Front Matter

Who are the Macedonians?

Their struggles to survive as a nation

By Risto Stefov

Who are the Macedonians?

Their struggles to survive as a nation

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October 19, 2018

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Introduction

This is not a story about battles fought and strategies applied but rather a story about the human factor and about the Macedonian people’s struggles for equality and human rights. It is a story that will reveal, perhaps for the first time to some English speakers, how the Macedonian people were treated and are still being treated by the European monarchies and by the Great Powers and their proxies

Ever since the European monarchies and European Great Powers decided there was not going to be a Macedonian state in the Balkans, the Greek, Bulgarian and Serbian States and to a lesser extent the Albanian State have systematically used every means possible, including waging propaganda campaigns, to negate the existence of the Macedonian nation. They have done this not because Macedonians do not exist but purely to usurp Macedonian territories and the rich Macedonian heritage awarded to them by the European monarchies and Great Powers.

Until recently there were no organized, strong Macedonian voices outside of the Republic of Macedonia, to speak for the Macedonian people and their rights as citizens of this world, so Macedonia’s adversaries, the Greeks, Bulgarians, Serbians and more recently the Albanians, spoke for them.

The time has now come when Macedonians are taking matters into their own hands, especially those living in the Diaspora, and challenging old beliefs and the illegitimacy of those who have been speaking for them.

Only Macedonians are the rightful heirs of the Macedonian heritage and the composers of Macedonia’s history. Unfortunately there has been much resistance to this not only from Greece, Bulgaria, Serbia and Albania, the occupiers of Macedonian territories, but also from their western patrons who refuse to allow the Macedonian people to take their rightful place in the world.

The Macedonians are not Greeks, Bulgarians, Serbians or Albanians. Neither can they simultaneously be Greeks, Bulgarians,

Serbians and Albanians as their adversaries claim. The Macedonians are simply Macedonians and nothing else.

The Greeks claim that “Macedonia is Greek” and has been “Greek” for four thousand years. Contrary to ancient and modern evidence, they continue to insist that the ancient Macedonians were Greek. Again contrary to evidence and without proof, the modern Greeks claim that they are the direct descendants of the ancient Greeks and as such are the rightful heirs of the ancient Macedonian heritage. Furthermore, and without a shred of evidence, they claim that “all” the ancient Macedonians were killed off during the so-called “Slav invasions” of the fifth and sixth centuries AD and there is no one left but the Greeks to claim the ancient Macedonian heritage. The Greeks, again without any evidence, claim that the modern Macedonians are “Slavs” who invaded Macedonia during the fifth and sixth centuries AD and have nothing in common with the ancient Macedonians and therefore have no rights to the Macedonian heritage. These however are lies and myths.

This book will challenge these Greek claims, especially the claim that “Macedonia is Greek”, and prove them to be illegitimate. It will also take a step further and prove that the European monarchies and European Great Powers that artificially created Greece and the Greek identity were behind Greece’s attempts to usurp everything that is Macedonian and rob the Macedonian people of their heritage.

It is well-known that a “Greek State” never existed before 1829. The ancient City States where the Greek state is located today were conquered by Philip II, King of Macedonia, in 338 BC. Before that the City States existed as independent entities consisting of monarchies and republics each with their own government and borders; they were never united into a single nation. In other words, there never was a Greek state or a Greek ethnicity before Greece was created for the first time by the European monarchies in 1829.

I would also like to add that Philip II was a Macedonian King and it was he and his Macedonians who conquered the ancient City States. Therefore it is only logical and fair that the City States belong to the Macedonians and not to the artificially created modern Greeks.

The Great Powers created the Modern Greek Kingdom for the first time in 1829 in an attempt to partition the Ottoman Empire and prevent the formation of a single Slavic State in the Balkans. In other words, the Great Powers divided up the Ottoman occupied territories to prevent the Macedonian people from reclaiming Philip II’s Macedonia, which extended from the Adriatic Sea in the west to the Black Sea in the east and from the Mediterranean Sea in the south to the Danube River in the north. Macedonia and the Macedonian people are the key to unlocking the “mystery of the dreaded Slavs” and their connection to the ancients and, of course, the Great Powers don’t want that revealed.

Outside of that, the Great Powers, Britain and France in particular, wanted modern Greece to be a western satellite, a vassal state, a proxy to protect their interests in the Mediterranean. England wanted Greece under its influence so that it could block Russian access to the Mediterranean Sea without having its own costly military presence in the region.

As for the claims of purity of the Modern Greek nation there is ample evidence, both historical and scientific, that contradicts these Modern Greek claims. For example there is no modern pure Greek race that directly descended from the ancient City States. Today’s modern Greeks, like other nations in the Balkans, are made up of mixed people, mainly Macedonians, Turks, Albanians, Roma, Vlachs, etc. A Modern Greek person is only Greek by education or by assimilation and has no roots beyond 1829. The Modern Greek not only has a mythical past but sadly has abandoned and forsaken his or her own real roots and heritage.

There are many examples of how the Greek State achieved nationhood at the expense of other nations and people. For example, when Greece occupied Macedonian territories for the first time in 1912 there were no Greeks living in Macedonia. Yet a few years later the Greek State produced statistics that showed that the vast majority of the Macedonian population in Greek occupied Macedonia was Greek.

The Greek State achieved this by shamelessly assimilating the Macedonian population through force. It eliminated all Macedonian

personal names and toponyms and replaced them with Greek ones. It then banned the Macedonian language and forced the Macedonian people to speak Greek. This created the illusion that everything in Macedonia was Greek. In other words, the Greek state put a Greek veneer over Greek occupied Macedonia and the Macedonian people and told the world that everything in Macedonia was Greek. But this was only a façade. Underneath it all everything, including the people, is still Macedonian.

During the 1920’s, in its population exchanges with Turkey, Greece imported one million Christian Turkish colonists and settlers from Asia Minor, about one fifth of its entire population, and settled most of them in Greek occupied Macedonia. These people too were “made” Greeks, even though they were not, and those who refused to give up their Asian traditions were made Greek by force.

A major flaw in the Greek State’s genealogical claim to the ancients is that, after sixty years of living on Macedonian soil, the Asian Minor newcomer settlers and colonists were presented to the world as the “real” Macedonians and rightful heirs of the Macedonian lands and heritage. They were also presented to the world as the “real” direct descendants of the ancient Macedonians. This is not only historical distortion but a blatant lie.

The Greek State, with Great Power approval, is not above deception and lies, even to its own people. Since it acquired Macedonian territories in 1912, the Greek state has done everything in its power to convince the Greek people and the entire world that the Greeks and Greeks alone are the rightful heirs of Macedonia’s lands and heritage. By doing this the Greek State, with Great Power approval, has been robbing and is still robbing the Macedonian people of their historic heritage and their lands on which they have lived for hundreds of generations.

The Bulgarians too have claims on the Macedonian heritage and are using every means possible to convince the world that Macedonia rightfully belongs to them.

The Bulgarian claim is that “Macedonia is Bulgarian” because the Macedonian people are Bulgarian. They are Bulgarian because they speak a “dialect” of the Bulgarian language.

It is well-known however, and history will attest to this, that the Macedonians were already living in the Balkans and speaking the Macedonian language long before the first Bulgar Khans with their Turk and Tartar hoards arrived. Evidence shows that the numerically inferior Bulgars became assimilated into the larger indigenous Slav speaking population and adopted the Macedonian (Slav) language and culture. More correctly, the Bulgarians speak a dialect of the Macedonian language, not the other way around.

More recently, after the Serbian occupied part of Macedonia acquired its independence, the Albanians who over the years migrated into Macedonian lands are also making claims to the Macedonian heritage.

Without going into too much detail at this point, I want to mention that the aim of this book is to present the reader with a Macedonian perspective of Macedonia’s history and the role the Great Powers and their satellites Greece, Serbia, Bulgaria and Albania have played and are still playing in preventing the Macedonian people from taking their rightful place in this world.

It is time the world heard the Macedonian point of view. Contrary to what Macedonia’s adversaries profess, the truth is on the Macedonian side. There is ample evidence that shows that the ancient Macedonians not only survived the many calamities from ancient times to the present but their descendants do exist in Greece, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, Albania, Canada, Australia, the United States of America, Europe and the world over. They are now in the process of regrouping and are using the tools of the information age to fight back and retake what is theirs.

One last thing: It is my belief that the European monarchies and the Great Powers had no intention of allowing a Macedonian state to be created or a Macedonian nation to exist in the Balkans after the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire. Since then this intention has been passed on to the United States and is still in effect to this day. I

intend to provide evidence to prove this. One thing I don’t know for sure is why the Great Powers are doing this; why do they not want a Macedonian state and a Macedonian nation to exist?

We have a long and hard fight ahead… it has been a struggle just to survive as Macedonians.

“To destroy a people, you must first sever their roots.” (Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn)

Who are the Macedonians – A Macedonian perspective

A wise old man once said: “Listen to me… listen carefully… we are people… we are a tormented and tortured people… but we are people. We are Macedonians and this here is Macedonia, our ancestral home… where we were born and lived for countless generations. We are Macedonians no matter what others want to call us… We have been here for millenniums and we will be here for a long time… as long as we have our roots intact… We have long and deep roots… we are biblical people who have weathered the winds of time with our culture, language, traditions and original name intact… We have different views of the world and want to be masters of our own destiny… That is why we don’t fit in with our current masters. The masters of the universe today don’t want us to be independent, that is why they want to destroy us… to uproot us and send us into oblivion… to turn us into dust and scatter us around the world so that we can wander aimlessly until we are all completely lost. Today’s masters want us to become their dogs and make us do what they want us to do. But we refuse… we want to be Macedonians... We want to be masters of our own destiny. That is why we are at odds with them. They shaped the world the way they wanted… easier to manage and dominate… but we refuse to become a part of it. We don’t want to be Greeks, Serbians, Bulgarians, Albanians or any other of their fabricated identities because we know the truth… that we are Macedonians, an ancient people, a biblical people, with a long history… with long roots… And that is why we have been at odds with them since the beginning… since they came to our country uninvited, occupied us and began to change us… to make us what they want us to be… to tell us who to be, all the while insisting that we the Macedonians don’t exist…!” (A wise old man)

“The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and destroy their own understanding of their history.” (George Orwell)

In the beginning

Our Macedonian roots extend back to a time when the world was a simple place and people lived in small settlements. Some historians believe that that was back in the 10th century BC when a small tribal kingdom, identifying itself as Macedonia appeared. This tiny tribal kingdom was located in today’s Kostur Region and had Argos as its capital. Argos was located near today’s town Rupishcha about eight kilometres south of Kostur.

There are other historians, however, who believe that Macedonian roots extend even further back, perhaps to before the Bronze Age. I often wrote in my articles that the Macedonians have existed since the melt of the last ice age. But my Slovenian friend, a retired professor from the University of Ljubljana, corrected me by saying that Macedonia was not covered by ice during the last ice age and that the Macedonian people are even older than what I claimed. If this is true, and there is no reason to believe that it isn’t, then we can say that the Europeans began their journey in Macedonia and spread outwards as the glacial ice melted and receded northward.

But what we know with some certainty is that the Macedonians of the 1st millennium BC continued to migrate eastward from Kostur Region, filling the void left by the Phrygians who were retreating towards Asia Minor. The most commonly known story about the Phrygians is the story of king Midas who turned everything he touched into gold. King Midas was a Phrygian and his palace was located somewhere in today’s Voden Region, in the heart of Macedonia.

As the prehistoric Macedonians expanded in population and moved eastwards into Voden Region they established their second capital in Aegae, located near present day Voden in Midas’s old gardens. It took the small Macedonian kingdom about 200 years to build up its population before it was able to fully occupy the lush and fertile, abandoned Phrygian lands. After moving their capital to Aegae the Macedonians were no longer seen as tribal but rather as a monarchic kingdom. And as the Macedonian kingdom expanded and made its way to the lowlands and to the shores of the Aegean Sea, it began to

interact with the other people living in the region and to enjoy the economic and cultural currents of the Aegean world.

Many kings came and went in Macedonia since the old days in Argos and as the Macedonian population expanded and moved outwards it began to come into contact with the tribal kingdoms and city states that surrounded it. And with contact came conflict. Initially the Macedonian kings tried hard to avoid conflict and through diplomacy managed to keep their Macedonian kingdom intact. But with time some of these neighbouring tribes and city states began to infiltrate Macedonia and interfere in its affairs. Some city states, like Athens for example, began to colonize coastal Macedonian lands and helped themselves to Macedonian lumber, an essential ship building commodity. Others, like the Illyrians, invaded Macedonian settlements during harvest time, took all the people’s crops and burned their homes. But life had to go on and compromises had to be made. The Athenians were left alone to take Macedonian lumber without paying for it and the Illyrians were given all the crops they wanted in exchange for not burning down Macedonian homes.

Macedonia’s rise to power

This is how life was in Macedonia for many years until about 400 BC when a boy named Philip, a prince, was born in 382 BC. As he grew up and experienced life in Illyrian camps and in Thebes as a hostage, Philip not only learned the ways of these people but also realized this was no way for his people, the Macedonians, to live. He thought about it a lot and when his time came to become king of Macedonia he decided to change things. He knew that in order to free his Macedonians from this bondage he would have to act diplomatically and from a position of strength. But in order to gain this strength he needed a strong army so he decided to recruit full time fighters. He offered them good wages and guarantees for the families.

To make a long story short, Philip or Philip II, as historians later named him, created a professional army dedicated to the defense of Macedonia. He also improved his military equipment and fighting techniques incorporating what he had learned while he was a hostage in various foreign military camps.

Initially, while attempting to secure a better position for Macedonia in the world scene, he used diplomacy and when that failed he used his military might. And as his successes became more noticeable it caught the attention of the bigger powers, who became aware that something different was happening in Macedonia.

Philip’s aims were very simple; evict from Macedonia those who preyed on the Macedonian population and stop those who interfered in Macedonia’s affairs. But in order to do that he would have to conquer and pacify them and then build a buffer zone all around Macedonia.

He began by offering the surrounding tribes and kingdoms a chance to join him and become part of Macedonia. He also offered their leaders a seat at his table in the Macedonian palace which was now located in Pella, Macedonia’s new capital city. (For more information on the ancient Macedonian kingdom please read the first five chapters of my book “History of the Macedonian people From Ancient times to the Present”, published in 2005.) Many of the

smaller kingdoms and tribes accepted Philip’s offer, especially his offer to protect them from being attacked by the larger tribes and kingdoms. Then, one by one, he defeated the rest and put them under his control.

Philip quietly and diplomatically continued to expand and strengthen Macedonia but this did not go unnoticed by the City State great powers, especially Athens, who were now not only seeing Macedonia as a competitor in their economic affairs but also as a military rival.

The City States to the south made their alliances and amassed a great army in preparation to invade Macedonia. On hearing this, Philip decided it was time to meet them head on. On August 2nd, 338 BC, in the shallow Cephisus River valley near the village Chaeronea on the road to Thebes, the two opposing armies met face to face. On the north side stood Philip’s Macedonians with 30,000 infantry and 2,000 cavalry, the largest Macedonian army ever assembled. Among Philip’s commanding generals was his 18 year-old son, Alexander, in charge of the cavalry. On the south side, stood the allied Athenians, Thebans and Achaeans who assembled 35,000 infantry and 2,000 cavalry.

Closely matched, the armies clashed and while the battle ensued the Macedonian right flank fell back and began to retreat. Seeing the Macedonians weakening, the allied general gave orders to push on and drive the Macedonians back to Macedonia. As the Macedonians retreated, the allied flanks broke rank and began the pursuit. Not realizing it was a trick, the allies found themselves surrounded and slaughtered by Alexander’s cavalry.

Ancient City State and Roman historians consider the battle of Chaeronea as the end of City State liberty, history and civilization.

After securing peace with the City States, Macedonian control was extended from the Mediterranean Sea in the south to the Danube River in the north and from the Black Sea in the east to the Adriatic Sea in the west. With Philip at the helm Macedonia was transformed from a backwater kingdom into a world power in a matter of several

decades, which now rivaled Persia, Macedonia’s neighbour to the east.

Unfortunately Philip’s reign ended abruptly when he was assassinated during his daughter’s wedding celebrations. During a procession in the theater at Aegae, while standing between his son Alexander and his new son-in-law Alexander, a member of the royal guard named Pausanias stabbed Philip with a dagger and killed him. Pausanias then ran to escape, towards some waiting horses, but tripped and fell down. His pursuers caught up to him and speared him to death.

The “Greatest of the Kings of Europe” who liberated Macedonia from foreign occupation, brought it back from the edge of extinction and made it into a world power now lay dead in his own palace, killed by his own body guard. Philip II king of Macedonia from 360 BC to 336 BC died a senseless death and was succeeded by his son Alexander.

Many historians have laboured looking for reasons to explain why Philip was murdered. Was it a foreign plot, a conspiracy premeditated by his son Alexander? Was it an act of rage by a demented soldier? Or was it his wife Polixena’s (Olympias’s) revenge? I guess we will never know for sure.

Philip’s son Alexander, or Alexander the 3rd or Alexander the Great as the Romans later named him, quickly took control of Macedonia and began to pursue greater dreams. Alexander was well-educated and well-trained in diplomacy and military strategy. He was the right person to replace Philip but unfortunately Macedonia was too small for Alexander’s ambitions. He was not content to stay still and enjoy the established peace, especially after he put down all the uprisings in his kingdom after his father’s death.

In early spring in 334 BC, Alexander set off to try his luck in Asia Minor. He knew his father had left him a powerful army but he had no idea how powerful it was until he challenged the Persian Empire and, after three decisive battles, brought it under his control. After that the Macedonians were unstoppable. But after conquering India they not only became tired of fighting but began to question why

they were fighting. (For more information on Alexander’s campaigns please read chapters four to eight of my book “History of the Macedonian people From Ancient times to the Present”, published in 2005.)

Alexander’s campaigns lasted ten years during which time he did a lot of wonderful things like bridging east with west, opening trade routes that still exist to this day and expanding the world’s scientific and general knowledge.

The greatest contribution the Macedonians made to the world, especially Europe, was the opening of Asia and Africa to European trade. The Macedonians made sure trade routes were created wherever they went and afterwards guaranteed their safety. Trade routes were not confined to the sea-lanes alone. Much trade was done over land and stretched from Europe to as far as the Hindu Kush. The area of trade, connected by a large grid of trade routes, was a huge rectangle that stretched from the Hellespont east to the Hindu Kush, south to the bottom of the Persian Gulf, west through Arabia to the Nile Valley and north back to the Hellespont. Trade was heavily concentrated on the Aegean side of Asia Minor and down the Nile valley. The western part of Asia Minor was the hub of economic activities both on shore and at sea.

But at the same time Alexander did lot of damage not only to the worlds he conquered but also to Macedonia itself.

As a young boy I remember listening to old men talking and cursing Alexander for what he had done and the many people he had killed during his campaigns of conquest. They said his best fighters came from the highlands of Kostur and Lerin Regions. Alexander desired them the most for his infantry because they were brave and strong. Unfortunately by taking the best young men away from Macedonia and sacrificing them for the sake of conquest left these regions depleted and depopulated and open to invasions. Many believed that Alexander undid what his father Philip was trying to do, make Macedonia strong and keep it free. These old people also believed that Alexander’s conquests and campaigns not only did nothing good to preserve Macedonia but also spilled a lot of senseless blood. “We killed a lot of people for nothing. We spilled rivers of blood for

nothing. On top of that Alexander lost our Macedonia which Philip had tried so hard to protect. Those who we senselessly killed and enslaved have cursed us to suffer their fate. We are now cursed forever because of what Alexander did…” said one old man. Maybe all of this is an old wife’s tale but it does have some merit. One cannot help but ask: “What exactly did Macedonia gain from Alexander’s adventures?” I don’t see any Macedonian ships traversing the waterways Alexander’s expeditions opened up. I don’t even see Macedonia as a great power sitting at a table with the other great powers? Heck, I don’t even see Macedonia as a country on the map today, even though Macedonia was the first state to become a country in Europe. In fact most of the powers today want Macedonia and the Macedonian people erased from the map. Why? The old people would say because of Alexander’s curse…

My aim here is not to reduce Alexander’s accomplishments but to tell the other side of the story and not just the fantastic story the westerners wrote to make Europe look glorious and to give the modern Greeks legitimacy. Our story also contains the horror of wars and death. Many people died to make Alexander’s victories glorious. They died senseless deaths, not to protect Macedonia but to satisfy Alexander’s ambitions. Many people died in these far away regions for no good reason. That is why Macedonians are hated to this day. I remember my uncle Vasil telling me a story from when he was in Uzbekistan where he was sent after fighting in the Greek Civil War. Knowing Macedonia’s glorious ancient history from the written western texts he had read, and being proud of it, he proudly told the Uzbeks that he was Macedonian. At the time he was working for a coal mining company and was out in the field. If it was not for the Russian workers who came to his rescue he would have been stoned to death. The Uzbeks became very angry and attacked him because he was Macedonian and proud of it. This anger has festered for over two-thousand years. The company had to move my uncle to another camp.

After Alexander died his empire fell apart and was divided among his generals. Macedonia was left alone and unprotected. It later became easy prey for the Romans. In fact, Alexander’s generals fought against each other for more booty than they did to help Macedonia. Even on the eve of being attacked and conquered by the

Romans, none of the Macedonians from Alexander’s divided empire came to its rescue. One by one the Macedonian empires fell and were gobbled up by the Romans because they refused to help one another. Macedonia fought fiercely against Rome but that was not enough. Greed and arrogance made the once mighty Macedonians weak and divided and as a result they lost everything. Because the Macedonians were fierce fighters the Romans were afraid of them. And to avoid being challenged again, the Romans, at various times, partitioned Macedonia into two, three and four parts. Walls were erected to divide the Macedonian people which stood there for over five centuries until Justinian I took them down. (For more information on the decline of the Macedonian Empires please read chapters nine to twelve of my book “History of the Macedonian people From Ancient times to the Present”, published in 2005.)

The Romans were brutal in their treatment of the Macedonians and after robbing them of all their wealth they treated them like slaves. Many fled Macedonia during the Roman-Macedonian wars and many were forced to leave later. All young men age fourteen and over were forcefully ordered by the Romans to leave Macedonia or face death. The Romans wanted to make sure Macedonia would never again rise, which has been our story to this day.

The once mighty Macedonians who ruled the world were reduced to being Roman slaves not only in Macedonia but also in the Macedonian empires in Asia and Africa.

From being the masters of these regions, as they arrogantly saw themselves, they were reduced to slaves and forced to mingle among their former servants and line up in the Jewish soup kitchens for their survival.

Before I end this chapter I would like to say a few things about the Macedonian contribution to the world. As we well know, or should know, that new capital of ancient science and culture was not Athens but Alexandria of Egypt, a city founded by Alexander the Great and elevated to the world scene by Ptolemai and his descendents. Ptolemai was a Macedonian king and one of Alexander’s generals and close friends.

The Macedonians during this period contributed a wealth of information to natural sciences, navigation, geography, biology, botany, astronomy, history and literature. It has been said that the city of Alexandria in Egypt, in her glory days, possessed the greatest collection of books and knowledge ever assembled in a single library. Built by Ptolemy Soter, the magnificent library of Alexandria was in possession of nearly half a million scrolls. Wherever the Macedonians went they built cities, libraries, cultural centres, museums and many other wonders.

While on the subject of ancient Macedonian cities, I want to mention that Alexandria did not stand alone in magnificence. There were dozens of magnificent cities built after Alexander’s conquests but only a few stood out. One of those few was Antioch. Antioch was built on the fertile coastal plain linking southern Anatolia with Palestine, on the left bank of the Orontes River under the towering peak of Mount Silpios. It was a site where Alexander III had previously passed by and drank water from the plentiful, cool springs. But it was Seleucus, in 300 BC, who chose it for its access to the inland caravan routes, its cool breezes off the sea and for its rich surrounding lands that offered wine, grains, vegetables and oil. Like Alexandria, Antioch was an ethnically mixed city; a community of many races including retired soldiers. Antioch gained importance when it became the capital of the Seleucid Empire under Antiochus I’s rule. The Ptolemy’s annexed Antioch for a brief period but it was during Antiochus IV’s rule that the city was re-developed and expanded. From 175 BC onwards its luxury began to rival that of Alexandria.

While these Macedonian built cities were far greater than Athens, even at the height of its glory, one has to wonder why modern Europe has bestowed such great honours on Athens and almost none on Alexandria. After all Alexandria was the most important city of the so-called “Hellenistic period”. Poised between Africa and Europe, Alexandria was the meeting place of all races and creeds. Still flourishing to this day, it has endured two and a half millennia of violence and survived. Alexandria is a tribute to the greatness of its builders, the Macedonians. Even the Holy Bible was translated from Hebrew to Koine in Alexandria, courtesy of the Macedonians.

Speaking of Koine, in terms of literature, the Macedonians were more interested in learning from the conquered than in teaching the conquered. Being uninterested in learning the languages of the conquered, the Macedonian elite often commissioned translations of their works. Ptolemy Soter commissioned Egyptian priest Manetho to write the history of Egypt in Koine. Similarly, Seleucus Nicator commissioned priest Berassos to write a digest of Babylonian wisdom, again in Koine. In other words, it was the Macedonians who took Koine, the common language of diplomacy and trade, from the Aegean world and turned it into a cosmopolitan language used by all cultures from the known world. Education and room and board was provided for free to all who wanted to study as well as teach at the Alexandrian library and museum, again courtesy of the Macedonians.

Rise of Christianity

Among the many things the Ancient Macedonians learned during Alexander’s campaigns was that gods existed everywhere and every nation they encountered had their own gods. They were not the same gods as those in Olympus but they were similar. They had different names but functioned the same way or very close to the gods with which they were familiar.

After exploring the many deities and their cults, the Macedonians began to believe that the variously named gods might be different aspects of a single divine force. The newly discovered deities were in many ways similar to their own Olympian gods. For example, Astarte and Isis were very similar to Aphrodite and Jupiter, Ahura and Baal were similar to Zeus. The intermingling of various cultures, especially in cosmopolitan centres like Alexandria, Antioch and Solun, opened the door for deep philosophical debates questioning the nature, origin and purpose of the various gods. Fueled by revolutionary ideas, sophisticated theological theories began to emerge leading to the concept of a single divine being, a God who lives in heaven. (For more information on the rise of Christianity please read chapter thirteen of my book “History of the Macedonian people From Ancient times to the Present”, published in 2005.)

The Jews, being spread out over large territories and long distances for a long time, had already experienced this and had concluded that these gods were “One God” and this God existed everywhere.

Many Macedonians, who visited the Jewish soup kitchens on a regular basis, after they were subjugated by the Romans, began to also visit the Jewish synagogues where they learned more about this “One God”.

But as the synagogues began to fill with foreigners, and for other reasons, the Jewish religious leaders decided to restrict memberships in Jewish religious institutions to Jews only. To be a Jew, however, one has to be born from a Jewish line.

The Jews were admired for their stable family life, the relationships they sustained between children and parents and for the peculiar value they attached to human life. The Jews were also admired for something unusual for the time. During the Herodian period, mainly in the large cities in the diaspora, they developed elaborate welfare services for the indigent, poor, sick, widows, orphans, prisoners and the incurable.

All of these factors led to the development of the earliest Christian communities and were a principle reason for the spread of Christianity in the cities. The combination of God-fearing people and the destitute produced converts to Judaism from all races and classes of people, educated and ignorant alike.

Judaism had the potential to become the religion of the Roman Empire but in order to do that it had to evolve and adapt its teachings and organization to an alien world. It had to give up the idea that its priests were descendants of the tribes of Aaron, temple-attendants of Levi, king and rulers of David, and so on and so forth.

But for the true Jewish priests, heredity and the exact observance of the Jewish laws was very important. Unfortunately in the Jewish Diaspora, religious rules were not always observed and exact heredity was a matter of guesswork, sometimes even fraudulent. This loose application of rules was resented by the conservative Jews and any corrective action taken was usually met with opposition, violence and schisms. The irreconcilable differences between the old conservative Jews and the new breed of liberal semi-Jews grew wider and eventually gave birth to Christianity, a totally new faith.

It was again the Macedonians, among this new breed of liberal Jews, who were the first to preach Jesus’ message to the worshippers of Mitra (Mithra), Astart and Zeus as well as others outside the Jewish faith. It was among the Macedonians in Antioch in about 40 AD that the followers of Jesus came to be known as Christians for the first time.

The apostle Paul, a Jewish convert to Christianity, was credited for giving impetus to Gentile Christianity and became an important

factor in the spread of Christianity to Macedonia when he had a vision of a man, a Macedonian, urging him to “come to Macedonia and help us”. Paul interpreted this vision as God’s will to take the “Good News” of Jesus into Macedonia. “And when they had come opposite My’sia, they attempted to go into Bithyn’ia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them; so, passing by My’sia, they went down to Tro’as. And a vision appeared to Paul in the night: a man of Macedo’nia was standing beseeching him and saying, ‘Come over to Macedo’nia and help us.’ And when he had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go on into Macedo’nia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.” (Page 1044, The Holy Bible, Revised Standard Version, Holman, Philadelphia, 1952)

There are some who believe that the man in Paul’s vision was the Apostle Luke. Luke was a Macedonian, a physician by trade, who Paul met for the first time in Troas. Luke may have had some connection to Philippi to have Paul sent there. It is unknown whether Luke was a Christian or not before he met Paul but he was certainly one afterwards. Luke was a great writer and composer of one of the gospels.

It was around 50 AD when Paul set foot on European soil for the first time. That was in the Macedonian towns Philippi, Solun and Berroea where he preached the word of Jesus (Acta apos., XVI, id. XVII). Around 52 and 53 AD he sent epistles to the people of Solun (Epist. Thess); then in 57 AD he came back to Macedonia to follow up on his progress. In 63 AD he again sent epistles to Macedonia but this time to the people of Philippi (Epist. Philipp).

Even before Paul went to Macedonia, legend has it that Macedonia was visited by Jesus’ mother Mary. “The Blessed Virgin excluded all other women from Holy Mountain, when she claimed it as ‘Her Garden’ after she was driven ashore by storms near the site of the present monastery of ‘Iviron’ USPENIE.” (Page 41, Vasil Bogov, Macedonian Revelation, Historical Documents Rock and Shatter Modern Political Ideology, Western Australia, 1998) Holy Mountain, or Sveta Gora as it is known in Macedonia, is the holiest place in Europe and one of the greatest monastic centres of Christendom and it is located in Macedonia.

Initially, in his teachings, Paul had insurmountable problems trying to explain the nature of Jesus’ doctrines through the Jewish faith and its laws to a Macedonian audience. However, by using well understood concepts of faith, which in themselves were somewhat of a departure from the original scriptures, the message was quickly understood. Paul was creative and by sticking to the most basic principles of Jesus’ teachings and avoiding most of the six hundred and thirteen Jewish commands, he was able to convey his message. Surely no man could fulfill all six hundred and thirteen commands of the Jewish law? Was everyone then a sinner? In Paul’s mind, this was not what Jesus was about. Jesus was about freedom and the liberation of law. Paul associated freedom with truth and in pursuit of truth he established the right to think. He accepted the bonds and obligations of love but not to the authority of scholarship and tradition.

If not by blood then by spirit Paul was truly a Macedonian because he preached something familiar to the Macedonians. Paul spoke directly to the Macedonian people and they understood him without the use of interpreters. This means that he knew the Macedonian language well enough to captivate his audience. Paul’s first mission to Macedonia took him to Philippi where he met a woman named Lydia, a fabric dealer. Lydia was a widow who sold cloth and textiles and was a rare example of a free woman who lived and worked in Macedonia. For some time, Lydia was exposed to Jewish religious practices which she had observed at a colony of Jews who had settled near her home in Thyatira. Lydia, along with her household, is believed to be the first Christian in Macedonia to be baptized by Paul.

After Philippi, Paul’s missionary journey took him to the beautiful Macedonian city Solun where, in 50 BC, he established what later came to be known as the “Golden Gate” church, the first Christian church in Europe. According to the Bible, Paul, along with his friend Silas, spent about three weeks in Solun in a synagogue debating the “Good News” of Jesus with the Solun Jews. But much to his disappointment he could not sway them to see things his way. He persuaded some to join but the majority would not join and became hostile towards him. The real surprise, however, was that

many non-Jewish Macedonians accepted the “Good News” of Jesus and embraced Christianity as their new faith.

I must mention at this point that the process of Christianization and the establishment of the Christian church was not that simple. The central and eastern Mediterranean, for the first and second centuries AD, swarmed with a multitude of religious ideas struggling to be spread out. Jesus’ message was being rapidly propagated over large geographical areas and his followers were divided right from the start over elements of faith and practice. The new faith may have had spirit but it lacked organization. Many Christian churches sprang up and practiced a kind of diverse Christian faith. Each church more or less had its own “Jesus Story” based on oral traditions and the personal biases of its founders. It would be a very long time indeed before the Christian faith would be amalgamated into a single religion and achieve unity. In the meantime, besides the competing Jews, the Christians had found a new enemy, the Romans.

Initially the Romans tolerated the Christians but as the Christians began to defy their gods and their rule in general, they began to clamp down on them and persecute them. And as my friend Pete Kondoff used to say, “many of those Christians who were fed to the lions were Macedonians.”

Christianity was a new force that would dominate the world, born out of necessity due to the cruelty of Roman rule, which drove the subjugated to a life of despair. Women refused to bear children because they knew their future was hopeless. Life was painful and the world was full of evil. By the turn of the first millennium the familiar old gods were nothing more than instruments of cruelty designed to serve the rich and powerful and cast the poor into oblivion. No people suffered more cruelty at the hands of the Romans than the Macedonians. Was it jealousy of Macedonia’s unsurpassed glory, or was it Rome’s fear of the Macedonian people’s rebellious nature?

Christianity and the Christians, especially in Macedonia, were persecuted to no end by the Roman authorities until about the 4th century AD.