Page:History of Greece Vol IV.djvu/30

 12 HISTORY OF GREECE. name of the same character. The inhabitants of the mora northerly tracts, called Pelagonia and Deuriopis, were also por- tions of the Macedonian aggregate, though neighbors of the Pzeonians, to whom they bore much affinity : whether the Eordi and Almopians were of Macedonian race, it is more difficult tc say. The Macedonian language was different from Illyrian, 1 from Thracian, and seemingly also from Prconian. It was also different from Greek, yet apparently not more widely distinct than that of the Epirots, so that the acquisition of Greek was comparatively easy to the chiefs and people, though there were always some Greek letters which they were incapable of pro- nouncing. And when we follow their history, we shall find in them more of the regular warrior, conquering in order to main- tain dominion and tribute, and less of the armed plunderer, than in the Illyrians, Thracians, or Epirots, by whom it was their misfortune to be surrounded. They approach nearer to the Thessalians, 2 and to the other ungifted members of the Hellenic family. The large and comparatively productive region covered by the various sections of Macedonians, helps to explain that in- crease of ascendency which they successively acquired over all their neighbors. It was not, however, until a late period that they became united under one government. At first each section, how many we do not know, had its own prince, or chief. The Elymiots, or inhabitants of Elymeia, the southernmost portion of Macedonia, were thus originally distinct and independent ; also the Orestae, in mountain-seats somewhat north-west of the Ely- 1 Polyb. xxviii, 8, 9. This is the most distinct testimony which we possess, and it appears to me to contradict the opinion both of Mannert (Geogr. der Gr. und Rom. vol. vii, p. 492) and of O. Miiller (On the Macedonians, sects. 28-36), that the native Macedonians were of Illyrian descent. the Thessalians, horsemen well-mounted and armed, and maintaining good order (Thucyd. ii, 101): of their infantry, before the time of Philip ton of Amyntas, we do not hear much. " Macedoniam, quse tantis barbarornm gentibus attingitnn ut sempei Maccdonicis imperatoribus iidem fines imperii fuerint qui gladiorum atqu pilorum." (Cicero, in Pison. c. xvi.)
 * The Macedonian military array seems to have been very like that of