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( Ancient Macedonians)
The Ancient Macedonians (Greek ?a?ed??e?, Makedónes) were an ancient tribe which inhabited the alluvial plain around the rivers Haliacmon and lower Axius, north of the Mount Olympus in Greece.[1] Historians generally agree that the ancient Macedonians, whether they originally spoke a Greek dialect or a distinct language, came to belong to the Koine Greek speaking population in Hellenistic times. Whether the ancient Macedonians were ethnically Greeks themselves or were Hellenised continues to be debated by historians, linguists and lay people, although most scholars agree that they were in fact Greek[2]. The Macedonian Royal family known as the Argead dynasty claimed Greek descent and both Macedonian Kings and commoners, at least since Alexander I, were allowed in the Ancient Olympic Games, an athletic event in which only people of Greek origin participated[3][4]. On the origins of the Macedonian Royalty, Herodotus holds a record (8.137) about the youngest of three brothers from Argos, and how he, through his skill in accepting omens, tricked an oppressive monarch out of his kingdom. The story apparently describes the genealogical connection between the Macedonian royal house (or Macedonians in general) and legendary Greek heroes. This theory was fully accepted among the scholars of antiquity. Herodotus mentions in other points of his work the Greek origin of the Macedonians, paralleling them with the Dorians (8.43.1) He also implies that Macedonians, being on Greece's frontiers, were always fighting for the security of Greece (9.35.2)
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