Nearly two centuries have passed since K. O. Müller published the first "scientific" study "on the habitat, the origin and the early history of the Macedonian people". An ever growing number of publications appearing each year has rendered urgent a critical appraisal of this exuberant production, the more so that many aspects of ancient Macedonia remain controversial, if not problematic. Yet after seventy years of large-scale systematic excavations the activity of Greek archaeologists, as well as the labour of scholars from all over the world, have revealed a heretofore terra incognita and given a consistency to the people that Alexander led to the end of the known world. Now more than ever before we can tackle the "main problems" that have been contested without conclusion: Where exactly was Macedonia? Which were its limits? Where did the Macedonians come from? What language did they speak? What cults did they practice? Did they believe in an afterlife? What political and social institutions did they have? What was Alexander's role in his father's death? What were his aims? To what extent can we trust ancient historians? Alexander failed to provide a stable successor to the Achaemenid multiethnic empire, and the sands of Egypt have effaced even the traces of his last abode, yet if he returned to life, he could still boast in the words of Cavafy, a modern Alexandrian in every sense, “a new Hellenic world, a great one, came to be ... with the extended dominions, with the various attempts at judicious adaptations. And the Greek koine language all the way to outer Bactria we carried it, to the peoples of India”.

Recent scholars have analysed ways in which authors of the Roman era appropriated the figure of Alexander the Great. The essays in this collection cast a wider net, to show how Classical Greek, Hellenistic and Roman authors reinterpret and sometimes misinterpret information on ancient Macedonians to serve their own literary and political aims. Although Roman ideas pervade the historiographical tradition, this volume shows that the manipulation of ancient Macedonian history largely occurred much earlier. It reflected the complicated dynastic politics of the Argead royal house, the efforts of Alexander himself to redefine Macedonian kingship, and the competing strategies of the Successors to claim his legacy. Facing the complexity of the source tradition about the ancient Macedonians yields a richer and more balanced reflection of both the history and the historiography of this important and controversial people.

To understand the history of the ancient Macedonians, their ethnogenesis and their innermost drives as people, we need to analyze and comprehend, first and foremost, their deeply rooted material culture. Only by sifting meticulously through the thick layered strata of their rich culture can we discover and appreciate who this ancient people were. The rare glimpses into their intricate and deeply carved traditions afford us a window of luxury through which the plumage of their race emerges and becomes recognizable. Coupled with numerous anecdotes recorded and preserved through time and epitaphs that are impervious to politics and change, we now have a sizeable body of truth to know and believe that ancient Macedonians were, what they said they were--Macedonians. It is indeed an illusion to think that ancient Macedonians were Greeks.

The most comprehensive and up-to-date work available on ancient Macedonian history and material culture, A Companion to Ancient Macedonia is an invaluable reference for students and scholars alike. Features new, specially commissioned essays by leading and up-and-coming scholars in the field Examines the political, military, social, economic, and cultural history of ancient Macedonia from the Archaic period to the end of Roman period and beyond Discusses the importance of art, archaeology and architecture All ancient sources are translated in English Each chapter includes bibliographical essays for further reading

The first English-language monograph on ancient Macedonia in almost thirty years, Carol J. King's book provides a detailed narrative account of the rise and fall of Macedonian power in the Balkan Peninsula and the Aegean region during the five-hundred-year period of the Macedonian monarchy from the seventh to the second century BCE. King draws largely on ancient literary sources for her account, citing both contemporary and later classical authors. Material evidence from the fields of archaeology, epigraphy, and numismatics is also explored. Ancient Macedonia balances historical evidence with interpretations—those of the author as well as other historians—and encourages the reader to engage closely with the source material and the historical questions that material often raises. This volume will be of great interest to both under- and post-graduate students, and those looking to understand the fundamentals of the period.

In this single-volume history, R. Malcolm Errington provides a modern account of the political and social framework of ancient Macedon. He places particular emphasis on the structure of the Macedonian state and its functioning in different stages of historical development from the sixth to the second century B.C. Errington's main emphasis is not on the biographies of the great kings but rather on the flexible political interplay between king, nobility, and people; on the growth of cities and their political function within the state; and on the development of the army as a motor of military, social, and politicalchange.