The Question of Macedonian Ethnicity

There is no consensus on the issue of Macedonian ethnicity: whether the Macedonians were of Greek or mixed descent; for example, a Slavic people who later adopted Greek culture. This confusion is a consequence of the nature of the ancient source material¹ and the influence of modern politics, especially after 1991 when the ‘new state’ of the Republic of Macedonia was formed.² One theory is that the Macedonians were a Balkan people, hence members of a different ethnic group that only gradually became influenced by Greek culture through contact (cultural and otherwise) with the Greeks. However, this is flawed, for it fails to explain the Greek words (especially the names of towns) common to both Greek and Macedonian cultures well before the Greeks began to have dealings with their neighbours. Moreover, almost all of the literary sources and archaeological evidence, spanning several centuries, point to the Macedonians speaking Greek, hence (importantly) being Greek, as the following survey shows.