Macedonia was an ancient kingdom on the periphery of Archaic and Classical Greece, and later the dominant state of Hellenistic Greece. The kingdom was founded and initially ruled by the royal Argead dynasty, which was followed by the Antipatrid and Antigonid dynasties. The authority of Macedonian kings was theoretically limited by the institution of the army. The name Macedonia comes from the ethnonym, which itself is derived from the ancient Greek adjective, meaning tall, slim.
About Macedonia (ancient kingdom) in brief
Macedonia was an ancient kingdom on the periphery of Archaic and Classical Greece, and later the dominant state of Hellenistic Greece. The kingdom was founded and initially ruled by the royal Argead dynasty, which was followed by the Antipatrid and Antigonid dynasties. Before the 4th century BC, Macedonia was a small kingdom outside of the area dominated by the great city-states of Athens, Sparta and Thebes. Alexander the Great overthrew the Achaemenid Empire and conquered territory that stretched as far as the Indus River. The authority of Macedonian kings was theoretically limited by the institution of the army, while a few municipalities within the Macedonian commonwealth enjoyed a high degree of autonomy and even had democratic governments with popular assemblies. The name Macedonia comes from the ethnonym, which itself is derived from the ancient Greek adjective, meaning tall, slim. It is most likely cognate with the adjective Macedon, meaning “long” or “tall” in Ancient Greek. P.S. Beekes claims that both terms are of Pre-Greek substrate and cannot be explained in terms of Indo-Greek morphology, but argues that there are insufficient arguments to support this claim. The earliest kingdom was centered on the northeastern part of the Greek peninsula, and bordered by Epirus to the west, Paeonia to the north, Thrace to the east and Thessaly to the south.
A short-lived revival of the monarchy during the Fourth Macedonian War in 150–148 BC ended with the establishment of the Roman province of Macedonia. New cities were founded, such as Thessalonica by the usurper Cassander. Macedonia’s decline began with the Macedonian Wars and the rise of Rome as the leading Mediterranean power. The Macedonian monarchy was abolished and replaced by Roman client states in 168 BC, at the end of the Third Macedonian war in 168 BC. The ancient legends claim that the founders of Macedon were either Carcasic Ianus or Carcasid Ianus, chief of the Contradictory state of Perradictic I, as well as a direct lineage from Zeus, the chief god of theGreek pantheon. The mythical Heracles Argos, king of the Argeen dynasty, is said to have been one of their ancestors as one of the mythical ancestors of the ancient Macedonians. He is also said to be the father of the king of Temenus, the first Macedonian king, and could claim the mythical title of “King of the Argos” in ancient Greek legend. He died in 323 BC and was succeeded by his son Alexander, who ruled from 323 to 323 BC. After Alexander’s death, Macedonia remained a Greek cultural and political center in the Mediterranean region along with Ptolemaic Egypt, the Seleucid Empire, and the Kingdom of Pergamon. It was also home to important cities such as Pella, Pydna, and Amphipolis.
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