April 3, 2009 - Current Archaeology Magazine
Richard Hodges writes his postcard from the idyllic setting of Byzantine Kastoria in Greece.
The Byzantine emperors, it is said, regularly exiled dissident members of their court to Kastoria. Like Ochrid to the north, half-way across the breadth of the Balkans on an artery reaching from Constantinople to the Adriatic Sea, evidently exile in this little Greek lakeside resort was meant to be a chastening punishment. Today, such punishment is a rare pleasure. Kastoria boasts a Byzantine heritage that seems second to Constantinople. But, unlike Istanbul, this little town in summertime enjoys a captivating serenity. In wintertime, I should add, it is entirely different, so they say. For this is the fur capital of Greece, a status it owes to its ancient heritage of trapping beaver (beaver in Greek being kastori, with the plural being kastoria) in Lake Orestiadha. An inexplicable number of shops fit out Greece’s best-dressed women in bulky coats as well as tight leather, risking political incorrectness in most other European countries.
Lake Orestiadha is graced by pelicans. These bewitchingly beautiful birds circle around the lakeside like jumbo jets before effortlessly descending, twisting then gliding to plop onto the water close to shore alongside the ungainly but distinctive watercraft here. The restless pelicans catch your eye as you enter the town, which has colonised the isthmus of a steep and bulbous promontory reaching out into the northern part of the lake. Refurbished Roman fortifications belonging to ancient Celetrum were probably first renovated in the 6th century AD when this had become Justinianopolis. These were strengthened again with 13th century bastions by the Epirot Despots. The unevenly restored walls extend across the narrow neck, in front of which is the daily market of local farmers, men and women from the slopes of the Grammos mountains, wizened by long summers. Rising steeply behind the walls is the modern town with its roots in Byzantium and the Ottoman age. Along the west-facing shoreline is a string of bright cafés; this is the heart of the present city. By contrast, the east-facing shoreline, tracked by a promenade, is shaded by planes and has an elegiac air. Here the discrete sense of serenity is profound as the trees drift past the excellent Kastoria Hotel into the thicker woodland that shrouds the narrow sylvan track that winds around the promontory a distance of some six miles.
A rose with thorns
Many consider Kastoria the most beautiful town of mainland Greece. Being unaffected in its natural setting with so many monuments, it certainly ranks alongside Napthion, for example. In common with most Greek towns, being on a passage from East to West, it has had many occupants since Roman times. Apart from the Byzantine community, there were Franks, the Epirot Despots, Bulgars and Serbs before it was seized by the Turks in 1385. It remained in Ottoman hands until the first Balkan war in 1912 when it became one of the northern reaches of the new Greece. Its mid 20th century history was bitter. A plaque records the round-up of Jews, merchants famed since Ottoman times in the furrier business, during the Second World War. No sooner had this anguished period ended, than the city was caught in the grip of the Greek Civil War of 1947-1949 when the Communist army retreated with huge losses across the nearby Grammos mountains and through the passes immediately to the north of Kastoria before evaporating into Albania. Today, a statue to the American commander who assisted the Greek government, General James Van Fleet (1892-1992), commands the undistinguished square immediately behind the fortifications, bearing witness to this bitter period.
Kastoria, though, is known not for its conquerors, exiles or bitter episodes but for its 50 or so frescoed churches. The churches are ubiquitous, dotted within the web of streets criss-crossing the steep flanks and long saddle-back that form the town occupying the isthmus. It is best to get guidance on keys from the Byzantine Museum on the Platisa Dhexamenis, an uncomfortable modern edifice in the centre, otherwise it is pot-luck to gain entry.
Sacred sites
All the churches appear curiously tightly built, as though they were squeezed by inventive architects into a packed townscape. So they tend to be tall, with distinctively high elevations as well as curiously narrow. The Greek ministry of culture has worked energetically to restore all the churches – indeed, some are rather over-restored. But ambling around the maze of quiet lanes my favourite was Aghios Stephanos, now occupying its own little square around which local children were noisily playing football. This church is said to date from the 9th century. Inside, its dark frescoes at first are rather off-putting. But stare hard and the high level of iconographic attainment soon becomes clear. The deep colours in the geometric compositions are subtle and challenging to the viewer. As for the building, it has a high entrance hall – narthex – that seems to be tacked onto the high nave that rises exaggeratedly above its side chapels. It is almost as though it was designed as a first floor palace with a little apsed church below. Robust and strong in construction, its proportions are the work of a great architect. By contrast, the near contemporary church of Panayia Koumbelidiki, a stone’s throw from Aghios Stephanos, appears more shuffling in its construction. It has a tall cylindrical domed tower, a cross between a dome and an East Anglian round tower, that stands like a funnel above the nave, itself a confection of different forms and ideas.
Then, too, there is the glorious church of the Taxiarchis of the Metropolis. Set a little off a busy cross street, at an angle in its own garden, it is the apogee of a haven. This Middle Byzantine church has a long, side porch within which today is its main door. I ventured in timidly, knowing that it was off-limits as conservators were at work. The masked conservators were lovingly tending to the high frescoes that reach high up into its elevated nave. At first there was the inevitable polyglot cacophony of ‘closed’, as I threatened ‘health and safety’ no doubt. But then seeing my eagerness and evidently proud of their temporary home and its treasures they beckoned me to the far end where an original tight staircase provided a rewarding new view of the church. The staircase twisted to a virtual level of a first floor, from where the 10th century frescoes may be viewed with ease and awe. These are as haunting as any in Istanbul. Their strange iconography is another story altogether – for another postcard. Suffice it to say that the raking light from the slit-like clerestory windows ravished the newly restored painted panels and made me think long and hard about the tiny fragments of fresco I have found in my excavations of churches at Butrint, far to the west. But this is more than a testament to one almost forgotten era; tracts of the painting belong to the 14th century as even provincial Byzantine artists toyed with the near Renaissance concepts of humanist figural painting.
Church after church in Kastoria is a jewel. Dozens of them, each reminding the visitor that every major household – e
ach aristocrat here – needed somewhere sacred to pray. So, it seems, a heady competition emerged between these households, as their chapels became miniature sacred palaces.Almost as captivating are the ‘Ottoman’ period houses. Several rows of these majestic, jettied monuments occupy the steep eastward-looking slope. Many are in a perilous condition, close to collapse. All are of factory-sized proportions (the so-called Macedonian style), recalling an age extending from the 17th to 19th centuries, mostly, when Kastoria boasted rich families whose wealth stemmed from the famed fur trade. This Ottoman quarter is as fine an example as any in the region – at Ioannina, Gjirokastra (in Albania), Bitola (in FYR Macedonia*) and Prizren in Kosovo. Like these latter places, it marks a benign moment when the culture of Constantinople contributed greatly to the vernacular tradition of European architecture.
Though the urban churches are little jewels, the monastery of Panaghia Mavriotissa must not be missed. This lakeside monastery lies on the far southern tip of the peninsula, cloaked by lush, glorious trees. Twin churches grace this Macedonian style monastery: the most memorable is the single-aisled church of the Virgin (Panaghia), allegedly dating to about AD 1000, with 13th-century frescoes. These include a panel dedicated to the Tree of Jesse, branches surrounding the Virgin, and a figure who is supposedly the ill-fated late 11th century Byzantine Emperor Michael VII Palaeogos and his brother John. Other panels include a vivid, if dark and violent, depiction of the last judgement with two wretched groups of the damned (some with evil long teeth), being reprimanded by angels. Beside it is the chapel of Aghios Ioannis Theologos, a church with wall-paintings executed in 1552 by the artist Eustathios Iakovou. This, to be honest, is a timeless place to pause and eat at one of the makeshift tavernas beside the monastery. In its shadow, there is a blissful spiritual serenity that encapsulates the sublime pleasure of Kastoria. This is definitely the place to consume a fine Greek wine from the Peloponnese with grilled brown trout from the lake, punctuated, of course, by a bustling interruption as a pelican glides inshore.
From CWA 34
Sunday, July 29, 2012
A Postcard from Kastoria - R. Hodges
Catholic Encyclopedia on Macedonia
THESSALONICA
"...In 1083 Euthymius, Greek Patriarch of Jerusalem, was commissioned by Alexius I Commenus to negotiate peace at Thessalonica with Tancred of Sicily, who had conquered a portion of Epirus and Macedonia and threatened to take possession of the rest. In August, 1185, Guillaume d'Hauterive, King of Sicily, besieged Thessalonica by sea with a fleet of 200 ships and by land with an army of 80,000 men; the city was captured, and all resistance from the Greeks punished with death..."
"...Alexander assisted at the Council of Nicaea in 325, at Tyre in 335, and at the consecration of the Holy Sepulchre in the same year. At the end of the same century Acholius baptized Theodosius the Great. Le Quien has compiled a list of 74 Greek titulars of this city, some of whom do not belong to it..."
THE CHURCH OF THESSALONICA
"...It would seem that Paul stayed in the city some time thereafter, for, according to the reading of Codex Bezæ (fifth century), and the Vulgate and Coptic Versions (Acts 17:4), he converted a large number not only of proselytes (ton te sebomenon) but of Gentile Greeks (kai Hellenon)...
"...Be this as it may, the signal success of Paul's apostolate among Jews, proselytes, and Hellenes together with the conversion of "not a few noble ladies" (Acts 17:4), aroused the Jews to a fury of envy; they gathered together a mob of idlers from the agora and set the whole city in tumult; they beset the home of Jason, found the Apostle away, dragged his host to the tribunal of the politarchs and charged him with harbouring traitors, men who set Jesus up as king in place of Cæsar. That night the brethren made good the escape of their teacher to Berea..."
ALEXANDRIA
"...(2) The Greeks also form two groups, the so-called Orthodox and the Melchites. The Orthodox, separated from Rome, are divided into two factions which differ in language and origin, and live in enmity: on one side, the Hellenophones, many of whom are natives of the Greek kingdom; on the other, the Arabophones, subject to the Khedive or natives of Syria; all these have a patriarch of Greek tongue and race whose official residence is in the town, near the church of St. Sabas. The Melchites, united to Rome, are natives of Egypt and Syria; they are under the Patriarch of Alexandria, Antioch, Jerusalem, and all the East, but, as the prelate resides at Damascus, they are governed by a bishop who is vicar of the patriarchate..."
GREECE
"...Of the enormous number of people since Alexander who spoke Greek and called themselves Greeks the great majority were children of Hellenized barbarians... Alexander (336-23 B.C.) upset these limits altogether. Himself a Hellenized Macedonian, descended from people whom the old Greeks certainly considered barbarians (though Macedonians seem to have been akin to the Aeolians), his empire spread the Greek ideal and language throughout Asia and Egypt..."
Conclusion: Ancient Macedonians were not Hellenized barbarians, and there is no evidence that ancient Macedonians called themselves as barbarians, Hellenized barbarians or Hellenized Macedonians. They were called barbarians (with cultural meaning, not ethnic) by some Classical Greeks (Demosthenes etc.), but they were called themselves as Greeks (see Alexander's correspondence with Porus). The educated classes, of course knew better, and they could understand that their dialect was a Greek dialect, but not the Macedonian herdsmen, who could hardly communicate in the Attic Greek of the Athenians (they had a much easier time with the Doric of the Spartans, and of course they spoke the same dialect as the Northwest Greek speaking Epirotes and Aetolians).
Eugene Borza and NGL Hammond, great scientists on History of ancient Macedonia, accept the assertion that the Macedonians come from the same Proto-Hellenic stock of Indo-Europeans that made the southern Greeks. (see "Athenians, Macedonians, and the Origins of Macedonian Royal House" by E. Borza).
"...But here, too, Hellas gradually absorbed her conquerors. At least from the time of Justinian I (527-65) the Eastern Empire, in spite of its Roman name, must be counted a Greek State. The Byzantine period (roughly from 527 to 1453) is the direct continuation of the older Greek civilization. It is true that Byzantine civilization was influenced from other sides (from Rome and Asia Minor, for instance); but this would apply to the old Greek ideals too, on which Egypt, Persia, and Asia had their influence..."
Conclusion: The Catholic Encyclopedia accepts that Byzantine Empire was successor of ancient Greek civilizations, and predecessor of modern Greek nation, which in fact is true.
"...The real danger to the ideal of Greater Greece covering all the Balkans was not, is not now, the Turk, who remains always only an unpleasant incident in the history of these lands; it is the presence of other Christian races, Slavs, who dispute the Greek ideal with their languages and national feeling. Were it not for these Slavs we could count Greece as having absorbed Macedonia and Thrace by the time of Alexander, and as covering nearly all the Balkans to the Danube ever since. But the Bulgar, the Serb, the Wallachian--and Albanian too--are there with their languages and nations to oppose the "Great Idea" of which every Greek dreams..."
"...In the partitions of the Roman Empire neither Graecia nor Hellas appears. The Peloponnesus and the land up to Thessaly formed the Province of Achaia, then came Thessalia and Epirus, then Macedonia and Thracia..."
Conclusion: The author of this article explains the partition of ancient Greek regions on provinces in Roman Empire. Among them and Macedonia is referred.
"...The Slav invasions of the empire began under Anastasius I (491-518) in 493; various Slav tribes and the non-Aryan Bulgars (who soon adopted a Slav language and became practically Slavs too) pressed southward into Thrace, Macedonia, Thessaly, even Achaia, in increasing numbers, throughout the whole period of the empire at Constantinople; so that always, and still in our own time, they form a rival influence to the Greeks throughout these lands. The old sees of these seven more or less Greek provinces are, according to Lequien: (1) Province of Macedonia (II, 27-102), metropolis Thessalonica, with suffragan sees of Philippi, Berrhoea, Dium (Dion), Stobi (Stoboi), Parthicopolis, Doberus, Cassandria, Edessa, Pydna or Citrum, Heraclea Sintica, Amphipolis, Lemnos (the island), Thassus, Serra, Bargala, Theorium, Campania or Castrium, Poliana, Pogoiana, Zichnae, Drygobitzia, Melanias, Drama, Ardamerium, Rhendina, Deabolis, Hierissus, Lycostomium and Servia..."
"...In the Patriarchate of Constantinople the Bulgars have made a formal schism since 1872. They have an exarch at Constantinople, and his exarchist bishops dispute the jurisdiction of the Greek (patriarchist) hierarchy all over Macedonia. There are now exarchist bishops at Ochrida, Uskub, Monastir, Nevrokop, Veles, Strumitza, Debra. In all the other dioceses, save five, they have priests and churches. This is the greatest schism..."
Source: New Advent: Catholic Encyclopedia - 1917
Saturday, July 28, 2012
Jewish Encyclopedia on Macedonia
The unedited version of the 1906 Jewish Encyclopedia
ALEXANDER THE GREAT
"The celebrated conqueror of the East, 356-323 B.C. By introducing Hellenic culture into Syria and Egypt, he had probably more influence on the development of Judaism than any one individual not a Jew by race..."
"...Alexander then gave the high priest his right hand, and went into the Temple and "offered sacrifice to God according to the high priest's direction," treating the whole priesthood magnificently. "And when the Book of Daniel was shown him, wherein Daniel declared that one of the Greeks should destroy the empire of the Persians..."
"...Alexander permitted the Jews to hold the country of Samaria free from tribute as a reward for their fidelity to him, it was he who Hellenized its capital. The Sibylline Books (iii. 383) speak of Alexander—who claimed to be the son of Zeus Amon—as "of the progeny of the Kronides, though spurious."
MACEDONIA
"...The First Book of the Maccabees, which originally was written in Hebrew, also uses the word "Kittim" for Macedonians, and mentions Philip and Alexander (i. 1), as well as Philip III. and his illegitimate son Perseus (viii. 5), as kings of the Macedonians. Since the Greek Syrians style themselves "successors of Alexander," these Syrians also are called "Macedonians"..."
"...The Rabbis, whose acquaintance with Greek life was one acquired during the Macedonian era, identified the Hebrew "Yawan" (Javan) with Macedonia..."
"...Many Macedonian idioms, it is claimed, are found in the Jewish-Hellenistic language, especially as it appears in the Septuagint..."
GREECE
"...Alexander the Great, who through his education had thoroughly imbibed the Greek spirit, treated the Jews with great kindness..."
ALEXANDRIA
"...Moreover, the whole city was divided into five districts, which were named after the first five letters of the Greek alphabet..."
"...Moreover, there was no such thing as a council (βōυλέ) during the first two centuries of the Greek domination; this having been abolished by the Ptolemies, or, at the very latest, by Augustus, and only revived under Septimius Severus..."
"...Josephus says ("Contra Ap." ii. 4); "Alexander gave them a place in which to live, and they received the same rights as the Macedonians [Greeks], and up to the present their race has retained the appellation Macedonians." In another place ("B. J." ii. 18, § 7) he declares: "Alexander permitted them the same rights as the Greeks. This privilege they preserved under the successors of Alexander, who permitted them to call themselves Macedonians..."
"...Although the religion of their forefathers was so faithfully followed, the Jews of Alexandria nevertheless imbibed, to a great degree, the culture of the Greeks. Not many generations after the founding of the community, the Torah was translated into Greek (perhaps under Ptolemy II.; at all events not much later). It was read in Greek in the synagogues; indeed this was the language chiefly used in the service (Schürer, "Gesch." 3d ed., iii. 93-95). Greek must, therefore, have been the vernacular of the lower classes also. The better classes studied Greek literature in the schools, and read Homer, the tragic poets, Plato, Aristotle, and the Stoics. This intimate acquaintance with Greek literature naturally exerted a profound influence upon the Alexandrian Jews. They became Greeks without, however, ceasing to be Jews..."
HELLENISM
"Word used to express the assimilation, especially by the Jews, of Greek speech, manners, and culture, from the fourth century B.C. through the first centuries of the common era... This separation was especially difficult to maintain when the victorious campaign of Alexander the Great had linked the East to the West. The victory was not simply a political one. Its spiritual influence was much greater. The Greek language became a common language for nearer Asia, and with the language went Greek culture, Greek art, and Greek thought. The influence thus exerted did not entirely drive out the local languages or the local civilization. The Hellenic spirit was itself profoundly modified by contact with the Orient; and out of the mingling of the two there arose a pseudo-Greek culture which was often different in spirit from the true culture of Hellas..."
"...Except in Egypt, Hellenic influence was nowhere stronger than on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean. Greek cities arose there in continuation, or in place, of the older Semitic foundations, and gradually changed the aspect of the country. Such cities were Raphia, Gaza, Ascalon, Azotus, Jabneh, Jaffa, Cæsarea, Dor, and Ptolemais. It was especially in eastern Palestine that Hellenism took a firm hold, and the cities of the Decapolis (which seems also to have included Damascus) were the centers of Greek influence... The cities in western Palestine were not excepted. Samaria and Panias were at an early time settled by Macedonian colonists. The names of places were Hellenized: "Rabbath-Ammon" to "Philadelphia"; "Armoab" to "Ariopolis"; "Akko" to "Ptolemais." The same occurred with personal names: "Ḥoni" became "Menelaus"; "Joshua" became "Jason" or "Jesus." The Hellenic influence pervaded everything..."
"...A glance at the classes of Greek words which found their way into the Hebrew and the Jewish-Aramaic of the period, as compiled by I. Löw (in S. Krauss, "Lehnwörter," pp. 623 et seq.), shows this with great clearness. The Hellenists were not confined to the aristocratic class, but were found in all strata of Jewish society (Wellhausen, "I. J. G." p. 194), though the aristocrats naturally profited more from the good-will of Hellenistic rulers than did other classes...
"...The introduction of the Greek games was peculiarly offensive to the religious party, not only because of the levity connected therewith, but also because Jewish participants were under the necessity of concealing the signs of their origin. This Hellenization might have gone much further had not Antiochus Epiphanes attempted to substitute pagan worship for Jewish... Such a one was Alcimus, who went to Jerusalem with Bacchides, at the head of the Syrian army sent by King Demetrius. Greek legends on Jewish coins became the rule after the days of Herod... The inscription forbidding strangers to advance beyond a certain point in the Temple was in Greek; and was probably made necessary by the presence of numerous Jews from Greek-speaking countries at the time of the festivals (comp. the "murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews," Acts vi. 1). The coffers in the Temple which contained the shekel contributions were marked with Greek letters (Sheḳ. iii. 2)..."
"... The Hellenistic Jewish literature is the best evidence of the influence exercised by Greek thought upon the "people of the book." The first urgent need of the Hellenistic Jews in Alexandria was a Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible... Even the prejudiced Palestinian teachers accepted it and praised the beauty of the Greek language..."
Source: Jewish Encyclopedia
Thursday, July 26, 2012
The oath of Alexander by Bost
Title: The oath of Alexander the Great
Artist: Chrysanthos Bostantzoglou - Bost.
Description of picture: Alexander the Great gives oath before the Holy Bible, waving the Greek national flag (used as state symbol: 1822 - 1970 and 1975 - 1978), and holds his shield with sixteen-rayed Macedonian sun of Argead dynasty. In upper part of the picture is written "oρκίζομε όλη η Μακαιδονία είναι ελληνική" (I swear all Macedonia is Greek), on the lower part of picture is written "Ο ΟΡΚΟΣ ΤΟΥ ΑΛΕΞΑΝΔΡΟΥ" (The oath of Alexander).
Conclusion: Alexander never looked like this. Also, there was no Christian Bible and that modern Greek flag, at the time when he lived. But it's called free imagination of the artist.
Wednesday, July 25, 2012
Alexander the Great - Jerusalem
Article from Livius.
Most scholars agree that the following story, told by the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus in his Jewish antiquities 11.317-345, is not true. One argument is that Alexander is shown a book that was not yet written. Another argument is that the story is a bit too good to be true: the Samarians, the eternal rivals of the Jews, blacken the Jews and get permission to build a temple of their own, Alexander visits Jerusalem, understands that he owes everything to the God of the Jews, allows them the privilege to live according to their ancestral customs and behaves rather unkind towards the Samarians. If a Jew in the second century BCE were to invent a story, he would write something along these lines.
Alexander Kneeling before Jaddus at the Gates of Jerusalem, possibly woven at the workshop of Jaques Tseraerts (died before 1613), Flanders, Brussels
On closer inspection, however, we may notice some odd details. In the first place, the Samaritans are allowed to keep their temple: not exactly something a Jew would invent, and in fact a plausible punishment for the Jewish refusal to send soldiers. In the second place, in fact, Alexander gives the Jews no privileges at all: everything he grants the Jews, had already been granted to them by the Persian kings. This was Alexander's usual policy.
In the third place, the idea that Alexander had had a vision in which the God of the Jews played an important role is just too incredible to be invented: everyone knew that Alexander claimed to be the son of the Egyptian god Ammon. Nobody would invent a special link to the Jewish God. The easiest explanation is that Alexander did indeed sacrifice to the God of the Jews.
Another aspect that deserves to be mentioned is Alexander's demand for auxiliaries and the presents the Jews formerly had sent to the Persian government. This matches the demand made by Alexander to Darius that he would address him as the master of the Persian possessions.
(The following translation was made by William Whiston.)
Ancient-Warfare.com, the online home of Ancient Warfare magazine
So when Alexander besieged Tyre, he sent an epistle to the Jewish high-priest, to send him some auxiliaries, and to supply his army with provisions [1]; and that what presents he formerly sent to Darius, he would now send to him, and choose the friendship of the Macedonians, and that he should never repent of so doing. But the high-priest answered the messengers, that he had given his oath to Darius not to bear arms against him; and he said that he would not transgress this while Darius was in the land of the living. Upon hearing this answer, Alexander was very angry; and though he determined not to leave Tyre, which was just ready to be taken, yet as soon as he had taken it, he threatened that he would make an expedition against the Jewish high-priest, and through him teach all men to whom they must keep their oaths. So when he had, with a good deal of pains during the siege, taken Tyre, and had settled its affairs, he came to the city of Gaza, and besieged both the city and him that was governor of the garrison, whose name was Babemeses.[2]
But [the Samarian leader] Sanballat thought he had now gotten a proper opportunity to make his attempt, so he renounced Darius, and taking with him seven thousand of his own subjects, he came to Alexander; and finding him beginning the siege of Tyre, he said to him, that he delivered up to him these men, who came out of places under his dominion, and did gladly accept of him for his lord instead of Darius. So when Alexander had received him kindly, Sanballat took courage, and spoke to him about his present affair. He told him that he had a son-in-law, Manasseh, who was brother to the high-priest Jaddus; and that there were many others of his own nation, now with him, that were desirous to have a temple in the places subject to him; that it would be for the king's advantage to have the strength of the Jews divided into two parts, lest when the nation is of one mind, and united, upon any attempt for innovation, it prove troublesome to kings, as it had formerly proved to the kings of Assyria. Whereupon Alexander gave Sanballat leave so to do, who used the utmost diligence, and built the temple, and made Manasseh the priest, and deemed it a great reward that his daughter's children should have that dignity; but when the seven months of the siege of Tyre were over, and the two months of the siege of Gaza, Sanballat died.
Now Alexander, when he had taken Gaza, made haste to go up to Jerusalem; and Jaddus the high-priest, when he heard that, was in an agony, and under terror, as not knowing how he should meet the Macedonians, since the king was displeased at his foregoing disobedience. He therefore ordained that the people should make supplications, and should join with him in offering sacrifice to God, whom he besought to protect that nation, and to deliver them from the perils that were coming upon them; whereupon God warned him in a dream, which came upon him after he had offered sacrifice, that he should take courage, and adorn the city, and open the gates; that the rest should appear in white garments, but that he and the priests should meet the king in the habits proper to their order, without the dread of any ill consequences, which the providence of God would prevent. Upon which, when he rose from his sleep, he greatly rejoiced, and declared to all the warning he had received from God. According to which dream he acted entirely, and so waited for the coming of the king.
Alexander the Great in the Temple of Jerusalem, Sebastiano Conca (1680-1764), Spain, Madrid, Museo del Prado
And when Jaddus understood that Alexander was not far from the city, he went out in procession, with the priests and the multitude of the citizens. The procession was venerable, and the manner of it different from that of other nations. It reached to a place called Sapha, which name, translated into Greek, signifies a prospect, for you have thence a prospect both of Jerusalem and of the temple. And when the Phoenicians and the Samarians that followed him thought they should have liberty to plunder the city, and torment the high-priest to death, which the king's displeasure fairly promised them, the very reverse of it happened; for Alexander, when he saw the multitude at a distance, in white garments, while the priests stood clothed with fine linen, and the high-priest in purple and scarlet clothing, with his mitre on his head, having the golden plate whereon the name of God was engraved, he approached by himself, and adored that name, and first saluted the high-priest.
The Jews also did all together, with one voice, salute Alexander, and encompass him about; whereupon the kings of Syria and the rest were surprised at what Alexander had done, and supposed him disordered in his mind. However, Parmenion alone went up to him, and asked him how it came to pass that, when all others adored him, he should adore the high-priest of the Jews? To whom he replied, 'I did not adore him, but that God who has honored him with his highpriesthood; for I saw this very person in a dream, in this very habit, when I was at Dion in Macedonia, who, when I was considering with myself how I might obtain the dominion of Asia, exhorted me to make no delay, but boldly to pass over the sea thither, for that he would conduct my army, and would give me the dominion over the Persians; whence it is that, having seen no other in that habit, and now seeing this person in it, and remembering that vision, and the exhortation which I had in my dream, I believe that I bring this army under the Divine conduct, and shall therewith conquer Darius, and destroy the power of the Persians, and that all things will succeed according to what is in my own mind.'
And when he had said this to Parmenion, and had given the high-priest his right hand, the priests ran along by him, and he came into the city. And when he went up into the temple, he offered sacrifice to God, according to the high-priest's direction, and magnificently treated both the high-priest and the priests. And when the Book of Daniel was showed him wherein Daniel declared that one of the Greeks should destroy the empire of the Persians, he supposed that himself was the person intended. [3] And as he was then glad, he dismissed the multitude for the present.
But the next day he called them to him, and bid them ask what favors they pleased of him; whereupon the high-priest desired that they might enjoy the laws of their forefathers, and might pay no tribute on the seventh year.[4] He granted all they desired. And when they asked him that he would permit the Jews in Babylon and Media to enjoy their own laws also, he willingly promised to do hereafter what they desired. And when he said to the multitude, that if any of them would enlist themselves in his army, on this condition, that they should continue under the laws of their forefathers, and live according to them, he was willing to take them with him, many were ready to accompany him in his wars.
So when Alexander had thus settled matters at Jerusalem, he led his army into the neighboring cities; and when all the inhabitants to whom he came received him with great kindness, the Samaritans, who had then Shechem for their metropolis -a city situate at Mount Gerizzim, and inhabited by apostates of the Jewish nation- seeing that Alexander had so greatly honored the Jews, determined to profess themselves Jews [...]. Accordingly, they made their address to the king with splendor, and showed great alacrity in meeting him at a little distance from Jerusalem. And when Alexander had commended them, the Shechemites approached to him, taking with them the troops that Sanballat had sent him, and they desired that he would come to their city, and do honor to their temple also; to whom he promised, that when he returned he would come to them. And when they petitioned that he would remit the tribute of the seventh year to them, because they did but sow thereon, he asked who they were that made such a petition; and when they said that they were Hebrews, but had the name of Sidonians, living at Shechem, he asked them again whether they were Jews; and when they said they were not Jews, 'It was to the Jews,' said he, 'that I granted that privilege; however, when I return, and am thoroughly informed by you of this matter, I will do what I shall think proper.'
And in this manner he took leave of the Shechemites; but ordered that the troops of Sanballat should follow him into Egypt, because there he designed to give them lands, which he did a little after in Thesis, when he ordered them to guard that country.
NOTES
1 - This detail is almost certainly authentic. Alexander besieged Tyre in the first half of 332 and desperately needed food supplies.
2 - Other sources call him Batis.
3 - The text Flavius Josephus has in mind may be Daniel 7:6; 8:3-8, 20--22; 11:3. Unfortunately, modern research has shown convincingly that the Book of Daniel was written in about 165 BCE.
4 - These conditions already existed in the Achaemenid empire.
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
Megas Alexandros by T. Hatzimihail
Title: Alexander the Great
Artist: Theophilos Hatzimihail
Year: ca. 1900
Description: Alexander the Great and his infantry soldiers as seen by Theophilos Hatzimihail.
Conclusion: This is another strong proof, that memory for the ancient Macedonians, had continuity for the Greek through centuries. Artwork as this is not witnessed for Slavomacedonians from FYROM.
Click on the image to enlarge!
Monday, July 23, 2012
Macedonia by N. Martis - 3
MACEDONIA by Nikolaos Martis - 3
His Holiness Pope John Paul, at Methodius' tomb in Czechoslovakia on April 22 1990, declared that these two is apostolic monks of Thessaloniki in Macedonia had blazed the trail for the Greek and Byzantine tradition in Europe ant it was to them that the Slavs owed their Christianity. In an encyclical in 1980, John Paul had already pronounced "the Greek brothers" Cyril and Methodius "divine patrons of Europe" (see Document No 19).
Skopjan historians and politicians have had the audacity ever since 1944 - and more recently in the FYROM's school textbooks printed for 1992-93 - to claim that the ancient Macedonians, Alexander the Great, the Prolemies, and Cyril and Methodius were not Greeks, indirectly claiming for themselves links with the great deeds of the Macedonian personalities as cited above. (see Document No 5)
Such allegations which undermine the very foundations of contemporary civilization, are offensive not only to the Greek people, but to anyone with the most rudimentary knowledge of history, to any honest person cherishing truth.
Macedonia is the home of the unique monastic community of Mount Athos, which was founded in AD 863. This ark of Hellenism and the Orthodox Christian faith is represented by twenty principal monasteries, 121 Skites (lesser monastic establishments), 1,700 buildings, 100,000 m2 of frescoed surfaces, 15,000 icons and 15,000 manuscripts both illustrated (Martis The falsification of Macedonian History)
To recognize the people of FYROM as "Macedonians", given their claim that the ancient Macedonians, Alexander, the Ptolemies, the Seleucids, and even Cyril and Methodius were not Greeks, would lead to such absurdities as, for instance:
1. Should we consider not Greek but Slav the Macedonian Former President of the Hellenic Republic, Mr. Constantine Karamanlis, and some three million Greek Macedonians throughout the world, who are proud to bear, as Greeks, the Macedonian name?
2. Should we give a new name to the Hellenistic Period (336-30 BC) and, thencefore, call it the FYROMian Period?
3. Should we "slavicise" in our history books the Macedonian Ptolemy I (who built the Library of Alexandria and preserved the works of the ancient Greek philosophers for posterity), Ptolemy II (who translated the Bible into Greek), and Ptolemy V (whose vow on the Rosetta stone, now preserved in the British Museum, is in Greek, Egyptian and hieroglyphics)?
4. Should more credence be given to Skopje's distorters of history than to the Old and New Testament texts and the works of ancient Greek, Roman, and Jewish writers who identify the Macedonians as Greeks?
5. How should we identify the Macedonian masses who watched Greek comedies tragedies and- presented in the Greek language, of course, in Macedonia's ancient theaters at Dion, Vergina, Philippi, and Thassos. Were they FYROMians, i.e. new style "Macedonians"?
6. Was the "man of Macedonia" who appeared in AD 50 to St. Paul in a vision in Troy in Asia Minor and spoke to him in Greek (acts 16:9) not a Greek?
7. Are St. Paul and Silas - who, as we are told in Acts 17:4, 12, en- Intered Greek men and women in Thessaloniki and Beroea - to be contradicted?
8. Is more credence to be given to Skopje than to three Popes who categorically stated that St. Cyril and Methodius were Greeks, i.e. 1. (ACTA) PIUS p.p.xi, 13.2.1927, 2. (ACTA) IOANNIS p.p.xxiii, 11.05.1963 and 3. Pope John Paul, who, since 1980, has repeatedly confirmed, it despite Skopje's claim of ethnic ownership of these two famous Greek Byzantine personalities? Is Mr. Gligorov to be condoned for his unseemly conduct in attempting to mislead world opinion from the United Nations rostrum with his statement that "Christianity was the Macedonian people's gift to the Slavs"? (see Document No 20). I have already cited that in both the Epistola Enciclica and in 1990 the Pope himself declared in Moravia that if the Slavs became Christians they owed it to the two Greek monks from Thessaloniki.
9. When the Romans minted coins bearing the name "Macedonia", with Greek lettering and Macedonian emblems, were they influenced in doing this by the non-Greek ancestors of FYROM?
10. The very fact that the ancient Greek gods were perceived by ancient Greeks to have their home on the Macedonian Mount Olympus laughs to scorn the claim of FYROM' politicians and authors that the ethnic boundaries of their pseudo-Macedonian nation extend to the top of Mount Olympus. Should we deduce that the identity of the Greek "12 Gods" run the risk of being appropriated by the authorities of the new "Macedonian Republic of Skopje"?
11. The Macedonian language: Skopje's claim that the ancient Macedonians' language was not Greek is preposterous. The National Research Center in Athens has collected and published 5,000 Greek inscriptions from Macedonia. We challenge Mr. Gligorov and all those who thoughtlessly accept Tito's fabrication of a "Macedonian language" to produce just one inscription in this supposed ancient "Macedonian, non-Greek" tongue- and we will give them the name of Macedonia.
The Slavic dialect spoken in Central and Western Macedonia (Northern Greece) is an ancient Greek language. It contains 1164 Homeric words. Due to the long coexistence of Greeks, Serbs and Bulgarians, this dialect has been enriched with Bulgarian words and endings and has nothing to do with the so-called "Macedonian language" invented in 1944-45, which is a mixture of the Bulgarian and the Serbo-Croatian languages.
After 1913 whilst Greece and Bulgaria exchanged their nationals (96,000 Bulgarians and 46,000 Greeks were exchanged) the same was not done for Serbia which retained its Bulgarian nationals, changed their names (ending of ITS) and obliged their children to be taught Serbian at school.
The endeavor however of the Serbs to make Serbs out of the Bulgarians was not successful as is deduced from the events related below:
In 1941 when Hitler's army entered Skopje, there were thousands of Bulgarian flags there to greet them and the German army was welcome as liberators. King Boris of Bulgaria was received in 1942 in Skopje as a liberator. The Communist Part of Skopje left the C.P. of Yugoslavia and joined the Bulgarian Communist Party, and Western literature was read in Skopje in the Bulgarian language. The testimony of the American Henry Morgenthau is also of great significance. Serving in Greece between 1925 and 1926 as President of the Committee on Refugees for the Community of Nations, he wrote -in his book "I was Sent to Athens" and "When the Turks and the Bulgarians left, Macedonia remained a purely Greek region" Then, as now, on the northern borders of Macedonia there were inhabitants speaking a local Slavic dialect alongside the Greek language. These people were, and still are, Greeks.
The case of Skopje is unprecedented in the annals of world history. Having stolen the name "Macedonia" and appropriated ancient and Medieval Greek Macedonian History and civilization, they have turned to usurping everything Macedonian, i.e. deriving from Macedonia. Thus:
a. They claim that Alexander the Great was not Greek. Besides all other documentation, it should suffice to cite the Old Testament sources:
- Daniel's prophecy (chapter VIII, par. 20-21) "The Goat" Greek king will defeat the "Ram" Persian king.
- The book of Macabees A, in which "Alexander is identified as the Greek king in Daniel's prophecy".
- Talmud refers "Alexander, the Macedonian king of Greece".
b. They claim that the Bulgarian Czar Samuel was a "Macedonian". Byzantine sources called the Byzantine Emperor Basil II, who defeated him, as "the Bulgar slayer" not "Macedon slayer" nor "FYROM- slayer".
c. They claim that the Iliden uprising of 1903 was a revolt of "Macedonians" against the Turks. In every country's archives, and in the reports of the four Consuls and vice-consuls (British, French, Austrian and USA) in Monastir (now Bitola) and Thessaloniki in 1903, it is described as a revolt by Bulgarian Comitadjis. (see Document No 21, Photocopies of these reports that are connected with the Iliden Affair) Seventy original issues of them are kept in microfilm at the Museum of "Macedonian Struggles" in Thessaloniki.
d. In 1986 they deceived the Vatican by gaining permission to hold, at the Vatican, an exhibition of "Macedonian" icons -which were in fact Greek Byzantine icons. Later a Vatican spokesman stated that they had been "tricked by Skopje"
e. In June 1989 they deceived the Russians by putting on an exhibition in Moscow of fourth to sixth century "Macedonian" terracottas. The inscriptions were all in Greek.
f. In 1990 Skopje translated into the "Macedonian language" a Papal encyclical, which was issued in 1985 in Latin and French. The encyclical - in Macedonian language was subsequently passed off, as if it were issued by the Vatican Press, thus recognizing the "Macedonian Language".
g. Another example of falsification of History is the case of participation of Alexander A in the Olympic Games. In a Text of the Skopjans is stated that "In the 5 c. B.C., Herodotus wrote that the Greeks refused to take part in the Olympic Games proposed by Alexander, on the grounds that the Macedonians were racially of a different origin"
They are purposely hiding the next paragraph of Herodotus text, which states; "But Alexander proving himself to be an Argive, he was judged to be a Greek. So he contended in the furlong race and an a dead heat for the first place". Herodotus V 22,2 (Loeb. A. d. Godley).
h. Besides King Alexander the A' of Macedon, other Ten Macedonians, among which a woman called Belistiche (see Document No 22), also participated and were victorious in the ancient Olympic Games. As it is known, these games were open only to athletes of Greek origin.
i. FYROM writers and politicians willfully claim that the Treaty of Bucharest, which ended the Balkan War of 1912-13, divided Macedonia in 1913 and subjugated it under new rulers: the Greeks, the Bulgarians and the Serbs. Under Ottoman rule (1450-1912) there was no administrative district called Macedonia, the region was divided up into sanjaks and vilayets.
The treaties of 1913, which fixed the Greek Bulgarian and Greek - Serbian borders, make no mention whatsoever of the word "Macedonia". The truth is that Macedonia was liberated after five centuries of Ottoman rule. Greek Macedonia, which by historical coincidence, more or less extended over the regions of the ancient Macedonian Kingdom, became part of modern Greece. The maps published between 1913 and 1944 refer to Macedonia only as part of Greece. (see Document No 23)
Skopje never belonged to ancient Macedonia (see Document No 24, maps)
In ancient times Skopje was the capital of Dardania. During the era of the Turkish occupation, Skopje was the capital of the Vilaeti of Kossovo until 1912 and the capital of the administrative district of Vardar in the period 1913-1944.
The list of their fraudulent assertions is endless.
Macedonia is a non ordinary region. According to the ancient historian Polybius (History IX 35.2), Macedonia was the Greeks' bastion against the Barbarians. A guide to Thessaloniki written by German archaeologists and historians for the occupying forces of 1941-45 calls the city a "bulwark of the Greeks ever since the third century AD".
The Greek presence and influence in Macedonia were crucial not only in antiquity and the Hellenistic period; but also in the Roman, Byzantine and Turkish periods.
In Thessaloniki -- "And that city (Thessaloniki) is the metropolis of what is now Macedonia " Strabo, VII, Frg. 21 (Loeb, H. L, Jones) -- many typical examples of Byzantine architecture from the fifth to the fourteenth century are still functioning even today.
Vassiliev (E. Vassiliev, The History of the Byzantine Empire, p. 863) says that "in the fourteenth century, on the eve of its ultimate destruction by the Turks, Greece concentrated its intellectual activity in Thessaloniki to demonstrate its last splendid blaze"
In this century Macedonia has seen:
1. From 1903 to 1908 the Macedonian Struggle between the Greeks and the Bulgarians.
2. In 1912-1913 two Balkan Wars.
3. In 1916-1917 the First World War's famous Front, created in Thessaloniki
During the Second World War, Greece also played a decisive part in the presentation of democracy no less than three times:
1. In October 1940 it was from the territories of Macedonia and Epirus that Greece foiled the Fascist threat, gained the first victory, and, as Noel Baker said, prevented the Axis Powers from winning the War there and then.
2. In February 1941, when Anthony Eden (the British foreign Minister) told the Greek Prime Minister that Turkey and Yugoslavia refused to fight against Hitler's Germany, the Greek Prime Minister retorted that Greece would fight Germany alone.
The Greeks heroic struggle along the fortified positions of Macedonia and Thrace, and the battles waged by Greeks, Britons, Australians and New Zealanders in central Macedonia and later on Crete, with the aid and support of the Cretan people, delayed Hitler's assault on Soviet Russia by two and a half months, with the result that the initial German victory in the Soviet Union was transformed into a humiliating defeat. The above Greek struggle was praised by Franklin Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, General De Gaulle and Moscow. (see Document No 25)
Greece suffered more human losses per head of population that any other nation, not to mention incalculable material damage. Greece's losses, as recorded in Peace and Justice, amounted to 8% of the population, in contrast to the 3% loss suffered by the Soviet Union. (see Document No 26)
3. Between 1946-1949, Greece was plunged into a disastrous civil war, which Stalin and Tito had fomented with the sole purpose of taking Macedonia away from Greece, and making it part of the Republic of Skopje. Macedonia's salvation then was paid for by the money of the American Taxpayer and the blood of the Greek People.
Had Macedonia been lost then, the Eastern Alliance would have gained control on the North Aegean and the consequences for the struggle of the World's democracies would have been harsh indeed.
As President Bush observed in the Greek Parliament in 1991, it was Greece which blocked Soviet expansionism.
It is ironic that Mr. Gligorof should be seeking to achieve by deceit what his predecessors failed to achieve through wars, slaughter and persecution of the Greeks of Macedonia.
In conclusion, I wish to express my hope that the falsification perpetrated by the politicians and historians of FYROM will not endure for long. History will not condone it for ever. Scientists and scholars have a duty to reveal the truth.
My conviction that the international community to which this essay is addressed will not allow the refutation of history, is furthermore justified by the fact that three great universities in the United States, have expressed their interest in examining the Historical facts related to Macedonia. (see Document No 27).
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY
NEW YORK UNIVERSITY
YALE UNIVERSITY
(The End)
Flag of the 1st Army (1ê Stratia)
Flag of the First Army - Image by Marcus Schmöger, 25 March 2002
Colours: red-green-red with white fimbriation, light blue shield.
Description: An ancient Macedonian shield, with the Sun of Vergina upon it. Symbolizes the determination, the power and the will of the 1st Army, that it will never come to a compromise with its enemies.
Motto: ΕΣΤ ΑΝ ΤΗΝ ΑΥΤΗΝ ΟΔΟΝ ΙΗ, est an tên autên odon iê (So long as it keeps its own course).
In context: "Now bring this message to Mardonios, that the Athenians say: "As long as the sun keeps its own course by which it now goes, we will never come to terms with Xerxes." (Herodot 8, 143). Before the battle of Plataea (spring 479 BC), Mardonios, eager to divide the Greeks, proposed peace to the Athenians and got the answer above.
Eugene Borza on Macedonia Royal House
"Athenians, Macedonians, and the Origins of Macedonian Royal House" by Eugene N. Borza - 1982.
Pope John XXIII - quotes
Pope John XXIII (1881-1963), born Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli, headed the Catholic Church and ruled Vatican City from 1958 until his death. Pope John was elected on 28 October 1958. He called the Second Vatican Council (1962–1965) but did not live to see it to completion. He died in 1963, only four-and-a-half years after his election, and two months after the completion of his final encyclical, Pacem in Terris. He was beatified, along with Pope Pius IX, on 3 September 2000.
English: "Cyril and Methodius, are children of the East, citizens of Byzantium, Greeks by nationality..."
Latin: "Cyrillus ac Methodius — quos Orientis filios, patria Byzantinos, gente Graecos..."
Epistola Apostolica of Pope Giovanni XXIII
Sunday, July 22, 2012
Letter from Jewish Communities in Greece
2 Sourmeli str.
GR - 104 39 Athens
TEL: (01) 883-9953
Athens, January 8 1993
To the
Central Boards of the
Jewish Communities of Europe
E.J.C.
W.J.C.
Bnei Berit International
Executive Council
of Australian Jewry
American Jewish Committee
Sirs,
as you certainly know after the division of the former Democracy of Yugoslavia to a series of independent small states it has been created the question of the naming of the State of Scopia that is asking to be recognized under the name of Macedonia
Greece does not object to the recognition of this State, that it wants to help materially in every way, but it cannot accept the name Macedonia which since antiquity is related to a plainly Greek region.
Jewish religion and philology constitute the unquestionable witnesses of the ancient ethnological character of Macedonians as Greeks.
Noticeably the prophets Daniel (chap.8, 1-22 chap.2 para.39 4-13, 26-28, 31, 38 chap. 7, 2-7) Isiaiah chap. 19, 20 chap. 19,23 Joel chap.3 v.6, Jeremy, Habacoum chap.2, v.5 and the books of the Maccabees (1st book chap. 1, v.1 & 10 chap. 6 v.2, II 8, 20 III 8) include explicit elements for the Greek character of Macedonia.
These very same notions have been supported by the contemporary professors Yigal Yadin (archaeologist, Jerusalem University), George Box (professor of Old Testament, London University), Yacov Messorer (numismatist of the Jerusalem Museum), Erich Graetz (historian Breslow University)
Besides these the Talmoud in relating the friendly meeting between Alexander the Great and the High Priest Simon the Just, on the former's entry into Jerusalem in teh year 330 BC., refers to him as Alexander HaMocdon Meleh Yavan - Alexander the Macedonian, King of Greece. Similar references can be found in Talmoud in the books "Seder Hadorot" as well as "Megilat Taanit".
Moreover Jewish historians like
a. Flavius Josephus makes reference to the Greeks of Macedonia and to Greece or Macedonia, sometimes using the one term and sometimes the other, clearly regarding the Macedonians as Greeks and the Greeks as Macedonians (Antiquities of the Jews book 11 para.337, 109, 148, 286, 184 book 8 para.61, 95 100, 154, 312 book 10 para.273 book 12 para.322 & 414 where he includes these Macedonian kings together with Antiochus the Great in the conquest if the Greek world by the Romans since he regards Macedonia as a Greek province).
b. Philo of Alexandria refers to the Macedonian King Alexander whom he identifies with the Greeks.
c. Maimonides according to whom "thanks to the conquest of Judea by the Greek-Macedonian dynasty the Greek learning was transplanted there and contributed to making Hellenism and Judaism acquainted with one another and to the creation of a new philosophical and religious synthesis which opened up new paths and gave new directions to human civilization".
d. Numerous well known rabbis.
In conclusion we mark Henry's Kissinger characteristic statement at the Management of Europe meeting (Paris, June 1992) "I believe that Greece is right to have objections and I agree with Athens. the reason is that I know history, which is not the case most of the others, including most of the Government and government officials in Washington. The strength of the side of Greece is its history".
We lined up all the above data so as to prove you the legitimacy of the Greek aspects as far as it concerns the Greek character of Macedonia and to ask you the full support of these Greek positions to the appropriate personalities of your country.
The President --- The Gen. Secretary
Nissim Mais --- Moses Constintinis
Macedonia by N. Martis - 2
MACEDONIA by Nikolaos Martis - 2
The Greek Macedonians played a major part in the history of Greece, of Europe, and of the whole world during the Hellenistic period (336-30 BC).
Alexander, the King and commander-in-chief of all the Greeks, crushed the despotic Persian Empire. He propagated Hellenic culture (as Plutarch tells us) and, assisted by his successors, the diadochi, established Greek as the universal language, thus changing the whole course of history.
It is deliberately deceitful to use the term "Slav", for the word "Slav" means "race". For centuries, the only Slavs known in the Balkans were the Croats, the Slovenes, the Serbs, and the Bulgarians. Until 1944, the only Slavs living in the territory of the FYROM were either Serbs or Bulgarians, as historical references and statistics attest (see Document No 9). Since they could not, in 1944, transform Serbs and Bulgarians into "Macedonians", Skopje's historians resorted to the term "Slav".
Historical accounts, statistics and wartime events also, confirm that the only Slavs in the region were Serbs and Bulgarians. The Macedonian Struggle (1903-1908) was waged by Greeks and Bulgarians; the first Balkan War (1912) was fought by Serbs, Bulgarians, and Greeks against the Turks; the second Balkan War (1913) was fought by Serbs, Greeks, Rumanians, and Montenegrins against the Bulgarians; and during the First World War British, French, Serbian, and Greek troops clashed in this region with Germans, Austrians, Turks and Bulgarians. There were no "Macedonians" fighting on either side.
The deliberately misleading use of the terms "Macedonians" and "Slavs" is exposed by two irrefutable Turkish documents. One is a population census of 1905, published by an Italian firm and the other is an election announcement of 1912 from Monastir (now Bitolj), which describes the candidates as Turks, Greeks, and Bulgarians. There was no such thing as "Macedonian" nationality during the Turkish period either. The referred Slavs were only "Serbian" and "Bulgarian" (see Document No 10).
For the people of FYROM to call themselves "Macedonians" constitutes an assault on fundamental principles and on the proclamations of international organizations, states, and world leaders. We underline the following three reasons:
- First: Everyone talks about democracy, but no-one bothers to mention that this "sad farce" (as the French Byzantinist Raine Gerdan has described it) is the brainchild of the world's most undemocratic system, Communism (see Document No 11)
In order to gain control of the Balkans and the northern Aegean, Stalin imitated Hitler (who invented the "Arian race") and created the Macedonian nation". A statement he made in 1946 is eloquent in this respect; "They do not have Macedonian consciousness at the moment, but they shall acquire it': The Communist propaganda machinery, efficient as always, bore out the truth of Stalin's words. (see Document No 12)
To recognize the people of FYROM as "Macedonians" is to support not only an undemocratic edifice but also an evil plot conceived by the Communists to take over Greek Macedonia.
In 1948, the Communist Guerrillas abducted 28,000 Greek children from Macedonia and took them to various Eastern Block countries. The United Nations archives contain documented evidence of this, and a description may be found in Nicholas Gage's book Eleni. Those children were brainwashed about "Macedonia" for years, the guerrillas intention being to liberate one day Macedonia from the Greeks. In 1988, a few thousands of them, now adults, gathered in Skopje. Many came from Canada, Australia, the United States of America and Europe. In the presence and with the support of the political leadership of Skopje', they decided to raise once again the Macedonian Question. A special international committee was set up and, since then, it has been engaged in coordinating a worldwide propaganda against Greece.
- Second: To recognize the people of FYROM as "Macedonians" will create a permanent source of friction that will endanger peace in the region. The name of "Macedonia", imposed on the republic by the Yugoslav Communist Party, at the conclusion of World War II, bears the seeds of aggression on regions of neighboring countries.
Successive Greek Governments have declared, on many occasions, that they are not opposing the independence and territorial integrity of the new Republic. But no Greek would consent to this state's appropriation of the Greek name of "Macedonia". It is only with a new name (after the example of America and Australia, for instance) that the new Republic, with its multi-ethnic population, will be able to live in peace in a turbulent region.
- Third: As any country, Greece is not represented only by its geographical territory, but also by its history and its cultural heritage. International organizations such as UNESCO and the Council of Europe, governments and prominent world figures, have stated that the history and the cultural heritage constitute fundamental elements of a peoples' identity and should be safeguarded and respected.
When Slovenia declared its independence in 1991, it issued a banknote depicting an Austrian throne of the fourteenth century. Austria immediately accused Slovenia of an infringement upon its history and its symbols and demanded that the banknote be withdrawn. The Slovenians complied.
Under the circumstances, how should Greece react, given the fact that FYROM - as attested by its new school textbooks for 1992-3 - appropriate the whole of Macedonian history which is a cherished element of the Greek national and cultural identity?
The Hellenistic period (335-30 BC) was created by Alexander the Great and his Greek Macedonian diadochi, and was so named because it was, during that period, that the Hellenic culture was diffused throughout the world. It brought new scientific, philosophical, and religious ideas that dominated the world for centuries and influenced the development of all cultures. Can these achievements, by any stress of imagination, be attributed to the... ancestors of FYROM? Their ancestors came into the area centuries after that period.
The Russian historian Avraam B. Rankovitch (of the Soviet Academy of Sciences), in his book, Hellenistic Period, p. 285, writes: "The culture that was fostered in the Hellenistic period also burst the bounds of the Hellenistic world. This culture, which was later inherited by the Roman Empire, Byzantium, and the peoples of the East, exercised a significant influence on the culture of the modern era".
Consequently, the falsification of Macedonian history is not an affront to the Greeks alone, but to the world civilization, as a whole.
In June 1992, Dr. Henry Kissinger, as a self-respecting historian, made a statement in Paris in which he described the history of Macedonia as the strong weapon that justifies Greece's inalienable right to the name of "Macedonia".
My book The Falsification of Macedonian History, reveals the extent to which Skopje has falsified Macedonian history. I believe that there is irrefutable evidence from the works of ancient Greek writers, the Old and the New Testament, Jewish writers and thousands of Greek inscriptions found on Macedonian territory. They all attest to the Hellenic identity of the ancient Macedonians. This was very well known in the ancient world, as shown by the fact that the Macedonians participated in the Amphictyonies and in the Olympic Games.
Among other acknowledgments regarding the value and validity of my book, I was honored by the former Chancellor of Germany, Mr. Helmut Schmidt and the former President of France Mr. Valery Giscard d'Estaing. (see Document No 13)
As I pointed out in a letter to President Clinton on November 20, 1993 the creation of the "Republic of Macedonia" is an act of hostility against Greece for the following reasons:
I. it constitutes an illicit usurpation of the name, the history and the cultural heritage of Greek Macedonia;
II. it denies the "Greek character" of Greek Macedonia and, thus, encourages the aggressive pretensions against Greek territories;
III. it interrupts the continuity of Greek history, given that, from 337 BC the Greeks at Corinth (see Document No 14) made first Philip and later his son Alexander (not, certainly, Mr. Gligorov's ancestors) their King and Commander-in-Chief in the war against the Persians.
It is everybody's duty to research and confirm the truth of these assertions. Ancient Macedonia, as a constituent element of Hellenism, is the very cornerstone of modern Western civilization, an arena of desperate battles for freedom and democracy; in particular the international centers of science and learning, have an obligation towards the free people to present the truth, the fundamental prerequisite of democracy.
The following Macedonian Greeks set their seal on the history of Greece, Europe, and the whole world:
1. Philip of Macedon, who established the Macedonian Kingdom as a great political power and urged on by the Athenian Isocrates, was the pioneer of the European idea. "Argos is the land of your fathers". Isocrates, To Philip XII, 32 (Loeb, G. Norlin);
2. Aristotle, the scientist and philosopher whose work will always influence research and knowledge;
3. Alexander the Great, the most stupendous historical figure ever, who influenced the course of world history tremendously. Alexander was the first ever to talk of peace and fraternity between all peoples (Plutarch's On the Fate and Virtue of Alexander and Holzner and Arrian) and the first to speak out against racial discrimination (Arrian and Martis' Logos).
"Alexander gave a general feast, sitting himself there, and all the Macedonians sifting round him; and then next to them Persians, and next any of the other tribes... And Alexander prayed for all sorts of blessings, and especially for harmony and fellowship in the empire between Macedonians and Persians. They say that those who shared the feast were nine thousand, and that they all poured the same libation and there of sang the one song of victory" Arrian, Anabasis of Alexander VII, 11, 8-9 (Loeb, F.C. Babbitt)
He put this latter principle into action by marrying Roxana and Darius' daughter. Stateira, as also by countenancing the marriage of hundreds of his officers with Persians (Plutarch).
Furthermore, he entrusted various sectors of his administration to foreign officers of countries he had conquered. By overthrowing the Persian Empire, transmitting Greek civilization to the East, and establishing Greek as the lingua franca of all peoples, he changed the history of the whole world.
"If it were not my purpose to combine foreign things with things Greek, to traverse and civilize every continent, to search out the uttermost parts of land and sea, to push the bounds of Macedonia to the farthest Ocean, and to disseminate and shower the blessings of Greek justice and peace over every nation, I should not content to sit quietly in the luxury of idle power, but I should emulate the frugality of Diogenes" Plutarch's Moralia, On the Fortune of Alexander I ,332A (Loeb, F.C Babbitt)
"Yet through Alexander Bactria and the Caucasus learned to revere the gods of Greeks... Alexander established more than seventy cities among savage tribes, and sowed all Asia with Grecian magistracies. Egypt would not have its Alexandria, nor Mesopotamia its Seleucia, nor Sogdiana its Prophthasia, nor India its Bucephalia, no the Caucasus a Greek city for by the founding of cities in these places savagery was extinguished and the worse element, gaining familiarity with the better, changed under its influence" Plutarch's Moralia, On the Fortune of Alexander I, 328D, 329A (Loeb, F.C. Babbitt).
"By these criteria let Alexander also be judged! For from his words, from his deeds, and from the instruction' which he imparted, it will be seen that he was indeed a philosopher" Plutarh's Moralia, On the Fortune Of Alexander I, 4, 328B (Loeb, F.C. Babbitt).
In the cities Alexander liberated, he abolished the oligarchies that ruled them and restored democracy (see Arrian I 18,2). Today, Arabs and other peoples of Asia he conquered, proudly claim descent from Alexander the Great (see Document No 15: A list of 22 of Pakistan's national heroes, the 11th of whom is Alexander.)
The achievement of Alexander and his Macedonian successors in the Helleno-Bactrian kingdom had a profound influence on Buddhism. Before Alexander's time, there were no representations of Buddha; so it is quite amazing to see a statue of Buddha with a bust of Alexander beside it. (see Document No 16)
Alexander is mentioned by the Prophets Isaiah (19:20,23), Daniel (8:21-22), and Maccabees (A, 1) and also in the Talmud. The Romans deified him, and Mohammed includes him in the Koran, as Zul-Carnein, amongst the prophets. (see Document No 17)
1. The Ptolemies: Ptolemy II (285-245 BC) translated the Old Testament into Greek, producing the Septuagint, which is the official version used by both the Eastern and the Western Church. Ptolemy I founded the Museum (Academy) of Alexandria and also its Library, which, thanks to the Greek Ptolemies, contained 700,000 volumes at the time of its destruction.
It was on the Ptolemies' orders that the legacy of the ancient Greek philosophers was preserved in Alexandria, the possession of all humankind today.
It was in Alexandria that science - physics, mathematics, engineering, astronomy (the first observatory was built in 289 BC by Prolemy 111) developed and it was in the same city that Aristarchus of Samos first expounded the theory of the heliocentric universe, anticipating Copernicus by many hundreds of years.
The first surgical operation on a human being was performed in Alexandria, by Herophilus and Erissistratos, and the science of anatomy was developed there.
Not only was the old Testament translated into Greek, but the New Testament was actually written in Greek. St. Paul saw a vision, in which a "man of Macedonia" spoke to him - of course in Greek - (Acts 16:9) and it was in Macedonia that the Apostle began his missionary work in Europe. Paul and Silas met Greek men and women in Thessalonika and Beroea who were converted into Christianity (Acts 17:4,12), and thanks to the Greek Macedonians Christianity was transmitted all over the world in the Greek language.
2. Cyril and Methodius, the two Greek brothers from Thessaloniki, now known as the "Apostles to the Slavs", are the protagonists of the Slavs' Christianisation in the 9th century, an event which came to be the most important historical and cultural incident for Europe and the world by and large.
"Rightly, therefore, Saints Cyril and Methodius were at an early stage, recognized by the family of Slav peoples, as the fathers of both Christianity and their culture" (see Document No 18 from Epistola Enciclica of Pope Giovanni Paolo II.)
(Continues)
Augustini Olomucensis - Fr. X. Richter
Augustini Olomucensis Epispiscoporum Olomucensium SERIES - Franciscus Xav. Richter (1831)
Latin: "Primus. Archiepiscopus Moraviae Cyrillus, natione Graecus..."
English: "First. Cyril the Archbishop of Moravia, Greek by nationality..."
Epistola Apostolica of Pope Giovanni XXIII
ACTA IOANNIS PP. XXIII
EPISTULA APOSTOLICA
Ad Venerabiles Fratres Slavicarum Nationum Antistites, pacem et communionem cum apostolica sede habentes: undecimo exeunte saeculo ab adventu Ss. Cyrilli et Methodii in Magnam Moraviam.
SALUTEM ET APOSTOLICAM BENEDICTIONEM
"...Quodsi quis inquirat, quibusnam praecipuis ex causis tam ferax fructuum Ss. Cyrilli et Methodii apostolica opera exstiterit, facile intelleget hoc quam maxime contigisse, propterea quod ii fuerunt « pauperes in hoc mundo, divites in fide homines divites in virtute, pulchritudinis studium habentes, Petri Sedi astricti et deditissimi et omni, qua potet, nominis significatione plane pleneque catholici et apostolici. Quas quidem laudes fel. rec. Decessor Noster Pius XI hisce verbis dilucide expressit: « Quare ... miremur, si Cyrillus ac Methodius — quos Orientis filios, patria Byzantinos, gente Graecos, missione Romanos, apostolatus fructibus Slavos appeIlare licet — omnia omnibus facti sunt, ut catholicae Ecelesiae unitati omnes lucrarentur?..."
English - "Cyril and Methodius, are children of the East, citizens of Byzantium, Greeks by nationality..."
