ABSTRACT
There was a distinction in the ancient Greek world between those who lived south of Mount Olympus and those who lived to its north, the Macedonians. The proper term for these people was ‘Makedones’, a name that is Greek in root and ethnic terminations, and may have meant ‘highlanders’. However, the Greeks referred to them as ‘barbarians’ as late as the last quarter of the fourth century (Din. 1.24), which indicates that they did not see them as Greek speaking and hence not as Greek. Yet many of the Macedonian proper names and toponyms are Greek; the people had the same Greek pantheon of gods, we never hear of interpreters being needed when Greek embassies visited the Macedonian court and vice versa, and literary sources, spanning centuries, wrote of the Macedonians as Greek. Much has been written on the ‘ethnicity’ of the Macedonians, which is an issue that will never be properly solved. However, there is no question that the Greeks south of Mount Olympus considered themselves superior to the Macedonians politically (they thought a people ruled by a king were unintelligent and had no individuality) and socially (for example, they derided Macedonian customs such as polygamy and drinking wine unmixed). This attitude must have influenced all Macedonian kings in their dealings with the Greeks, but especially Philip and Alexander, who conquered and dominated them.
