History of the Macedonians (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1850. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... THE HISTORY THE MACEDONIANS. CHAPTER I. THE PHYSICAL HISTORY OF MACEDONIA. The ancient name of Macedonia was iEmathia, but the time and cause of the appellation being changed are unknown. Some authors imagine that it received that denomination from king Macedo, a descendant from Deucalion, while others affirm that it is derived by an easy mutation of Mygdonia, the name of one of its provinces. The latter appears to be the most probable, for the space intervening between the range of Mount Haemus, which separated Thrace and Macedonia from northern Europe, and the Cambanian mountains, which divided Macedonia from Thessaly, was, during a long succession of ages, distinguished by different appellations, according as the barbarous nations that inhabited those regions rose into temporary eminence. Thus, Livy says, that Pasonia was once the general name of Macedonia; which name afterwards became peculiar to a people near Mount Scopus. If the inhabitants of the district of Mygdonia, therefore, at any period became masters, they might have given the name of Macedonia to the whole country. Some modern authors have attempted to derive the name of the Chittim mentioned in the Old Testament (Gen. x. 4; Numb. xxiv. 24; Isa. xxiii. i. 12; Jer. ii. 10; Ezek. xxvii. 6; Dan. xi. 30.) from Macedonia. This appears to have arisen from the description of the country inhabited by the Kittim, which is supposed to answer to Macedonia, and from the fact that Alexander the Great is said to come "out of the land of Chettim," and that Perseus is called king of-the Citims, in the book of Maccabees. The term Chittim, however, as mentioned in the Old Testament, appears to be a name of more ample signification, and applied to the isles and coasts of the Mediterranean, like our Levant, in a...