Europe Series - The Rise of the Marginal Plate "Macedonia"

It is estimated that many friends have already guessed that it is not the three desperate overlords who will eventually unite the Greek world, but the less orthodox "Macedonia" from the border areas like the Qin state in the east. As the first real empire in European history, the history of the conquest of the Alexander Empire, I believe everyone can say one or two. However, when it comes to the origin of this empire, especially their relationship with "Greece", not many people know it. The biggest question is whether the Macedonians are considered "Greeks" and whether the empire founded by Alexander can be counted as Greece.

The identity of a person or a group needs to be viewed from two aspects, one is whether you are willing to; the other is whether you are willing to join the group you are trying to join. Judging from the attitude of later Greeks, of course they would agree that Macedonia and Alexander were part of Greece. After all, he and his kingdom brought great honor to the Greek world. Even if only from practical geopolitical considerations, Greece never wants to strip Macedonian history (there is also an independent "Macedonia"). As for the subjective will of the ancient Macedonians, at least they had a strong desire to join the Greek world before the Hippo War.

The one who brought Macedonia into the Greek world was none other than the Macedonian king "Alexander" who had served as a key gentleman in the Hippo war many times. Of course, this Alexander is definitely not the "Alexander" who later dominated the world. Having said that, we have to explain a little bit about the names of the kings and nobles in the West. Although this post tries not to involve specific characters, so as not to focus too much on those heroes, there will always be some characters who have a significant impact on human history that need to appear. If you don't explain those duplicate names, it will cause a lot of misunderstandings.

It is different from the eastern world, which emphasizes the order of elders and children, and avoids the same name with ancestors, or even the same word (there are exceptions, for example, in order to ensure the inheritance of the X family’s bloodline, the next generation of heirs will deliberately use a word from the previous generation. ), the Western world is more open in naming. Out of respect for ancestors, later monarchs and nobles often deliberately use the name of an ancestor they worship. In order to show the difference, others had to add a number after the name to show the difference. For example, Henry II and Louis XIII came this way. Of course, the actual situation may be more complicated. Because there are only so many names, the same name with a number will also appear in different countries and families. If the country name, surname, etc. are not prefixed, it will be even more chaotic. In addition, sometimes a person in Europe will become the monarch of several independent countries at the same time, and the same name may be XX I in this country. When he goes to another country, everyone calls him XX V.

It is not our task to sort out the relationship between this name in European history. From the above content, we can speculate that, as the third monarch to use the name "Alexander" in Macedonian history, those young and brave founders of the empire (Alexander III) must have admired the first "Alexander I" who used this name. ". And this question is also directly related to the fog we are trying to unplug today - the relationship between Macedonia and Greece.

In the Chinese civilization, if a family or a marginal ethnic group wants to become a part of China, one thing that must be done is to trace the blood. To put it simply, it is to trace the origin of one's own family and nation to a famous person in Chinese history (or even legend). In fact, the same is true in the Western world. After all, blood ties are the basis for the formation of ethnic groups. Technically, it is this "Alexander I" who connects his origin with Greece.

In the Greek world, the relationship between God and man was very close. The gods who live on Mount Olympus, except that they live forever, behave like the human world. They can even have intercourse with humans and have offspring. The one used by the Macedonians to cut into the Greek world was such a "half-human and half-god" hero, Hercules (son of the Greek god Zeus). Of course, I personally believe that such a hero really existed in Greek history. As for whether he is the son of God or not, whether Alexander I is really his descendant or not is immaterial. We just need to know that at least when Alexander I ruled Macedonia, the Macedonians were already admiring and trying to be part of Greece.

Alexander I technically became a "Greek" when he was ruled by a court of Greeks on the authenticity of his lineage and eventually allowed to participate in the Olympic Games (only Greeks could). This is also a feature of marine civilization. Among Chinese civilizations, it is generally determined by cultivating history (generally families return to their ancestry through "family history", that is, family tree). One of the major functions of historical records is to officially finalize the names of those princes whose identities are doubtful in the pre-Qin period.

Technically, the year Alexander I participated in the Olympic Games (504 BC) can be regarded as the time when Macedonia was integrated into Greece. Of course, although the Macedonians tried their best to integrate into the Greek world, and they were technically recognized, this did not mean that those Greeks who regarded themselves as "rooted and red" at that time still regarded them as northern barbarians with tinted glasses. This situation also exists in the integration of the Chinese nation. Just like today there are still people who exclude the Manchus and the Manchus from the Huaxia system.

Based on Macedonia's geographic relationship with the Greek world at that time (south of Mount Olympus), and the higher level of civilization in the Greek region, it is normal for Macedonia to have the idea of ​​integration. In fact, without this attitude, there would not have been the Alexander Empire that later spanned the continents of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Although it will take a long process for this country on the fringes of the Greek world to finally be accepted, from another point of view, this fringe identity also makes the Macedonian perspective not limited to the Greek world.

When the Persian Empire began to covet the Greek peninsula, Macedonia, a kingdom with continental civilization characteristics and close to the Greek world, became the most important ally of the Persian Empire, or its agent in Europe. As for the attitude of the Kingdom of Macedonia and Alexander, we also mentioned it in the Hippo War. Described in two words, it is "riding the wall". On the one hand, the Macedonians, who recognized the Greek civilization, did not want to see the world they were trying to integrate into, destroyed by the Asians; on the other hand, they could not believe that the Greeks could resist such a powerful attack. It was out of this contradictory mentality that Alexander I, a Persian lobbyist, tipped off the Greek coalition twice when the Greeks abandoned the Tenby Valley and in the Battle of Plataea.

When the Greek coalition defeated the Persian army left on the peninsula in the Battle of Plataea, and the Greek navy defeated the remaining Persian navy in Ionia, the Macedonians could finally no longer have to struggle. When the remaining 40,000 Persian army tried to escape from Macedonia, Thrace, and back to Persia, the Macedonians finally had the opportunity to prove their attitude to the Greek world. In the end, most of the Persians at the mouth of the Struma River (also translated as "Strymon River", which can be located on Google Maps with the Greek Στρυμ?να? label) became the "voting certificate" given to Greece by the Macedonians ".

When the Greek world fell into a state of scuffle for hegemony, the Macedonians were more waiting for the opportunity. In the third year that Thebes became the Greek world hegemon by defeating the Sparta-Athens coalition (362 BC), the Macedonian Kingdom ushered in a key figure on the road to the rise - King "Philip II". Comparing the central state in the same period, the amazing coincidence is that if the "Shang Yang Reform" initiated by the Qin state in 359 BC was the starting point for the rise of the Qin state and the final unification of the central state; then this year (Philip II world ascended the throne), can also be regarded as the starting point for the rise of Macedonia and the unification of the Greek world. The difference in time between the two historical processes is that it took more than 150 years for the Qin people to unify the central state, which was 20 times as large as the Greek peninsula; while the difficulties faced by the Macedonians were much smaller. Philip It took the king only twenty years to leave a Greek world ruled by the Macedonians for his son "Alexander".It is estimated that many friends have already guessed that it is not the three desperate overlords who will eventually unite the Greek world, but the less orthodox "Macedonia" from the border areas like the Qin state in the east. As the first real empire in European history, the history of the conquest of the Alexander Empire, I believe everyone can say one or two. However, when it comes to the origin of this empire, especially their relationship with "Greece", not many people know it. The biggest question is whether the Macedonians are considered "Greeks" and whether the empire founded by Alexander can be counted as Greece.

The identity of a person or a group needs to be viewed from two aspects, one is whether you are willing to; the other is whether you are willing to join the group you are trying to join. Judging from the attitude of later Greeks, of course they would agree that Macedonia and Alexander were part of Greece. After all, he and his kingdom brought great honor to the Greek world. Even if only from practical geopolitical considerations, Greece never wants to strip Macedonian history (there is also an independent "Macedonia"). As for the subjective will of the ancient Macedonians, at least they had a strong desire to join the Greek world before the Hippo War.

The one who brought Macedonia into the Greek world was none other than the Macedonian king "Alexander" who had served as a key gentleman in the Hippo war many times. Of course, this Alexander is definitely not the "Alexander" who later dominated the world. Having said that, we have to explain a little bit about the names of the kings and nobles in the West. Although this post tries not to involve specific characters, so as not to focus too much on those heroes, there will always be some characters who have a significant impact on human history that need to appear. If you don't explain those duplicate names, it will cause a lot of misunderstandings.

It is different from the eastern world, which emphasizes the order of elders and children, and avoids the same name with ancestors, or even the same word (there are exceptions, for example, in order to ensure the inheritance of the X family’s bloodline, the next generation of heirs will deliberately use a word from the previous generation. ), the Western world is more open in naming. Out of respect for ancestors, later monarchs and nobles often deliberately use the name of an ancestor they worship. In order to show the difference, others had to add a number after the name to show the difference. For example, Henry II and Louis XIII came this way. Of course, the actual situation may be more complicated. Because there are only so many names, the same name with a number will also appear in different countries and families. If the country name, surname, etc. are not prefixed, it will be even more chaotic. In addition, sometimes a person in Europe will become the monarch of several independent countries at the same time, and the same name may be XX I in this country. When he goes to another country, everyone calls him XX V.

It is not our task to sort out the relationship between this name in European history. From the above content, we can speculate that, as the third monarch to use the name "Alexander" in Macedonian history, those young and brave founders of the empire (Alexander III) must have admired the first "Alexander I" who used this name. ". And this question is also directly related to the fog we are trying to unplug today - the relationship between Macedonia and Greece.

In the Chinese civilization, if a family or a marginal ethnic group wants to become a part of China, one thing that must be done is to trace the blood. To put it simply, it is to trace the origin of one's own family and nation to a famous person in Chinese history (or even legend). In fact, the same is true in the Western world. After all, blood ties are the basis for the formation of ethnic groups. Technically, it is this "Alexander I" who connects his origin with Greece.

In the Greek world, the relationship between God and man was very close. The gods who live on Mount Olympus, except that they live forever, behave like the human world. They can even have intercourse with humans and have offspring. The one used by the Macedonians to cut into the Greek world was such a "half-human and half-god" hero, Hercules (son of the Greek god Zeus). Of course, I personally believe that such a hero really existed in Greek history. As for whether he is the son of God or not, whether Alexander I is really his descendant or not is immaterial. We just need to know that at least when Alexander I ruled Macedonia, the Macedonians were already admiring and trying to be part of Greece.

Alexander I technically became a "Greek" when he was ruled by a court of Greeks on the authenticity of his lineage and eventually allowed to participate in the Olympic Games (only Greeks could). This is also a feature of marine civilization. Among Chinese civilizations, it is generally determined by cultivating history (generally families return to their ancestry through "family history", that is, family tree). One of the major functions of historical records is to officially finalize the names of those princes whose identities are doubtful in the pre-Qin period.

Technically, the year Alexander I participated in the Olympic Games (504 BC) can be regarded as the time when Macedonia was integrated into Greece. Of course, although the Macedonians tried their best to integrate into the Greek world, and they were technically recognized, this did not mean that those Greeks who regarded themselves as "rooted and red" at that time still regarded them as northern barbarians with tinted glasses. This situation also exists in the integration of the Chinese nation. Just like today there are still people who exclude the Manchus and the Manchus from the Huaxia system.

Based on Macedonia's geographic relationship with the Greek world at that time (south of Mount Olympus), and the higher level of civilization in the Greek region, it is normal for Macedonia to have the idea of ​​integration. In fact, without this attitude, there would not have been the Alexander Empire that later spanned the continents of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Although it will take a long process for this country on the fringes of the Greek world to finally be accepted, from another point of view, this fringe identity also makes the Macedonian perspective not limited to the Greek world.

When the Persian Empire began to covet the Greek peninsula, Macedonia, a kingdom with continental civilization characteristics and close to the Greek world, became the most important ally of the Persian Empire, or its agent in Europe. As for the attitude of the Kingdom of Macedonia and Alexander, we also mentioned it in the Hippo War. Described in two words, it is "riding the wall". On the one hand, the Macedonians, who recognized the Greek civilization, did not want to see the world they were trying to integrate into, destroyed by the Asians; on the other hand, they could not believe that the Greeks could resist such a powerful attack. It was out of this contradictory mentality that Alexander I, a Persian lobbyist, tipped off the Greek coalition twice when the Greeks abandoned the Tenby Valley and in the Battle of Plataea.

When the Greek coalition defeated the Persian army left on the peninsula in the Battle of Plataea, and the Greek navy defeated the remaining Persian navy in Ionia, the Macedonians could finally no longer have to struggle. When the remaining 40,000 Persian army tried to escape from Macedonia, Thrace, and back to Persia, the Macedonians finally had the opportunity to prove their attitude to the Greek world. In the end, most of the Persians at the mouth of the Struma River (also translated as "Strymon River", which can be located on Google Maps with the Greek Στρυμ?να? label) became the "voting certificate" given to Greece by the Macedonians ".

When the Greek world fell into a state of scuffle for hegemony, the Macedonians were more waiting for the opportunity. In the third year that Thebes became the Greek world hegemon by defeating the Sparta-Athens coalition (362 BC), the Macedonian Kingdom ushered in a key figure on the road to the rise - King "Philip II". Comparing the central state in the same period, the amazing coincidence is that if the "Shang Yang Reform" initiated by the Qin state in 359 BC was the starting point for the rise of the Qin state and the final unification of the central state; then this year (Philip II world ascended the throne), can also be regarded as the starting point for the rise of Macedonia and the unification of the Greek world. The difference in time between the two historical processes is that it took more than 150 years for the Qin people to unify the central state, which was 20 times as large as the Greek peninsula; while the difficulties faced by the Macedonians were much smaller. Philip It took the king only twenty years to leave a Greek world ruled by the Macedonians for his son "Alexander".