THESSALONICA
633
THESSALONICA
disorderly, a truly Pauline allusion to the example he
set them, and the final identification of the letter by a
greeting written with his own hand.
Of the Greek Fathers whose commentaries on I and II Thesa. have come down to us, St. John Chrysostom is by far the most scholarly; Theodoret is pithy and to the point. Theodore OF MopsUESTiA (about A. D. 415) forces the Apostle to his idea^. EfTHALifs THE Deacon depends on Theodore; St. .!oHN Damascene on St. John Chrysostom. Among the Latin Fathers Ambrosiaster (about 730) at times errs in matters of faith; Primasius (about 556) collated the expositions of Ambrosiaster, Peu^qius. St. Augustine, and St. Jerome. The great Catholic commentators of more recent time are: Justixiani (Lyons. 1612), a Lapide (Antwerp, 1614), C.uetan (Rome. 1529),Salmer6n (Madrid, 1602), Ki8TEMAKER(Munster, 1822). McEviLLY (Dublin. 1875), Bispinq (Munster. 1873). Macnoury (Paris. 1S78). Roehm (Passau. 1885). Johannes (Dillingen. 1S9S), Panek (Ratisbon. 1886). Prat. La theotogie de Saint Paul (Paris. 1908). Piconio (Paris. 18,37). Peronne (Paris. 1881). ToussAiNT (Paris. 1910). The chief Protestant commentaries are those of Lightfoot {Notes, 1895). Drummond (1899). FiNDLAY (1904). MlLUGAN (1908). Schmiedel (1892), B. Weiss (1896).
Walter Drum.
Thessalonica (Saloniki), titular metropolis in Macedonia. It was at first a village called Alia, situ- ated not far from Axius, the modern Vardar; it subse- quently took the name of Therma, from the thermal springs east and south of it. The gulf on which it was situated was then called the Thermaic Gulf. After having sheltered the fleet of King Xerxes and having belonged to the Athenians during the Pelo- ponnesian War, Therma passed to the kings of Mace- donia after the death of Alexander. Cassander, the son of Antipater, having enlarged the village and transported thither the inhabitants of the neighbour- ing villages, called it Thessalonica, in honour of his wife. Thenceforth the city grew steadily in import- ance. Unsuccessfully besieged by .^milius Paulus, it only opened its gates after the victory of Pydna which made the Romans masters of Macedonia (1()S B. c). The kingdom was then divided into four districts, each of which had its capital and its co7i- vcnt\ix. Thessalonica was the capital of the second district. In 146 B. c. Macedonia was made a single province with Thessalonica as capital. This was the arrangement until the third and fourth century of our era, when four provinces were again formed. The proconsul had his residence at Thessalonica, as did later the prefect of lUyricum Orientale, who first resided at Sirmium. During the first civil war Thes- salonica was the principal headquarters of Pompey and the Roman senators; during the second it supported Anthony and Octavius against the Triumvirs, receiv- ing from them after the battle of Philippi the title of free city and other advantages, being allowed to administer its own affairs and obeying magistrates called pohtarchs.
Thessalonica received the title of colnnia under the Emperor Valerian. Theodosius the Great punished the revolt of its inhabitants (.390) by a general mas- sacre in which 7000 were slain. In 479 the Goths attacked the city. Between 675 and 681 the Slavs unsuccessfully besieged Thessalonica four times. On 31 July, 904, a Mu.ssulman corsair, Leo of Tripoli, came unex-pectedly with his fleet and attacked the city, then the second in the empire, captured and pillaged it, and took away a great many prisoners. A dramatic account of the affair was written by a priest of Thessalonica, John Cameniates, who was an eye- witness (Schlumberger, "Nic(phore Phocas". Paris, 1S90, li.Tsqq.). In 10S3 Kuthymius, Greek Patriarch of Jerusalem, was comnii.ssioned by Alexius I Com- nenus to negotiate peace at Thessalonica with Tan- ored of .Sicily, who had conquered a portion of Epirus and Macedonia and threatened to take possession of the rest. In .Vugust, 118.5, Guillaume d'Hauterive, King of Sicilv. be.iieged Thes.salonica bv sea with a fleet of -im ships and by land with an army of 80.0(K) men; the city was cai)tured, and all resistance from the Greeks punished with death. In the following
year the city was recaptured by the Byzantines; the
metropolitan Eustathius wrote an account of the
campaign in a homily, which was read during the
Lent of 11S6. In 1204. after the Latins had occupiecl
Constantinople and a portion of the Byzantine Em-
pire, Boniface, Marquis of Monferrato, proclaimed
himself King of Thessalonica, his Latin Kingdom
depending on the Latin Empire of Byzantium. He
defended it against the Bulgars, whose tsar, the
terrible Calojan, was assassinated under the walls of
Thessalonica in 1207, and against the Greeks from
Epirus. In 1222 the latter put an end to the Prankish
Kingdom and took possession of Thessalonica, setting
up an independent empire, the rival of that of Nicsea,
with Theodore Comnenus as first sovereign. He was
defeated in 1230 at Klokotinitza by the Bulgar Tsar,
Assen II, and most of his empire passed into the
hands of the Bulgars. Thessalonica with the remain-
ing cities was given to Theodore's brother, the Em-
peror Manuel.
In 1242 after a successful campaign against the Emperor of Thessalonica, John Vatatzes, Emperor of Nica;a, forced John Angelo to take only the title of despot and to declare himself his vassal. After the expedition of Vatatzes in 1246 Thessalonica lost all independence and was annexed to the Empire of Nica'a which in 1261 was once more removed to Con- stantinople. Unable to defend it against the Turks, the Greeks in 1423 sold Thessalonica to the Venetians, the city being captured 28 March, 1430, by the Sultan Murad and definitively incorporated in the Ottoman Empire. It was the scene of unheard-of cruelties on the part of the Turks. In order to weaken the Greek element, so powerful in the city and in that part of Macedonia, the Sublime Porte offered a refuge about the end of the sixteenth century to the Jews driven from Spain by Philip II. They now number 80,000 out of 120,00() inhabitants; the remainder of the popu- lation consists of Turks, Greeks, Bulgars, Armenians, and nearly 3000 Catholics. The parish is directed by the Lazarists, the schools by the Christian Brothers. Thessalonica, which is the capital of a vilayet, grows constantly in importance, owing to its situation and its commerce, as well as to the part it played in the two military revolutions of 1908 and 1909 which modified the authoritative regime of the Turkish Empire.
The establishment of Christianity in Thessalonica seems to date from St. Paul's first journey to the city (see Thessalonians, Epistles to the). Secundus and Aristarchus, companions of St. Paul, were na- tives of Thessalonica (Acts, xx, 4); Demas who abandoned the Apostle to go thither, seems hkewise to have been born there (II Tim., iv, 9). According to Origen, who repeats an ancient tradition ("Com- ment, in Ep. ad Rom.", in P. G., XIV, 1289), Gaius was the first Bishop of Thessalonica. Four persons of this name are mentioned in the New Testament, but the Gaius of Origen would be a native of Corinth (I Cor., i, 14). Melito of Sardes relates that Anto- ninus Pius wrote to the Thessalonians not to tolerate in their city the tumult against the Christians (Euse- bius, "Hist, eccl.", IV, 26). Alexander a.s.sisted at the Council of Nica;a in 325, at Tyre in 335, and at the consecration of the Holy Sepulchre in the same year. At the end of the same century Acholius baptized Theodosius the Great. Le Quien has coniiiilcil a lis: of 74 Greek titulars of this city, some of whom do not belong to it. Father Petit continued his task and gives a biographical account of more than 130. The most famous were: Rufus, who in the early fifth cen- tury a ted constantly as intermediary between the papacy and the Eastern Churches; Eusebius, the cor- respondent of St. Gregory the Great and author of a work in ten books against the Monophysites; John, who early in the seventh century compiled the first book on the miracles of St. Demetrius; St. Joseph,
