09-04-2013, 04:19 AM
On the issue of language, my understanding is that Macedonian has a number of similarities, and probably would have been somewhat intelligible to a Greek speaker (although some linguists suggest that Philip would have been pronounced "Bilib" due to a patois sound shift. On the criterion of mutual intelligibility, Macedonian might be considered a Greek dialect. The line between a dialect and a separate language is in reality an often dubious one, and some linguists quip that a "language is a dialect with an army an navy." I have also been told by people who know linguistics better than I do, that Macedonian is related to Greek, but it is not the most closely related language: this honor goes to Phrygian.
When the Greeks went about policing their own ethnic boundaries, the Macedonians usually fell on the outside, although for diplomatic reasons the Macedonian royal family was considered of Greek descent, and therefore members of the royal family were allowed the participate in the Olympic games. Nonetheless, Greeks could point to a number of un-Greek things Macedonians did, most notably drinking un-diluted wine, and for having homosexual relationships between between fully grown, bearded men (Greeks, on this definition, only had sex with boys).
The Macedonians, despite the Hellenic pretensions of their royal family, were themselves content to let this separation stand. Note, for example, the isolation amongst Alexander's successors that Eumenes of Caria faced, not being an ethnic Macedonian. Even Hellenistic kings identified themselves as "Macedonians" to their subjects (for example Antiochus I in the Borsippa cylinder). But the again, when necessary, the Macedonians wave the Panhellenic banner when they had to, most notably Alexander in his crusade against the Persians. Alexander even had the audacity to justify his brutal destruction of Thebes in the fact that the Thebans had Medized during the Persian Wars. They had, but so had the Macedonians!
The short answer, would be no, the Macedonians were not full card carrying Greeks. But as with most controversies in the ancient world, it is complicated!
When the Greeks went about policing their own ethnic boundaries, the Macedonians usually fell on the outside, although for diplomatic reasons the Macedonian royal family was considered of Greek descent, and therefore members of the royal family were allowed the participate in the Olympic games. Nonetheless, Greeks could point to a number of un-Greek things Macedonians did, most notably drinking un-diluted wine, and for having homosexual relationships between between fully grown, bearded men (Greeks, on this definition, only had sex with boys).
The Macedonians, despite the Hellenic pretensions of their royal family, were themselves content to let this separation stand. Note, for example, the isolation amongst Alexander's successors that Eumenes of Caria faced, not being an ethnic Macedonian. Even Hellenistic kings identified themselves as "Macedonians" to their subjects (for example Antiochus I in the Borsippa cylinder). But the again, when necessary, the Macedonians wave the Panhellenic banner when they had to, most notably Alexander in his crusade against the Persians. Alexander even had the audacity to justify his brutal destruction of Thebes in the fact that the Thebans had Medized during the Persian Wars. They had, but so had the Macedonians!
The short answer, would be no, the Macedonians were not full card carrying Greeks. But as with most controversies in the ancient world, it is complicated!
