Macedonia (Greece)
Macedonia is a geographic and former administrative region of Greece, in the southern Balkans. Macedonia is the largest and geographic region in Greece, with a population of 2.36 million. Part of Northern Greece, it is highly mountainous, with major urban centres such as Thessaloniki and Kavala being concentrated on its southern coastline. Greek Macedonia encompasses entirely the southern part of the wider region of Macedonia, making up 51% of the total area of that region. Additionally, it widely constitutes Greece's borders with three countries: Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia to the north, and Bulgaria to the northeast.
Greek Macedonia incorporates most of the territories of Macedon, a Greek kingdom ruled by the Argeads, whose most celebrated members were Alexander the Great and his father Philip II. Before the expansion of Macedonia under Philip in the 4th centuryBC, the kingdom of the Macedonians covered an area corresponding roughly to the administrative regions of Western and Central Macedonia in modern Greece. The name Macedonia was later applied to a number of widely-differing administrative areas in the Roman and Byzantine empires. With the gradual conquest of south-eastern Europe by the Ottomans in the late 14th century, the name of Macedonia disappeared as an administrative designation for several centuries and was rarely displayed on maps. With the rise of nationalism in the Ottoman Empire, the name Macedonia was revived in the nineteenth century as a geographical term, and for educated Greeks it corresponded to the ancient historical land. The economic ascent of Thessaloniki and of the other urban centres of Macedonia coincided with the cultural and political renaissance of the Greeks. The leader and coordinator of the Greek Revolution in Macedonia was Emmanouel Pappas, today considered a Greek hero along with the unnamed Macedonians that fought with him.
The fall and massacre of Naoussa marked the end of the Greek Revolution in Macedonia, and the region remained in the Ottoman Empire. In the early 20th century the region was already a national cause, contested among the states of Greece, Bulgaria and Serbia. The southern part of the region of Macedonia became part of the Greek state, in the aftermath of the Balkan Wars and the Treaty of Bucharest. It continued as an administrative division of Greece until the reform of 1987, when it was split into the second-level administrative divisions of Western Macedonia and Central Macedonia; while the eastern part, into the Drama-Kavala-Xanthi Super-prefecture until 2010, and part of the Eastern Macedonia and Thrace division after 2010. The region is further divided between the third-level administrative divisions of the Decentralized Administration of Macedonia and Thrace, and the Decentralized Administration of Epirus and Western Macedonia. It also includes the autonomous monastic community of Mount Athos, which is under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in its political aspect, and of the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople in its religious aspect.
The region remains an important economic centre for Greece. Macedonia accounts for the majority of Greece's agricultural production and is also a major contributor to the country's industrial and tourism sectors. The metropolis of the region, Thessaloniki is the second-largest city and a major economic, industrial, cultural, commercial and political centre of Greece. Central Macedonia is Greece's tourist region and the most popular destination that is not an island. It is home to four UNESCO World Heritage sites, including Aigai, the first Macedonian capital, where Philip II was assassinated and Alexander the Great was crowned king of Macedon. Pella, which replaced Aigai as the capital of Macedon in the fourth century BC and was the birthplace of Alexander the Great, is also located in the region. Stagira, which was the birthplace of Aristotle, is also located in the region.
Etymology
The name Macedonia derives from the , a kingdom named after the ancient Macedonians, who were the descendants of a Bronze-Age Greek tribe. Their name, Μακεδόνες, is cognate to the Ancient Greek adjective Makednos, meaning 'tall, slim'. It is traditionally derived from the Indo-European root *meh₂ḱ-, meaning 'long' or 'slender'. Linguist Robert S. P. Beekes supports the idea that both terms are of Pre-Greek substrate origin and cannot be explained in terms of Indo-European morphology. However, Beekes' views are not mainstream and De Decker argues that his arguments are insufficient. The region has historically also been known as in Bulgarian and the local South Slavic dialects, in Turkish, and in Aromanian. is also the name for the region in Megleno-Romanian.History
Prehistory
Macedonia lies at the crossroads of human development between the Aegean and the Balkans. The earliest signs of human habitation date back to the palaeolithic period, notably with the Petralona cave in which was found the oldest yet known European humanoid, Archanthropus europaeus petraloniensis. The Ouranopithecus macedoniensis is perhaps the oldest, dating to 9.6–8.7 million years ago. During the early Neolithic period, the settlement of Nea Nikomedeia was developed. In the Late Neolithic period, trade took place with quite distant regions, indicating rapid socio-economic changes. One of the most important innovations was the start of copper working.Ancient history
According to Herodotus, the history of Macedonia began with the tribe of Makednoi, among the first to use the name, migrating to the region from Histiaeotis in the south. There they lived near Thracian tribes and Bryges; the latter would later leave Macedonia for Anatolia and become known as Phrygians. Macedonia was named after Makedon. Accounts of other toponyms such as Emathia are attested to have been in use before that. Herodotus claims that the Macedonians invaded Southern Greece towards the end of the second millennium B.C., and upon reaching the Peloponnese they were renamed Dorians, triggering the accounts of the Dorian invasion. For centuries, the tribes of Upper Macedonia were organised in the independent kingdoms of Orestis, Tymphaea, Lynkestis, and Elimiotis, while the Argead Macedonians established the kingdom of Macedon centered around Aigai, in Lower Macedonia, which corresponds roughly to what is now Central Macedonia. The Makedones claimed to be Dorian Greeks and there were many Ionian colonies 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 Thucydides. Many Macedonian cities were allied to the Spartans, 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 carrying the title of Hegemon of League of Corinth started his long campaign towards the east. After the death of Alexander the Great and the Wars of the Diadochi, Macedonia was a powerful state of Hellenistic Greece.
Roman period and early Byzantine period
Macedonia remained an important and powerful kingdom until the Battle of Pydna, 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 by the Romans in the hope that this would make revolts more difficult, but this manoeuvre failed. Then in 148 BC, Macedonia was fully annexed by the Romans. The northern boundary at that time ended at Lake Ohrid and Bylazora, a Paeonian city near the modern city of Veles. Strabo, writing in the first century AD places the border of Macedonia on that part at Lychnidos, Byzantine Achris and presently Ochrid. Therefore, ancient Macedonia did not significantly extend beyond its current borders. 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. The Acts of the Apostles records a vision in which the apostle Paul is said to have seen a 'man of Macedonia' pleading with him, saying, "Come over to Macedonia and help us".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 Diocletianic reform many of these regions were removed and two new provinces were created: Macedonia Prima and Macedonia Salutaris. Macedonia Prima coincided approximately with Strabo's definition of Macedonia and with the modern administrative district of Greece and had Thessaloniki as its capital, while Macedonia Salutaris had the Paeonian city of Stobi as its capital. This subdivision is mentioned in Hierocles' Synecdemon and remained through the reign of emperor Justinian.
The Slavic, Avar, Bulgarian and Magyar invasions in the 6–7th centuries devastated both provinces 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.