|
Thessaloniki,
the
second
largest
city
in
Greece
with
a
population
of
1,000,000
inhabitants,
is
one
of
the
oldest
cities
in
Europe.
It
stretches
over
twelve
kilometers
in a
bowl
formed
by
low
hills
facing
a
bay
that
opens
into
the
Gulf
Thermaikos.
It
was
founded
about
315
B.C.,
on a
site
of
old
prehistoric
settlements
going
back
to
2300
B.C.,
by
Cassander,
King
of
Macedonia,
and
was
named
after
his
wife,
Thessaloniki,
sister
of
Alexander
The
Great.
Since
then,
Thessaloniki
has
become
the
chief
city
of
Macedonia
and
its
most
important
commercial
port.
In
Roman
times
it
was
visited
by
Saint
Paul,
who
preached
the
new
religion,
and
who
later
addressed
his
two
well-known
epistles
(the
oldest
written
documents
of
Christian
literature)
to
the
Christians
of
Thessaloniki.
In
Byzantine
times,
Thessaloniki
became
a
cultural
and
artistic
centre
second
only
to
Constantinople
in
the
whole
empire.
Great
names
are
closely
associated
with
the
city's
Byzantine
past
-
the
jurist
Peter
Magister,
the
epigrammatist
Macedonius
Hypatus,
the
Hymnographer
Archbishop
Joseph,
Leo
the
Mathematician,
the
historian
John
Cameniates,
the
prolific
Homeric
scholar
and
humanist
Eustathius
(
Archbishop
of
Thessaloniki),
the
philologist
Thomas
M.
Magister,
the
teacher
of
law
and
editor
of
the
"Hexabiblus"
Constantine
Armenopoulos,
the
theologian
Gregory
Palamas
(
Archbishop
of
Thessaloniki),
to
mention
but
a
few
prominent
scholars.
The
missionary
brothers
Cyril
and
Methodius
also
have
a
special
place
in
the
history
of
the
period;
they
invented
and
used
the
Cyrillic
Alphabet
to
bring
literacy
and
Christianity
to
the
Slavs.
After
the
fall
of
Thessaloniki
(1430)
and
later
of
Constantinople
(1453),
the
two
major
cultural
centres
of
the
East,
two
of
Thessaloniki's
greatest
humanists,
Theodore
Gazes
and
Andronicus
Callistus,
sought
refuge
in
the
West
where
they
transplanted
the
Greek
language
and
literature.
Despite
the
unfavourable
conditions
prevailing
during
the
Turkish
occupation,
there
were
Greek
schools
in
Thessaloniki
that
struggled,
successfully
to a
large
degree,
to
preserve
the
Greek
language
and
literature
until
the
city
was
liberated
in
October
26,
1912,
the
anniversary
of
its
patron
saint,
St.
Demetrius.
In
the
nineteenth
century
the
long
scholarly
tradition
of
the
city
was
continued
by
Margaritis
Demetsas,
a
historian,
archeologist,
and
geographer
as
well
as
headmaster
of
the
city
Grammar
School
and
his
pupil
P.
Papageorgiou,
later
a
prominent
philologist.
|
