\ lew of 1 hessaloinca.
TIIESSALOXICA
352
TIIESSALOXICA
be larger) it is tlie most important town of European Turkey next after ('imstaiiiinople.
III. Political ami M ilildii/ Histuri/. — Thessalonica was a place of some importance even wliile it bore its earlier name of 'riierma. Tliree passages of chief interest may be mentioned in this pcrioil of its history. Xerxes rest- ed here on his march, his land-forces being encamped on the plain between 'riierma and the Axius, and his shiiis cruising almut the Tlu'rinaic gulf; and it was the view from hence of Olympus and Ossa which tempted liim to explore the course of the Peneus (Herod, vii. 128 sq.). A sliort time (I5.C. 4-2I) before the breaking- out of the I'eloponnesian war, Therma was occupied l)y the Athenians ('i'hucyd. i, (il) ; but two years later it was given up to Ferdiccas (ibid, ii, 'iSt). The third men- tion of Therma is in vEschiiies {De Fills. Leg. p. 31, ed. Bekk.), where it is spoken of as one of the places taken by Pausanias.
The true history of Thessalonica begins, as we have implied above, with the decay of Greek nationality. The earliest author who mentions it under its new name is Polybius. It seems probable that it was rebuilt in the same year (B.C. 315) with Cassandrea, immediately after the fall of Pydna and the death of Olympias. We are told b}' Strabo (loc. ci/.) that Cassander incorporated in his new city the population not only of Therma, but likewise of three smaller towns, viz. Anea and Cissus (which are supposed to have been on the eastern side of the gulf) and Chalastra (which is said by Strabo [vii, Epit. 9J to have been on the farther side of the Axius, whence Tafel [p. xxii], bj' some mistake, infers that it lay between the Axius and Therma). It does not appear that these earlier cities were absolutely de- stroyed; nor, indeed, is it certain that Therma lost its separate existence. Pliny {loc. cit.) seems to imply that a place bearing this name was near Thessalonica; but the text is probably corrupt.
As we approacii the Koman period, Thessalonica be- gins to be more and more mentioned. From Livy (xliv, 10) this city woidd appear to have been the great Mace- donian naval station. It surrendered to the Romans after the battle of Pydna (ibid, xliv, 4.'>), and was made the capital of the second of the four divisions of Mace- donia (ibid, xlv, 29). Afterwards, when the whole of Macedonia was reduced to one province (Flor. ii, 14), Thessalonica was its most important city, and virtually its metropolis, though not so called till a later period. See M.vcKDONiA. (Jicero, during his exile, found a ref- uge here in the qu;estor's house (Pro Plane. 41) ; and on his journeys to and from his province of Cilicia he passed this way, and wrote here several of his extant letters. During tiie first civil war Thessalonica was the headquarters of the Pompeian party and the Sen- ate (Dion Cass, xli, 2(1). During the second it took the side of Octavius and Antonius ( Plutarch, /^rti/. 4G ; Ap- pian, B. C. iv, 118), and reaped the advantage of this course by being made a free city (see Pliny, loc. cit.X It is possible that the word IXdihipiac, with the head of Octavia, on some of the coins of Thessalonica, has reference to this circumstance (see Eckhel, ii, 79); and some writers see in the Vardar gate, mentioned below, a monument of the victorj' over Brutus and Cassius.
Even before the close of the Republic, Thessalonica was a city of great importance, in consequence of its position on the line of communication between Rome and the East. Cicero speaks of it as "posita in gremio imperii nostri." It increased in size and rose in impor- tance with the consiilidation of tlie Empire. Strabo, in the 1st century, and Lucian, in the 2d, speak in strong language of the amoimt of its population. The supreme magistrates (apparently six in number) who ruled in Thessalonica as a free city of the Empire were entitled Tro\iTapx"h^^ we learn from the remark- able coincidence of Luke's language (Acts xvii, 6) wilii an inscription on the Vardar gate (Biickh, 19G7. Belley mentions another inscription containing the same term).
In .\cts xvii, 5 the (ij/jiioc is mentioned, which formed ])art of the constitution of the city. Tafel thinks that it had a liovXi) also.
During tlie tirst three centuries of the Christian a?ra Thessalonica was the capital of the whole countrv be- tween the Adriatic and the Black Sea: and even after the founding of Constantinople it remained practically the metropolis of (ireece, Macedonia, and lUyricum. In the middle of the od century, as we learn from coins, it was made a Roman colon ia ; perhaps with the view of strengthening this position against, the barliarian in- vasions, which now became threatening. Thessalonica
Coins of Thessalonica.
was the great safeguard of the Empire during the first shock of the (xothic inroads. Constantine passed some time here after his victory over the Sarmatians; and perhaps the second arch, which is mentioned l)eliiw, was a commemoration of this victory. He is said also, by Zosimus (ii, 8G, ed. Bonn), to have constructed the port, by which we are, no doubt, to understand that he repaired and improved it after a time of comparative neglect. Passing by the dreadful massacre by Thefxlo- sius ( Gibbon, Borne, ch. xxvii), we come to the Sla- vonic wars, of which the (iothic wars were only the prelude, and the brunt of which was successfidly borne by Thessalonica froin the middle of the Gth century to the latter part of the 8th. The history of these six Slavonic wars, and their relation to Thessalonica, has been elaborated with great care by Tafel.