The long shadow of the Greco-Persian WarsArguably the most significant events that affected the economic config-
uration of the north Aegean area (Fig 2.1) were the Greco-Persian Wars,
as well as their physical and psychological aftermath. The presence of
Persian armies and garrisons for over more than three decades along a
wide strip of mainland along the north Aegean coast, between the
Hellespont and the Vale of Tempe, exerted a powerful influence on the
native peoples in this area. Communities that had lived as autonomous
entities for centuries were suddenly and unexpectedly forced to comply
with the demands of a huge invasion army and to divert their resources
to this army’s express needs. It was a bitter lesson in the disadvantages of
being small, autonomous entities and few in number. The emergence of
territorial kingdoms in Macedonia and central Thrace was one of the
logical strategies in response to these experiences, although, as we have
seen in the case of Thessaly, there was more than one kind of solution.
Let usfirst consider Macedonia. This kingdom had as its nucleus the
regions of Pieria (including the middle and lower estuary of the River
Haliakmon and the Pierian mountains) and Bottiaia (the lands drained
by the River Loudias below Mount Bermion). As the authority and
organizational capacity of the Macedonian crown expanded after the
Persian Wars, so the territory under crown control expanded. To the
west of Mount Bermion it came to include the adjacent districts of
Elimeia and Eordaia, subsequently penetrating into the more distant
neighbouring areas in the direction of Pindhos (Tymphaia, Parauaia,
Lynkos, and Derriopos). It also expanded northwards, into Almopia, and
eastwards, across the rivers draining into the Thermaic Gulf (Thuc.
2.99.3–6).^14 Such expansion was possible because the Argead rulers of
thisflourishing kingdom had everything to gain by being seen to be
protectors of those who had been loyal to their policies in the troubled
and ambiguous war years. In contrast, administrative control of the
wider area around the eastern side of the Thermaic Gulf will have
taken longer to develop. As I argue below, the territorial acquisitions of
the Macedonian crown, including expulsions from Pieria, Bottiaia, Al-
mopia, and other‘tribal’or‘ethnic’districts do not make sense unless the
Argead rulers could justify such actions publicly in the wake of the
(^14) Thuc. 2.99–101; 4.124–125 on Macedonian expansion, with S. Hornblower’s 1991
Commentary on Thucydides1, 391–2; Hatzopoulos 1996, I, 105–23, 167–79, with further
references.
46 Herdsmen with golden leaves—narratives and spaces