The Borders of Ancient Makedonia II: from Philippos II to Andriskos

Abstract

Because more written and archaeological evidence relating to this period survives than the limited evidence for the period discussed in the first of these articles, the second part of this account will be even more of an epitome than the first. However, one thing is gradually becoming clearer: it is now increasingly possible to define the borders of Makedonia, even if the occasional raids made by neighbouring groups still caused them to fluctuate from time to time. It was during this period that this country took a form that is approximately equivalent to the modern Greek province of Makedonia (if we add a small triangle outside it to the north-west that includes Bitola). Also, it was during this period that the separate ethnicities of the different groups that existed in this area began to fade, and be replaced by a general Makedonian identity. Again, what must have been a diversity of slightly different dialects (most of which are lost to us) was gradually replaced from the late fourth century B.C. onwards by a version of the Attic dialect (later called the koine or common language) in Makedonia as elsewhere in the Greek world and in the eastern areas that had been conquered by Alexandros III.