little had been learned of the earlier development of civilization in
these regions. The ancient indigenous population has left many
traces of its presence in the tumuli which occur on the plains, and
more especially along the valley of the Vardar. The unquiet state
of the country went far to prevent any systematic investigation of
these remains; excavations, however, were made by Körte and
Franke at Niausta and near Salonica (see Kretschner, Einleitung in
die Geschichte der griechischen Sprache, pp. 176, 421), and fragments of
primitive pottery, with peculiar characteristics, were found by
Perdrizet at Tchepelje, on the left bank of Lake Tachino. The oldest
archaeological monuments of Macedonia are its coins, for which the
mines of Crenides (the later Philippi), at the foot of Mt Pangaeus,
of Chalcidice, of the island of Thasos, and of the mountains between
Lake Prasias and the ancient Macedonian kingdom (Herod. v. 17),
furnished abundance of metal. From the reign of Alexander I.,
in the epoch of the Persian wars (502–479 B.C.), the Macedonian
dynasty issued silver coins of a purely Greek style. The Thracian
communities around Mt Pangaeus also produced a variety of coins,
especially at the beginning of the 5th century. The great octodrachms
of this period were perhaps struck for the purpose of paying
tribute to the Persians when the country between the Strymon and
the Nestos was in their possession; most of the specimens have
been found in Asia Minor. These large pieces present many characteristics
of the Ionian style; it is evident that the Thracians derived
the arts of minting and engraving from the neighbouring Thasos,
itself a colony from the Ionian Paros. The monarchs of Pella were
enthusiastic admirers of Hellenic culture, and their court was
doubtless frequented by Greek sculptors as well as men of letters,
such as Herodotus and Euripides. At Pella has been found a
funerary stele of the late 5th or early 4th century representing a
Macedonian hetaerus—a beautiful specimen of the best Greek art,
now preserved in the Imperial Ottoman Museum at Constantinople.
To the Hellenic period belong the vaulted tombs under tumuli discovered
at Pella, Pydna, Palatitza, and other places; the dead were
laid in marble couches ornamented with sculptures, like those of the
so-called sarcophagus of Alexander at Constantinople. These tombs
doubtless received the remains of the Macedonian nobles and hetaeri:
in one of them a fresco representing a conflict between a horseman
and a warrior on foot has been brought to light by Kinch. Similarly
constructed places of sepulture have been found at Eretria and elsewhere
in Greece. At Palatitza the ruins of a remarkable structure,
perhaps a palace, have been laid bare by Heuzey and Daumet.
Unlike Greece, where each independent city had its acropolis, Macedonia
offers few remnants of ancient fortification; most of the country
towns appear to have been nothing more than open market-centres.
The most interesting ruins in the country are those of the Roman and
Byzantine epochs, especially those at Salonica (q.v.). The Byzantine
fortifications and aqueduct of Kavala are also remarkable.
At Verria (Beroea) may be seen some Christian remains, at Melnik
a palace of the age of the Comneni, at Serres a fortress built by the
Servian tsar Stephen Dushan (1336–1356). The remains at Filibejik
(Philippi) are principally of the Roman and Byzantine periods;
the numerous ex voto rock-tablets of the acropolis are especially
interesting. The Roman inscriptions found in Macedonia are mainly
funerary, but include several ephebic lists. The funerary tablets
afford convincing proof of the persistence of the Thracian element,
notwithstanding hellenization and latinization; many of them, for
instance, represent the well-known Thracian horseman hunting the
wild boar. The monastic communities on the promontory of Athos
(q.v.), with their treasures of Byzantine art and their rich collections
of manuscripts, are of the highest antiquarian interest.
History.—For the history of ancient Macedonia see Macedonian Empire.[1] After its subjugation by the Romans the country was divided into four districts separated by rigid political and social limitations. Before long it was constituted a province, which in the time of Augustus was assigned to the senate. Thenceforward it followed the fortunes of the Roman empire, and, after the partition of that dominion, of its eastern branch. Its Thraco-Illyrian inhabitants had already been largely latinized when Constantine the Great made Byzantium the imperial residence in A.D. 330; they called themselves Romans and spoke Latin. Towards the close of the 4th century the country was devastated by the Goths and Avars, whose incursions possessed no lasting significance. It was otherwise with the great Slavonic immigration, which took place at intervals from the 3rd to the 7th century. An important ethnographic change was brought about, and the greater part of Macedonia was colonized by the invaders (see Balkan Peninsula).
The Slavs were in their turn conquered by the Bulgarians (see Bulgaria: History) whose chief Krum (802–815) included central Macedonia in his dominions. The Byzantines retained the southern regions and Salonica, which temporarily fell into the hands of the Saracens in 904. With the exception of the Byzantine and Bulgarian Domination. maritime districts, the whole of Macedonia formed a portion of the empire of the Bulgarian tsar Simeon (893–927); the Bulgarian power declined after his death, but was revived in western Macedonia under the Shishman dynasty at Ochrida; Tsar Samuel (976–1014), the third ruler of that family, included in his dominions Usküb, Veles, Vodena and Melnik. After his defeat by the emperor Basil II. in 1014 Greek domination was established for a century and a half. The Byzantine emperors endeavoured to confirm their positions by Asiatic colonization; Turkish immigrants, afterwards known as Vardariotes, the first of their race who appeared in Macedonia, were settled in the neighbourhood of Salonica in the 9th century; colonies of Uzes, Petchenegs and Kumans were introduced at various periods from the 11th to the 13th century. While Greeks and Bulgarians disputed the mastery of Macedonia the Vlachs, in the 10th century, established an independent state in the Pindus region, which, afterwards known as Great Walachia, continued to exist till the beginning of the 14th century. In 1185 southern Macedonia was exposed to a raid of the Normans under William of Sicily, who captured Salonica and massacred its inhabitants. After the taking of Constantinople in 1204 by the Franks of the fourth crusade, the Latin empire of Romania was formed and the feudal kingdom of Thessalonica was bestowed on Boniface, marquis of Montferrat; this was overthrown in 1222 by Theodore, despot of Epirus, a descendant of the imperial house of the Comneni, who styled himself emperor of Thessalonica and for some years ruled over all Macedonia. He was defeated and captured by the Bulgarians in 1230 and the remnant of his possessions, to which his son John succeeded, was absorbed in the empire of Nicaea in 1234. Bulgarian rule was now once more established in Macedonia under the powerful monarch Ivan Asen II. (1218–1241) whose dynasty, of Vlach origin, had been founded at Trnovo in 1186 after a revolt of the Vlachs and Bulgars against the Greeks. A period of decadence followed the extinction of the Asen dynasty in 1257; the Bulgarian power was overthrown by the Servians at Velbuzhd (1330), and Macedonia was included in the realm of the great Servian tsar Dushan (1331–1355) who fixed his capital at Usküb. Dushan’s empire fell to pieces after his death, and the anarchy which followed prepared the way for the advance of the Turks, to whom not only contending factions at Constantinople but Servian and Bulgarian princes alike made overtures.
Macedonia and Thrace were soon desolated by Turkish raids; when it was too late the Slavonic states combined against the invaders, but their forces, under the Servian tsar Lazar, were routed at Kossovo in 1389 by the sultan Murad I. Salonica and Larissa were captured in Turkish Rule. 1395 by Murad’s son Bayezid, whose victory over Sigismund of Hungary at Nicopolis in 1396 sealed the fate of the peninsula. The towns in the Struma valley were yielded to the Turks by John VII. Palaeologus in 1424; Salonica was taken for the last time in 1428 by Murad II. and its inhabitants were massacred. Large tracts of land were distributed among the Ottoman chiefs; a system of feudal tenure was developed by Mahommed II. (1451–1481), each fief furnishing a certain number of armed warriors. The Christian peasant owners remained on the lands assigned to the Moslem feudal lords, to whom they paid a tithe. The condition of the subject population was deplorable from the first, and became worse during the period of anarchy which coincided with the decadence of the central power in the 17th and 18th centuries; in the latter half of the 17th century efforts to improve it were made by the grand viziers Mehemet and Mustafa of the eminent house of Koprülü. The country was policed by the janissaries (q.v.). Numbers of the peasant proprietors were ultimately reduced to serfdom, working as labourers on the farms or tchifliks of the Moslem beys. Towards the end of the 18th century many of the local governors became practically independent; western Macedonia fell under the sway of Ali Pasha of Iannina; at Serres Ismail Bey maintained an army of 10,000 men and exercised a beneficent despotism. For more than two centuries Albanian
