today‟s Thessaloniki (Solun). Along with the ancient Macedonian cities of Aerop, Atalanta, and Lete, it stretched even as far as Amphypolis on the border with Thrace. In the fifth century BCE, Euripides wrote that the Paionians were a people who inhabited the Pangai Mountains, east of Amphipolis and Chalkidiki, in southeastern Macedonia. Later, as the Macedonians pushed the Paionians northwards, they extended their own boundaries. In 217 BCE King Philip V of Macedonia completely conquered Paionia and the Paionians were merged with the ancient Macedonians making the two peoples into a single nation. At that point, ancient Macedonia spread to occupy what is now the territory of the Republic of Macedonia.
On renaming Paionia to Macedonia The signatories also write: "While it is true that the Paionians were subdued by Philip II, father of Alexander, in 358 B.C. they were not Macedonians and did not live in Macedonia. Likewise, for example, the Egyptians, who were subdued by Alexander, may have been ruled by Macedonians, including the famous Cleopatra, but they were never Macedonians themselves, and Egypt was never called Macedonia.” Here, again, the signatories demonstrate a dubious grasp of the facts. Their claim that the territory of Paionia was never called “Macedonia”, is demonstrably false. Actually, the borders of Paionia shifted in the process of being absorbed into what was later called Macedonia. These facts support the assertion that Paionia was the name given to a large part of what is today regarded as “Greek”, or Aegean Macedonia, including the territory east of the Chalkidiki peninsula. Later, this territory too was given the name of Macedonia.
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