Was Alexander the Great Greek or Macedonian?

Question

This questions has been confusing me for a while. Was Alexander the Great Greek or Macedonian? He was born in Pella, Macedonia, but is he considered Greek? Do nationality and ethnicity mean different things at the time of the Greeks as they do now or were they regarded the same? This link says Macedonians were ethnic Greek, while this one contradicts the former.

Answer 1

Prior to Philip's time and the League of Corinth (337 BC), the Ancient Greek world was fragmented in (often warring) city states and kingdoms. There is little sense in discussing a Greek nationality at a time where, for example, Athenians identified themselves as Athenians first and as Hellenes later. Pericles' reforms in 451 BC exemplify the distinction, from that point Athenian citizens would lose their citizenship if they married non Athenians, regardless of their Hellenic ancestry. Similar laws, more or less, existed in Sparta, Athen's counterweight, and all around the Ancient Greek world and in a comparably similar manner, both Philip and Alexander the Great favoured the citizens and soldiers of Macedon over the rest of the Greeks.

Simply put, the Macedonians were one of the many Hellenic tribes, and what bonded them with the other Hellenic tribes, the Minoans, Achaeans, Ionians, Mycenaeans, Dorians, and Epirots to name a few, was a cultural and historical bond, not a national or ethnic bond. They spoke in a Greek dialect, worshipped the gods of Olympus and followed all major traditions of the Ancient Greek world, from a cultural perspective they were decisively Greek.

Hesiod (750 - 650 BC) gives us a beautiful story of the origins of Macedonia, in Catalogue of Women. According to his mythology, Macedon was Hellen's nephew, Hellen of course being the mythological progenitor of the Hellenes and where the words Hellas and Hellene come from. This mythological relationship binds Macedonians with the other major tribes of the era:

• The Aeolians, descendants of Hellen's son Aeolus,
• The Dorians, descendants of Hellen's son Dorus,
• The Achaeans, descendants of Hellen's gradson Achaeus, and
• The Ionians, descendants of Hellen's gradson Ion.

The Hesiodic mythology is our basis for which tribes of the era can be considered Hellenic, and if we doubt the Macedonians' belief that they were Hellen's descendants, I don't see why we don't doubt the similar beliefs of the rest of the Hellenic tribes. The Macedonians were a distinct tribe, but no more distinct than any other of the major Hellenic tribes and the fact that they shared a common cultural and religious background with the rest of the Greek world is evident in all known archaeological evidence, most notably in the ruins of their sacred city, Dion¹.

Dion was build in the feet of mount Olympus and early in the 5^th century it became the cultural and religious centre of the kingdom of Macedon. Archelaus I of Macedon created a sanctuary in honour of Zeus and re-organized and brought to prominence a nine days festival, the Olympia, in honour of Zeus and the Muses. Every major city state of the era build their own sanctuaries in Dion, some are still visible, and participated in the festivities. The Greeks weren't particularly xenophobic, but they never participated in barbarians' religious festivities or allowed barbarians to participate in their own, it only takes a walk through the ruins of Dion to realize that at the time the Macedonians were widely accepted as Greeks by the rest of the Hellenic tribes.

The Macedonians themselves, or more accurately their royal house, claimed an Argive decent, from the Peloponnesian city of Argos and traced their origin to the legendary Hercules, the inscription "ΗΡΑΚΛΗΙ ΠΑΤΡΩΙΩΙ"² was found in one of the rooms of the palace in Aegae, the Macedonian capital. Herodotus presents the claim in his Histories, by describing an event that took place prior to the naval battle of Salamis (492 BC), where Alexander I of Macedon proclaims his Greek ancenstry while visiting the Greek camp as an envoy for the Persian general Mardonius³:

[Hdt. 9.45.1] Hearing that, the generals straightway went with the men to the outposts. When they had come, Alexander said to them: “Men of Athens, I give you this message in trust as a secret which you must reveal to no one but Pausanias, or else you will be responsible for my undoing. In truth I would not tell it to you if I did not care so much for all Hellas;
[Hdt. 9.45.2] I myself am by ancient descent a Greek, and I would not willingly see Hellas change her freedom for slavery. I tell you, then, that Mardonius and his army cannot get omens to his liking from the sacrifices. Otherwise you would have fought long before this. Now, however, it is his purpose to pay no heed to the sacrifices, and to attack at the first glimmer of dawn, for he fears, as I surmise, that your numbers will become still greater. Therefore, I urge you to prepare, and if (as may be) Mardonius should delay and not attack, wait patiently where you are; for he has but a few days' provisions left.
[Hdt. 9.45.3] If, however, this war ends as you wish, then must you take thought how to save me too from slavery, who have done so desperate a deed as this for the sake of Hellas in my desire to declare to you Mardonius' intent so that the barbarians may not attack you suddenly before you yet expect them. I who speak am Alexander the Macedonian.” With that he rode away back to the camp and his own station there.

The Greco-Persian Wars and Herodotus' account are significant because this is the first time in Greek history that we can speak of a Greek nationality or ethnicity, as the Greeks united against a common enemy. Alexander's and the Argeads in general claim of Greek ancestry was successfully put to the test 20 years after the battle of Salamis, when Alexander attempted to participate in the Olympic Games (500 or 504 BC):

[Hdt. 5.22.1] Now that these descendants of Perdiccas are Greeks, as they themselves say, I myself chance to know and will prove it in the later part of my history. Furthermore, the Hellenodicae who manage the contest at Olympia determined that it is so,
[Hdt. 5.22.2] for when Alexander chose to contend and entered the lists for that purpose, the Greeks who were to run against him wanted to bar him from the race, saying that the contest should be for Greeks and not for foreigners. Alexander, however, proving himself to be an Argive, was judged to be a Greek. He accordingly competed in the furlong race and tied step for first place. This, then, is approximately what happened.

The Greeks contesting Alexander's ancestry was most probably politically motivated, Macedonia was a Persian puppet state during the Graeco-Persian wars, and it's not unreasonable that the Greek world was uncomfortable with a Macedonian competing in the Games. Still, the Hellenodicae ruled in favour of Alexander and it should be noted that Archelaus I had also competed in the Games prior to the Persian invasion.

All that said, the Greek alliances of the Graeco-Persian wars were limited and dissolved shortly after the end of the wars. The first time the Greeks became a single political entity, with the notable exception of Sparta, was the League of Corinth and thus the concept of Greek nationality was just one year old when Philip was assassinated and the 20 year old Alexander assumed power. His ancestry was considered Hellenic since the times of Hesiod and Homer, his dynasty was recognized as ethnically Greek since at least the Graeco-Persian wars, he became a Greek national when his father united the Greek world, and proclaimed Hegemon of the Hellenes a year later, succeeding Philip who also held the title.

In recent years, starting from the late 19^th century and onwards, there are various efforts to question Alexander's ancestry and essentially rewrite history, most in relation to the Macedonia naming dispute. This complicated political issue has produced tons of documentation, from both sides, and the politically charged rhetoric is where the historically false dichotomy of Greek or Macedonian comes from.

_{¹ Δίον, from Δίας, the Greek name of Zeus.
² Father (ancestor) Heracles.
³ Mardonius had quickly subjucated the kingdom on Macedon, during the Persian invasion of Greece.}

Answer 2

As one more piece of evidence, Philip Freeman in his biography Alexander the Great judges thus:

The question of Macedonian language and ethnic identity is one of the most contentious topics in classical scholarship, the debate often driven more by modern Balkan nationalism than the small amount of ancient evidence we actually possess. I incline to the argument that Macedonian was a distant dialect of Greek rather than a separate language. In any case, the practical result in the age of Alexander was that the Macedonians considered themselves and were considered by others as non-Greeks ...

Though their kings bore ancient Greek names, the Macedonian people called Philip Bilippos instead of the normal Greek Philippos. This only served to make them an object of further scorn to their pretentious critics in the Athenian assembly. Language as well as politics, culture, and so much else, reinforced the opinion of the Greeks that the Macedonians were are separate people, barbarians from beyond Olympus, no matter how hard their kings may try to behave like Greeks. As to most Macedonians, this was just fine. They saw the Greeks as feeble, effeminate, self-important snobs who had long since squandered whatever manliness and courage they had possessed when they had driven back the Persian invaders more than a century earlier. The Macedonian nobility might study Greek philosophy and recite their poetry of Homer, but the common Macedonian soldier was proud not to be Greek.

The quote's greatest value (relative to the other answers) is perhaps in reminding us that this question is still linked to political circumstances of today. (As to its limitations, I wonder how Freeman can possibly anchor the claimed sentiments of most Macedonians in primary historic sources.)