Editing Macedonia (ancient kingdom) (section)

===Ethnic identity===
{{main|Ancient Macedonians#Identity}}
{{see also|Macedonia (terminology)|Makedon (mythology)|Ethnography|Cultural anthropology}}
{{Multiple image
| total_width       = 200
| image1            = Macedonian boy BM 1906.10-19.1.jpg
| caption1          = Athenian terracotta figurine, c.&nbsp;300&nbsp;BC.
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| image2            = Terrakota Statue eines Makedoniers 3 Jhdt v Chr.jpg
| caption2          = Macedonian terracotta figurine, 3rd century&nbsp;BC
| footer            = [[Terracotta]] statues depicting [[ancient Macedonians]] wearing the ''[[kausia]]'', a headgear that led the [[Persians]] to refer to the Macedonians as "Yaunã Takabara" ("Greeks with hats that look like shields").<ref>{{harvnb|Engels|2010|p=87}}; {{harvnb|Olbrycht|2010|pp=343–344}}.</ref>
}}

Ancient authors and modern scholars alike disagree about the precise ethnic identity of the ancient Macedonians. The predominant viewpoint supports that the Macedonians were "truly Greeks" who had just retained a more archaic lifestyle than those living in southern parts of Greece.<ref name="Engels-2010-84">{{harvnb|Engels|2010|p=84}}.</ref>  [[Ernst Badian]] notes however that nearly all surviving references to antagonisms and differences between Greeks and Macedonians exist in the written speeches of [[Arrian]], who lived at the time of the [[Roman Empire]], when any notion of an ethnic disparity between Macedonians and other Greeks was incomprehensible.<ref>{{harvnb|Badian|1982|p=51, n. 72}}; Johannes Engels comes to a similar conclusion. See: {{harvnb|Engels|2010|p=82}}.</ref> Hatzopoulos argues that there was no real ethnic difference between Macedonians and the other Greeks, only a political distinction contrived after the creation of the [[League of Corinth]] in 337{{nbsp}}BC (which was led by Macedonia through the league's elected ''[[hegemon]]'' Philip{{nbsp}}II, when he was not a member of the league itself);<ref group="note">{{harvnb|Hatzopoulos|2011b|pp=69–71}}. <br />Hatzopoulos stresses the fact that Macedonians and other peoples such as the [[Epirus (ancient state)|Epirotes]] and [[History of Cyprus|Cypriots]], despite speaking a Greek dialect, worshiping in Greek cults, engaging in Panhellenic games, and upholding traditional Greek institutions, nevertheless occasionally had their territories excluded from contemporary geographic definitions of "[[Greece|Hellas]]" and were even considered barbarians by some. See: {{harvnb|Hatzopoulos|2011b|pp=52, 71–72}}; Johannes Engels comes to a similar conclusion about the comparison between Macedonians and [[Epirotes]], saying that the "Greekness" of the Epirotes, despite them not being considered as refined as southern Greeks, never came into question. Engels suggests this perhaps because the Epirotes did not try to dominate the Greek world as [[Philip II of Macedon]] had done. See: {{harvnb|Engels|2010|pp=83–84}}.</ref> [[N. G. L. Hammond]] asserts that ancient views differentiating Macedonia's ethnic identity from the rest of the Greek-speaking world should be seen as an expression of conflict between two different political systems: the democratic system of the city-states (e.g. Athens) versus the monarchy (Macedonia).<ref>{{cite book|last1=Hammond|first1=N.G.L.|title=The Genius of Alexander the Great|date=1997|publisher=The University of North Carolina Press|isbn=978-0-8078-2350-7|page=[https://archive.org/details/geniusofalexande00nglh/page/11 11]|quote=The other part of the Greek-speaking world extended from Pelagonia in the north to Macedonia in the south. It was occupied by several tribal states, which were constantly at war against Illyrians, Paeonians and Thracians. Each state had its own monarchy. Special prestige attached to the Lyncestae whose royal family, the Bacchiadae claimed descent from Heracles, and to the Macedonians, whose royal family had a similar ancestry. [...] In the opinion of the city-states these tribal states were backward and unworthy of the Greek name, although they spoke dialects of the Greek language. According to Aristotle, monarchy was the mark of people too stupid to govern themselves.|url=https://archive.org/details/geniusofalexande00nglh/page/11}}</ref> Other academics who concur that the difference between the Macedonians and Greeks was a political rather than a true ethnic discrepancy include Michael B. Sakellariou,<ref>{{harvnb|Sakellariou|1983|p=52}}.</ref> Malcolm Errington,<ref group="note">{{harvnb|Errington|1990|pp=3–4}}. <br />{{harvnb|Errington|1994|p=4}}: "Ancient allegations that the Macedonians were non-Greek all had their origin in Athens at the time of the struggle with Philip{{nbsp}}II. Then as now, political struggle created the prejudice. The orator [[Aeschines]] once even found it necessary, to counteract the prejudice vigorously fomented by his opponents, to defend Philip on this issue and describe him at a meeting of the Athenian Popular Assembly as being 'entirely Greek'. [[Demosthenes]]' allegations were lent an appearance of credibility by the fact, apparent to every observer, that the life-style of the Macedonians, being determined by specific geographical and historical conditions, was different to that of a Greek city-state. This alien way of life was, however, common to western Greeks of Epirus, Akarnania and Aitolia, as well as to the Macedonians, and their fundamental Greek nationality was never doubted. Only as a consequence of the political disagreement with Macedonia was the issue raised at all."</ref> and Craige B. Champion.<ref group="note">{{harvnb|Champion|2004|p=41}}: "[[Demosthenes]] could drop the barbarian category altogether in advocating an Athenian alliance with the Great King against a power that ranked below any so-called barbarian people, the Macedonians. In the case of [[Aeschines]], Philip{{nbsp}}II could be 'a barbarian due for the vengeance of God', but after the orator's embassy to Pella in 346, he became a 'thorough Greek', devoted to Athens. It all depended upon one's immediate political orientation with Macedonia, which many Greeks instinctively scorned, was always infused with deep-seated ambivalence."</ref>

Anson argues that some Hellenic authors expressed complex or even ever-changing and ambiguous ideas about the exact ethnic identity of the Macedonians, who were considered by some as barbarians and others as semi-Greek or fully Greek.<ref group="note">{{harvnb|Anson|2010|pp=14–17}}; this was manifested in the different [[Family tree of the Greek gods|mythological genealogies]] concocted for the Macedonian people, with [[Hesiod]]'s ''[[Catalogue of Women]]'' claiming that the Macedonians descended from [[Makedon (mythology)|Macedon]], son of [[Zeus]] and [[Thyia (mythology)|Thyia]], and was therefore a nephew of [[Hellen]], progenitor of the Greeks. See: {{harvnb|Anson|2010|p=16}}; {{harvnb|Rhodes|2010|p=24}}. <br />By the end of the 5th century BC, [[Hellanicus of Lesbos]] asserted Macedon was the son of [[Aeolus]], the latter a son of Hellen and ancestor of the [[Aeolians]], one of the major [[tribe]]s of the Greeks. As well as belonging to tribal groups such as the Aeolians, [[Dorians]], [[Achaeans (tribe)|Achaeans]], and [[Ionians]], Anson also stresses the fact that some Greeks even distinguished their ethnic identities based on the ''[[polis]]'' (i.e. city-state) they originally came from. See: {{harvnb|Anson|2010|p=15}}.</ref> Roger D. Woodard asserts that in addition to persisting uncertainty in modern times about the proper classification of the Macedonian language and its relation to Greek, ancient authors also presented conflicting ideas about the Macedonians.<ref group="note">For instance, [[Demosthenes]] when labeling Philip{{nbsp}}II of Macedon as a barbarian whereas [[Polybius]] called Greeks and Macedonians as ''homophylos'' (i.e. part of the same race or [[Kinship|kin]]). See: {{harvnb|Woodard|2010|pp=9–10}}; Johannes Engels also discusses this ambiguity in ancient sources: {{harvnb|Engels|2010|pp=83–89}}.</ref> [[Simon Hornblower]] argues on the Greek identity of the Macedonians, taking into consideration their origin, language, cults and customs related to ancient Greek traditions.<ref>{{cite book|author1=Simon Hornblower|editor1-last=Zacharia|editor1-first=Katerina|title=Hellenisms: Culture, Identity, and Ethnicity from Antiquity to Modernity|date=2016|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-0-7546-6525-0|page=58|chapter=2: Greek Identity in the Archaic and Classical Periods|quote=The question "Were the Macedonians Greeks?" perhaps needs to be chopped up further. The Macedonian kings emerge as Greeks by criterion one, namely shared blood, and personal names indicate that Macedonians generally moved north from Greece. The kings, the elite, and the generality of the Macedonians were Greeks by criteria two and three, that is, religion and language. Macedonian customs (criterion four) were in certain respects unlike those of a normal apart, perhaps, from the institutions which I have characterized as feudal. The crude one-word answer to the question has to be "yes."}}</ref> Any preconceived ethnic differences between Greeks and Macedonians faded by 148{{nbsp}}BC soon after the [[Macedonian Wars|Roman conquest of Macedonia]] and then [[Macedonia (Roman province)|the rest of Greece]] with the defeat of the [[Achaean League]] by the [[Roman Republic]] at the [[Battle of Corinth (146 BC)]].<ref>{{harvnb|Hatzopoulos|2011b|p=74}}.</ref>