On Macedonia

The text I wrote for a travel site in 2008:

All Things Arbitrarily Macedon

Roman Macedonia, i.e. the province or region, took the area of present north and central Greece, the Republic of Macedonia (what is termed the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, because of different national claims on the name), and south-east Albania, and parts of Bulgaria (cf. map). Therefore it consisted of a vaster area than the ancient Macedon. It is easy to consider national boundaries as fixed and logical, but virtually all history opposes this idea. The historical and geographical region of Macedonia vouches for this. Well put by the geographer H. R. Wilkinson, the territory of Macedonia "defies definition." It is not homogeneous - neither in the sense of geography, and especially not in ethnic terms. Sadly, viewpoints taken often take on strongly emotional and nationalistic colours, often confusing past, present and future, nationalist havens that never were and society, old and new wrongs. Be that as it is, it is certain that Macedonia was inhabited as early as Paleolithic, and that the first peoples that vied for rule over it were Persians and Greeks.