Emathia

This article is about the ancient geopolitical region. For the modern Greek administrative unit, see Imathia. For the town of ancient Thrace, see Emathia (Thrace).
Ἠμαθία
Emathia
The map shows modern Greek Macedonia, which closely approximates the last independent Kingdom of Macedon, and also approximates Strabo's Emathia at its greatest extent. It was renamed to Macedonia by its kings. What is different today is the "Central Macedonian Plain." It did not exist when Pella became the capital city of Macedonia. Pella was situated on an extension of the Thermaic Gulf, which filled in during classical and Hellenistic times to form first a lake and then the plain. The plain is almost entirely modern, currently being part of the Axios Delta National Park. Ancient Pella in ancient Emathia are bronze-age in date. Original Emathia extended up the right bank of the Axios through the highlands of Mount Paiko. Today's Imathia revitalizes the geopolitical concept, but does not match it.
The map shows modern Greek Macedonia, which closely approximates the last independent Kingdom of Macedon, and also approximates Strabo's Emathia at its greatest extent. It was renamed to Macedonia by its kings. What is different today is the "Central Macedonian Plain." It did not exist when Pella became the capital city of Macedonia. Pella was situated on an extension of the Thermaic Gulf, which filled in during classical and Hellenistic times to form first a lake and then the plain. The plain is almost entirely modern, currently being part of the Axios Delta National Park. Ancient Pella in ancient Emathia are bronze-age in date. Original Emathia extended up the right bank of the Axios through the highlands of Mount Paiko. Today's Imathia revitalizes the geopolitical concept, but does not match it.
Native languageancient Macedonian
TypeAbsolute monarchy

Emathia (Greek: Ἠμαθία) in ancient times was a geopolitical toponym, although no doubt based on a type of terrain prevalent in the region at the time. The toponym comprised different territories at different times, expanding from a base in the lower Axios River valley to include all of what was renamed to Macedonia.

Emathia initially was the region of the Macedonian capital, Pella, also of the capital of the Macedonian League, Beroia. In portraying these poleis moderns often based and still base their conclusions upon the modern map. Core samples and radiocarbon dating confirm that 19th and early 20th century literary analyses often had not taken into consideration changes in the terrain and the latest available archaeological data. Pella was not a late classical or Hellenistic settlement, although rendered into a legitimate polis by Philip II. Mycenaean surface sherds support at least a Bronze-age provenience, or close to it.

Moreover, Pella until quite late in the classical period had been a port city of the Thermaic Gulf. Subsequently, its estuary became a lake until it was dispensed with by agriculturalists of the 20th century, with the Loudias River as a remnant. Consequently, the courses of modern rivers there, as well as the alluvial area, now called "the Central Macedonian Plain," are modern and cannot be used to elucidate the details presented by the literary sources.

Today most of the C. Macedonian Plain is occupied by the Axios Delta National Park, mainly a collection of wetlands. Modern Imathia, etymologically from the same ancient word, is a new creation of modern Greece, as is modern Macedonia.