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.
Early history of Argead Macedonia 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 (Argive 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 city-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.
Perdiccas II of Macedon and his son
Archelaus allied both to the Athenians and the
Spartans several times (both the Spartans and the Macedonians were considered Dorian, while the Athenians Ionian), but Athens maintained the colony of Amphipolis under her control until it was seized by
Brasidas.
Rise of Macedon under Philip II and Alexander ; erected in 4th BC in honour of
Laomedon of Mytilene, general of Alexander the Great The kingdom of Macedon with its capital at
Pella, was reorganised by
Philip II and achieved the union of most of
ancient Greece by forming the
League of Corinth under his leadership. After his assassination at Aigai, his son
Alexander the Great succeeded to the throne of Macedon and carrying the title of
Hegemon of the Hellenic League, started his
long campaign towards the east against the
Achaemenid empire. Before his death at
Babylon in 323 BC,
his empire stretched from Greece to
India.
Hellenistic period After the
death of Alexander the Great and the
Wars of the Diadochi, Macedonia was a powerful state of
Hellenistic Greece. It was ruled by
Cassander, son of
Antipater, who founded Thessaloniki, named after his wife
Thessalonike of Macedon (half-sister of Alexander the Great), and then the throne of Macedon was contested between
Lysimachus,
Pyrrhus of Epirus,
Demetrius Poliorcetes and his son
Antigonus Gonatas until 272 BC. A Macedonian League called the "
Koinon of the Macedonians" was established.
Antigonid Macedon remained an important and powerful state until the end of the
Second Macedonian War and the defeat of
Philip V by
Rome. The
Battle of Pydna (22 June 168 BC), in which the Roman general
Aemilius Paulus defeated the last Antigonid king
Perseus, ended the reign of the Antigonid dynasty over Macedonia. Macedon was divided into four administrative districts by the Romans in the hope that this would make revolts more difficult, but this manoeuvre failed when
Andriscus led a revolt.
Roman period and early Byzantine period in Thessaloniki, capital of Roman Macedonia 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 (in Greece). 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 (from 479 to 482 AD Macedonia Secunda).
Macedonia Prima coincided approximately with Strabo's definition of Macedonia and with the modern administrative district of Greece 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 Byzantine Empire and the First Bulgarian Empire. The Macedonian regions under Byzantine control passed under the
tourma of Macedonia to the province of
Thrace.
Medieval history 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 Thessaloniki 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. 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. It was subdued by the co-founder of the Greek
Despotate of Epirus,
Theodore Komnenos Doukas in 1224, when Greek Macedonia and the city of
Thessaloniki were at the heart of the short-lived
Empire of Thessalonica. Returning to the restored Byzantine Empire shortly thereafter, Greek Macedonia remained in Byzantine hands until the 1340s, when all of Macedonia (except Thessaloniki, and possibly
Veria) was conquered by the Serbian ruler
Stefan Dušan. After the
Battle of Maritsa (1371), Byzantine rule was reestablished in eastern regions, including
Serres. During the 1380s, the region was gradually conquered by the advancing
Ottomans, with Serres holding out until 1383, and Thessaloniki 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), Thessaloniki and its immediate surrounding area returned to the Ottomans.
Ottoman rule , theologian, monk and
Patriarch of Alexandria who was born in
Veria in 1589. The capture of
Thessaloniki in 1430 threw the Byzantine world into consternation, being regarded correctly as a 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 Thessaloniki:
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.
Modern history marches on its way to the Front, during WWI. 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). The Greek Declaration of Independence in Macedonia by
Emmanuel Pappas in 1821, during the
Greek War of Independence. The revolt spread from
Central to
Western Macedonia. In the autumn of 1821,
Nikolaos Kasomoulis was sent to southern Greece as the "representative of South-East Macedonia", and met Demetrius Ypsilantis. At the beginning of 1822,
Anastasios Karatasos and
Angelis Gatsos arranged a meeting with other
armatoloi and decided that the insurrection should be based on three towns: Naoussa,
Kastania, and
Siatista. In 1854
Theodoros Ziakas, the son of the
klepht Ziakas, together with
Dimitrios 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. To strengthen Greek efforts for Macedonia, the
Hellenic Macedonian Committee was formed in 1903, under the leadership of
Dimitrios Kalapothakis; its members included
Ion Dragoumis and
Pavlos Melas. Its fighters were known as
Makedonomachoi ("Macedonian fighters"). Greece helped the
Macedonians to resist both
Ottoman and
Bulgarian forces, by sending military officers who formed bands made up of Macedonians and other Greek volunteers, something that resulted in the
Macedonian Struggle from 1904 to 1908, which ended with the
Young Turk Revolution. The
Macedonians fought alongside the regular Greek army during the struggle for Macedonia. There are monuments in Macedonia commemorating the
Makedonomachoi, the local Macedonian and other Greek fighters, who took part in the wars and died to liberate Macedonia from the Ottoman rule, officially memorialized as heroes. Greece gained the southern parts of the region (with
Thessaloniki), which corresponded to that of
ancient Macedonia attributed as part of
Greek history and had a strong Greek presence, Thus, as seen by observers, the affiliation of Macedonian Slavs to different national camps was not indeed belonging to an ethnic group, but rather political and flexible option. By the Second World War and following the defeat of Bulgaria, another further split between the Slavic groups occurred. Conservatives departed with the occupying Bulgarian Army to Bulgaria. Leftists who identified as Macedonians (Slavic), joined the communist-dominated rebel
Democratic Army of Greece. At the conclusion of the
Greek Civil War (1946–49), most Macedonians of Slavic background were evacuated by the
Greek Communist Party and forced to flee to the
Yugoslav Socialist Republic of Macedonia and other countries in Eastern and Central Europe. Some also immigrated to Canada, Australia, and the United States. Current Greek law still forbids the reentry and restitution of property by Macedonians that are not "Greek by origin." == Geography ==