Its boundaries varied at different periods of its history: it
seems originally to have been bounded on the east by the Egean Sea; on the
south by Thessaly and Epirus; on the west by the Ionian Sea; and on the
north by the river Strymon, at the mouth of which, as has been already
mentioned, the Athenians founded one of their most flourishing and useful
colonies. The princes of Macedonia viewed with jealousy, but for a long
time were unable to prevent the states of Greece from forming colonies in
the immediate vicinity of their dominions: their union, however, with the
king of Persia, when he first fixed his ambition on Greece, was rewarded by
a great accession of territory, which enabled them to contest the
possession of the sea-coasts with the most powerful of the Greek republics.
They then extended their territories to the Eastern Sea, but there were
till the reign of Philip, the father of Alexander, several nations between
them and the Adriatic, all of which were subdued by him; and thus this sea
became their western boundary.
Some of the most celebrated cities of Macedonia were founded by foreign
nations. Epidamnus, which was seated at the entrance of the Ionian Gulf,
was a colony of the Corcyrians: it was the occasion of a fierce naval war
between them and the Corinthians, generally called the Corinthian war.
Apollonia, distant seven miles from the sea, on the river Laus, was a
Corinthian colony: it was renowned for its excellent laws.
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