Macedonian Struggle for Independence - Part III, by Risto Stefov

After their unsuccessful attempt to liberate Macedonia from the Roman occupation, the Macedonian people soon lost their abilities to lead renewed military struggles and begrudgingly accepted Roman dominion. Due to the military and strategic importance of Macedonia the Romans made it their main military base for campaigns against the Tribilians and Maesis in the north and the Thracians in the east. Then with the building of the Via Egnetia military highway in the second century BC, the Romans rearranged and renovated the ancient trade routes and turned Macedonia into a significant Roman economic power.

The Macedonian people had their own traditions of civilized life, and were less open to Romanization. Here the Romans wisely maintained local traditions and allowed existing Macedonian administrations to function provided they collected imperial taxes and fulfilled other imperial responsibilities.

Though class distinctions in Roman society were sharp, social barriers were not rigid and as the Empire expanded it became possible for the Macedonian freemen to acquire wealth and join the nobility. The educated Macedonians who unfortunately fell into slavery became schoolmasters or clerks. Even with their skills, slave schoolmasters were not exempt from abuse. "Under the Republic the treatment of slaves had been appalling. When a slave was sold on the great markets of Capua or Delos he could look forward to the horrors of gladiatorial schools or to back-breaking labour in the mines or on large plantations. The fortunate few with some education became schoolmasters (regularly flogged by their students) or clerks." (Page 149, Fishwick, The Foundation of the West)

Even under such harsh rule however, the Macedonian people remained cultured and continued to live civilized lives.

Rome itself was a city state and did not have the large population required to control its vast territories so Macedonians were often employed over the centuries to perform some of the functions in civil administrations and even fill the positions of Emperors.

It is well known that the Romans loved Macedonian culture and allowed Macedonians to practice their lesser vocations such as sculpting, artisan work, philosophy, teaching and other skills. Unfortunately the Romans did not love the Macedonians and in spite of their skills they bought and sold them as commodities in the slave markets. It is no wonder Christianity took root in Macedonia so early and so eagerly.

When it came to philosophical debates about the nature of the gods, Solun was right up there with Alexandria and Antioch . Why was there such a preoccupation with the gods and why at this time?

There were two main factors that influenced the creative thinking of the time. The first was the sophistication of an intellectually evolving society which, with the accumulation of knowledge, matured and grew out of its beliefs in the "mythical gods" of Homer. The second was the intellectual disgust in elevating mere humans, and cruel ones at that, to divinity. After Caesar was deified, deifications of emperors became common practice and even the cruelest men were made into gods. Worse were expectations that people of various races, cultures, religions and intellect would pay homage to these cruel men as if they were truly gods.

Was it not burden enough to live under their harsh rule, let alone pray to them for spiritual guidance? This callous Roman behaviour led many to question their faith in such false gods. In time it became increasingly less likely that an educated man would support the cult of his parents, let alone that of his grandparents.

The spiritual teachings of Jesus were like a breath of fresh air not just for the intellectuals who began to support monotheism but for the ordinary people, slaves included, who saw hope in an otherwise hopeless world.

After losing its ability to fight back, Macedonia 's spirit was channeled through intellectualism and its rebelliousness manifested itself in art, philosophy and religious debates, a prerequisite to Christianity. It was by no mere accident that the apostle Paul went to visit Macedonia .

For some time it was rumoured that Macedonia was visited by Jesus' mother Mary. Expecting to find uneducated and primitive people living on the rocky shore of Mount Gora (Athos) and fearing for her life, Mary was pleasantly surprised at the welcome she received from the local inhabitants. They were not only civilized, but they knew of her and of her son's plight. In thanks for the hospitality she received from these people she blessed their mountain and as such, turned it into the holiest place in Europe .

"The Blessed Virgin excluded all other women from Holy Mountain , when she claimed it as 'Her Garden' after she was driven ashore by storms near the site of the present monastery of 'Iviron' USPENIE." (Page 41, Vasil Bogov, Macedonian Revelation, Historical Documents Rock and Shatter Modern Political Ideology, Western Australia, 1998) Holy Mountain , or Sveta Gora as it is known in Macedonia , is the holiest place in Europe and one of the greatest monastic centers of Christendom.

Hearing of Mary's visit and acceptance, Paul know he would be welcomed in Macedonia and set out on his mission to spread the good word of Jesus. His missionary journey took him to the beautiful Macedonian city of Solun where, in 50 AD, he established what later came to be known as the " Golden Gate " church, the first Christian church in Europe . (Page 9, John Rekos, Monuments of Thessaloniki )

The central and eastern Mediterranean , for the 1st and 2nd centuries AD, swarmed with a multitude of religious ideas struggling to be spread out. Jesus' message was being rapidly propagated over large geographical areas and his followers were divided right from the start over elements of faith and practice. The new faith may have had spirit but it lacked organization and many Christian churches sprang up and practiced a kind of diverse Christian faith. Each church more or less had its own "Jesus Story" based on oral traditions and the personal biases of its founders. It would not be until Constantine 's time, a very long time indeed, before the Christian faith would be amalgamated into a single religion and achieve unity. " Constantinople was to be the new capital of the Roman Empire ; it was also planned as the first capital of Christianity and the outward symbol of Constantine 's final recognition of the Christian Church in 313 A.D." (Page 161, Fishwick, The Foundation of the West)

In time Christianity introduced the gospel to every race in every corner of the Roman Empire and with it came the written word, formalization and later the institutionalization of the modern written languages. The Macedonian language, to which history refers to as the language spoken by Alexander's soldiers, was no exception.

The start of the new millennium witnessed the death of the Roman Republic and the birth of Imperial Rome. The Augustan emperors may have brought peace to the empire but with it they also brought neglect, decline and decay. By 180 AD there were unmistakable signs of decay. Besides the agricultural and economic decline, the empire opened its doors to anarchy when the adoptive system of choosing emperors was abandoned in favour of personal appointments.

The following fifty years witnessed bloodshed, misrule and civil war. The erosion of central power opened the doors for barbarian invasions. Besides attacks from the various Germanic tribes and Franks on the west, a more serious push came from the Goths in the east. The Goths were a maritime people who lived in southern Russia and controlled the waterways from the Baltic, across Russia to the Black and Caspian Seas .

Unable to withstand their advance, the Romans lost the eastern seas and allowed the Goths to enter the Aegean coastline and advance on Macedonia . Another group crossed the Danube in a great land raid in 247 AD.

Further east, under the powerful Sassanid dynasty, the Persian Empire was revived and it too attacked the Romans.

One of the main failures that led to the decline of the Roman Empire was poor communication. Rome 's geographical position in relation to its empire made it unsuitable as a world capital. Every order and official document had to travel northward for half the length of Italy before it could turn east or west. Even though some of the more capable emperors set up their headquarters in the hub of activity this still did not solve the communication problem in its entirety.

One of Constantine 's priorities after seizing power was to find a suitable location for his capital where communication would not be so much of a problem. Although Solun was contemplated for its cosmopolitan Macedonian culture, economy and defenses, Constantine opted for the city of Byzantium . After all was it not Byzantium that withstood Philip II's siege and survived?

From a strategic point, Byzantium offered some advantages over Solun. Byzantium was located on the waters of the Bosporus , linking the Mediterranean with the Black Sea . It was the center of the Roman world, linking east with west. From a military perspective, ships could easily be dispatched east or west up the rivers and outflank every barbarian advance. Even Mesopotamia , Egypt and the Aegean and Adriatic coastlines were within a reasonable striking distance from Byzantium . From a commercial perspective, Byzantium was a lot closer to the eastern trade routes than Rome or Solun. In other words, Constantine chose Byzantium by careful planning and design, which in the long term gave his empire the advantage it needed to survive for nearly a millennium and a half, until 1453 AD.

The Koine language, in which the bible was translated, was the international language of commerce, introduced to the vastness of the world by Alexander the Great. This was the language of the educated and elite; not of the masses. For the most part, the native people of all parts of the Macedonian empire, who took part in the affairs of the empire, were educated in Koine. However that did not preclude them from speaking their native language. It is well documented that non Europeans in the ranks of the European elite not only spoke a second language, their native language, but were also known by a different name, their local native name.

While the Macedonians and later the Romans had no interest in local affairs, other than harvesting taxes, Christianity showed great interest in everyone irrespective of social status. In Jesus' eyes all men were created equal, in the image of God. The common people could identify with the Christian God and this had appeal for them. In contrast, deities of the Roman faith imitated "the all-powerful" Roman emperor sitting on his throne, a frightening figure and far removed from the common man.

By making contact directly with the native people of the empire, the Christians began to institutionalize the local languages by giving them life through the written scriptures and through educating priests to read and write in them. Unfortunately at the turn of the new millennium, in Europe at least, there were only three scripts available upon which to base the written word and these were Aramaic, Koine and Latin which the vast majority of common people did not understand. Besides, most common languages had far richer sounds than the existing Aramaic, Koine or Latin written alphabets could accommodate. For the Macedonians, it would take a few centuries but eventually a single refined universal script, the Cyrillic script, would emerge and bring Macedonians back to their former intellectual and cultural glory.

As Rome collapsed and the West fell into darkness, the East continued to flourish and with time began to shed its Roman veneer exposing the Macedonian persona whose foundation was laid by the ancient Macedonians.

One of the first Roman contributions to be phased out over time was the Latin language used by institutions and the government. Latin was replaced by Koine, a more familiar and known language to the region. Although useful for administrative and high level functions Koine too was a foreign language and unfamiliar to the common people.

After institutionalizing Christianity as the religion of the Empire in Constantinople or Tsari Grad (City of Kings ) as it was known to the Macedonians, Christian Churches soon began to spring up all over Macedonian cities. Solun being the second largest city and cultural center of the Empire soon also became the second center of Christianity.

Christianity unfortunately was not as successful in taking root in rural Macedonia as it was to the urban centers. This was mainly due to the political instability in the region caused by various invasions and attacks on the Empire. Eventually however, Christianity did spread to rural Macedonia and Macedonia became the center of Christianity in Europe from where the great Christianization of Eastern Europe began.

To be continued.

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You can contact the author at rstefov@hotmail.com