Thessaloniki

The White Tower of Thessaloniki on the promenade, during the night

Thessaloniki, often referred to internationally as Thessalonica or Salonica, is the second-largest city in Greece and the capital of the geographic and historical region of Greek Macedonia.

Quotes

• The towns of the Adriatic coast were often Italian; some Balkan towns were distinctly Greek or Turkish. Most striking of all were those cosmopolitan trading centres where no one ethnic group predominated. One of many examples that might be cited was Salonika, present-day Thessaloniki, an Ottoman port of Greek provenance where Jews slightly outnumbered Christians and Muslims. Each religious community could, in turn, be subdivided into sects and linguistic sub-groups: there were Judesmo-speaking Sephardic Jews as well as Ashkenzim, Christian Greeks, Bulgarians and Macedonians - some speaking Greek, some Vlach, some a Slavic language - and myriad kinds of Muslim: Sufis, Bektashis and Mevlevis as well as Naqshbandis and Ma'min, who were converts from Judaism.
  • Niall Ferguson, The War of the Worlds: Twentieth-Century Violence and the Descent of the West (2006), pp. lvii-lviii

• It was in fact more plausible for the Turks to portray the Greeks as a fifth column, since the Greek Prime Minister Eleftherios Venizelos strongly favoured Greek intervention on the side of the Entente powers and, although King Constantine resisted until finally driven to abdicate in June 1917, the presence of an Anglo-French force at Salonika from October 1915 cast doubt on the credibility of Greek neutrality. Viewed from Salonika, the First World War was the Third Balkan War, with Bulgaria joining Germany and Austria in the rout of Serbia; indeed, it was to shore up the disintegrating Serbian position that the Entente powers had sent their troops to Salonika. It was too late. The Anglo-French force remained penned in, unable, despite Greece's belated entry into the war, to prevent the German-Bulgarian defeat of Romania in 1917. Yet the final phase of the war saw a collapse as complete as that suffered by the Germans on the Western Front. An offensive on the Salonika Front forced Bulgaria to sue for peace on September 25,1918; six days later the British marched into Damascus, having defeated the Turkish army in Syria. On October 30 the Turks surrendered.
  • Niall Ferguson, The War of the World: Twentieth-Century Conflict and the Descent of the West (2006), p. 180

• THESSALONIKI (Salonika) Greece's second city is named after a daughter of Philip of Macedon, Thessaloniki, who was married to Kassandros. This shortlived monarch was without descendants, so he gave Thessaloniki's name to the capital (founded 315 B.C.) to remind posterity of his family's royal descent.
  • Bruce Merry (2004) Encyclopedia of Modern Greek Literature. p. 430

• The Aegean sea washes Greece on two sides: first, the side that faces towards the east and stretches from Sunium, towards the north as far as the Thermaean Gulf and Thessaloniceia, a Macedonian city...; and secondly, the side that faces towards the south, I mean the Macedonian country, extending from Thessaloniceia as far as the Strymon.
  • Strabo, "Geography", 7.7.4-5

• Salonique à tout prix!
  • Eleftherios Venizelos, Quoted in Chester, S. M. (1921). Life of Venizelos, with a letter from His Excellency M. Venizelos. London: Constable. p. 159
  • A message sent to the General Staff during the First Balkan War, to insure that the Greek army will capture Thessaloniki at all costs.

• When Paul came to Thessaloniki around AD 50, the town embraced him and Silas along with their message about Jesus Christ. However, the friendly welcome quickly wore out as some individuals began rising up against them.
  • Kevin Wright (2008) The Christian Travel Planner. p. 98

• Here we notice that in acts the term "Hellenes" (or "Greeks") is used with noteworthy propriety: the people of Thessalonica, of Berea, of Ephesus, of Iconium. and of Syrian Antioch are spoken of as Hellenes. Those were all cities which had no claim to be Roman, except in the general way of being parts of the Roman provinces Macedonia, Galatia, and Syria. They were counted Greek cities, and reckoned themselves as such.
  • William Mitchell Ramsay, "Historical Commentary on First Corinthians", Kregel Classics, 1996, p.34