Such information as we have about the early period of Macedonian history is scattered, and reconstruction of Macedonia's constitutional organization relies on later testimonies. The king, initially an elective leader of the shepherds' clan, gathered to himself political, military and religious power once the Macedonians were permanently installed. This power was, however, controlled by the gathering of the army ("the koinon of the Macedonians"). The meeting had jurisdiction to elect the king and to get rid of him; and to sit in judgment on possible cases of treason. From Upper Macedonia the meeting of the "Peligani", the leaders of the smaller ethnos-type states, is mentioned. Gradually, during the 6th century, cities were created in Lower Macedonia, but they did not enjoy the autonomy of the city states of southern Hellas. Royal power was particularly strengthened during the reign of Alexander I Philhellene. By taking advantage of the fact that Macedonia was the passage to southern Hellas, he managed to extend his kigndom to the region between the rivers Axius and Strymon. He now obtained control of the region's gold mines, and minted the first coinage, copying the coin type of the local Thracian Bisaltae. This period marks the gradual strengthening of contacts with southern Hellas. But despite Alexander's participation in the Olympic Games, Macedonia, because of her archaic social organization, remained until the mid-4th century on the fringes of the Hellenic world. |
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