Customer Reviews (7)

Superb scholarly piece of work about Ancient Greek Macedonia
For all those interested in a substantiated unbiased piece of academic work about ancient Macedonia this book is nothing short of superb!

Very informative book!
This book is a very good introduction to the history of Macedonia (which, by the way, has nothing to do with the so-called Slavic country of FYROM "Macedonia" today) I found the reading enjoyable. This book is a great buy!

Great!
This is a very scholarly and wonderful book about the history of Macedonia. For those interested in Phillip II and his son Alexander the Great, this book gives a general history of the period and of the people involved.

An accurate and consice history of the Ancient Macedonians
M Errington's review is both accurate and timely, given the attempts by countries that are Greece's neighbors to usurp the name and the history of this most influential northern Greek kingdom. It is, perhaps along with U Wilckens' and N Hammond's the most fact-based. I have read it twice along with Borza's "In the Shadows of Olympus" and find it the most objective. Readers can see for themselves. Errington clearly illuminates the political
-that is what they were-differences between the Macedonians and the other Greeks. But most importantly he underscores Phillip's skillful political manoeuvres by which he outwitted the Southern Greeks and finally divided and conquered them. (The Anglo-Saxons certainly have learned from him as can be seen in the last 150 years).

Dr. Nick Papanikolaou

An excellent and accurate source of Macedonian history
Although I acquired this book by a different source than Amazon (before I discovered Amazon.com), I feel I should write a review, especially after reading the first review by the reader from NY.

This book is very well written and, I believe, will always be a great source of historical info. for myself and my daughter.

Mr. Errington's research and conclusions as to the ethnic makeup of the ancient Macedonians are not only correct they appear to be necessary in light of today's wave of self-serving history revisionism.

QUESTION #1: WHAT WAS THE LANGUAGE OF THE ANCIENT MACEDONIANS?

Here's what a couple of ancient (and obviously unbiased) sources say:

The Roman writer Titus Livius says : (from "The Foundation of the City", Paragraph 31)

"The Aitolians, the Akarnanians, the Macedonians, men of the same language, are united or disunited by trivial causes that arise from time to time; with aliens, with barbarians, all Greeks wage and will wage eternal war; for they are enemies by the will of nature, which is eternal, and not from reasons that change from day to day."

Didorus of Sicily (17.67.1) says:

(...) And the rest of the Greeks?

Pausanias writes in his book "Description of Greece" (10.3.3):

"The Phocians were deprived of their share in the Delphic sanctuary and in the Greek assembly, and their votes were given by the Amphictyons to the Macedonians."

and also in his book "Phokis" (8,2 & 4):

"They say that these were the tribes collected by Amphiktyon himself in the Hellenic Assembly: [...] the Macedonians joined and the entire Phocian race [...] In my day there were thirty members: six from each of Nikopolis, Macedonia and Thessaly [...] "

Aeschines (On the Embassy 2.32) gives evidence of the Macedonian king Amyntas taking part at the congress of the Lacedaemonian allies and the other Greeks:

"For at a congress of the Lacedaemonian allies and the other Greeks, in which Amyntas, the father of Philip, being entitled to a seat, was represented by a delegate whose vote was absolutely under his control, he joined the other Greeks in voting to help Athens to recover possession of Amphipolis. As proof of this I presented from the public records the resolution of the Greek congress and the names of those who voted".

Isocratis, one of the most impotant orators of ancient Greece says in his speach "To Philip" addressed to King Philip II of Macedonia (Paragaraph 127):

(...) The Sicilian historian Diodoros says in his history about King Philip of Macedonia (Diodoros, Historical Library 16.95.1-2)

"Such was the end of Philip, who had made himself the greatest of the kings in Europe in his time, and because of the extent of his kingdom had made himself a throned companion of the twelve gods. He had ruled twenty-four years. He is known to fame as one who with but the slenderest resources to support his claim to a throne won for himself the greatest empire in the Greek world, while the growth of his position was not due so much to his prowess in arms as to his adroitness and cordiality in diplomacy.

It is clear to see why special interest groups 'need' to separate ancient Macedonians from the rest of Greece. The new Slav Republic of "Macedonia" (FYROM), needs to establish some sort of link to the age of antiquity, in order to justify their self-proclaimed ethnic identity. It must be difficult to prove that you have some ancient local roots when your ancestors (Slavic tribes) descended on the Balkans about 800 years after the death of Alexander.

Books such as the Erringtons' are clearly needed in order to establish historical and cultural truth. Readers can simply judge for themselves.

Start with this book. ... Read more

Book Description
This volume carries the history of Macedonia through from the death of Philip II to the end of its existence as an independent state in 167 BC.Its expansion in the reign of Alexander is one of the miracles of history.An attempt is made to understand the internal sources of strength of the kingdom and the impact of Alexander's career upon the Macedonians, the Greek states, and the Balkan area. It then goes on to examine the period of civil war which followed, between the Macedonian generals, each of them claiming to defend the monarchy.After the death of Alexander IV the Macedonian-Hellenistic kingdoms are viewed from the standpoint of Macedonia and the Greek mainland, which remain the central topics of this three-volume history. The final phase is dominated by the wars with Rome; recent discoveries have afforded new insights into Macedonia's contribution to the arts and into the structure and the institutions of this most remarkable of all the monarchic states. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Excellent book
This is generally recognized as one of the best books about ancient macedonia, if not the best. I would even dare to say that I prefer it over Malcolm Errington's "History of Macedonia" in some points. It's sad to see it's out of print now :( I know that Nicholas Hammond (probably the greatest 20th century researcher on ancient greek history) has died, yet I still hope that it will be reprinted. It's an all time classic and it was the basic bibliography in all universities for many years. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (19)

COLD HARD FACTS
Macedonia: 4000 years of Greek History and Civilazation is well written and supported by facts and ancient artifacts..

Before I begin my review id like to point out some inaccuracies from previous reviews listed here..First, there was no Greek nation in ancient times but Greek city-states...Athens Sparta ThebesCorinth and yes Macedonia...Ive read previous reviews where the authors claim that the the Greeks revolted under Macedoanian rule which is true...Greek city states greatly valued their independence even from other Greek city states..Such is the case between Athens and Sparta when they tried to dominate each other leading to the Peloponnesian War..It is natural that they would revolt..Claiming that because the other Greek city-states revolted against Macedonia as proof of Macedonians being a non-Greek people is false!!

Id like to ask or suggest some food for thought to my FYROM readers(Former YugoSLAV Republic Of Macedonia) or disbelievers that the MAcedonians wereGreek these FACTS:

1)Why is there no evidence of a non-Greek Macedonian language?
the ancient Macedonians spoke Greek and had Greek names..
2)Where is this non-Greek Macedonian culture hiding?
All ancient Macedonian artifacts are Greek
Are we suppose to believe the that the ancient Macedoanians were not Greek and then one day out of the blue they said the hell with it let's be Greek? Lets speak Greek, worship Greek gods, write in Greek, structure our conquered territory based on Greek ideas and culture, setting up gymnasiums, theater, agoras..etc.. common on people!!! No conquerer has ever conquered a country or territory and then poof in an instant forgot his roots..I once heard someone use Rome as an example regarding its conquering of the ancient Greek city states and adopting Greek culture.Id like to point out that Rome never adopted Greek as its official language. Romans never adopted Greek names ( cicero ceasar aurelias are not greek)and most of all you can clearly see a distinction between Roman literature and Greek..

3)Why did Alexander idolize Greek heroes such as Achilles, why did he keep a copy of the Illiad around as if it were his bible written by another Greek Homer..How is Aristotle his tutor Greek and Alexander isnt when they are both Macedonians?


4) Why would the ancient Greeks place the home of their gods( Zeus Athena Poseidon etc) on MT OLYMPUS which is located in ancient Macedonia??
Does it make sense for a people to place their holy sites in a foreign land???Doesnt anyone think logically anymore?

Todays inhabitants of FYROM are a mix ofBulgarians, Albanians, Gypsies.
Slavic people arrived in the Balkans in the 6th and 7th century AD...
It is LOGICALLY incorrect for these citizens to believe they are Macedonians...They are Slavs and there is ZERO evidence of the ancient Macedonians being Slavic!!!!

Todays FYROM scholars have NO TANGIBLE EVIDENCE to claim that the ancient Macedonians were not Greek just revisionistic lies!!!!


Furthermore,FYROM's former president Kiro Gligorov in the Toronto Star on March 15, 1992 said: "We are Macedonians but we are Slav Macedonians. That's who we are! We have no connection to Alexander the Greek and his Macedonia. The ancient Macedonians no longer exist, they had disappeared from history long time ago. Our ancestors came here in the 5th and 6th century (AD)."



In an interview with the Ottawa Citizen, Gyordan Veselinov, Macedonia's Ambassador to Canada said: "We are not related to the northern Greeks who produced leaders like Philip and Alexander the Great. We are a Slav people and our language is closely related to Bulgarian" and that "there is some confusion about the identity of the people of this country."

When pictures talk
Over the past fifteen, I have heard a lot of claims by nationalists and anthropologists that the Ancient Macedonians and, in general the Macedonians weren't Hellenes. I guess they focus their teachings on misinformed people that haven't opened a book on Ancient Greece.
Unfortunately, social anthropologists have replaced historians however, they can't distort archeological findings found in Macedonia that prove them wrong. This book, gives the reader not only an analytic description of the history of Macedonians from Ancient times till present (Ottoman,Balkan wars,EU) but it also includes plenty of pictures of items from different macedonian museums and the Royal Tombs in Vergina that disapprove current overlooked scholars of anthropology that the Macedonians weren't Hellenes or were Hellenized.
Furthermore, the quotes from different sources are translated properly and in whole without paste and deleting. An example is: "Macedonians and the other Hellenes" and not what we have been taught today "Macedonians and Hellenes". Another example is the emphasis of Demosthenes calling Phillipo 'barbaric' but modern scholars have omitted the words 'hegemony of our lands'.
Before you call this book biased, the book has been written by different international and hellene authors that cover different historic periods.
Anyway, I recommend this book to anyone, especially the Hellenic diaspora, whose interested in Ancient Hellenic History. This is one out of six books of (Greek lands in History).

Book Review
The book in question is a perspective of the author done to perfection. It is not written with any notion of promoting scholarly balance in mind.Nor does it reflect on its use as a tool for propagating disinformation.This book merely discounts any information and evidence that presents itself as contrary to the views proposed by this work.As such, its value as a research tool outside of the study of propaganda is significantly diminished.The work is presented as pure research, but rather it shows itself to be a tiresome quagmire of propaganda which ultimately achieves no purpose other than fuelling continued ill feeling between two distinct ethnic groups.

Macedonia will always be a part of Greece
This book is excellent. If you really want to know the truth about the history of Macedonia, go out and read this book. To the people of F.Y.R.O.M..... It's harder to steal when everyone knows your a thief.

Excellent source of information about Macedonia
Being interested in the ancient European civilizations I bought this book to learn about ancient Macedonia. This book is an excellent source of information. I would definitely recommend to everyone interested to learn more about the ancient Macedonian civilization. ... Read more

Product Description
The MacEdonia Name in History is a customized book offering a unique blend of fascinating facts, statistics and commentary about the MacEdonia name.The book is just one of an entire series of family name books in the Our Name in History collection.Each book in the collection is printed on demand and is compiled from hundreds of millions of records from the world's largest online resource of family history, Ancestry.com.This particular book follows the MacEdonia family name through history and makes the perfect gift for your family members and anyone interested in the MacEdonia name. In the book you'll find out about where people with the MacEdonia last name originated. You may discover the countries and ports they left behind, the ships they sailed and more. You'll get a better idea of where people sharing the MacEdonia name settled and where they may reside today in the United States, Canada, England and other countries.You'll get all this information and much more in your MacEdonia family name book. If your last name is not MacEdonia, then check out our collection of nearly 300,000 family name books to find other available names in the series. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Monumental Work
Although incomplete since it does not include Epirus and Macedonia this book is an excellent, detailed, monumental work on Greek History and Literature. It's a piece of art. I don't think that another author could include so much of the ancient greek knowledge in a book, and that's the reason I forgive Hammond's region-limited view. The price may seem high, yet I recommend it to anyone *really* interested to ancient history.

Greek Denial of the Macedonian Name
The most important thing to remember about the "Macedonian conflict" is that the Greek position has changed dramatically over the past decade. Official Greek government policy was that Macedonia did not exist. When Greece took over Aegean Macedonia in 1913, they killed, tortured and ethnically cleansed hundreds of thousands of Macedonians. They changed the names of people, villages, and landmarks from Macedonian to Greek in their attempts to eradicate the Macedonian name.

Two things to remember:

1. It is ironic that Greeks now "love Macedonia" when they tried to eradicate its very existence.

2. If Macedonia has always been Greek, why did the Greek government deny its existence until the 1980's? ... Read more