Ein wichtiges Zeugnis, in der stetigen Diskussion ob die antiken Makedonier tatsächlich Griechen gewesen sein sollen, hinterlässt uns Lucius Annaeus Florus. Schon im zweiten Jahrhundert differenzierte er die Makedonier und Griechen - verständlich, die Makedonier wurden erst in der Neuzeit gräzisiert und dieser Prozess ist noch immer im Gange. Deshalb sind Autoren aus der Antike wichtig, die wie Florus uns Zeugnisse in dieser Frage hinterlassen haben.
Wer war Florus?
Florus war ein römischer Historiker in der Zeit der Kaiser Trajan (98–117) und Hadrian (117–138). Er wird von manchen Quellen mit dem Dichter Publius Annius Florus identifiziert.
Er stellte um 120 eine kurze Skizze der Geschichte Roms in zwei Bänden (in anderer Zählung vier Bücher) von der Gründung der Stadt bis zur Varusschlacht im Jahr 9 n. Chr. zusammen, wobei er sich vor allem auf Livius, Sallust, Lucan, Seneca d.Ä. und Tacitus stützt. Das Werk, die Epitoma de Tito Livio bellorum omnium annorum DCC libri duo, ist in einem bombastischen und rhetorischen Stil geschrieben, und mehr eine Lobschrift auf die Größe Roms, dessen Leben in die vier Abschnitte Kindheit, Jugend, Erwachsenen- und Greisenalter aufgeteilt ist. Es weist häufig geographische und chronologische Fehler aus, wurde aber dennoch im Mittelalter viel benutzt. QUELLE-Wiki
Makedonien erhob wieder sein Haupt
In Buch 1 der Epitome beschreibt Florus den ersten makedonischen Krieg, als Rom und Makedonien sich im Kriegszustand befanden. In Kapitel 23 lesen wir:
"Nach der Eroberung Karthagos schämte sich keine Nation, besiegt zu werden. Die Völker von Makedonien, Griechenland, Syrien und allen anderen Ländern folgten unmittelbar nach Afrika, als wären sie durch die Flut und den Strom des Glücks getragen."
Wir sehen das Florus die Völker von Makedonien und Griechenland separat aufzählt und deutlich differenziert. Weiter im nächsten Passus heißt es:
"Von all diesen waren die Makedonier die ersten, ein Volk das einst auf impereailsche Macht ausgerichtet war; Und so, obwohl zur Zeit König Philipp V den Thron inne hatte, fühlten sich die Römer dennoch als ob sie gegen König Alexander kämpften."
Florus bezeichnet die Makedonier wiederholt als eigenes Volk.
In Kapitel 28 ist das Thema der zweite makedonische Krieg, auch dort lesen wir das Florus die Makedonier als eigenständiges Volk deklariert:
"Während Nation nach Nation in der Katastrophe des syrischen Krieges beteiligt war, erhob Makedonien wieder sein Haupt. Die Erinnerung an ihre ehemalige Größe spornte das tapfere Volk zum Handeln an. Auch Philip war von seinem Sohn Perseus nachgefolgt worden, der glaubte, daß er mit dem hohen Ansehen der Nation, die Makedonien, einmal errungen hatte, für immer errungen bleiben sollte. Unter seiner Führung erhoben sich daher die Makedonier viel stärker als unter seinem Vater."
Hier scheint Florus voll der Zuneigung zu den Makedonen verfallen zu sein, dies ist aber für unsere Frage irrelevant. Offensichtlich, und für uns von primärer Bedeutung, sind die deutlichen Klassifizierungen der Makedonier als eigenständiges Volk und Nation.
Anhand dieser Zeugnisse aus dem 2. Jahrhundert ist es schwer nachvollziehbar wie man noch die Courage besitzen kann die Makedonier als Griechen zu bezeichnen!
Im Anschluss Auszüge der Epitome und der oben zitierten Abschnitte von Florus aus der Webseite der Uni Chicago:
Lucius Annaeus Florus
THE TWO BOOKS OF THE EPITOME, EXTRACTED FROM TITUS LIVIUS,
OF ALL THE WARS OF SEVEN HUNDRED YEARS
Book I
XXIII. The First Macedonian War
II, 7 After the conquest of Carthage, no nation felt ashamed of being conquered. The peoples of Macedonia, Greece, Syria and all the other countries immediately followed in the wake of Africa, as if borne along by the flood and torrent of fortune.
2 Of all these the first were the Macedonians, a people who had once aimed at imperial power; and so, though at the time King Philip occupied the throne, the Romans nevertheless felt as if they were fighting against King Alexander.
3 The Macedonian War gained importance rather from its name than from any consideration of the nation with whom it was waged.
4 The original cause of the war was a treaty by which Philip had joined himself in alliance with Hannibal at a time when he had long been dominating Italy. Subsequently an additional pretext was afforded when the Athenians implored help against the injuries of the king, who was venting his fury, beyond any rights which victory conferred, on their temples, altars and even sepulchres.
5 The senate resolved to grant help to such important suppliants; for by this time kings and leaders, peoples and nations of the world were beginning to seek protection from this city.
6 In the consulship of Laevinus,1 therefore, the Roman people first entered the Ionian Sea and coasted along all the shores of Greece with their fleet in a kind of triumphal procession;
7 for they bore in the front of their vessels the trophies of Sicily, Sardinia, Spain and Africa, and the bay tree p117which sprouted on the prow of the flagship promised certain victory.
8 Attalus, king of Pergamon, was there of his own accord to help us; the Rhodians were there, a naval people who spread consternation everywhere at sea with their ships, as did the consul on land with his horsemen and foot-soldiers.
9 King Philip was twice defeated, twice driven into flight, twice despoiled of his camp; but nothing caused the Macedonians greater fear than the sight of their wounds, which, having been dealt not with darts or arrows or any Greek weapon but by huge javelins and no less huge swords, gaped wider than was necessary to cause death.
10 Indeed under the leadership of Flamininus we penetrated into the mountains of the Chaonians, hitherto impassable, and the river Aous which flows through deep gorges, the very gates of Macedonia.
11 To have effected an entrance into this country meant victory; for afterwards the king, who had never ventured to meet us in the field, was overwhelmed, near the hills which they call Cynoscephalae, in a single engagement which could hardly be called a regular battle.
12 To Philip, then, the consul granted peace and restored to him his kingdom, and afterwards, that no foe might remain, subdued Thebes and Euboea and Lacedaemon, which attempted resistance under its tyrant Nabis.
13 To Greece Flamininus restored its ancient constitution, that it might live under its old laws and enjoy its ancestral liberty.
14 What joy there was, what cries of delight there were, when this proclamation was made, as it happened, at the quinquennial games in the theatre at Nemea! How they vied with one another in their applause! What flowers they showered upon the consul!
15 Again and again p119they bade the herald repeat the declaration by which the liberty of Achaea was proclaimed; and they took as much delight in the consul's decision as in the most harmonious concert of pipes and strings.
XXVIII. The Second Macedonian War
2 Of all these the first were the Macedonians, a people who had once aimed at imperial power; and so, though at the time King Philip occupied the throne, the Romans nevertheless felt as if they were fighting against King Alexander.
3 The Macedonian War gained importance rather from its name than from any consideration of the nation with whom it was waged.
4 The original cause of the war was a treaty by which Philip had joined himself in alliance with Hannibal at a time when he had long been dominating Italy. Subsequently an additional pretext was afforded when the Athenians implored help against the injuries of the king, who was venting his fury, beyond any rights which victory conferred, on their temples, altars and even sepulchres.
5 The senate resolved to grant help to such important suppliants; for by this time kings and leaders, peoples and nations of the world were beginning to seek protection from this city.
6 In the consulship of Laevinus,1 therefore, the Roman people first entered the Ionian Sea and coasted along all the shores of Greece with their fleet in a kind of triumphal procession;
7 for they bore in the front of their vessels the trophies of Sicily, Sardinia, Spain and Africa, and the bay tree p117which sprouted on the prow of the flagship promised certain victory.
8 Attalus, king of Pergamon, was there of his own accord to help us; the Rhodians were there, a naval people who spread consternation everywhere at sea with their ships, as did the consul on land with his horsemen and foot-soldiers.
9 King Philip was twice defeated, twice driven into flight, twice despoiled of his camp; but nothing caused the Macedonians greater fear than the sight of their wounds, which, having been dealt not with darts or arrows or any Greek weapon but by huge javelins and no less huge swords, gaped wider than was necessary to cause death.
10 Indeed under the leadership of Flamininus we penetrated into the mountains of the Chaonians, hitherto impassable, and the river Aous which flows through deep gorges, the very gates of Macedonia.
11 To have effected an entrance into this country meant victory; for afterwards the king, who had never ventured to meet us in the field, was overwhelmed, near the hills which they call Cynoscephalae, in a single engagement which could hardly be called a regular battle.
12 To Philip, then, the consul granted peace and restored to him his kingdom, and afterwards, that no foe might remain, subdued Thebes and Euboea and Lacedaemon, which attempted resistance under its tyrant Nabis.
13 To Greece Flamininus restored its ancient constitution, that it might live under its old laws and enjoy its ancestral liberty.
14 What joy there was, what cries of delight there were, when this proclamation was made, as it happened, at the quinquennial games in the theatre at Nemea! How they vied with one another in their applause! What flowers they showered upon the consul!
15 Again and again p119they bade the herald repeat the declaration by which the liberty of Achaea was proclaimed; and they took as much delight in the consul's decision as in the most harmonious concert of pipes and strings.
XXVIII. The Second Macedonian War
II, 12 While nation after nation was involved in the disaster of the Syrian war, Macedonia again raised her head.
2 The memory and recollection of its former greatness spurred that valiant people to action. Also Philip had been succeeded by his son Perses, who thought that it ill accorded with the high repute of the nation that Macedonia, once conquered, should remain for ever conquered.
3 Under his leadership, therefore, the Macedonians rose with much more vigour than under his father. They had induced the Thracians to support their efforts and had thus tempered the Macedonian persistence with Thracian energy, and Thracian savagery with Macedonian discipline.
4 A further advantage was the skill of their leader, who, having surveyed the topography of his territory from the summit of Mount Haemus, pitched his camp in an inaccessible spot, and so fortified his realm with arms and the sword that he seemed to have left no means of access except to an enemy who should descend from the sky.
5 But the Roman people, under the consul Marcius Philippus,4 having entered the province and having carefully explored the approaches by the Lake of Ascuris and the Perrhaebian Mountains, p131effected an entrance over heights which seemed inaccessible even to birds, and by a sudden inroad surprised the king, who thought himself safe and feared no such attack.
6 Such was his alarm that he ordered all his money to be thrown into the sea, lest it should be lost,5 and his fleet to be burned, lest it should be set on fire.
7 Under the consul Paulus,6 after larger and more frequent garrisons had been established, other methods were used to take Macedonia by surprise through the remarkable skill and perseverance of the general, who threatened an attack at one point and broke through at another.
8 His mere approach so alarmed the king that he did not dare to take an active part in the war, but committed the management of it to his generals.
9 Being defeated, therefore, in his absence he fled to the sea, and to the island of Samothrace, relying on the well-known sanctity of the place, as though temples and altars could protect one whom his own mountains and arms had been unable to save.
10 No king ever clung more tenaciously to the memory of the great position which he had lost. When he wrote to the Roman general as a suppliant from the temple in which he had taken refuge and signed the letter with his name, he added the title of king. On the other hand, no one ever showed more respect than Paulus for captured majesty.
11 When his enemy came into his presence, he received him upon his tribunal, invited him to his own table, and warned his own children to respect Fortune whose power was so great.
12 The triumph in honour of the conquest of Macedonia was among the most splendid which the Roman people ever held and witnessed. The spectacle occupied three days;
13 on p133the first day the statues and pictures were displayed in procession, on the next day the arms and treasure, on the third day the captives, including the king himself, who seemed still to be dazed and stupefied by the suddenness of the disaster.
14 But the Roman people had already received the glad news of the victory long before it was announced by the victorious general's despatches. For it was known in Rome on the very day on which Perses was defeated
15 through the presence of two young men with white horses washing off dust and gore at the pool of Juturna. These brought the news, and were popularly believed to have been Castor and Pollux because they were twins, and to have taken part in battle because they were dripping with blood, and to come from Macedonia because they were still out of breath.
2 The memory and recollection of its former greatness spurred that valiant people to action. Also Philip had been succeeded by his son Perses, who thought that it ill accorded with the high repute of the nation that Macedonia, once conquered, should remain for ever conquered.
3 Under his leadership, therefore, the Macedonians rose with much more vigour than under his father. They had induced the Thracians to support their efforts and had thus tempered the Macedonian persistence with Thracian energy, and Thracian savagery with Macedonian discipline.
4 A further advantage was the skill of their leader, who, having surveyed the topography of his territory from the summit of Mount Haemus, pitched his camp in an inaccessible spot, and so fortified his realm with arms and the sword that he seemed to have left no means of access except to an enemy who should descend from the sky.
5 But the Roman people, under the consul Marcius Philippus,4 having entered the province and having carefully explored the approaches by the Lake of Ascuris and the Perrhaebian Mountains, p131effected an entrance over heights which seemed inaccessible even to birds, and by a sudden inroad surprised the king, who thought himself safe and feared no such attack.
6 Such was his alarm that he ordered all his money to be thrown into the sea, lest it should be lost,5 and his fleet to be burned, lest it should be set on fire.
7 Under the consul Paulus,6 after larger and more frequent garrisons had been established, other methods were used to take Macedonia by surprise through the remarkable skill and perseverance of the general, who threatened an attack at one point and broke through at another.
8 His mere approach so alarmed the king that he did not dare to take an active part in the war, but committed the management of it to his generals.
9 Being defeated, therefore, in his absence he fled to the sea, and to the island of Samothrace, relying on the well-known sanctity of the place, as though temples and altars could protect one whom his own mountains and arms had been unable to save.
10 No king ever clung more tenaciously to the memory of the great position which he had lost. When he wrote to the Roman general as a suppliant from the temple in which he had taken refuge and signed the letter with his name, he added the title of king. On the other hand, no one ever showed more respect than Paulus for captured majesty.
11 When his enemy came into his presence, he received him upon his tribunal, invited him to his own table, and warned his own children to respect Fortune whose power was so great.
12 The triumph in honour of the conquest of Macedonia was among the most splendid which the Roman people ever held and witnessed. The spectacle occupied three days;
13 on p133the first day the statues and pictures were displayed in procession, on the next day the arms and treasure, on the third day the captives, including the king himself, who seemed still to be dazed and stupefied by the suddenness of the disaster.
14 But the Roman people had already received the glad news of the victory long before it was announced by the victorious general's despatches. For it was known in Rome on the very day on which Perses was defeated
15 through the presence of two young men with white horses washing off dust and gore at the pool of Juturna. These brought the news, and were popularly believed to have been Castor and Pollux because they were twins, and to have taken part in battle because they were dripping with blood, and to come from Macedonia because they were still out of breath.
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