Thursday, October 9, 2008
 
Do 31% of Greeks have Celtic roots?
Today's Macedonians are descendants of the Antic Macedonians, says research results from the Swiss Genealogy Institute iGENEA. For a second time an independent research institution confirms what Oxford and Madrid University confirmed a decade ago. iGENEA is the most famous global Genealogy institute who once again frustrated the Greek government by confirming the direct connection between the Macedonians today and in Antic times. The question came from a Greek citizen who asked iGENEA the following question: "What are the roots of today SlavMacedonians".
The Institute responded:
"Before all, they are Macedonians, not slavMacedonias as you referred to them for political reasons. The largest part of the Macedonians are direct descendants of the Antic Macedonians. Only a minor portion have a Slavic connection". iGENEA backed up their findings with hard numbers. However, tying the today's Macedonians with Antic Macedonians is not the only disappointing information for Greece.
According to iGENEA, only 32% of Greek citizens have Macedonian, Hellenic and even Arab origin. iGENEA further explains that 31% of Greek citizens have Celtic roots, 12% Germanic and Slavic origin, while 11% have Illyrian roots. iGENEA also negated the Illyrians roots of the Albanians. In stark contrast to Albanian beliefs, IGENEA says the Albanians have the least Illyrian roots. Only 20% of the Albanians have Illyrian roots, while 40% of today’s Bosnians have Illyrian roots. In the past several months, the iGENEA Genealogy Institute had been flooded with requests by Greek Citizens who, ironically, did not care for their own origin, but all questions were aimed at the Macedonians' origin. iGENEA in its research uses DNA analysis, historical, archeological, and anthropological sources.
The Conquest of Northern Greece - Thessaly
Philip next marched into northern Greece. In Thessaly he defeated his enemies and by 352, he was firmly in control of this northern Greek region. The Macedonian army advanced as far as the pass of Thermopylae which divides Greece in two parts, but it did not attempt to take it because it was strongly guarded by a joint Greek force of Athenians, Spartans, and Achaeans.
The end of Greek settlements on Macedonian soil
Philip returned to Macedonia and begun preparations for a complete expulsion of the remaining Greek colonies on Macedonian land. In 348 BC, the Macedonian army attacked the Chalcidice peninsula and defeated the city-state of Olynthus. Like Methone, Olynthus and the other 31 Greek cities in Chalcidice were utterly demolished and razed to the ground, their Greek citizens sold as slaves, and their land distributed to the Macedonians. Among these Greek cities was Stageira, the birthplace of the Greek philosopher Aristotle. The whole of Chalcidice peninsula was annexed to Macedonia, marking an end of Greek settlements on Macedonian soil.
Macedonian Expansion 348 BC
Greek Resistance to the Macedonian 'Barbarian'
Philip then returned to central Greece where through his aggressive politics forced his presence at the Greek Delphic council as part of the settlement of 346 BC. His money were buying off supporters where he desired, supporters which the ancient Greek historians called ‘traitors of Greece’. It was for first time ever that a Macedonian entered the council which was sacred to the Greeks. With the seat at the Delphic council, Philip was now able to exercise his influence over the other Greek city-states and establish recognized position in Greece. But the Macedonian intrusion in internal Greek policies did not sit well with the Greeks and the their resistance was growing steadily.
The great Athenian orator Demosthenes, already in 351 BC delivered the first of his Philippics, a series of speeches warning the Greeks about the Macedonian menace to Greek liberty. His Philippics (the second in 344 BC, the third in 341 BC) and his three Olynthiacs (349 BC, in which he urged aid for Olynthus against Philip), were all directed in arousing Greece against the foreign conqueror. In the third of the Philippics, which is considered the finest of his orations, the great Athenian statesman spoke of Philip II as of:
"not only no Greek, nor related to the Greeks, but not even a barbarian from any place that can be named with honors, but a pestilent knave from Macedonia, whence it was never yet possible to buy a decent slave" (Third Philippic, 31)
These words echo the fact that the ancient Greeks regarded the ancient Macedonians as dangerous neighbors, never as kinsmen. They viewed them and their kings as barbarians (non-Greeks), a manner in which they treated all non-Greeks. Long before Philip II, the ancient Greek historian Herodotus, related how the Macedonian king Alexander I (498-454 BC), the Philhellene, that is "a friend of the Greeks" and naturally a non-Greek, wanted to take a part in the Olympic games. The Greek athletes protested, saying they would not run with a barbarian. Historian Thucydides also considered the Macedonians as barbarians and Thracymachus explicitly referred to the Macedonian king Archelaus (413-399 BC) as barbarian.
Suppression of the Illyrian, Thracian, Greek, and Epirote Rebellions
The Macedonian king spent most of 345 subduing the rebellions of the conquered nations. He led the Macedonian army against the Illyrians, Dardanians, and the Thracians. In 344 the Greeks in Thessaly rebelled, but their uprisings was also swiftly put down. The same year he marched into Epirus and pacified the country.
The Conquest of Thrace
Having secured the bordering regions of Macedonia, Philip assembled a large Macedonian army and marched deep into Thrace for a long conquering campaign. By 339 after defeating the Thracians in series of battles, most of Thrace was firmly in Macedonian hands save the most eastern Greek coastal cities of Byzantium and Perinthus who successfully withstand the long and difficult sieges. But both Byzantium and Perinthus would have surely fell had it not been for the help they received from the various Greek city-states, and the Persian king himself, who now viewed the rise of Macedonia and its eastern expansion with concern. Ironically, the Greeks invited and sided with the Persians against the Macedonians, although the Persians had been the most hated nation in Greece for more then a century. The memory of the Persian invasion of Greece some 150 years ago was still alive but the Greek hatred for the Macedonians had put it aside.
Victory over the Scythians
Ordering the Macedonian troops to lift the sieges of the two Greek cities, Philip led the army northward across Thrace. In the spring of 339 the Macedonians clashed with the Scythians near Danube, who had recently crossed the river with large army. Philip won a stunning victory in which the Scythian king Areas was killed and took 20,000 Scythian women and children as slaves. But on the return to Macedonia, the Thracian Triballians attacked the Macedonian convoy. The booty was lost, Philip suffered a severe injury which left him permanently lame, and the army returned home empty-handed.
The Conquest of Greece
Philip spent the following months in Macedonia recovering from the injury, but there was no time to relax. The Greeks were uniting and assembling a large army, and as historian Peter Green observed 'if Philip did not move fast it would be they who invaded his territory, not he theirs’. As soon as he recovered, Philip assembled the largest Macedonian army yet, gave his 18-year-old son Alexander a commanding post among the senior Macedonian generals, and marched into Greece. The Greeks likewise assembled their largest army since the Persian invasion to face the Macedonian invasion. At Chaeronea in central Greece where the two armies met, the whole of Greece put 35,000 infantry and 2,000 cavalry on the field, while the Macedonians had 30,000 infantry and 2,000 cavalry. Although outnumbered, with suburb tactics and well coordination of the phalanx with the cavalry, the Macedonian ‘barbarian’ defeated the united Greek army. Among the Greeks, the Athenians, Thebans, and the Achaeans suffered the biggest losses. The ancient Roman and Greek historians, consider the battle of Chaeronea, on August 2nd, 338 BC as an end to Greek liberty and history. Greece will not regain its freedom from foreign occupation until early 19th century AD.
Commander of the Greeks, Illyrians, and Thracians
Philip now proceeded in securing his newest conquest. Macedonian garrisons were strategically positioned in Thebes (the city where he spent 3 years as hostage), Chalcis, Ambracia, Peloponnesus, Corinth the gateway of Peloponnesus, along the many more already in existence in Thessaly and in central Greece. Then he summoned the representatives of the Greek states at Corinth, and under the presence of the Macedonian garrison troops, secured ‘peace’ with the Greeks. He organized all Greek states into a Greek league. The Greek league was to form a separate alliance with Macedonia, but Macedonia itself will not be a member of the Greek league as neither Philip nor Macedonia had representatives at the council. Philip appointed himself "Commander of the Greeks", as he was already commander of the conquered Illyrians and Thracians. The Greeks, like the Illyrians and Thracians before them, were now obligated to support and obey the commands of the Macedonian king. Philip already had plans for invasion of the Persian Empire, which would crown his career as world conqueror.
To win support from the Greeks he proclaimed that he would 'liberate' the Greek cities in Asia Minor from the Persian rule. But this well thought propaganda did not deceive the Greeks who were well aware that Philips's settlement in Greece was just a cloak for his future conquests. Therefore, during the following year (337), as the Greek assembly officially acclaimed Philip's idea for a Persian war, tens of thousands of Greeks sailed off to Asia Minor to enroll in the Persian army against the upcoming Macedonian invasion. The Roman historian Curtius confirmed that by the time the Macedonian army entered Asia, there was a huge force of 50,000 Greeks (both from mainland Greece and from Asia Minor) in the army serving the Persian king, waiting to face off the Macedonians.
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