEDONIA
283
the then course of the Ludias. He or his successor dispossessed the
Bottiaei, driving them across the Axius, where they found a new home
in the hinterland of the Chalcidic peninsula and occupied the site of
Olynthus. The excavator of that site has put the occupation generally
to not before 650 B.C., and it may have been a decade or two later. The
expulsion of the Pieres was achieved probably before the end of the
century. In both cases victory was won in battle (Thuc.
11.
99.3).
The second stage was an advance inland, when the Almopes were
expelled from the headwaters of the Ludias and the Eordi were killed
off, except a small remnant who fled east of the Axius. Unlike the
Spartans, the Macedones made no serfs; rather they occupied the good
lands themselves, most of them making the transition from pastoralism
to settled agriculture, which is frequently accompanied by a sharp rise
in population. They now held a continuous territory which was
defended on the west and north by a ring of mountains, and they made
Eordaea into a bastion against the Epirotic tribes. Greater danger
threatened from those Paeonians who had a footing on the west bank
of the Axius, and it was in the rear of the Paeonians that the refugees
from Bottiaea and Eordaea settled. But the Paeonians chose to expand
eastwards and in due course clashed with the Persians.
Apart from the Greek colonies on the coast all the peoples of what
we call Macedonia were organized as tribes,
ethne,
and were so called
by Hecataeus, Herodotus and Thucydides - from the Orestae to the
Sithones. Each
ethnos
was itself
a
cluster of small tribes, as we have seen
was the case also among the Epirotes and the Illyrians. The Macedones
were no exception to the .general rule; just as there were Orestae
Molossoi, Triclari Orestae, and Imphees Perrhaebi, so there were
'Argeadae Macedones' (Appian,
Syr.
63), a tribe claiming descent from
an eponymous Argeas, a son of Macedon (Steph. Byz. s.v.
A.rgeou
and
Argais).
It was this tribe which led the way in the expansion of the
Macedones; for fragment 11 of the Strabo epitome continued after the
mention of the Sithones. ' Of all these the so-called Argeadae became
established as masters, they and the Chalcideis of Euboea.' And in
fragment 20 the place Amydon (on the left bank of the lower Axius)
'was razed to the ground by the Argeadae'. It is probable that the
pre-Temenid royal house (as well as the tribe) was called' the Argeadae'
and that the Temenid house took its place in the tribe; thus the
Argeadae continued to be the royal tribe. But this is not to be confused
with the royal house which was called the Temenidae by Herodotus,
Thucydides and the oracle of Delphi.
41
Argeas belonged to the
genealogy of Macedon; Temenus belonged to the genealogy of
Heracles.
That the Bisaltae, Crestones and Edones generally spoke their own
41
E 34, II 26f.
Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008
284 4°- ILLYRIS, EPIRUS AND MACEDONIA
languages is clear from a remark by Thucydides (iv. 109.4), and this was
true of Illyrians and Paeonians likewise. What language was spoken by
the tribes of Epirus and Macedonia west of the Axius? That the oracular
answers of Dodona and the Nekyomanteion from the earliest recorded
times were
in
Greek cannot
be
doubted; and Herodotus must have
found the Thesprotians of his day speaking Greek, as he visited Dodona
in their territory and said the first priestess
—
a refugee from Egypt
-
learnt Greek among the Thesprotians
(11.
5
6).
However, to speak Greek
was not to be a Greek in the sixth and fifth centuries; that was a matter
of culture, not speech or
race.
Thus Thucydides classed the Thesprotians
and indeed all Epirotic and Macedonian tribes as barbarians
(1.
47.3;
11.
80.5;
11.
81.3
and 6;
iv. 124.1).
In
this sense Dodona
and the
Dodonaei may have been
an
exception;
for
they were analogous
to
Delphi and the Delphians, an enclave sacred to a god, and in Dodona's
case
to the
supreme Hellenic god, Zeus. For this reason, perhaps,
Herodotus wrote
of
the gifts
of
the Hyperboreans coming from the
north
to
'the Dodonaeans first
of
the Hellenes' (iv. 33.2). That
the
Molossians, who were immediately adjacent to the Dodonaeans in the
time
of
Hecataeus but engulfed them soon afterwards, spoke Illyrian
or another barbaric tongue was nowhere suggested, although Aeschylus
and Pindar wrote
of
Molossian lands. That they
in
fact spoke Greek
was implied
by
Herodotus' inclusion
of
Molossi among
the
Greek
colonists
of
Asia Minor, but
it
became demonstrable only when
D.
Evangelides published two long inscriptions
of
the Molossian state,
set
up
c. 369 B.C.
at
Dodona,
in
Greek with Greek names, Greek
patronymics
and
Greek tribal names such
as
Celaethi, Omphales,
Tripolitae, Triphylae etc.
42
As the Molossian cluster of tribes in the time
of Hecataeus included the Orestae, Pelagones, Lyncestae, Tymphaei
and Elimeotae, as we have argued above, we may be confident that they
too were Greek-speaking;
for it is
inconceivable that such
a
cluster
included tribes speaking different languages. Inscriptional evidence of
the Chaones
is
lacking until
the
Hellenistic period;
but
Ps.-Scylax,
describing the situation
of
c. 380-360,
put
the southern limit
of
the
Illyrians just north
of
the Chaones, which indicates that the Chaones
did
not
speak Illyrian, and
the
acceptance
of
the Chaones into
the
Epirote Alliance
in
the 330s suggests strongly that they were Greek-
speaking.
That the Macedones were regarded as' barbarians' was publicized late
in the sixth century when the right of Alexander, king of the Macedones,
to compete
in the
Olympic Games was challenged. Evidently
as a
Macedon he would not have been admitted; he was accepted only as
a Temenid
of
Argos (Hdt. v. 22). But this
did not
mean that
the
42
E 25. For a different view see
CAH
m.i*,
84off.
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