How did Macedonian society differ from Classical Greece?

Answer 1

It was more like archaic Greece with a King, similar to the Greek Mollossians (Epirotes) in culture, with some elements similar to their non-Greek neighboring Thracians and Illyrians as they were cut off for a long time from the developmental progress of the Greek city states. For this reason, they were viewed as semi-barbaric by the classical Greek city states. They spoke a rough Greek dialect and were later in developing more refined Greek cities, such as Pella, Aegai and Thessalonika. They came to rule over some non-Greek tribes as they were on the northern border of the Greek world. Worshipped the same gods and goddesses as classical Greek states and had Greek names for individuals and cities. With time, became more and more absorbed into the classical Greek fold, especially from the 300s B.C. and on. Many classical Greek thinkers and artists (egs. Aristotle and Euripides) were invited to work at the Macedonian court. Eventually Macedonian society was entirely fused with the rest of the Greek world, adopting the Athenian dialect and classical Greek ways. Through Alexander's conquests, they spread classical Greek culture far and wide.

There are theories that the Dorian tribes of Greece such as the Spartans, Argives and Corinthians were derived from Macedonians and Epirotes as their dialect was similar, there were legends of a Dorian invasion from that area, Herodotus states that the Dorians came from a tribe called the Makednoi, and the Macedonian kings claimed descent from Argos.