Slavic peoples identified themselves with Alexander the Great

Slavic peoples identified with Alexander the Great. Macedonia and the Macedonian people have been constantly identified with Alexander the Great and the other ancient Macedonian kings over the centuries. There are hundreds of records for this, many of which date back to the nineteenth century when the process of defining the modern Macedonian nation began.

In this sense, it is worth mentioning the contributions of Macedonian national figures: such as George Pulevski Isaiah Mazhovski, Kosta Shahov, Dimitri Pop Georgiev Berovski, Petar Poparsov, as well as the later writings of Nikola Karev, Jane Sandanski, the proclamations of Anastas Jankov, Dimitri Cupovski, Misirkov and other notable figures in Macedonian national history.

It is also known that the bishop of the Ohrid Archdiocese of Mardarije, who lived in the seventeenth century, signed himself in his letters as “Bishop of the Macedonian fatherland of the great King Alexander“.

Many travelers and folklorists also bear witness to the memory of the Macedonians and their glorious ancient history.

But it is interesting to note that apart from the Macedonians, other Slavic peoples throughout history identified with Alexander of Macedon. Let’s look at some examples …

Montenegro’s Prince Peter I Njegoš, who was also a poet, connects his people with “Alexander – The King of Macedonia” in his poem published in 1851.

Almost at the same time (mid-nineteenth century), folklorist Stefan Verkovich, as he calls them, visited the “Rhodope Slavs” in what is now Bulgaria, and noticed that they praised Alexander of Macedonia as an ancestor, and that this is part of it their tradition.

This discovery aroused some controversy in scientific circles at the time, over the suspicion that this information was blamed on Verkovich by the Macedonian teacher John Gologanov. Anyway, it still shows the strong relevance of this topic in the region.

This is confirmed by several Serbian folk songs, for example Gjuragj Brankovic, a nobleman who lived in the fourteenth century, is called “King of beautiful Macedonia” in these songs.

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Similar is the case with the Bulgarian educators Peter Berovich, Sava Rakovski Popovich, Spiridon Gabrovski, who repeatedly emphasized that the Bulgarians descended from the old Macedonians.

The Croatian poet Matija Antun Relkovikj, who lived in the 18th century, put his brave celebrities, the Slavonci, on a par with Alexander of Macedonia.

Slavs and the ancient Macedonians speak the same language

We go further back in time. In 1601 Mauro Orbini published his book “The Kingdom of the Slavs” in which he claimed that “the Slavs and the ancient Macedonians speak the same language“.

The work has been translated into several Slavic languages, including, in 1722, into Russian, on behalf of the Russian Tsar Peter the Great.

In 1532 Vinko Pribojevikj from Hvar published his work “On the origin and glory of the Slavs“, in which he says that the Slavs are descendants of the Thracians, Illyrians and Moesians and that they “both in the past and in the present are of the same stock as the Macedonians“.

Indeed, both works deal with the theme of the relationship between the Slavs and the ancient Macedonians. Therefore these two authors just quoted are pioneers of the ideology of the unification of the Slavic peoples, called “Pan-Slavism” in history. Although, for example, long before the English chronicler from Oxford, Roger Bacon, in the thirteenth century medieval Macedonia with the “Kingdom of Antigonus, Philip and Alexander the Great.” designated.

No less interesting is the information for the West Slavic tribe of the Bodrichi, who lived in what is now eastern Germany in the sixth century. Legend has it that they were actually Macedonians who were driven out by the Romans, which is why they were considered bitter rivals of the Romans for a long time. Many Russian historians have written about it.

The Russian Slavist Egor Ivanovich Klassen wrote about the Bodrichi in his essay “New Materials on the Ancient History of the Slavs and Slavorussians” in 1854:

“After the fall of the Macedonian Empire around 320 BC, the Macedonians moved along the coast of the Baltic Sea and founded several settlements called “Bodricheja”. Until their fall, they carried the coat of arms of Alexander of Macedonia, the image of Bucephalus and the Griffon, after that some of them moved to Ilmen and Lovat. “

In a Russian-Ukrainian legend, which appears for the first time in a synopsis from 1672, it says:

“For Slavic freedom and independence: The Slavs in their courage and bravery are exposed to complex deeds from day to day, they fought against the ancient Greek and Roman emperors, always to a glorious victory, always to live freely. We also contributed for the great Macedonian King Alexander and his father Philip, in which we subjugated the world under our rule. Therefore, because of their martial loyalty and work, the Slavs were given the privilege of freedom from Alexander, King of the Slavs, the letter written in gold in Alexandria for their land on which they are committed, 310th summer, before the birth of Christ. “

The Pole Marcin Bielski speaks in 1564 of Alexander of Macedonia as the conqueror of the Persians and Greeks, who turned to his “Venetian-Slavic” tribe.

Marcin Bielski was a chronicler, historian and poet who lived in the 16th century. He is best known for his work “Geschichte der Welt”, published in 1564. In this work, Bielski reports, among other things, like many chroniclers before him, with some changes and deviations, from the alleged testament of Alexander. According to Bielski, the text reads:

And Bartosz Paprocki, one of the most important Polish-Czech enlighteners, stated in his work “Royal Garden” (1599) that “Alexander and Philip, the kings of Macedonia, spoke Slavic.“

Source: MIA (Macedonian Information Agency, the article was deleted after government take-over by Zaev and reshuffle of the MIA board)