Macedon
Macedon Ancient country in se Europe, roughly corresponding to present-day Macedonia, Greek Macedonia, and Bulgarian Macedonia. The Macedonian King Alexander I (d.420 bc) initiated a process of Hellenization. In 348 bc, Philip II founded Thessaloníki. In 338 bc he became King of Greece. His son, Alexander, built a world empire, but this rapidly fragmented after his death (323 bc). The Romans eventually defeated Macedon in the Macedonian Wars, and the empire shrunk to Macedonia proper. In 146 bc, Thessaloníki became capital of the first Roman province. In ad 395, Macedonia became part of the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire. Slavs settled in the 6th century. From the 9th to the 14th century, Bulgaria and the Byzantine Empire contested control of the area. A brief period of Serbian hegemony preceded Ottoman rule from the 14th to 19th century. In the late 19th century, Greece, Serbia, and Bulgaria claimed Macedonia. In the first of the Balkan Wars (1912–13), Bulgaria gained much of historic Macedonia, but it was decisively defeated in the Second Balkan War, and the present-day boundaries were established.
More From encyclopedia.com
NEARBY TERMS
Macedon