Post by kartadolofonos on Jan 22, 2008 21:41:42 GMT -5
It is inhabited by several different ethnic groups. The largest group is known as "Slavofyromanians" which amounts to approximately 45% of a total population of around two million people. (within, Greeks totaling a 35%).
Only the south-western corner of the FYROM, comprising about 10% of the FYROM's territory constituted a part of Macedonia proper it was inhabited by the Greek-speaking pelagones (or Pelagonians) and other smaller and more obscure Greek tribes such as the Derriops, Argesmi and Neopoliroi. This area as a whole was known as Pelagonia, a name retained (as Pelagonia) by the Slavophones, perhaps to bolster their claim to historical continuity in the area.
Originally the Pelagonians like many other Greek-speaking tribes of what became known as 'Upper Macedonia", such as the Oresrions, Elimejans, Tymphoeans and Lynkesrions were counted as Epirotic or Molossian tribes. They had much in common with the archaic Greek culture of Epirus. Together with the Epirot tribes proper they formed a broad cultural continuum straddling the Pindus mountain range. The geographer Strabo (64 BC - c. 21 AD) remarked that some earlier authors regarded the area as a single cultural unit on the basis of a similar dialect ("North-west Greek"), tonsure and a short cloak known in Greek as the chiamys.
In antiquity the most important town of the region was situated a few kilometres from today's Bitola (Monastir) and was called, in the typical fashion of the Dorian Greeks, Heraelcia - the city of Herakles (Hercules). It was situated in that small part of ancient Lynkestis that now lies within the FYROM (the major part of Lynkestis is in Greece).
Around 483 BC, the Argeodoi Makedones (the original Macedonians themselves) incorporated Pelagonia and the rest of "Upper Macedonia" into their kingdom. It was only then that the whole area became politically "Macedonian". This conquest was part of a process of expansion which commenced when the Macedonians "outgrew" their homeland in the hill country of Pieria sometime in the middle of the sixth century BC. This homeland, once known as Makedonk, was situated in the northern foothills of Mount Olympus.
Only the south-western corner of the FYROM, comprising about 10% of the FYROM's territory constituted a part of Macedonia proper it was inhabited by the Greek-speaking pelagones (or Pelagonians) and other smaller and more obscure Greek tribes such as the Derriops, Argesmi and Neopoliroi. This area as a whole was known as Pelagonia, a name retained (as Pelagonia) by the Slavophones, perhaps to bolster their claim to historical continuity in the area.
Originally the Pelagonians like many other Greek-speaking tribes of what became known as 'Upper Macedonia", such as the Oresrions, Elimejans, Tymphoeans and Lynkesrions were counted as Epirotic or Molossian tribes. They had much in common with the archaic Greek culture of Epirus. Together with the Epirot tribes proper they formed a broad cultural continuum straddling the Pindus mountain range. The geographer Strabo (64 BC - c. 21 AD) remarked that some earlier authors regarded the area as a single cultural unit on the basis of a similar dialect ("North-west Greek"), tonsure and a short cloak known in Greek as the chiamys.
In antiquity the most important town of the region was situated a few kilometres from today's Bitola (Monastir) and was called, in the typical fashion of the Dorian Greeks, Heraelcia - the city of Herakles (Hercules). It was situated in that small part of ancient Lynkestis that now lies within the FYROM (the major part of Lynkestis is in Greece).
Around 483 BC, the Argeodoi Makedones (the original Macedonians themselves) incorporated Pelagonia and the rest of "Upper Macedonia" into their kingdom. It was only then that the whole area became politically "Macedonian". This conquest was part of a process of expansion which commenced when the Macedonians "outgrew" their homeland in the hill country of Pieria sometime in the middle of the sixth century BC. This homeland, once known as Makedonk, was situated in the northern foothills of Mount Olympus.