Listed 14 sub titles with search on: Information about the place for wider area of: "MACEDONIA Ancient area GREECE" .
ASTREA (Ancient country) MACEDONIA
Astraeum (Liv. xl. 24; Astraia, Steph. B. s.v.; Alstraion, Ptol. iii.
13. § 27), a town of Paeonia in Macedonia, which Leake identifies with Strunmitza.
Aelian (H. An. xv. 1) speaks of a river Astraeus, flowing between Thessalonica
and Berrhoea, which Leake supposes to be the same as the Vistritza. Tafel, however,
conjectures that Astraeus in Aelian is a false reading for Axius. (Leake, Northern
Greece, vol. iii. pp. 293, 466, seq.; Tafel, Thessalonica, p. 312, seq.)
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited July 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
MACEDONIA (Ancient area) GREECE
PELAGONIA (Ancient area) MACEDONIA
Pelagonia (Pelagonia, Strab. vii. pp. 326, 327; Pelagonia, Steph.
B.), a district of Macedonia, bordering on Illyricum, occupied by the Pelagones
(Pelagones, Strab. vii. pp. 327, 331, Fr. 38-40, 434; Ptol. iii. 13. § 34; Plin.
iv.17). Although Livy employs the name of Pelagonia, corresponding with the fertile
plains of Bitolia, in his narrative of the campaigns of Sulpicius, as that of
a large district containing Stymbara, it is evident, from his account of the division
of Macedonia after the Roman conquest, that Pelagonia became the appellation of
the chief town of the Pelagones, and the capital of the Fourth Macedonia, which
included all the primitive or Upper Macedonia E. of the range of Pindus and Scardus.
(Liv. xlv 29.) It was perhaps not specifically employed as the name of a town
until the other two cities of Pelagonia were ruined; for that Pelagonia, or a
portion of it, once contained three, may be inferred from the adjunct Tripolitis,
given to it by Strabo (vii. p. 327). The town, which, from the circumstance of
its having been the capital of the Fourth Macedonia, must have been of some importance,
existed till a late period, as it is noticed in the Synecdemus of Hierocles, and
by the Byzantine historian, Malchus of Philadelphia, who speaks of the strength
of its citadel (ap. Const. Porph. Excerpt. de Legat. p. 81). From its advantageous
position it was occupied by Manuel Comnenus, in the war with Geisa II. and the
Hungarians. (Nicet. p. 67; Le Beau, Bas Empire, vol. xvi. p. 141.) The name of
Pelagonia still exists as the designation of the Greek metropolitan bishopric
of Bitolia or Monasteri, now the chief place of the surrounding country, and the
ordinary residence of the governor of Rumili. At or near the town are many vestiges
of ancient buildings of Roman times. The district was exposed to invasions from
the Dardani, who bordered on the N., for which reasons the communication (fauces
Pelagoniae, Liv. xxxi. 34) were carefully guarded by the kings of Macedonia, being
of great importance, as one of the direct entrances from Illyricum into Macedonia
by the course of the river Drilon. Between the NE. extremity, Mt. Ljubatrin, and
the Klisura of Devol, there are in the mighty and continuous chain of Scardus
(above 7000 feet high) only two passes fit for an army to cross, one near the
N. extremity of the chain from Kalkandele to Prisrendi or Persserin, a very high
col, not less than 5000 feet above the sea-level; the other considerably to the
S, and lower as well as easier, nearly in the latitude of Akridha. Leake (Northern
Greece, vol. iii. pp. 318-322) is of opinion that the passes of Pelagonia, in
which Perseus was stationed by his father Philip, were this latter depression
in the chain over which the modern road from Scodra or Scutari runs, and the Via
Egnatia travelled formerly. The Illyrian Autariatae and Dardani, to the N. of
Pelagonia, no doubt threatened Macedonia from the former pass, to the NE. of the
mountain-chain of Scardus. (Comp. Grote, Greece, c. xxv. and the references there
to Pouqueville, Boue, Grisebach, and Miller.) Stymbara or Stubara, was situated
apparently on the Erigon, as also were most of the Pelagonian towns. Polybius
(v. 108) speaks of a Pelagonian town named Pissaeum (Pissaion). Ptolemy (l. c.)
assigns to the Pelagones the two towns of Andraristus or Euristus (Peut. Tab.,
the orthography is not quite certain), and Stobi.
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited August 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
STYVERA (Ancient city) MACEDONIA
Stumbara, Stuberrha, Stubera. A town on the frontier of regal Macedonia, which
is by some assigned to Deuriopus, and by others to Pelagonia, which in the campaign
of B.C. 400 was the third encampment of the consul Sulpicius; it must be looked
for in the basin of the Erigon.
MACEDONIA (Ancient area) GREECE
A country in Europe, north of Greece, said to have been originally
named Emathia. Its boundaries before the time of Philip, the father of Alexander,
were, on the south, Olympus and the Cambunian Mountains, which separated it from
Thessaly and Epirus; on the east, the river Strymon, which separated it from Thrace;
and on the north and west, Illyria and Paeonia. Macedonia was greatly enlarged
by the conquests of Philip. He added to his kingdom Paeonia on the north; a part
of Thrace on the east as far as the river Nestus, which Thracian district was
usually called Macedonia Adiecta; the peninsula Chalcidice on the south; and on
the west a part of Illyria as far as Lake Lychnitis. On the conquest of the country
by the Romans, B.C. 168, Macedonia was divided into four districts, independent
of one another; but the whole country was formed into a Roman province after the
conquest of the Achaeans in 146.
Macedonia may be described as a large plain, surrounded on
three sides by lofty mountains. Through this plain, however, run many smaller
ranges of mountains, between which are wide and fertile valleys, extending from
the coast far into the interior. The chief mountains were Scordus, or Scardus,
on the northwest frontier, towards Illyria and Dardania; further east Orbelus
and Scomius, which separated it from Moesia; and Rhodope, which extended from
Scomius in a southeasterly direction, forming the boundary between Macedonia and
Thrace. On the southern frontier were the Cambunii Montes and Olympus. The chief
rivers were in the direction of east to west-- the Nestus, the Strymon, the Axius,
the largest of all, the Ludias or Lydias, and the Haliacmon. The chief cities
were Aegae and Pella, the capitals, and Pydna, Potidaea, Olynthus, Amphipolis,
and Philippi. The great bulk of the inhabitants of Macedonia consisted of Thracian
and Illyrian tribes. At an early period some Greek tribes settled in the southern
part of the country. They are said to have come from Argos, and to have been led
by the three sons of Temenus, the Heraclid. Perdiccas, the youngest of the three,
was looked upon as the founder of the Macedonian monarchy. A later tradition,
however, regarded Caranus, who was also a Heraclid from Argos, as the founder
of the monarchy. These Greek settlers intermarried with the original inhabitants
of the country. The dialect which they spoke was akin to the Doric, but it contained
many barbarous words and forms; and the Macedonians accordingly were never regarded
by the other after the Roman Conquest. Greeks as genuine Hellenes. Moreover, it
was only in the south of Macedonia that the Greek language was spoken.
Very little is known of the history of Macedonia till the reign
of Amyntas I., who was a contemporary of Darius Hystaspis; but from that time
their history is more or less intimately connected with that of Greece, till at
length Philip, the father of Alexander the Great, became the virtual master of
the whole of Greece. The conquests of Alexander extended the Macedonian supremacy
over a great part of Asia; and the Macedonian kings continued to exercise their
sovereignty over Greece till the conquest of Perseus by the Romans, in B.C. 168,
brought the Macedonian monarchy to a close.
This text is cited Oct 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
PELAGONIA (Ancient area) MACEDONIA
A district and city in Macedonia, inhabited by the Pelagones, and situated south of Paeonia, upon the Erigon.
MACEDONIA (Ancient area) GREECE
Region of northern Greece
(also called Macedonia) between Thessalia
south, Thracia north and
east, Epirus and Illyria
west.
The kingdom of Macedon that existed in historical times traced its
origins to the city of Argos,
the native city of its first king, Perdiccas I, who reigned there in the VIIth
century B. C. and founded a dynasty that reached its peak with Alexander the Great
in the later part of the IVth century B. C. Perdiccas was supposed to descend
from Heracles through Temenus, the legendary conqueror of Peloponnese
and king of Argos. Macedon
was made up of the gathering of several tribes under the leadership of a single
king who kept his authority with the help of his army, and its borders didn't
change much during the two centuries until the times of Philip and Alexander the
Great.
One of Perdiccas' successors, Amyntas I established good relations
with the Athens of Pisistratus,
but, under his reign, Macedon was subjected to Persia.
Amyntas' son, Alexander I, fought in the army of Xerxes with a Macedonian contingent
during the Persian wars. Yet, he managed to secretly help the Greeks against the
Persians, earning the surname “Philhellen”, that is, “friend
of the Greeks”. As a result, he obtained for Macedon the freedom from Persian
dominion after the victory of the Greeks.
Around 450, Alexander was succeeded by his son Perdiccas II. During
his reign, Macedon switched sides several times between Athens
and Sparta. The Athenians
sent their troops first against Macedon, but soon accepted a truce with Perdiccas
to concentrate on rebellious Potidaea.
According to Thucydides (Histories, I, 56-66) these events played a key role in
leading to the Peloponnesian War a couple of years later. In 424, Perdiccas, hoping
for help against his own Thracian ennemies, sided with the Spartans when they
sent in Thracia, under the
orders of Brasidas, the expedition which led to the take over of Amphipolis.
This put him in open war with Athens.
Yet, soon disappointed by the insufficient help he received from Brasidas in his
own enterprises, the following year, he again switched alliances and renewed with
Athens. But, when, after
the battle of Mantinea in
418, Argos signed a peace
treaty with Sparta, Perdiccas,
who traced his origins to Argos,
was on their side, though, by 414, he seemed to be again fighting on the side
of the Athenians. When he died the following year, he was succeeded by his son
Archelaus.
With Archelaus, who remained more faithful to the alliance with Athens,
the court of Pella became
a brilliant place which attracted many talented artists. Yet, his death around
400 was followed by forty years of troubles and power struggles until Philip reached
the throne in 359, leading to the eventual dominion of Macedon over the rest of
Greece and a huge empire
conquered by his son Alexander the Great, and the beginning of what is known as
the “Hellenistic” period.
Bernard Suzanne (page last updated 1998), ed.
This extract is cited July 2003 from the Plato and his dialogues URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks.
Total results on 23/4/2001: 1000 for Macedonia, 41 for Makedonia.
DRAGOVITIA (Ancient city) MACEDONIA
The name derives from the slavian tribe of Drogouvites. In the 9th century is recorded as a see.
STYVERA (Ancient city) MACEDONIA
A large city in the middle of the Pelagonian plain showing Greek form
and influence (triangular plan, ca. 550 x 220 m). It lay on the river Erigon (now
the Vardar) and the road from Stobi to Herakleia Lynkou, near the present-day
village of Cepigovo. Its origins go back to the late archaic period, and it was
continually inhabited from then until late antiquity. Still visible are the city
walls and the excavated gymnasium.
Strabo mentions the city, as does Livy, who tells us that in 200 B.C.
the Roman army fighting Philip V turned to the N from Lynkos (Herakleia) and came
to Stubera, where it could get wheat. Further on he mentions the city as the Macedonian
base during Perseus' struggle with the Illyrians in 169. Stymbara is also mentioned
in the work by the Ravenna Geographer (4.9.2). From the many inscriptions it is
to be concluded that it belonged to the circumscription of Deuriopos, that it
was included in the tribus Scaptia, and that the conventus civium Romanorum was
to be found in it. The lists of city epheboi for the years 190, 203, 206, and
223 survive, enabling us to calculate that in the 2d c. the city had some 20,000
free inhabitants. A few marble statues are of artistic worth. The base is extant
for the statue of Septimius Silvanus Nichomachus, member of a family which produced
a few Macedonarchs and a consul. The city may have been destroyed in an earthquake.
J. Sasel, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
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