Alexander the Great (Greek: Αλέξανδρος ο Μέγας or Μέγας Aλέξανδρος,^[1][2] Megas Alexandros; July 20 356 BC – June 10 323 BC),^[3][4][5] also known as Alexander III, was an ancient Greek^[6][7][8] king (basileus) of Macedon (336–323 BC). He was one of the most successful military commanders in history, and was undefeated in battle. By the time of his death, he had conquered most of the world known to the ancient Greeks.

Following the unification of the multiple city-states of ancient Greece under the rule of his father, Philip II of Macedon (a labour Alexander had to repeat because the southern Greeks rebelled after Philip's death), Alexander conquered the Achaemenid Persian Empire, including Anatolia, Syria, Phoenicia, Judea, Gaza, Egypt, Bactria, and Mesopotamia, and extended the boundaries of his own empire as far as Punjab, India.

Prior to his death, Alexander had already made plans for military and mercantile expansions into the Arabian peninsula, after which he was to turn his armies to the west (Carthage, Rome, and the Iberian Peninsula). His original vision had been to the east, though, to the ends of the world and the Great Outer Sea, as described by his boyhood tutor Aristotle.

Alexander integrated many foreigners into his army, leading some scholars to credit him with a "policy of fusion." He also encouraged marriages between his soldiers and foreigners; he himself went on to marry two foreign princesses.

Alexander died after twelve years of constant military campaigning, possibly as a result of malaria, poisoning, typhoid fever, viral encephalitis or the consequences of alcoholism.^[9][10] His legacy and conquests lived on long after him, and ushered in centuries of Greek settlement and cultural influence over distant areas. This period is known as the Hellenistic Age, and featured a combination of Greek, Middle Eastern and Indian culture. Alexander himself was featured prominently in the history and myth of both Greek and non-Greek cultures. His exploits inspired a literary tradition in which he appeared as a legendary hero in the tradition of Achilles

The Greek Struggle for Macedonia 1904-1908 (in Greek language: Μακεδονικός Ἀγῶν, "Macedonian Struggle") is how the Greeks describe their military conflicts against the Bulgarians (VMRO) and the Turkish forces in Ottoman occupied Macedonia during the first decade of the 20th century.

The defeat of Greece in the Greco-Turkish War of 1897 was a loss that appalled Greeks. The nationalist organisation "Ethniki Etairia," considered to be responsible for the outbreak of the war, dissolved under the pressure of Prime Minister Theotokis. But the young officers that had established the organisation did not lose contact. They conferred with each other over the situation in Macedonia where the Bulgarians had made intense and systematic interventions, with the support of the Bulgarian Exarchate, especially for the foundation of schools.

Since 1899, the guerrillas of the VMRO turned against Ottoman authorities with the slogan "autonomy for Macedonia". The guerrillas purported to be protectors of all Christians in the area, for this reason they initially did not bother Greece. But gradually, increasing tensions emerged among the followers of the Patriarchate of Constantinople (the patriarchalists, mostly, but not only, Greeks) and those of the Bulgarian Exarchate; this brought to the assassination by the IMRO of members of pro-Greek and pro-Serbian parties.

The situation became heated in Macedonia and started to affect Greek, Serbian and European public opinion. In April 1903, a group called "Gemidzhii" (in Greek: βαρκάρηδες) with some assistance from the VMRO blew up the French ship "Guadalquivir" and the Ottoman Bank in the harbour of Thessaloniki. In August 1903, VMRO managed to organise an uprising (the Ilinden-Preobrazhenie Uprising) in Macedonia and the Adrianople Vilayet. After the forming of the shortlived Krushevo Republic, the insurrection was suppressed by the Ottomans with the subsequent destruction of many villages and the devastation of large areas in Western Macedonia and around Kirk-Klisse near Adrianople.

In Athens, nationalist organisations organised demonstrations against Bulgaria, but the official Greek State, numbed from the defeat of 1897 hesitated over what to do.

From 1900 onwards, the danger of Bulgarian control had upset the Greek Macedonians. The Bishop of Kastoria, Germanos Karavangelis sent to Macedonia by the ambasador of Greece Nikolaos Mavrokordatos and the consul of Greece in Monastiri, Ion Dragoumis, realised that it was time to act in a more efficient way and started organising Greek opposition.

As Ion Dragoumis wrote in his calendar I am thinking how these communities of Greece outside of the Greek Kingdom can affiliate in our state. Why wait their liberation only from Greece? Let them work as Greece didn’t exist and then she will help them.

While Dragoumis concerned himself with the financial organisation of the efforts, Bishop Germanos animated the Greek population against the IMRO and formed committees to promote the Greek national interests. Taking advantage of the internal political and personal disputes in VMRO, Karavangelis innitially succeded to recruit some VMRO former members and to organize guerrilla groups, that were later enstrenghten with people sent from Greece and thus were mainly composed of officers of the Hellenic Army, volunteers brought from Crete, Mani and other parts of Greece, as well as recruited Macedonian Greeks such as Vangelis Strebreniotis from the village of Asprogia and Christos Kottas from the village of Rulya, a former adherent of the VMRO.These Greek forces were in certain occasions backed up by the Ottoman authorities and armed forces, since the Turks were giving their support accorting to their interests also in VMRO. The fighters for the Greek cause labelled themselves "Makedonomachoi" (Macedonian Fighters) and were portrayed by Greek writer Penelope Delta in her novel "Ta Mystika tou Valtou" (The Secrets of the Swamp) as well as in the book of memoirs "The Macedonian struggle" by Germanos Karavangelis, while on the other side, the fighters of VMRO and their activities are depicted in the book "Confessions of a Macedonian Bandit: A Californian in the Balkan Wars" written by Albert Sonnichsen, an American volunteer in the VMRO during the Greek struggle for Macedonia.

The official Greek State became anxious not only because of the Bulgarian penetration in Macedonia, but also due to the Serbian interest, which was concentrated mainly in Skopje and Bitola area. The rioting in Macedonia, the atrocities of Bulgarian guerrilla troops against locals who considered themselves as Greeks and especially the death of Pavlos Melas in 1904 (he was the first Greek officer to enter Macedonia with guerrillas) caused intense nationalistic feelings in Greece. This led to the decision to send more guerrilla troops in order to thwart Bulgarian efforts to bring all of the Slavic speaking majority population of Macedonia on their side.

The Greek Consulate in Thessaloniki became the centre of the struggle, coordinating the guerrilla troops, distributing of military material and nursing wounded. Fierce conflicts between the Greeks and Bulgarians started in the area of Kastoria , in the Giannitsa Lake and elsewhere; both parties committed cruel crimes at points. The greatest bloodshed was the massacre in the village Zagorichani (predomintantly populated by Bulgarians) in Kastoria district on 25 March 1905 when 79 villagers were executed.

Both guerilla groups had also to confront the Turkish Army. These conflicts ended after the revolution of "Young Turks" in July, 1908, as they promised to respect all ethnicities and religions and generally to provide a constitution.

The success of Greek efforts in Macedonia was an experience that gave confidence to the country. It helped develop an intention to annex areas with Greek population and in general establish Greek presence in Macedonia. After the Balkan Wars the part of Macedonia ceded to Greece included some of the areas that they controlled during the conflicts with the Bulgarians from 1904 to 1908.

Pavlos Melas (Greek: Παύλος Μελάς) (March 29, 1870–October 13, 1904) was an officer of the Hellenic Army, and he was among the first who organized and participated in the Greek Struggle for Macedonia

He was born in Marseilles, France in a family with origin from Northern Epirus.

Melas, with the cooperation of Kastorian Ion Dragoumis, consul of Greece in then Ottoman occupied Monastir (now Bitola), Christos Kottas,(Greek Macedonian renegade from VMRO) and Germanos Karavangelis, metropolitan bishop of Kastoria, tried to raise money for the economic support of Greek efforts in Macedonia. But after the rise of Macedonian efforts of the VMRO, and especially after the Ilinden-Preobrazhenie uprising, he decided to enter Macedonia in June, 1904 to assess the situation and to see if there is any possibility of establishing a military unit to fight the Bulgarians (VMRO) and the Ottoman Turks.

In July, 1904 under the alias Captain Mikis Zezas, he reentered Macedonia with a small unit of men and fought against the Macedonian units of VMRO until October 13, 1904 when he was killed by Turks in the village of Statitsa. The village with coordinates 40° 42' N 021° 16' E has since been renamed Melas in his honour.

After his death, Greek efforts became more intense, resulting in the interception of Macedonia efforts, specially in West and Central Macedonia, which were ceded to Greece after the Balkan Wars.

He is considered to be a symbol of Greek Struggle for Macedonia and many of his personal belongings can be seen in the Museum of the Macedonian Struggle in Thessaloniki and Pavlos Melas Museum in Kastoria.

Vergina (in Greek Βεργίνα) is a small town in northern Greece, located in the prefecture of Imathia, Central Macedonia. The town became internationally famous in 1977, when the Greek archaeologist Manolis Andronikos unearthed what he claimed was the burial site of the kings of Macedon, including the tomb of Philip II, father of Alexander the Great.

Vergina is about 13km south-east of the district centre of Veroia and about 80km south-west of Thessaloniki, the capital of Greek Macedonia. The town has a population of about two thousand people and stands on the foothills of Mount Pieria, at an elevation of 120m (360 ft) above sea level.

History

The modern town of Vergina was founded in 1922 near the two small agricultural villages of Koutles (Greek: Κούτλες; Turkish: Kütles, Kütleş; Slavic: Kutlesh - Кутлеш) and Barbes (Greek: Mπάρμπες, Turkish: Barbeş, Slavic: Barbesh - Барбеш) previously owned by the Turkish bey of Palatitsi and inhabited by 25 Greek families in his employ as serfs. After the Treaty of Lausanne and the eviction of the Bey landlords, the land was distributed in lots to the existing inhabitants, and to 121 other Greek families from Bulgaria and Asia Minor after population exchange agreements between Greece, Bulgaria and Turkey. The name for the new town was suggested by the then Metropolitan of Veria, who named it after a legendary queen of ancient Beroea (the modern Veria) who had supposedly lived in the vicinity.

The Vergina Sun, Star of Vergina or Argead Star is a symbol of a stylised star or sun with sixteen rays. It was unearthed in 1977 during archaeological excavations in Vergina, in northern Greece, by Professor Manolis Andronikos. He discovered it on a golden larnax in the tombs of the kings of the ancient kingdom of Macedon.

Andronikos described the symbol variously as a "star", a "starburst" or as a "sunburst".^[1] He proposed that the larnax on which it appears belonged to King Philip II of Macedon, the father of Alexander the Great; other historians have suggested that the tomb actually belonged to the later King Philip III Arrhidaeus.^[2] The larnax is on display at the archaeological museum in Vergina, very close to where it was found. Another version of the Vergina Sun, with 12 rays, was found on the larnax of Olympias, the mother of Alexander the Great.

Macedonia
Macedonia is one of the geographic regions of continental Greece and constitutes the southern and larger part of the wider geographic and historical region of Macedonia. Today it constitutes the northern larger geographic and historical region (25,9% of all extent) of the Greek territory. Macedonia borders with The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (The FYROM) and Bulgaria in the north, southerly with Thessaly and the Aegean Sea, easterly with Western Thrace and westwards it borders with Epirus and Albania.

The self-governed monastic community of Athos, one of the important centres of Orthodoxy worldwide is found in Macedonia, as well as the city of Thessalonica, the metropolis and main city of Macedonia and Northern Greece.

Macedonia is Greek

From history:
Macedon or Macedonia (Greek Μακεδονία Makedonía) was the name of an ancient Greek kingdom in the northern-most part of ancient Greece, bordered by the kingdom of Epirus to the west and the region of Thrace to the east.^[1] For a brief period it became the most powerful state in the ancient Near East after Alexander the Great conquered most of the known world, inaugurating the Hellenistic period of Greek history.\

The Ancient Macedonian language was the tongue of the Ancient Macedonians. It was spoken in Macedon during the 1st millennium BC. Marginalized from the 5th century BC, it was gradually replaced by the common Greek dialect of the Hellenistic Era. It was probably spoken predominantly in the inland regions away from the coast. It is as yet undetermined whether the language was a dialect of Greek, a sibling language to Greek, or an Indo-European language which is a close cousin to Greek and also related to Thracian and Phrygian languages.

Knowledge of the language is very limited because there are no surviving texts that are indisputably written in the language, though a body of authentic Macedonian words has been assembled from ancient sources, mainly from coin inscriptions, and from the 5th century lexicon of Hesychius of Alexandria, amounting to about 150 words and 200 proper names. Most of these are confidently identifiable as Greek, but some of them are not easily reconciled with standard Greek phonology. The 6,000 surviving Macedonian inscriptions are in the Greek Attic dialect.

The Pella curse tablet, a text written in a distinct Doric Greek idiom, found in 1986, dated to between mid to early 4th century BC, has been forwarded as an argument that the ancient Macedonian language was a dialect of North-Western Greek, part of the Doric dialects (O. Masson, 1996). Before the discovery it was proposed that the Macedonian dialect was an early form of Greek, spoken alongside Doric proper at that time (Rhomiopoulou, 1980).