Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 19.djvu/268

* THESSALONIANS. 224 THESSALY. in a sudden coming of Christ within the limits of his own lifetime which he expressed in his Earlier letter, is answered by saying that in I. Thessalonians the return of Christ is pre- sented as unexpected only to those who are evil, while the perspective given to that coming in II. Thessalonians does not necessarily carry it beyond the limit of life to which Paul might naturall.N' look forward. BiBUOGRAPHY. Commentaries: Schmidt (Ber- lin, 188.5) : Schmiedel, in Bandkommentar ziim Neucn Trstaineiit (Freiburg, 1893); Borne- mann, in Meycr-Koininenlur iihcr das Xeiie Tes- tament (Giittingen. 1894) ; Ziiekler, in Strack und Zoetler Komnienlar (Munich, 1894) ; Goebel (Gotha, 1887) : Zinnner (Herborn. 1891) ; id., Textkritischer Apparat und Kommentar (Gotha, 1893) : .Jowett (London, 1894) ; Light- foot, Notes on the Epistles of Saint Paul (Lon- don, 1895). Introductions: B. Weiss (Eng. trans., Edinburgh. 1888) ; Holtzmann (Freiburg, 1892): Godet (Eng. trans., ib., 1894); Salmon (London. 1894) : Zahn (Leipzig, 1900) ; Moflfatt, The Eistorical yeir Testament (New York and Edinburgh, 1901); .Tiilicher (Tilbingen and Leipzig, 1901). Disenssions: Baur, Patilus (Eng. trans.. London. 1872-75) ; Thackeray, The Relations of Saint Paul to Contemporary Jewish Thought (London, 1900); Stanton, The Jewish and Christian. Messiah (Edinburgh, 1886) ; Klopper, Der zweite Brief an die Thessalonicher (Konigsberg, 1889) ; Weizsitcker, Das aposto- lische Zeitalter (Eng. trans.. New York, 1894) ; Spitta, Zur Geschiehte und Litteratur des Urchristentums (Gottingen, 1893) ; Clemen. Die Einheitlichkeit der paulinisehen. Brief e (Gottin- gen, 1894) ; Bousset, Der Antiehrist (Eng. trans., London; 1896) ; Wrede, Die Echtheit des zweiten Thrs.ialnnicherhriefrs (Leipzig, 1903). THES'SALONI'CA (Gk. QeirffaXopUv ) ■ An ancient Greek city, situated on the northeastern shore of the Thermaic Gulf, in Mygdonia. Tra- dition told of an early city, Eumathia or Halia, on this site, but the historical Greek city ap- pears in Herodotus and Thucydides as Therme, a name due to the presence of hot springs in the neighborhood. The exact origin of the later name, which appears in Polybius. is uncertain. Most probable is the story of Strabo, that the town was enlarged and in part rebuilt in B.C. 315 by Cassander, wlio gave it the name of his wife, Thessalonica. the daughter of Philip of Macedon. Its strong fortificntions enabled it to repel a Roman attack, and after the Roman conquest of Macedonia ( B.C. 1 4fl ) it became one of the chief cities of the province. Situated on the great Via Egnatie, it attracted a large trade by land and sea. while the support given to Mark Antony and Octavian seems to have made it a free city. It contained a considerable .Jewish colony, and was the seat of a Cliristian church, founded by the Apostle Paul. It was severely punished by the Emperor Theodosivis, when 7000 citizens are said to have perished because of an uprising, but appears in the later history of the Empire as a strong defense against the Goths and Slavs. It was, however, captured by the Saracens in a.d. 904, by the Normans in 1185, and finally by the Turks in 1430. For the modern city, see Sa- LONIKI. THES'SALY (Lat. Thessalia. from Gk. Bta- aa'/ia, Attic Oerra'/ia, Thettulia, Thessaly, from Qeaaa/.6c, 7'hessalos, Attic Qi:T7a}.6i, Thet- talos, Thessalian). The largest division of an- cient Greece, bounded on the north by Jlacedonia, from which it was separated by the Cambvuiian Mountains, on the west by Epirus, with the Pin- dus range as a boundary, on the east by the .Egean Sea, and on the south by the range of Qita and the Maliac Gulf. The southeni bound- ary is not very definite. Though Acha?a. .Enis, and Mails can properly be included in the gen- eral term, Thessaly proper only reaches to the range which extends from Pindus to the head of the Pagasaean Gulf. Others, who include Achsea ( Phthiotis) .call Mount Othrys the southern bound- ary. Thessaly proper is a vast plain shut in on every side by mountains; on the north and west by those already named, and on the east by mounts Pelion and Ossa. the onlv opening being the Vale of Tempe in the northeast between Ossa and Olympus. The plain of Thessaly is said at one time to have been a vast lake, the waters of which found an outlet by the Vale of Tempe. This plain is drained chiefly by the river Peneus (now Salanibria) and its tributaries, and is the most fertile in all Greece, having produced in ancient times abundance of corn and cattle, and a breed of horses considered the finest in Greece, and still yielding large crops. History. In the epic, Thessaly seems inhab- ited by a number of tribes, among whom are the Pelasgians of the Peneus valley, and the Acha-ans and Hellenes in the south. During the migrations that marked the period between the heroic age and that of historical Greece, tribes from the mountains of Epirus and the north pushed into this region, driving out or subjugating the in- habitants. Part of these latter migrated to Asia Jlinor, where they colonized .Eolis. The Boeo- tians, too, were said to have been crowded out by the ne-comers, but it is probable that Boeo- tians and Phocians were really the vanguard of the invaders. The conquerors settled in tlie rich lands of the Peneus valley, reducing the original owners to the position of serfs of the soil, who cultivated the land on their own ac- count, paying a fixed proportion to the owners. These Penest^ could not be sold out of the coun- try, nor put to death without a trial. The Thes- salians themselves constituted a landed nobility gathered about the cities. In these cities a few great families exercised almost unlimited power, among whom in the sixth and fifth centuries B.C. the most famous were the Aleuadje of Larissa and the Scopadae of Crannon and Pharsalus. The league between the cities was a loose one, and there was no supreme authority, except so far as from time to time some family obtained a leading position. Four districts were recognized from early times. Hestioeotis at the north, Tlies- saliotis and Pelasgiotis in the centre, and Phthiotis in the south, each of which in the fourth century was led by a polemarch. A general council seems to have met when any occasion calling for united action arose, and in war a general called the tagus (70; (if) was chosen as commander-in-chief. Tlie league was thus es- sentially military, but there must have been a well-established system, for in the sixth century B.C. the Thessalians were threatening to extend their power over Southern Greece, and seem at