Were Ancient Macedonians Greek?

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It is certainly notable that his actions in Thessaly involved reorganisation by mass settlement of cities by Macedonians and similarly mass exiles of the locals. The votes awarded to him in the Amphictyonic League were those of the expelled Phocians.
Unless there's something about the nature of Greek warfare I'm missing, that to me seems a pretty big mark in the "not greek" category for the Macedonians.
 
Maybe you are missing that Greek city states were always on war between them and getting citizens of a rival city state as slaves was usual ;)
 
Resettling own-city or other loyal populations in a conquered rival city is not at all uncommon for the time in a setting of Greek war, or shortly before it either. Just have a look at what Thessaly itself did with the nice Heraclea colony of Sparta in the borders between Boetia and Thessaly, during the Peloponnesian wars ;) (hint: they killed/drove off the population and settled their own).
 
Unless there's something about the nature of Greek warfare I'm missing, that to me seems a pretty big mark in the "not greek" category for the Macedonians.

It's true that warfare between the poleis was often somewhat ritualised - hence why the wars were so long so often. Yet I can see a definite parallel in the Spartan expansion into Messenia in the Archaic period, in which they absorbed the territory into their polis heartland, enslaved the locals and divided the land between their own citizens. It's true that Greek expansion usually took the form of enforced alliances and regime change - witness both Athens and Sparta after the PErsian Wars - but this was not always the case.
 
What would change if the Ancient Macedonians were Greek or Albanian or Scythian or Thracian or what? Would it stop the tension there, would it have any effect on the government in Skopje? If Ancient Macedonians were Albanians, would they go beyond the border to hug their brothers?
 
I doubt that. If it turns out they don't have the identify they've thought they did, all they'll do is adopt Skanderbeg, into something horrible, like Skanderbegvichoch or something equally worse. Because they're not an actual state. They're a placeholder, today's Eastern Romelia.
 
Eastern Rumelia is Greek! :( (well, was. But we still need eastern Thrace :) ).

Anyway, isn't the percentage of the 'co-founding ethnicity' of Fyrom (i mean Albanians) already nearing 40% of the population of their country? Looks like it won't be in one piece for longer either way..
 
If Ancient Macedonians were Albanians, would they go beyond the border to hug their brothers?

What would change if the Ancient Macedonians were (...) Albanian

They don't need to go beyond the border since there are already a lot of Albanian minority in Macedonia. By the way, we don't really know if Albanians were present in the Balkans already in Ancient times. Somehow nobody spotted them, Albanians appear in written sources under this name only during the Middle Ages. They have their legend of being descendants of Illyrians but is it true, if we don't know much about the ancient Illyrian language?
 
Well, there's a legend that says that Khan Kubrat split several sticks to display that in unity we succeed, in disunity we fail. Is it true? We might never know.

But if enough people believe in it, it becomes part of our nation. Of it's history. It's lesson must be remembered, not it's historical accuracy.
 
But if enough people believe in it, it becomes part of our nation. Of it's history. It's lesson must be remembered, not it's historical accuracy.

And that's why we can expect more monuments of Alexander Philippovic being constructed soon.

And that's why we can also expect that Greeks will continue to believe that they are a "race".

As for Albanians - maybe they are descendants of some Illyrians, but certainly they are not descendants of all (or even most) Illyrians.

Look where is Albania and how "big" it is. Then look where was ancient Illyria and how big it was.
 
And that's why we can expect more monuments of Alexander Philippovic being constructed soon.

And that's why we can also expect that Greeks will continue to believe that they are a "race".

People believe ridiculous stuff. For the last 2000 years, we're believing in Jesus. What makes us better or wronger than the people believing in Alexander Philippovich?
 
Well, one of "arguments" Macedonians can use in their claims that Alexander the Great was not Greek, is the fact that Alexander was a light-haired individual (according to most of Ancient sources), while in FYROM percent of people with light hair is slightly higher than in Greece:

Spoiler :

About Alexander's look:

http://ancienthistory.about.com/od/...-What-Color-Was-Alexander-The-Greats-Hair.htm

"(...) Alexander Son of Philip (...) his Hair curled naturally, and was yellow; yet they say there was something stern in his countenance. (...)"

"(...) For he had the hair of a lion and one eye was blue; the right one was heavy lidded and black, and the left one was blue (...)"
 
In all due fairness, Alexander the Great has somehow been deified over the times. He doesn't exist like a historical person, more like a sweeping legend that conquered lands from Macedonia to Ganges, all because.. uhh, he liked to conquer things?
 
Silly Pole. Bet you didn't know Hittites are Macedonian, didn't you? Macedonia was just one of their colonies.
 
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