Oldest samples of writing in Macedonia

[Jona Lendering]

That the Macedons were Greek people with a Greek dialect was and is imho leading opinion among the scolars.

Perhaps that's one move too swift. Greek-speaking, almost certainly, at least part of the time; but "Greek people" is perhaps exaggerated. Flemish people speak Dutch, but are not Dutchmen.

A related point is that of ethnogenesis. The Greek ethnicity is, grosso modo, Xerxes' main legacy: the Greeks had, until then, shared a language, several gods and cults, and Homer. Macedon did not belong to this, and the kingdom found its unity as a satrapy. It took Alexander the Philhellene a lot of diplomacy to keep the agglomerate that was his kingdom together after his masters had left Europe; in the end, he succeeded by stressing his Greek descent, which helped him to find allies in the south.

If this reading of the events is correct, the Macedonian and Greek ethnicities, although originally closely related, defined themselves against each other (cf. the Flemish, who -when you ask them who they are- will always start with the remark that they are not Dutch). Visionary leaders like Philip II were able to look across this border, but the antipathy appears to have been real.

However this may be, ethnicity is an extremely complex subject, and the lack of evidence does not make it easier. The inscription mentioned in the first post of this thread helps us corroborate that Macedonians and Greeks could understand each other, at least under certain circumstances.