Alexander the Great and the Slavs
Saturday July 11, 2009
I saw an entertaining blog this week about a modern argument over ancient conqueror Alexander the Great. On the one side you have the ‘Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia’ (henceforth FYROM). They’re claiming that Alexander was a Slav, a European people from their region, and have named an airport after their new national symbol. On the other hand you have a collection of 300 signatories, all classical scholars, who have written to US President Obama hoping to get some sort of official denial of Alexander’s Slavness. Blogger Mary Beard, herself a Professor of Classics, takes issue with both sides in the argument, pointing out that Alexander almost certainly wasn’t from the modern region of FYROM, but neither do the signatories make a coherent case.
Comments
THERE WASN’T SUCH A THING AS “SLAVS”… IN THE ANCIENT AGE OF GREEK CIVILIZATION…! ONLY BARBARIANS AND PERSIANS OUTSIDE OUR BORDERS!SO.. BACK OUT FYROM.. FIND A HISTORY OF YOUR OWN! STOP STEALING OURS! OTHERWISE WE’LL GET REALLY MAD…!!!
The ancient Greeks did not regard the Macedonians as Greeks, nor the Macedonians regarded themselves to be Greek. They were proud of their Macedonian nationality and way of life, and looked down upon the Greeks and with contempt. The Greeks called them barbarians, along with the Persians, Illyrians, and Thracians, a label that they attributed to all non-Greeks who neither spoke nor understood the Greek language. Alexander’s Macedonian Army was not a “Greek army” as some modern writers have erroneously claimed, nor the Macedonian conquest of Asia was a “Greek conquest”. The fact is that not one ancient writer has called the Macedonian empire “Greek” or the Macedonian army and conquest “Greek”, but specifically Macedonian.