Definition: Macedonia is best known in ancient history as the homeland of Alexander the Great and his father Philip II of Macedonia. These Macedonian leaders gained control of Greece and then conquered areas to the east in Persia and on to India.

The Balkan nation of Macedonia lay to the north of the active Greek regions of the Classical period in Greek history. Macedonia had a large fertile plain, mountains where olives grew and produced honey and wax, silk, and timber, 2 rivers (Haliakmon and Axios) that flooded regularly, pouring silt on the plain.

The area provided pasturage for sheep, goats, and horse.

Source: The Greek world after Alexander, 323-30 B.C., by Graham Shipley