ABSTRACT
Macedonia is situated in the western part of the ancient kingdom of Macedonia whose King Alexander the Great occupied large parts of Asia and the Middle East. Immediately after his death, the empire that he had founded began to crumble (in 323 B.C.). Macedonia was conquered by the Roman Empire in 168 B.C. In the sixth and seventh centuries Slavic tribes settled in the area, the forefathers of the modern Macedonians. During the Middle Ages the land served as an arena of struggle between the Byzantines, the Bulgarians, and the Serbs. In 1371 it was conquered by the Ottomans.
