Macedonia or Macedon or the Macedonian Empire was an Ancient Greek kingdom of the Archaic and Classical Greece, and later the most powerful state of Hellenistic Greece. The kingdom was established and was at first ruled by the royal Argead dynasty, which was followed by the Antipatrid and Antigonid dynasties. Home to the ancient Macedonians, the earliest kingdom was centered on the northeastern part of the Greek peninsula, and bordered by Epirus to the west, Paeonia to the north, Thrace to the east and Thessaly to the south.