223-234

Articles

• Tritle, Lawrence A.

Who were the ancient Macedonians: Greek or a Greek-like peopleinhabiting the mountainous region to the north of Greece proper? Thisissue has been debated by scholars through the twentieth century and inthe early 1990s even figured in political discussions from Skopje toAthens and beyond. The problem is usually approached from a viewpointof “otherness”, i.e., that Greeks and Macedonians were different.This paper suggests that the opposite viewpoint be considered, namelythat the differences between Greeks and Macedonians were small, thatonly degrees of “sameness” separated them.This paper proceeds from this initial rationale. It investigates therelationships and particularly the friendships cultivated and enjoyed byAthenians and Macedonians, hence the title “Athenian Friends, MacedonianEnemies”. Examination of these relationships suggests that thepractice and observance of the Greek ritual of xenia —guest friendship—found in Homeric times continued into the relatively sophisticatedclassical era where it occasionally created misunderstandings of one kindor another for those bound by it. Yet these practices are pan of Helleniclife and suggest another reason for arguing that the ancient Macedonianswere Greek.

• History and Archaeology

• Ιστορία

Αθήνα-Μακεδονία

This paper and that of W. L. Adams, ‘The Rest of Greece: Greek and MacedonianEthnicity in the Hellenistic Age”, comprised a panel discussion on ideas of classical Greekethnicity at the annual meeting of the Pacific Coast Branch of the American HistoricalAssociation in Maui, Hawaii, August 5, 1995. f wish to thank W. L. Adams for some usefulsuggestions in revising this essay.