THESSALONICA (Gr. Oecrcra Novbcn, thes-sal-on-ee'kay), now called Saloniki, is still a city of about a hundred thousand inhab itants, situated on the present gulf of Saloniki, which was formerly called Sinus Thermaicus, at the mouth of the river Echedorus.
It was the residence of a Prwscs, the principal city of the second part of Macedonia, and was by later writers even styled metropolis (Liv. xlv: 2g, sq.; Cic. Pro Plane. 41). Under the Romans it became great, populous, and wealthy (Strabo, vii. p. 323; Lucian, Osir., c. 46; Appian, Bell. Civ., iv. 118; Mannert. Geographic, vii. 471, sq.). It had its name from Thessalonice, wife of Cas sander,, who built the city on the site of the an cient Therime after which town the Sinus Titer moicus was called (Strabo. vii. p. 330; Herod. vii. 121 ; Plin. Hist. Nat. iv. 17.) Thessalonica was two hundred and sixty-seven Roman miles east of Apollonia and I )vrrachium, sixty-six miles from Amphipolis, eighty-nine from Philippi, tour hundred and thirty-three west from Byzantium, and one hundred and fifty south of Sophia. A great number of Jews were living at Thessalonica in the time of the Apostle Paul, and also many Christian converts, most of whom seem to have been either Jews by birth or proselytes before they embraced Christianity by the preaching of Paul, who, with Silas, organized a church there (Acts xvii:I-4; i Thess. i :g). Paul's visit is noted in Acts xx :1-3; Phil. iv :16; 2 Tim. iv :10. Jews are still
very numerous in this town, and possess much in fluence there. They are unusually exclusive, keep ing aloof from strangers. The apostolical history of the place is given in the preceding article. The present town stands on the of a steep recommended by the virgin zeal of Peter and the Apostles (Acts v:36). Josephus (Antiq. xx. 5. 1) tells us of a Theudas who, under the procurator Phadus (A. D. 44), set up for a prophet and brought ruin on himself and many whom he de luded, and attempts have been made, though not very successfully, to identify the Theudas of Gamaliel with the insurgent spoken of by Jo sephus, who appeared eleven years later.
These remarks have been made to meet the or dinary view of the case. But the name Theudas is an Aramaic form of the Greek 0€63oros, theh od'ot-os, Matthias or Matthew. It is, then, of a Matthew that Luke speaks; and in Josephus (Antiq. xvii. 6, 2-4) we find a detailed account of one Matthew, a distinguished teacher among the Jews, who, in the latter days of Herod the Great, bill, rising at the northeastern extremity of the bay. It presents an imposing appearance from the sea, with which the interior by no means cor responds. The principal antiquities are the propylxa of the hippodrome,. the rotunda, and the triumphal arches of Augustus and Constantine.