Thinking about Alexander. (Or, Rednecks of the Fourth Century BC.)
I've been on this Alexander the Great kick, which is okay with me on account of Eugene Borza is so totally God. You know, most people think of him as a Greek general, but he wasn't; he was Macedonian, which is a little different. I'm not going to get into the complexity of nationalism and ethnicity and whatnot (in modern times; speak up, jurhael, if you have any comments, as you are my connection with Greece post-196 BC).
The Greeks in the 4th century BC did not consider the Macedonians to be Greek; Thracians, Illyrians, Epirotes, and Macedonians pretty much constituted the rednecks of the Greek world. (Thracians and Illyrians were thought of as barbarians outright.) I think the best summing-up of the whole situation comes from Demosthenes, who realized what was going on up there probably before anybody else: "He [Philip II, Alexander's father] is a damn Macedonian, from a country where you can't even buy a decent slave." (Reference to come when I can find it; I'm quoting from memory.)
One reason the Macedonians were thought of as rednecks was because they were still living much as the Bronze Age Greeks had. Macedon was very Mycenaean still; there was no polis, there was no democracy, the old basileus system was still in place, and although supposedly the king could not put someone to death without appearing before the assembly as a plaintiff, this rule was ignored as often as not. Basically, things were pretty feudal.
Philip II began to Hellenize the Macedonian court because he had been a hostage in Thebes. That was where he picked up a lot of his Greek aspirations and the better part of the knowledge he used to whip the Macedonian army into shape. (However! Hellenization had been going on before Philip II; Alexander I Philhellene, the nickname being snarky rather than otherwise, also tried to Hellenize his court. Of course, he also Medized during the Persian Wars. Draw your own conclusions.)
Hellenization in Macedon really came into its own under Alexander III (the Great), though. I'm sure I want to talk about that, but I'll do so later.
That could be an interesting paper, though: pre-Philippic Hellenization in Macedon. Hmm.
The Greeks in the 4th century BC did not consider the Macedonians to be Greek; Thracians, Illyrians, Epirotes, and Macedonians pretty much constituted the rednecks of the Greek world. (Thracians and Illyrians were thought of as barbarians outright.) I think the best summing-up of the whole situation comes from Demosthenes, who realized what was going on up there probably before anybody else: "He [Philip II, Alexander's father] is a damn Macedonian, from a country where you can't even buy a decent slave." (Reference to come when I can find it; I'm quoting from memory.)
One reason the Macedonians were thought of as rednecks was because they were still living much as the Bronze Age Greeks had. Macedon was very Mycenaean still; there was no polis, there was no democracy, the old basileus system was still in place, and although supposedly the king could not put someone to death without appearing before the assembly as a plaintiff, this rule was ignored as often as not. Basically, things were pretty feudal.
Philip II began to Hellenize the Macedonian court because he had been a hostage in Thebes. That was where he picked up a lot of his Greek aspirations and the better part of the knowledge he used to whip the Macedonian army into shape. (However! Hellenization had been going on before Philip II; Alexander I Philhellene, the nickname being snarky rather than otherwise, also tried to Hellenize his court. Of course, he also Medized during the Persian Wars. Draw your own conclusions.)
Hellenization in Macedon really came into its own under Alexander III (the Great), though. I'm sure I want to talk about that, but I'll do so later.
That could be an interesting paper, though: pre-Philippic Hellenization in Macedon. Hmm.