Macedonia (Greece)

According to Herodotus, the history of Macedonia began with the Makednoi tribe, among the first to use the name, migrating to the region from Histiaeotis in the south. There they lived near Thracian tribes such as the Bryges who would later leave Macedonia for Asia Minor and become known as Phrygians. Macedonia was named after the Makednoi. Accounts of other toponyms such as Emathia are attested to have been in use before that. A branch of the Macedonians may have invaded Southern Greece towards the end of the second millennium B.C. Upon reaching the Peloponnese the invaders were renamed Dorians, triggering the accounts of the Dorian invasion. For centuries the Macedonian tribes were organized in independent kingdoms, in what is now Central Macedonia, and their role in internal Hellenic politics was minimal, even before the rise of Athens. The Macedonians may have belonged to the Dorian branch of Greeks, while there were many Ionians in the coastal regions. The rest of the region was inhabited by various Thracian and Illyrian tribes as well as mostly coastal colonies of other Greek states such as Amphipolis, Olynthos, Potidea, Stageira and many others, and to the north another tribe dwelt, called the Paeonians. During the late 6th and early 5th century BC, the region came under Persian rule until the destruction of Xerxes at Plataea. During the Peloponnesian War, Macedonia became the theatre of many military actions by the Peloponnesian League and the Athenians, and saw incursions of Thracians and Illyrians, as attested by Thucidydes. Many Macedonian cities were allied to the Spartans (both the Spartans and the Macedonians were Dorian, while the Athenians were Ionian), but Athens maintained the colony of Amphipolis under her control for many years. The kingdom of Macedon, was reorganised by Philip II and achieved the union of Greek states by forming the League of Corinth. After his assassination, his son Alexander succeeded to the throne of Macedon and, retaining the office of "General of Greece", he became one of the best known persons to which this land ever gave birth.

Roman period

View of the archeological site of Dion.

Macedonia remained an important and powerful kingdom until the Battle of Pydna (June 22, 168 BC), in which the Roman general Aemilius Paulus defeated King Perseus of Macedon, ending the reign of the Antigonid dynasty over Macedonia. For a brief period a Macedonian republic called the "Koinon of the Macedonians” was established. It was divided into four administrative districts. That period ended in 148 BC, when Macedonia was fully annexed by the Romans.^[13] The northern boundary at that time ended at the Ochrid lake and Bylazora, a Paeonian city (modern Titov Veles). Strabo, writing in the first century AD places the border of Macedonia on that part at Lychnidos,^[14] Byzantine Achris and presently Ochrid. Therefore ancient Macedonia did not significantly extend beyond its current borders (in Greece). This is stressed by 370 academics in their letter to US president Barack Obama.^[15] To the east, Macedonia ended according to Strabo at the river Strymon, although he mentions that other writers placed Macedonia’s border with Thrace at the river Nestos, which is also the present geographical boundary between the two administrative districts of Greece.

Subsequently the provinces of Epirus and Thessaly as well as other regions to the north were incorporated into a new Provincia Macedonia, but in 297 AD under a Diocletian reform many of these regions were removed and two new provinces were created: Macedonia Prima and Macedonia Salutaris (from 479-482 AD Macedonia Secunda). Macedonia Prima coincided approximately with Strabo’s definition of Macedonia and with the modern administrative district of Greece^[13] and had Thessalonica as its capital, while Macedonia Secunda had the Dardanian city of Stobi (near Gradsko) as its capital. This subdivision is mentioned in Hierocles’ Synecdemon (527-528) and remained through the reign of emperor Justinian.

Approximate extent of the thema   Macedonia, superimposed on modern borders.

The Slavic, Avar, Bulgarian and Magyar invasions in the 6-7th centuries devastated both provinces ^[16] with only parts of Macedonia Prima in the coastal areas and nearer Thrace remaining in Byzantine hands, while most of the hinterland was disputed between the Byzantium and Bulgaria. The Macedonian regions under Byzantine control passed under the tourma of Macedonia to the province of Thrace.

A new system of administration came into place in 789-802 AD, following the Byzantine empire’s recovery from these invasions. The new system was based on administrative divisions called Themata. The region of Macedonia Prima (the territory of modern Greek administrative district of Macedonia) was divided between the Thema of Thessalonica and the Thema of Strymon, so that only the region of the area from Nestos eastwards continued to carry the name Macedonia, referred to as the Thema of Macedonia or the Thema of "Macedonia in Thrace”. The Thema of Macedonia in Thrace had its capital in Adrianople.^[17][18][19]

Medieval history

Saints Cyril and Methodius by Jan Matejko.

Familiarity with the Slavic element in the area led two brothers from Thessaloniki, Saints Cyril and Methodius, to be chosen to convert the Slavs to Christianity. Following the campaigns of Basil II, all of Macedonia returned to the Byzantine state. Following the Fourth Crusade 1203–1204, a short-lived Crusader realm, the Kingdom of Thessalonica, was established in the region, but it was subdued by the Greek Despotate of Epirus in 1224. Returning to the restored Byzantine Empire shortly thereafter, the area remained in Byzantine hands until the 1340s, when all of Macedonia (except Thessaloniki, and possibly Veria) was conquered by the Serbian ruler Stefan Dusan.^[20] Divided between Serbia and Bulgaria after Dusan's death, the region fell quickly to the advancing Ottomans, with Thessaloniki alone holding out until 1387. After a brief Byzantine interval in 1403–1430 (during the last seven years of which the city was handed over to the Venetians), Thessalonica and its immediate surrounding area returned to the Ottomans.^[21]

Metrophanes Kritopoulos; theologian, monk and Patriarch of Alexandria who was born in Veria^[22] in 1589.

The capture of Thessalonica threw the Greek world into consternation, being regarded as the prelude to the fall of Constantinople itself. The memory of the event has survived through folk traditions containing fact and myths. Apostolos Vacalopoulos records the following Turkish tradition connected with the capture of Thessalonica:^[23]

While Murad was asleep in his palace at Yenitsa, the story has it that, God appeared to him in a dream and gave him a lovely rose to smell, full of perfume. The sultan was so amazed by its beauty that he begged God to give it to him. God replied, "This rose, Murad, is Thessalonica. Know that it is to you granted by heaven to enjoy it. Do not waste time; go and take it". Complying with this exhortation from God, Murad marched against Thessalonica and, as it has been written, captured it.

Ottoman Rule

Thessaloniki became a centre of Ottoman administration in the Balkans. While most of Macedonia was ruled by the Ottomans, in Mount Athos the monastic community continued to exist in a state of autonomy. The remainder of the Chalkidiki peninsula also enjoyed an autonomous status: the "Koinon of Mademochoria” was governed by a locally appointed council due to privileges obtained on account of its wealth, coming from the gold and silver mines in the area.

There were several uprisings in Macedonia during Ottoman rule, including an uprising after the Battle of Lepanto that ended in massacres of the Greek population, the uprising in Naousa of the armatolos Zisis Karademos in 1705, a rebellion in the area of Grevena by a Klepht called Ziakas (1730–1810) and the Greek Declaration of Independence in Macedonia by Emmanuel Pappas in 1821, during the Greek War of Independence. In 1854 Theodoros Ziakas, the son of the klepth Ziakas, together with Tsamis Karatasos, who had been among the captains at the siege of Naousa in 1821, led another uprising in Western Macedonia that has been profusely commemorated in Greek folk song.

Greece following the Balkan Wars, the province of Macedonia can be seen written at the bottom.

Modern history

Bulgarian occupation zone in Greece (in green) during World War II

Greece gained the region from the Ottoman Empire, after the Second Balkan War with the Treaty of Bucharest (1913). In WW1 Venizelos was in support of the Allies and wanted Greece to join the war on their side, while the pro-German King wanted Greece to remain neutral, which would favor the plans of the Central Powers. The disagreement had wider implications, since it would also affect the character and role of the king in the state. The unconstitutional dismissal of Venizelos by the King resulted in a deep personal rift between the two and in subsequent events their followers divided into two radically opposed political camps affecting the wider Greek society.

With the landing of Allied forces in Thessaloniki with Venizelos' permission and the unconditional surrender by the King of a military fort in Macedonia to German-Bulgarian forces, the disagreement of the two men started to take the form of civil war. In August 1916, followers of Venizelos set up a provisional state in Northern Greece with Entente support with the aim of reclaiming the lost regions in Macedonia, effectively splitting Greece into two entities. After intense diplomatic negotiations and an armed confrontation in Athens between Entente and royalist forces (an incident known as Noemvriana) the king abdicated, and his second son Alexander took his place. Venizelos returned to Athens on 29 May 1917 and Greece, now unified, officially joined the war on the side of the Allies, emerging victorious and securing new territory by the Treaty of Sèvres.

In World War II Thrace and eastern Macedonia were occupied (1941–44) by Bulgaria, which sided with the Axis Powers. The Bulgarian government maintained a course of military passivity until 20 April 1941, when German troops crushed Greece and Yugoslavia. In April 1941, the Bulgarian Army entered the Aegean region, hoping for gaining an Aegean Sea outlet in Thrace and Eastern Macedonia, and occupied a territory between the river Struma and a line of demarcation running through Alexandroupoli and Svilengrad west of Evros with the cities of Alexandroupoli (Дедеагач, Dedeagach), Komotini (Гюмюрджина, Gyumyurdzhina), Serres (Сяр, Syar), Xanthi (Ксанти), Drama (Драма) and Kavala (Кавала) and the islands of Thasos and Samothrace.

From the 1870s, nashi^[24]-speaking communities of northern Greece split into two hostile and opposed groups with two different national identities - Greek and Bulgarian.^[25] By the Second World War and the defeat of Bulgaria, another split occurred among the Bulgarians. Conservatives departed with the occupying Bulgarian Army to Bulgaria. Leftists began identifying as Slavomacedonians, joining the communist-dominated rebel 'Democratic Army of Hellas'.^[26] At the conclusion of the Civil War (1946–49), most Slavomacedonians left Greece and settled in the Yugoslavia. Some of them also emigrated to Canada or Australia.^[27]

Etymology

There are a number of theories for the etymology of the name Macedonia:

1. According to Herodotus, both the Dorians and Macedonians descended from the tribe of the Makednoi. The name of the latter probably derives from the Doric noun μᾶκος, mākos (Attic and modern Greek μάκρος, mákros and μῆκος, mēkos), meaning "length", and the adjective μακεδνός, makednós, meaning "tall, tapering", possibly indicating that the Macedonians (Makedónes) and their Makednoi tribal ancestors were regarded as tall people. The adjective is used by Homer in Odyssey (7.105f), to describe a tall poplar tree, and by Aristophanes in his comedy the Birds, to describe a wall built around their imaginary city.
2. The district of Macedonia took its name from the Macedonian people, who in turn owe their name to Macedon, who according to Hesiod was the son of Zeus and Thyia, Deucalion's daughter. Hesiod makes Magnes and Macedon brothers, cousins of Graecus, sons of Zeus and grandchildren of Deucalion, the mythological progenitor of all Greeks.

Local government

Macedonia is divided into three regions (Greek: Περιφέρειες) comprising fourteen regional units (Greek: Περιφερειακές ενότητες). The regional units are further divided into municipalities (Greek: δήμοι) or "communities" (Greek: κοινότητες – roughly equivalent to British or Australian shires). They are overseen by the Ministry for the Interior, while the Ministry of Macedonia and Thrace is responsible for the coordination and application of the government's policies in the region.^[28] Prior to the Kallikratis Reform in 2010, Greece's regional units were called "prefectures", and Thasos was part of the prefecture of Kavala.

Macedonia borders the neighboring regions of Thessaly to the south, Thrace (part of the East Macedonia and Thrace region) to the east and Epirus to the west. It also borders Albania to the north-west, the Republic of Macedonia to the north and Bulgaria to the north-east. The three Macedonian regions and their subdivisions are: