MACEDONIA – HISTORY AND THE KINGS
Macedonia enters the history of Greece with Amynta’ s son, Alexander I (498-454)
who set the military and political bases of the Macedonian state. The subsequent
edge of the Alexander the Great was not random and sudden. All the kings before
Alexander put all walks of stone in building the Great Macedonia and Greece.
The Kings were:
Perdikas II 454-413 BC
Archelaus I 413-399 BC
Krateros 399BC
Orestes of Macedonia 399-396 BC
Archelaus II 396-393 BC
Amyntas II 393 BC
Pausanias of Macedonia 393 BC
Amyntas III (rehabitation) 392-370 BC
Alexander II 370-3698 BC
Ptolemaios I 368-365 BC
Perdikas III 365-359 BC
Amyntas IV 359-356 BC
But the one who organised Macedonia as a state and set the basis of Great
Greece was Philip II (357-336 BC). He established the gold mining from Pagkaio
and near river Strymonas. It seems that the gold was a major help for the
Macedonians sovereignty. In every city conquered, Alexander imposed the cut of
his currency with gold that he conquered and with this way he made his currency
powerful everywhere. The single monetary system imposed was a key factor in
the cohesion of the empire. This wealth was concentrated in his palaces: Vergina
(near present Veroia), in Pella (current areas Giannitsa, Halkidona, Alexandreia),
Thessaloniki, etc. This is evidenced by the rich finds of gold discovered in
Macedonian tombs. In generally, gold seems to be favourite royal metal from the
depths of history, as in every important’s person tomb several gold objects were
found. We have seen many gold items and jewellery which were found in the area
of Thessaloniki and Macedonia. The detail is impressive and unusual even in
today’s jewellery. If you even take into consideration that gold melts at about
1100 ° C, probably we owe more respect to ancient artisans. So it is no chance that
the metal which put the kings and the world in big trouble from ancient times is gold!
It can be found even in riverbeds in pure form and can be easily configured for both
temperature and heated. An important advantage is that it oxidizes.
In addition, in Halkidiki were found ovens of metalworking (gold, silver, copper, tin,
etc) from 700-600 BC. The scope and size of the premises show something almost
industrial scale.
The copper which was mainly used during the Macedonian season was enriched with
tin to increase the hardness and durability. Tin gave the copper lighter shade. This is
known as the famous bronze.
The brass is an alloy of copper and zinc and occurs much later as an economical solution.
The temperatures in the furnace needed for these alloys was about 800 ° C
The manufacturing precision and durability have given the ability of building precision
Macedonian weapons systems as: helmets shields, armor and the famous Macedonian
javelins manufactured in Thessaloniki, Chalcedon, Alexandria, Pella (near Giannitsa),
Vergina (near Veria), Aigai (current Edessa)
