вЂњTo ask whether the Macedonians вЂreally wereвЂ™ Greek or not in antiquityвЂњ, he writes, вЂњis ultimately a redundant question given the shifting semantics of Greekness between the sixth and fourth centuries B.C. Hall in his conclusions confirms my doubts about the possibility of answering the question concerning the вЂњnationalityвЂќ of the ancient Macedonians. Malkin in his introduction and Rosalind Thomas in her contribution вЂњEthnicity, Genealogy, and Hellenism in HerodotusвЂќ, which contains a section on the Macedonians, stress the importance of religion, or rather of cults (вЂњcommon shrines of the gods and sacrificesвЂќ). Of Thucydides in particular he writes that, contrary to Herodotus, he did not view Greeks and barbarians вЂњas mutually exclusive categoriesвЂќ but as вЂњopposite poles of a single, linear continuum.вЂќ Thus, the inhabitants of north-western Greece вЂњare вЂbarbarianвЂ™ not in the sense that their cultures, customs, or behavior are in direct, diametrical opposition to Greek norms but rather in the sense that their seemingly more primitive way of life makes them HellГЁnes manquГ©s.вЂќ ДЇinally, not only he but also I. Hall proceeds to a penetrating analysis of the shifting definitions of Greekness in Herodotus, Thucydides and Isocrates, our main sources for the evolution of the concept in the Classical period. (In this perspective there is not much sense in opposing a putative compact, homogeneous and immutable вЂњGreeknessвЂќ to the contested identities of groups such as the Aitolians, Locrians, Acarnanians, Thesprotians, Molossians, Chaones, Atintanes, Parauaioi, Orestai, Macedonians). As he argues at greater length in his monograph, in the fifth century, mainly as a consequence of the Persian Wars, the definition of Greek identity evolved from an вЂњaggregativeвЂќ noninclusive conception based on fictitious descent from the eponymous Hellen and expressed in forged genealogies (which may leave outside not only Macedonians and Magnetes, but also other goups such as Arcadians or Aitolians) into an вЂњoppositionalвЂќ one, turned against out-groups, relegating thus (fictitious) community of blood to the same level вЂ“if not to an inferior one ( vide infra)вЂ“ as linguistic, religious and cultural criteria. Hall challenges the view that Macedonia was marginal or peripheral in respect to a Greek centre or core, for the simple reason that such a Greek hard core never existed, since вЂњвЂGreeknessвЂ™ is constituted by the totality of multifocal, situationally bound, and self-conscious negotiations of identity not only between poleis and ethne but also within themвЂќ, and because a view such as this вЂњassumes a transhistorically static definition of GreeknessвЂќ.

Although a certain conformism of most contributors in their unreserved adoption of the вЂњpolitically correctвЂќ antiessentialist view, which reduces group identities to mere inventions constructed on pure discourse, needs to be watered down, the result is impressive, and Jonathan HallвЂ™s paper in particular sets the parameters within which the question of the ancient Macedonian identity, which interests us here, can be approached. Several of the included contributions and especially the вЂњIntroductionвЂќ and вЂњGreek Ambiguities: Between вЂAncient HellasвЂ™ and вЂBarbarian EpirusвЂ™вЂќ by Irad Malkin himself and вЂњContested Ethnicities: Perceptions of Macedonia within Evolving Definitions of Greek EthnicityвЂќ by Jonathan Hall, go a long way towards satisfying the condition I had laid down, to wit that the nature of Greek вЂњnationalityвЂќ be previously explored.

and London 2001) edited by Irad Malkin stands out for its scholarly quality. Among recent publications on this subject the collective volume Ancient Perceptions of Greek Ethnicity (Cambridge, Mass. In the ensuing years вЂњethnicвЂќ studies, as they are now called, have enjoyed, especially on the other side of the Atlantic, a wild success comparable only to that of that other New World invention, вЂњgenderвЂќ studies. In my communication to the last Ancient Macedonia symposium on the character of the ancestral tongue of the Macedonians I cautioned that I did not pretend to solve the controverted question of the вЂњnationalityвЂќ of the ancient Macedonians, not only because language is, at best, only one of the several elements which contribute to the formation of group identity, but also вЂ“and mainlyвЂ“ because such a debate presupposed a previous response to the question of the nature of вЂњnationalityвЂќ in ancient Greece, provided of course that this question is well formulated and admits an effective answer. By Miltiades Hatzopoulos, VII International Symposion on Ancient Macedonia, 2002.

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