THESSALONICA: THE MARITIME HISTORY 0 F A MED I EVAL METRO POL Is by Dr. Eugenia Russell hessalonica (often referred to as Thessaloniki or Salonika, its Ottoman name) is the second-largest city in Greece and the capital of the periphery (administrat ive region) of Central Macedonia. Its metropolitan area encompasses about a million people. During the Middle Ages, it was also the second major city, part of the
a Venetian colony, and a Turkish town." So writes the great philhellene historian W illiam Miller (1864-1945), summing up both the significance and the turbulent history of the great city. The city was founded by the Macedonian King Kassandros (or Cassander, c. 350-297 BC) in 316 BC by unifying several townships, in the manner of the
The modern-day Port of Thessalonica, a designated "Free Zone," is a major commercial center on the Gulf of Thermai on the Aegean Sea, handling more than 16 million tons of cargo per year and 220, 000 passengers through its container port and passenger terminals. Byzantine Empire, which had its capital in Constantinople, modern Istanbul. The "city of Philip" and "city of Constantine" had several parallels, such as their relationship to their patron saints: Thessalonica was the city of Demetrius, and Constantinople the city of the Virgin Mary. Their privileged seaside location was another commonality, the one that we will address in this article. Thessalonica reached its heyday as a flourishing cosmopolitan medieval port in the 15th century, a legacy from which the modern city benefits still. Initially, however, its location on the coast was valued primarily for military reasons and not for its potential for maritime exploitation. This article examines how the city's maritime identity was formed from its foundation to the end of its Byzantine history in 1430.
In Search of the Sea "Salonika, the 'Athens of Medieval Hellenism,' has been by turns a Macedonian provincial city, a free town under Roman domination, a Greek community second only to Constantinople, the capital of a short-lived Latin kingdom, and of a brief Greek empire to which it gave its name,
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mythical creation of Athens by Theseus. T here were twenty-six townships involved, among them Chalastra, Thermi, and Kissos (modern Hortiatis), which are still in existence today. The king named
BlBLI OTHi:.QUE NAT!QNALE D E PRANCE
Medallion bearing the likeness of Philip II ofMacedon, 3rd century AD. the new city after his wife, daughter of Philip II and half-sister ofAlexander III, or A lexander the Great as he is remembered. Philip named the princess to commemorate his victory in Thessaly against the Phoceans in the Barde of the Crocus Field (c. 353 BC), a common practice amongst
Macedonian rulers. The Byzantines, however, referred to Thessalonica as the "city of Philip,'' after her glorious father. The princess is mostly remembered in local folklore, where she is represented as a mermaid sailing across the seas looking for her lost brother, Alexander, and hoping for his return to kingship. The city of Thessalonica was immediately made the capital of the ancient Macedonian kingdom. The capital of ancient Macedonia changed twice. Initially, it was Aigai (Vergina), as archaeologists would conclude from the royal treasures discovered there by Professor Manolis Andronikos (1919-92). Later it was Pella, and then in turn the newly fo unded city ofThessalonica. It is generally overlooked that the transfer of the Macedonian capital from the original location of Aigai to Pella by King Archelaos I (reigned 413 BC to 399 BC ) and then to Thessalonica by Kassandros had one very important reason behind it-the Macedonian kings realized how crucial the sea was for success in war in terms of natural defenses. Geomorphological changes in the area, however, altered Pella's formerly seaside location. The route of the ancient road, the Via Egnatia, through the area indicates to the modern visitor where the seashore would have been in antiquity. Interestingly, in order for the archaeological site to be excavated, the modern town of Pella had to be demolished and rebuilt by the Greek government in a nearby location, an undertaking that indicates the significance of this heritage to the Greeks.
A Privileged Location The Romans, too, identified Thessalonica as an ideal location. They could envision how it could become a junction of administration and commerce, and in 379 AD they made it capital of their praetorian prefecture of Illyricum. This, coinciding with the decline of the great Hellenistic city of Corinth, led to Thessalonica becoming a vibrant Greco-Roman center to which, later, a distinct C hristian identity was added, both in terms of architectural heritage and the flourishing of letters. In the center of the city, the Arch of Galerius and the Roman Rotunda, both by the Via Egnatia and near the Roman forum,
SEA HISTORY 146, SPRING 2014