THE HISTORY

OF

THE MACEDONIANS.

CHAPTER I.

THE PHYSICAL HISTORY OF MACEDONIA.

THE ancient name of Macedonia was Æmathia, but the time and cause of the appellation being changed are unknown. Some authors imagine that it received that denomination from king Macedo, a descendant from Deucalion, while others airm that it is derived by an easy mutation of Mygdonia, the name of one of its provinces. The latter appears to be the most probable, for the space intervening between the range of Mount Hæmus, which separated Thrace and Macedonia from northern Europe, and the Cambanian mountains, which divided Macedonia from Thessaly, was, during a long succession of ages, distinguished by different appellations, according as the barbarous nations that inhabited those regions rose into temporary eminence. Thus, Livy says, that Pæonia was once the general name of Macedonia; which name afterwards became peculiar to a people near Mount Scopus. If the inhabitants of the district of Mygdonia, therefore, at any period became masters, they might have given the name of Macedonia to the whole country.

Some modern authors have attempted to derive the name of the Chittim mentioned in the Old Testament (Gen. x. 4; Numb. xxiv. 24; Isa. xxiii. 1. 12; Jer. ii. 10; Ezek. xxvii. 6; Dan. xi. 30.) from Macedonia. This appears to have arisen from the description of the country inhabited by the Kittim, which is supposed to answer to Macedonia, and from the fact that Alexander the Great is said to come "out of the land of

The

Chettim," and that Perseus is called king of the Citims, in the book of Maccabees. The term Chittim, however, as mentioned in the Old Testament, appears to be a name of more ample signification, and applied to the isles and coasts of the Mediterranean, like our Levant, in an indefinite sense. restriction put upon it by different authors, seems to corroborate this explanation. Thus, Josephus makes it Cyprus; the Maccabees, Macedonia; the Vulgate, Italy; Bochart and Shuckford, the islands around Italy, particularly Corsica; and Jerome ascribes it to the islands of the Ionian and Ægean Sea. Any of these places may be included in the larger acceptation of the term Chittim."

The boundaries of Macedonia varied at different times. In its most flourishing state, its limits, on the north, were the river Strymon and the Scardian branch of Mount Hæmus; on the east, the Egean Sea; on the south, the Cambanian mountains; and on the west, the Adriatic. At this period, it was said to contain 150 nations; a number which will not appear exaggerated when it is considered that each of its cities and towns were regarded as an independent state.

The most important divisions of Macedonia were Mygdonia, Bottica, Pieria, Elimea, Stymphalia, Orestes, Lyncus, Eordia, Emathia, Paonia, Chalcidice, Amphaxitis, Pelagonia, and Sintica.

MYGDONIA.

This district was situated on the Thermaic Bay, and it was separated from Bottima by the river Axius. Originally it was occupied by the Edones, a Thracian people, who were expelled thence by the Temenida. Either in or near Mygdonia, was the lake Bolbe, the modern Betchit, which Dr. Clarke describes as being about twelve miles in length, and from six to eight in breadth.

BOTTIEA.

Bottiæa was bounded on the east by the Axius; on the west, by the united mouth of the Haliacmon; and on the north, by Emathia. Larcher says, that the Bottiæans were of Athenian origin, and, according to Aristotle, from those children whom the Athenians sent to Minos, in Crete, by way of tribute. These children grew old in that island, gaining their livelihood by the labour of their hands.

The

Cretans, in compliance with the same vow, sent to Delphi the first-fruits of their citizens, to whom they added these descendants of the Athenians. As they could not subsist there, they went to Italy, and established themselves in Iapygia, from whence they went to Thrace, where they took the name of Bottiæans.

PIERIA.

According to Strabo, Pieria was bounded on the south by Dium. In more ancient times, however, the name was probably applied to all the country between Macedonia and the Peneus. In Grecian mythology, it is celebrated as the first seat of the muses, either because they came from that district, or because they were supposed by some to be the daughters of Pierus, a king of Macedonia.

ELIMEA.

This district lay to the west of Pieria, in the valley of Haliacmon. Its inhabitants, who were called Elimiotæ, in the days of Thucydides, were subject to the Macedonian monarchs, but were governed by their own princes. Livy says, that there was a road from thence to Thessaly, and another to tolia, over the Cambanian mountains.

STYMPHALIA.

The district of Stymphalia was to the south-west of Elimea. It was annexed to Macedonia on the conquest of Perseus by the Romans.

ORESTES.

This was a small inland district, north-west of Elimea. Some suppose that it took its name from the son of Agamemnon, who is said to have settled there after the murder of his mother. Maller remarks, that it more probably derived its name from the mountainous nature of the country, ores signifying mountain in the Greek. The inhabitants of Orestes were originally independent of the Macedonian monarchs, but they were eventually compelled to submit to their authority.