MACEDONIA (Maxedovla=the land of the Maxe- δόνες, who, themselves akin to the Doric branch of the Greeks, formed the core of a mixed nationality, to which Illyrian, Pzonian, and Thracian elements contributed along with numerous Greek colonies) was in antiquity the common name for a region in the centre of the Balkan peninsula, separated for the most part by natural boundaries of mountain- ranges from Thessaly on the south, Ilyria on the west, Mcesia on the north, and Thrace on the east. [Ὁ contained the river-basins of the Haliacmon (Vistritza), the Axius (Vardar), the Strymon (Struma), and the Nestus (Kara-su); and it pre- sented along its A‘gean shore the three prongs of the great Chalcidian peninsula between the Thermaic and Strymonic gulfs (now named from Saloniki and Rendina). This region, with its mountainous interior rearing a hardy population, its well-watered and fertile plains, and its extensive fringe of seaboard encouraging colonization and commerce, obtained a political significance and exercised a paramount influence for two centuries over the fortunes of the ancient world, such as could hardly be expected from its earlier history or from its size and apparent resources. The steps of this development, the growth and unifying of its military power—the aggressive polic and gradual ascendeney of Philip over the Greek republics— the supremacy of Alexander, whose world-empire reached from the Adriatic to the Indus—its parti- tion after his early death among his leading generals, out of which sprang the Seleucid empire in Syria, the rule of the Ptolemies in Egypt, and a series of violent changes in the occupancy of the throne of the Macedonian motherland—and the final struggles, which, culminating in the battles of Cynoscephale (B.C. 197) and Pydna (B.c. 168), brought Macedonia under the power of Rome— hardly fall within the province of this article, except in so far as they helped to shape the Macedonia which confronts us as an Oriental power at the outset of the Maccaban history, and as a Roman province in NT.
The history of the conflict with Epiphanes and his successors opens (1 Mac 11:3) with a striking description of the achievements of Alexander the
Great, and of the division of his dominions upon his death. ‘There (11) heis said to come forth from the land of Chittim (Xerrielu), and at 6? to have been the first reigning as king over the Greeks ; while at 8°, in the account of the power of the Romans whereof Judas had heard, there is mention of their having discomfited and overcome Philip (V.), and Perseus who is called king of the Chittim (Κιτιέων, see KITTIM). At 2 Mac 8” the term Macedonians seems applied to the Syro-Macedonian warriors in the service of the Seleucid kings. On the application of the epithet to Haman in the LXX Ad. Est 16", and its use in 16%, see HAMAN.
The Macedonia of NT is the Roman province of that name. For a time after the Roman victory at Pydna (B.C. 168) it was allowed to retain some measure of independence and self-government ; but its unity was broken up. It was divided into four districts, in which republican federative leagues were modelled on the system of the Greek confederacies. The first embraced the region between the Strymon and Nestus; the second, that between the Strymon and Axius with the Chaleidian peninsula; the third, that from the Axius to the Thessalian Pencius; and the fourth, the mountain lands towards the north-west. Their capitals were, respectively, Amphipolis, Thessa- lonica, Pella, and Pelagonia. [For details of the arrangement, see Liv. xlv. 29, 32; Mommsen, Hist. of Rome, ii. p. 508f.]. But in B.c. 146 dependence was exchanged for subjection ; the country received a definitive provincial organization ; and from that date began the Macedonian era, henceforth used on inscriptions and coins. The new province included portions of Illyria and Thessaly, and Thessalonica
ecame the headquarters of the Roman government, although it and some other towns retained local autonomy. It was administered by a proprtor with the title of proconsul ; and there was us associated with it the province of Achaia or Greece, which was administered by a legate [on the relation of Greece as a Roman province to Macedonia, see Mommsen, Hist. of Rome, iii. p. 271, note]. On several occasions in NT we find them mentioned together; but Macedonia takes pre- cedence (Ac 192, Ro 15%, 2 Co 93,1 Th 17:8). It was traversed by the great Roman military road, the Via Egnatia, and afforded a fruitful soil for the missionary labours of St. Paul,* who amidst no small opposition and with various success sowed the Bade of the gospel, and founded Churches in some of its chief towns, Philippi, Thessalonica, Berea (Ac 16-175), and subsequently revisited them on his way to and from Greece (Ac 197 20"), when several of his Macedonian converts accom- panied him to Troas (Ac 20°). His warm interest in the Churches which he had planted bore fruit in the Epistles addressed to Thessalonica and Philippi; and their readiness to receive the word, to love the brethren, and to minister to his personal needs, are heartily acknowledged and commended (1 Th 158 88 49, 2°Th 134, Ph 410-16. 16),
Wiiam P. DIcKsoN.
MACHAERUS (Maxaipois, Grecized from 20, Tamid iii. 8, sometimes 8230 and 133d) is con- fidently identified (originally by Seetzen, Reisen durch Syrien, ii. 330, iv. 378) with Mkawr (but see Jastrow, s.v.), an extensive collection of ruins on the spur of a hill overlooking the Dead Sea from the east. It was first fortified by Alexander Janneus (Jos. Wars, vu. vi. 2), but was taken from his grandson by Gabinius and demolished (ib. I. viii. 5; Ant. XIV. v. 4). Herod the Great fortified it (Jos. Wars, vu. vi. 1, 2), and used it as one of his principal residences. On his death it