The Pulpit Commentary — Acts — Volume 2 — Section 56

EXPOSITION. division by .lEmilius Panlns (eh. :ni 12, CH.APTER XVII. nr,te), and in the time of Theodosiue the Ver. 1.-Arnphipolis, This was the Younger, when Macedonia cousisted of two a.ncient capital of that division of Mace- provinces, it was the capital of Macedonia donia (Macedonia Prima); see eh. xvi. 12, Prima. But from its situation and great note. It was eitu11ted on the Via Egnatin, commercial importance it was virtually the thirty-four miles south-west from Pllilippi, capital of "Greece, llfacedonia, and llly- nnd three miles from the 1Ege11n Sea. It ricum" (Howson, in 'Diet. of Geog.'). Ita lay in a. peninsula, surrounded on three tmde attracted a great colony of Jews from sides by the Strymon, wllence its name, before the time of St. Paul, and through the Amphipol-is; its modern name is Neokhoria, Roman and Greek and 'l'mkish empires, now a villnge. Its original name was 'Evvea. down to the present day, when" one-half of 'OBol, 'fhe Nine Ways. Originally 1L Thra- the population is s11id to be of Israelitish cian city, it was conquered by the Athenians, race" (Lewin).' Thessalonica had 1L terrible then by the Lacedmmonians, then fell under celebrity from the massacre of its inhabit- the dominion of Philip of l\lacedon, and ants by order of the Emperor Tl,eodosius, finally, with the rest of Macedonia, became in revenge for the murder of Botheric, his part of the Roman empire. Apollonia.; uow general, which led to the famous penance prob11bly l'olina, thiny miles due west of imposed upon the emperor by St. Ambrose .Amphipolis, on the Via Egnatia.. The (Gibbon,' Decline au<l Fall,' eh. xxvii.). It modern track from Amphipolis to Tbessa- was also tuken three times in the I\Iiddle lonica docs not pass through Polino, but Ages : by the Saracens, with fea.rfu] beneath it. Thessalonica. ; on the Via slaughter, A.D. 90!; by the Normans, with Egnatir1, now the important ser1port of scarcely less cruelty, A.D. 11S5; and by the .')a_lonik~, on th~ lEgoan Sea or Archipelago, 'furks, in 1430. Its ecclcsiaslical history th!r~y-e1ght m1l~s from Apollonio, and con- under its archbishops is also of great interest tamrng auout sixty thousand inll[lbit11nts. (seo 'Diet. of Greek o.nd Roman Geog.'). l\s o.ucieut name wtis '.fhcrrua. (whence the Where was a synagogue. It is ne~<llcss to 'I hermean Bay), but 1t took the name of point out tl.to exact agreement of this brief '.Dhcssn)onica under the l\focedonilLn kings. It conttuued to grow in importance under 1 The numbers are variously given as t~e R:i1uaus, and was the most populous twenty thousand, thirty thousand, and 01ty_ ol the wholo of l\Iacedonia. It was the thirty-five thousand (Co11yliearc un,1 J-low- oap1to.l of Macedonio. Secunda under the son, vol. i. p. 3¼S), liS THE A~ OF 'l'HE APOSTLES. [en. :r.vtr. 1-34,