Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/1197

 THESSALOXICA. and OJyssey, and of theological works, which have been recently published by Tafel. A list of the Latin archbishops of Thessalonica from 1205 to 1418, when a Roman hierarchy was establi.'^hed along with Western feudalism, is given by Le Quien (^Oriens Chrestianus, lii. 1089). Even to the last we iind this city connected with questions of reli- gious interest. Symeon of Thessalonica, who is a chief autliority 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 Aristcjtle, Theophrastus, and Hippocrates, was a native of the city of Deme- trius and Eustatliius. 5. Remains of Antiquity. — The two monu- ments of greatest interest at Thessalonica are two arches connected with the line of the Via Egnatia. The course of this Roman road is undoubtedly pre- served in the long street which intersects the city from east to west. At its western extremity is the Vardiir gaie, which is nearly in the line of the modern wall, and which has received its present name from the circumstance of its leading to the river Vca-ddr or Axius. This is the Roman arch believed by Beaiijour, Holland, and others to have been erected by the people of Thessalonica in honour of Octavius and Antonius, and in memory cf the battle of Philip|ji. The arch is constructed of large blocks of marble, and is about 12 feet wide and 1 8 feet high ; but a considerable portion of it is buried deep below the surface of the ground. On the outside face are two bas-reliefs of a Roman wearing the toga and standing before a horse. On this arch is the above- mentioned inscription containing the names of the politarchs of the city. Leake thinks from the style of the sculpture, and Tafel from the occurrence of the name Flavius in the inscription, that a later date ought to be assigned to the arch. (A drawing of it is given by Cousine'ry). The otlier arch is near the eastern (said in Clarke's Travels, iv. p. 359, by mistake, to be near the western) extremity of the main street. (A drawing of this arch also is given by Cousii;ery and an imaginary restoration by Po- cocke.) It is built of brick and faced with marble, and formerly consisted of three archways. The sculptured camels give an oriental aspect to the monument ; and it is generally supposed to com- memorate the victory of Constantine over Licinius or over the Sarmatians. Near the line of the main street, between the two above-mentioned arches are four Corinthian colunuis supporting an architrave, above which are Carya- tides. This monnment is now part of the house of a Jew; and, from a notion that the figures were petrified by magic, it is called by the Spanish Jews Las Incantadds. The Turks call it Sureth-Maleh. (A view will be found in Cousine'ry, and a more correct one, with architectural details, in Stuart and Revett's A then. Anliq. vol. iii. ch. 9. p. 53). This colonnade is supposed by some to have been part of the Pro- pylaea of the Hippodrome, the position of which is believed by Beaujour and Clarke to have been in the south-eastern part of the town, between the sea and a building called the Rutimda, now a mosque, previously the church Eski-Metropoli, but for- merly a temple, and in construction similar to the Pantheon at Rome. (Pococke has a ground plan of this building.) Another mosijue in Tlieasa- Itmica, called Eski-Djwiid, is said by Dcaujour to have been a temple consecrated to Vtuus Thcrmaca. THESSALONICA. 1173 . The city walls are of brick, and of Greek construc- tion, resting on a much older fMundatio)i, which consists of hewn stones of immense liiickne.-s. Everywhere are broken columns and fragments of sculpture. Many remains were taken in 1430 to Constantinople. One of the towers in the city wall is called the Tower of the Statue, because it contains a colo.ssal figure of Thessalonica, with the repre- sentation of a ship at its feet. The castle is partly Greek and partly Venetian. Some cokunns of verd antique, supposed to be relies of a temple of Hercules, are to be noticed there, and also a shattered tri- umphal arch, erected (as an inscription proves) in the reign of JIarcus Aurelius. in honour of Antoninus Pius and his daughter Faustina. In harmony with what has been noticed of its history, Thessalonica has many remains of eccle- siastical antiquity. Leake says that in this re.'-pect it surpasses any other city in Greece. The chuich of greatest interest (now a mosque) is that of St. Sophia, built, according to tradition, like the church of the same name at Constantinople, in the reign of Justinian, and after the designs of the architect Anthemius. This church is often mentioned in the records of the Jliddle Ages, as in the letters of Pofje Innocent III. and in the account of the Norman siege. It remains very entire, and is fully describeil by Beaujour and Leake. The church of St. De- metrius (apparently the third on the same site, and now also a mosque) is a structure of still greater size and beauty. Tafel believes that it was erected about the end of the seventh century ; but Leake con- jectures, from its architectural features, that it was built by the Latins in the tiiirteenth. Tafel liaa Collected with much diligence the notices of a great number of churches which have existed in Thessa- lonica. Dapper says, that in his day the Greeks had the use of thirty churches. Walpole (in Clarke's Travels, iv. p. 349) gives the number as sixteen. All travellers have noticed two ancient pulpits, con- sisting of " single blcjcks of variegated marble, with small steps cut in them," which are among the most interesting ecclesiastical leniains of Thessalonica. 6. AuTiioKiriEs. — The travellers who have desciibed Thessalonica are numerous. Tlie most important are Paul Lucas, Second Voyage, 1705 ; Pococke, Description of the East, 174.3 — 1745 ; Beaujour, Tuhleaii du Commerce de la Grece, trans- lated into English, 1800 ; Clarke, Travels in Eu- rope, (Jc. 1810—1823 ; Holland, Travels in the Ionian Isles cjc, 1815 ; Cousii.e'ry, Voijaye dans la iVactdoine, 1831; Leake, Northern Greece, 1835 ; Zachariii, Reisa in den Orient, 1840; Grisebacii, lieise durch Rumelien, 1841; Bowen, Jlount Alhos, 'Thessaly, and Epirus, 1852. In the Memoires de I'Acadnnie des Inscrip- tions, toni. xxxviii. Sect. hist. pp. 121 — 14G, is an e.ssay on the subject of Thessalonica by the Abbe' Belley ; but the most elaborate woik on the subject is that by Tafel, the first jiart of which was published at Tiibingen in 1835. Tliis was COIN <J1' TlIliSoAl.y.NlCA. 4 K 3