MACEDO'NIA, anciently, the name of a country lying n. of Thessaly. It was origi nally of small extent, embracing only the district called Lmathia, but gradually extended until, in the time of Philip, father of Alexander, it reached, on the n., the Scardian mountains, a portion of the Hmmus (mod. Balkan) range; on the w., the frontiers of Epirus and Illyria; on the e., the river Nestos (mod. Karasu); and on the s., Thessaly. The country is on the whole mountainous, especially in the s. and w., but there are several large plains of great fertility. The principal rivers were called the Strymon, the Axius, and the Haliacinon. Macedonia was famous among the ancients for its gold and silver mines, and its productiveness itt oil and wine. It contained a number of flourish ing cities. of which the names are well known in ancient history, particularly Pella, the capital, Pydna, Thessalonica, Potidwa, Olynthos, Philippi, and Amphipolis. The 'Macedonians are believed by some to have been originally an Illyrian race, but this is not probable. Their language, though different from, was yet allied to that of Greece. The singular fact, however, that it employed words not used by the Greeks, but pre. served in Latin, would lead us to infer that the ethnological connection between Greece proper and Macedon belonged to an extremely remote period. The Macedonians were certainly not pure Hellenes, nor did the ancients so consider them; but we may regard them as ruder members of the Grecian nation, whose early development had been hin dered by unknown obstacles. The history of Macedonia is involved in much obscurity till about 490 B.C., When the Persians subdued it, so that the Macedonian king, Alex ander I., was compelled to take part with Xerxes in his invasion of Greece. On the retreat of the Persians after the battle of Platfea in 479 B.C., Macedonia again recovered its independence. Under tile wise and vigorous reign of Archelaus, who died 390 B.C.,
it greatly increased in prosperity and power; but after his death, a period of civil wars and contests for the thrcne ensued, m hich ended in the accession of Philip II. (359 n.c.), who not only seated himself firmly on the throne, but knew how to develop the resources of his kingdom, and so to direct the warlike spirit of his subjects as greatly to extend his dotninions. His son, Alexander III., surnamed Alexander the great (q.v.), brought half the then known world tinder his empire; but after his death the Macedonian empire was broken up, and at the end of a period of 22 years of incessant wars, formed into four principal kingdoms under his greatest generals. Macedonia itself fell to the lot of Antipater, after whose death ensued another period of civil wars and contests for the throne, of which the Greeks endeavored to take advantage for the recovery of their ancient independence But the Athenians having called in the assistance of the Romans against Philip V. of Macedonia, by whom their city was besieged, the Macedonians were defeated by the Romans in the great battle of Cynocephalw (197 n.c.), and both Greece and 31acedonia became subject to the Roman power. Perseus, the successor of Philip, was finally defeated at Pydna (168 n.c.), and adorned the trimnph of tEmilius Paulus. Au attempt of the 'Macedonian nobles to shake off the oppressive yoke of the Romans having been also defeated, and the nobles driven into exile, Macedonia became (148 B.c.) a Roman province, in which Thessaly and part of Illyria were included. After the time of Constantine, the country was ravaged by Slavic tribes; by the 7th c., the old semi-Greek 3Iacedonians were extinct; and in the later ages of the Byzantine cinpire, their place was supplied by colonies from Asia, many of them of Turkish sdeseent.—See Finlay's Mediceval Greece.