Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/1196

 1172 THESSALONICA. between Rome and the East. Cicero speaks of it as posita in gremio imperii nostri. It increased in size and rose in importance with the consolidation of the Emj)ire. Strabo in the first century, and Lucian in the second, speak in strong language of the amount of its population. The supreme magistrates (apparently six in number) who ruled in Thessa- lonica as a free city of the Empire were entitled TroAirapxai, as we learn from the remarkable co- incidence of St. Luke's language (Act. Ap. xvii. 6) with an inscription on the Varddr gate. (Bijckh, 1967. Belley mentions another inscription con- taining the same term.) In Act. Ap. xvii. 5, the hi^fj-os is mentioned which formed part of the con- stitution of the city. Tafel thinks that it Lad a /3oi') also. During the first three centuries of the Christian era, Thessalonica was the capital of the whole conn- try between the Adriatic and the Black Sea ; and even after the founding of Constantinople it re- mained practically the metropolis of Greece, ]Iace- donia, and Illyricum. In the middle of the third century, as we learn from coins, it was made a Eoman colonia ; perhaps with the view of strength- ening this position against the barbarian invasions, which now becaiue threatening. Thessalonica was the great safeguard of the Empire during the first shock of the Gothic inroads. Constantine passed some time here after his victory over the Sarmatians; and perhaps the second arch, which is mentioned below, was a commemoration of this victory : he is said also by Zosimus (ii. p. 86, 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 Theodosius (Gibbon's Rome, ch. xxvii.), we come to the Sclavonic wars, of which the Gothic wars were only the prelude, and the brunt of which was successfully borne by Thessalonica from the middle of the sixth century to the latter part of the eighth. The liistory of the.se six Sclavonic wars, and their relation to Thes- salonica, has been elaborated with gi-eat care by Tafel. In the course of the Middle Ages Thessalonica was three times taken ; audits history during this period is thus conveniently divided into three stages. On Sunday, July 29tli, 904, the Saracen fleet appeared before the city, which was stormed after a few days' fighting. The slaughter of the citizens was dread- ful, and vast numbers were sold in the various slave-markets of the Levant. The story of these events is told by Jo. Cameniata, who was crozier- bearer to the archbishop of Thessalonica. From his narrative it has been inferred that the population of the city at this time must have been 220,U00. (Be Excldio Thessalonicemi, in the volume entitled Theophanes Continuatus of the Bonn ed. of the Byz. writers, 1838.) The next great catastrophe of Thessalonica was caused by a different enemy, the Normans of Sicily. The fleet of Tancred sailed round the Morea to the Thermaic gulf, while an army inarched by the Via Egnatia from Dyrrhachium. Thessalonica was taken on Aug. 15th, 1 1-85, and the Greeks were barbarously treated by the Latins. Their cruelties are described by Nicetas Choniates (deAn- dron. Comneno, p. 388, ed. Bonn, 1835). The celebrated Eustathius was archbishop of Thessalonica at this time; and he wrote an account of this capture of the city, which was first published by Tafel (Tii- bingen, 1832), and is now printed in the Bonn ed. THESSALONICA. of the Byz. writers. (De Thesscdonica a Ldtinls capfa, in the same vol. with Leo Grammaticus, 1842.) Soon after this period follows the curious history of western feudalism in Thessalonica under Boniface, marquis of Montferrat, and his successors, during the first half of the 13th century. The city was ag.Tin under Latin dominion (h.aving been .sold by the Greek emperor to the Venetians) when it was finally taken by the Turks under Anmrath II., in 1430. This event also is described by u writer in the Bonn Byzantine series (Joannes Ana- gnostes, de Thessalonicemi Excidio Narratio, in the same volume with Phranzes and Cananus, 1838). For the medieval history of Thessalonica see Rlr. Finlay's works, Medieval Greece (1851), pp. 70, 71, 135 — 147; Byzantine and Greek Empires, o. i. (1853), pp. 315— 332, vol. ii. (1854), pp. 182, 264 — 266, 607. For its modern condition we must refer to the travellers, especially Beaujour, Cou- sine'ry, Holland, and Leake. 4. Ecclesiastical History. — The annals of Thessalonica are so closely connected with religion, that it is desirable to review them in this aspect. After Alexander'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 first century of the Christian era they were settled in considerable numbers at Thessalonica: in- deed this circumstance contributed to the first esta- blishment of Christianity there by St. Paul (Act. Ap. xvii. 1). It seems probable that a large com- munity of Jews has been found in this city ever since. They are mentioned in the seventh century during the Sclavonic wars; and again in the twelfth by Eustathius and Benjamin of Tudela. The events of the fifteenth century had the effect of bringing a large number of Spanish Jews to Thes- salonica. Paul Lucas says that in his day there were 30,000 of this nation here, with 22 syna- gogues. Jlore recent autliorities vary between 10,000 and 20,000. The present Jewish quarter is in the south-east part of the towiL Christianity, once established in Thessalonica, spread from it in various directions, in consequence of the mercantile relations of the city. (1 T/tess. m i. 8.) During the succeeding centuries this city ■ was the bulwark, not simply of the Byzantine Em- pire, but of Oriental Christendom, — and was largely instrumental in the conversion of the Sclavonians and Bulgarians. Thus it received the designation of '■ The Orthodox City." It is true that the legends of Demetrius, its patron saint (a martyr of the early part of the fourth century), disfigure the Christian Instory of Thessalonica; in every siege success or fidlure seems to have been attributed to the granting or withholding of his favour: but still this see has a distinguished ])lace in the annals of the Church. Theodosius was baptized by its bishop; even his massacre, in consequence of the stern severity of Ambrose, is chiefly connected in our nnnds with ecclesiastical associations. The see of Thessalonica became almost a patriarcliate after this time; and the withdrawal of the provinces sub- ject to its jurisdiction from connection with the see of Rome, in the reign of Leo Isauricus, became one of the principal causes of the separation ot East and West. Cameniata, the native historian of the cala- mity of 904, was, as we liave .seen, an ecclesiastic. Eustathius, who was archbi.^hop in 1185, was, be- yond dispute, the mo.st learned man of his age, and the author of an invaluable commentarv on the Iliad