In the course of the INIiddle Ages, Thessalonica was three times taken ; and its history during this period is thus conveniently divided into three stages. On Sun- day, July 29, 904, the Saracen fleet appeared before the city, which was stormed after a few days' fighting. The slaughter of the citizens was dreadfid, and vast mmibers were sold in the various slave-markets of the Levant. The story of these events is told b}' Jo. Cameniata, who was crosier-bearer to the archbishop of Thessalonica. From his narrative it has been inferred that the popida- tion of the city at that time must have been 220.000 ( De Ka-cidio Thessnlonicensi, in the volume entitled Theaphaneit ConHnuaIvs of the Bomi ed. of the Byzantine writers [1838]). The next great catastrophe of Tliessa- lonica was caused b}' a different enemy — the Normans of Sicilv. The fleet of Tancred sailed round the Morea to the Thermaic gidf, while an army marched by the Via Egnaiia from Dyrrhachium. Thessalonica was taken on Aug. 15, 1185, and the Greeks were harbar- ouslv treated bv the Latins, whose cruelties are de-
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scribed by Nicetas Choniates {De Andron. Cmnneno, p. i after this time; and the withdrawal of the provinces oJS.s, ed. Bonn, 183o). The celebrated Eustathiiis was subject to its jurisiliction from connection with the archbishop of Thessalonica at this time; and he wrote ' see of Home, in the reign of Leo Isaiiricus, became
an account of this capture of the city, whicli was lirst published by Tafcl (Tiib. 1832), and is now printed in the Bonn ed. of the 13yzantine writers {De Thessalonica a Latinis Capta, in the same vol. with Leo (Irammati- cus [1842]). Soon after this period follows the curious history of Western feudalism in Thessalonica under Boniface, marquis of Montl'errat, and his successors, during the first half of the loth century. The city was again under Latin dominion (liaving been sold by the Greek emperor to the Venetians), when it was finally taken by the Turks under Amurath II, in 1430. This event also is described by a writer in the Bonn Byzan- tine series (Joannes Anagnostes, l)e Tliessakmicensi Ex- cidio Xarratio, in the same vol. with Phranzes and Ca- nanus [1838]).
For the medieval history of Thessalonica see Mr. Finlay's works, Mediceval Greece (1851), p. 70, 71, 135- 147; Byzantine and Greek Empires (1853), i, 315-332; (1854), ii, 182, 264-266, 607. For its modern condi- tion we must refer to the travellers, especially Beaujour, Cousinery, Holland, and Leake.
IV. Ecclesiastical History. — The annals of Thessa- lonica are so closely connected with religion that it is desirable to review them in this aspect. After Alexan- der's death the Jews spread rapidly in all the large cities of the provinces which had formed his empire. Hence there is no doubt that, in the 1st century of the Christian ajra, they were settled in considerable num- bers at Thessalonica ; indeed, this circumstance con- tributed to the first establishment of Christianity there by Paid (Acts xvii, 1). It seems probable that a large community of Jews has been found in this city ever since. They are mentioned in the 7th century, during the Slavonic wars; and again in the 12th, by Eusta- thius and Benjamin of Tudela. The events of the 15th century had the effect of bringing a large number of Spanish Jews to Tliessalonica. Paul Lucas says that in liis da}' there were 30,000 of this nation here, with 22 synagogues. More recent authorities vary between 10.000 and 20.000. The present Jewish quarter is in the south-east part of the town.
Christianity, once established in Thessalonica, spread from it in various directions, in consequence of tiie mer- cantile relations of the city (1 Thess. i, 8). During the succeeding centuries this city was the bulwark, not sim- ply of the Byzantine empire, but of Oriental Christen- dom; and was largely instrumental in the conversion of the Slavonians and Bulgarians. Thus it received the designation of "The Orthodox City." It is true that the legends of De- nietrius,its patron saint (a martyr of the early part of the 4th century), disfigure the Christian history of Thessaloni- ca ; in every siege suc- cess or failure seems to have been attributed to the granting or with- hcilding of his favor: but still this see has a distinguished place in the annals of the Church. Theodosius was baptized by its liishop; even his mas- sacre, in consequence of the stern severity of Ambrose, is chiefly con- nected in our minds with ecclesiastical as- sociations. The see of Thessalonica became almoBt a patriarchate
f the principal causes of the separation of East and \\'est. Canieniata, the native historian of the calamity of 904, was, as we have seen, an ecclesias- tic. 'Eustathius. who was archbishop in 1185, was, be- yond dis|)ute, the most learned man of his age, and the autiior of an invaluable commentary on the Iliad and Odyssey, and of theological works, wliich have been re- cently published by Tafel. A list of the Latin arch- bishops of Thessalonica from 1205 to 1418, when a Ko- iTian hierarchy was established ahfug with Western feu- dalism, is given by Le Quieii {Oriens Christiamis, iii, 1089). Even to the last we find this city connected with questions of religious interest. Simeon of Thes- salonica, who is a chief authority in the modern Greek Church on ritual subjects, died a few months before the fatal siege of 1430 ; and Theodore Gaza, who went to Italy soon after this siege, and, as a Latin ecclesiastic, became the translator of Aristotle, Theophrastus, and Hippocrates, was a native of the city of Demetrius and Eustathius.