and still yet, the people of FYROM are not Pannonian, Illyrian nor Macedonian Greek.
It seems that most people want Alexander the Great to be a man that was an other ethnicity than Greeks, that after conquering a culture that he is apparently not a part of was inspired to make an Empire of the culture that he was separate from. I'm not trying to mock the argument that Alexander wasnt Greek, but what other leader fought with his life to build an Empire for a culture he was not a part of?
Aristotle was his tutor. As a student Alexander is told to have learned Greek History. Many of you that dont speak Greek think that Greek is separate from Hellene. It is not. There is no word Greek in Greek. You are a Hellene. Other Hellenic Empires were the Mycenae and Athenian. Throughout history each one of these groups looked at other City-States as friends, enemies and allies but all Hellenic. I write this because people quote documents that describe the Macedonians as non-Hellenes. But was that not true of the Spartans who were Doric. The Hellenes of today identify first as ethnically Ionian, Romanoio (Byzantine Rome), Doric, Macedonian, Cretan, Cypriot, Pontic, Thracian, Corinthian, Messene, Cycladic, Chioti, Samoidos, Spartan and that yes the Trojan culture had lived on as well did Mysian, Lydian, Anatolian cultures did in Greek cities up until under the Ottoman Empire. We document the lifestyle/culture through Greek dialects, Greek dance, foods, traditions, clothing. The names change as time pass to represent new changes in cultural patterns. As the people that preserved and studied say Trojan culture lived in Pergamon. Or the people that perserved the documentation of Lydian culture came from Philadelphia and Sardis. Ionic culture was wide spread and is what is refered to today as Athenian culture. These trends in clothing, dialects, food, intermarrage of Ionic culture were linked from the Ionian islands near Italy to the Thessalonians then jump to Attica pass through distinctively Andros, Delos, Mykonos, Thera into Ionia where Miletus, Halicarnassus, and Ephessus end. The Aegean islands are distinctively more merritime cultures than Thessaly, Athens and Ephessus. The Ionic Islands centered around the culture in Ithaca, these people were more formal and organized, proper than what you wouldve seen in Delos, Andros, Mykonos. Cycladic culture is the island culture that disturbed the Athenian culture pattern in the Aegean Islands.
The point in all of this is to somewhat give a glimpse of how Hellenic culture was tied together as a functioning unit, but separate by ideals. If only the Arabs hadnt burned the Great Library of Alexandria, there would be more to refer to. But believe me when I say how important culture in general is to us. We documented history in the Library of Alexandria and this month you will see the French-Canadian-Greek intiative to reinstate a global School of Athens in Greece. It is for modern purposes, but serves as a forum between cultures on global governance and welfare. After being presented at the UN it will either pass or fail. In the School of Athens you will most likely see the case of Macedonianism be discussed and hopefully it will bring an understanding between the Slavic Argument and Greek Argument.
Last note for now:
Macedonia conquered: the Hellas Strait, Thessaly, Peloponessos and Thrace for Greek culture.
Sparta conquered: Messene, Arcadia.
Athenians fought and absorbed other City-States.
The Greeks always fought each other, the Macedonian Greeks were the first ones to unite us to conquer what was then the world. The Macedonia Greek culture for Greeks today represents our unity as Greeks. So when people say we whine about the name Macedonia, it is because they are stealing our identity. It is identity theft. It is an effort to destabilize our credibility from the evidences that together with Britons, French and Italians we have documented from archeological artifacts. If Slavs are named Macedonians, then that means Greeks can no longer base who they are off the Ancient Greeks. The strongest point of Ancient Greece was when it was led from Pella.
Well I should have bored a majority of you by now. I guess I should find the reference to the Argos born Royal Family statement. Later
