7) GREEK CLAIM: PAUSANIAS

7) GREEK CLAIM: PAUSANIAS

"They say that these were the tribes collected by Amphiktyon himself in the Hellenic Assembly: ... the Macedonians joined and the entire Phocian race ... In my day there were thirty members: six each from Nikopolis, Macedonia and Thessaly ... " (Pausanias Phokis 8,2 & 4)

The Phocians were deprived of their share in the Delphic sanctuary and in the Hellenic assembly, and their votes were given by the Amphictyons to the Macedonians. (Pausanias Description of Greece 10.3.3)

REPLY:

The Macedonian king Phillip, the father of Alexander the Great, did not represent Macedonia as a nation in the Delphic Amphictyony. Phillip's membership of the Delphic Amphictyony was a personal gift to him, and not to the nation of Macedonia. Macedonians as "oppose" to their kings were regarded as "peoples of non-kindred race" (Isocrates) as we saw above. Phillip's interests were multi-layered and deeper than he usual squabbles between two neighboring city-states; he prayed upon anti-Spartan feelings in the Peloponnesus, upon the tangle of Amphictyonic politics in central Greece, and upon disorder in the Thessalian federation. (Borza). Phillip exploited Greece's internal weakness for purely Macedonian gains. Phillip needed Greece for security and coalition. What he offered Greece in 346-344, was not much different from what he obtained through a military conquest in 337. Once he settled the Greek question in 338-37, Phillip turned immediately to preparations for the Asian venture. (Ellis). It is indeed difficult to digest the fact that Philip had no interest in Greece at all and that this Barbarian from Pella had no desire to conquer the Hellenes.

Getting back to the Amphictyonyc League… However, although the Amphictyonyc League was only open to Greeks, the membership to this league was also open to other foreigners as well (next to the Macedonian kings) - Persian envoys and /or commanders! Therefore, the fact that some Macedonians participated in the Greek Amphictyonic League, does not prove that they were Greeks, since foreigners like certain Persians could participate as well, next to the Greeks. When we add to that the fact that Macedonia did not belong to the Greek Hellenic League as well, the conclusion is complete – Macedonia was not part of the ancient Greece, but it’s northern neighbor.

Therefore, the above quote by Pausanias does not prove that the Macedonians were Greek, and this again shows us how the Greek propaganda does not present the full picture but instead passes misleading quotes. It is clear from the overwhelming evidence, both ancient (including ancient Greek) and modern that the Macedonians were not part of the ancient Greek nation. To see the complete evidence on the ethnicity of the ancient Macedonians. To see the complete evidence on the ethnicity of the ancient Macedonians please click here.