NOTES.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XXXV, Issue 8275, 21 October 1915, Page 5

NOTES.

. HISTORY OF SALONIKA. The histotric\ city of Salonika, formerly Thessalonica 1, where the Allies have landed, was at. ..first called Therma, under which name it is mentioned in . connection with the march, of Xerxes through "Greece. It was ro-' ■ built by Cassandeiv King of Macedonia, about 315 B:C, who re-named it Thessalonica, in honour of his wil'o, half-sister to Alexander the Great. During the Roman -Macedonian wars the city figured as the principal station of the Macedonian floet. After the close of the civil wars- its prosperity rapidly increased, and for three centuries it,was the first city in Greece. It was also one of the-'early' seats of a Christian church. .During ,the Barbarian invasions it proved the great bulwark of the .... Eastern '-Empire.. Salonika was a military and commercial station on a main lino of communication between Ronie and .the East, I and. had readied its zenith, before' the j seat 1 of ' the?' Empire was transferred to. 'Constantinople.' Under, it's old name. of Tliessalonica Salonika became famous in connection with the early history of Christianity.,' through the two epistles addressed by S.t. Paul to the" community which-he founded there.. 'In the ..yearv39p^7Ooo.citizen's, who had bceffi- .guilty- 1' of insurrection iwe're mas--sacred in : .the hippodrome, by the 1 command ofl' Theodosius.. ; : During the iconoclastic, reigns of terror it stood on -'the" defensive .'and" succeeded in saying the artistic treasures of its churches. I*i the., ninth. century ■Joseph, one... of its bishops, died in chains for Ins defence of imaged worship. After being taken a.nd re-taken by the Turks on no fewer than four occasions, Salonika .passed into the hands of Greece on the occasion tho late Balkan wars. .