THESSALONICA (enTuaXovbcn), now Saloni chi, is still a city of about sixty or seventy thousand inhabitants, situated on the present gulf of Sal onichi, which was formerly called Sinus Thermai cus, at the mouth of the river Echedorus. It was the residence of a preses, the principal city of the second part of Macedonia, and was by later writers even styled metro/So/is (Liv. xlv. 29, seq. ; Cic. Pro Plane. 41). Under the Romans it became great, populous, and wealthy (Strabo, vii. p. 323 ; Lu cian, Osir. c. 46 ; Appian, Bell. Civ. iv. Jiff ; Mannert, Geographic, vii. 471, seq.) It had its name from Thessalonice, wife of Cassander, who built the city on the site of the ancient Thermo., after which town the Sinus Thermaicus was called (Strabo, vii. p. 330 ; Herod. vii. 121 ; Plin. Hz:rt. Nat. iv. 17 ; Schol. Thitc. 6t ; comp. Steph. Byz. s.v. `Thessalonica'). Thessalonica was 267 Roman miles east of Apollonia and Dyrrachium, 66 miles from Amphipolis, 89 from Philippi, 433 west from Byzantium, and i5o south of Sophia.
A great number of Jews were living at Thessa lonica 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 preach ing of Paul. Paul visited Thessalonica on his second missionary tour in company with Silas and Timothy. His preaching in a short time brought many converts. The present town stands on the acclivity of a steep hill, rising at the north-eastem extremity of the bay. It presents an imposing ap pearance from the sea, with which the interior by no means corresponds. The principal antiquities are the propyhea of the hippodrome, the rotunda, and the triumphal arches of Augustus and Con stantine.—C. H. F. B.