Thessaloniki

Thessaloniki (Greek: Θεσσαλονίκη [θesaloˈnici]) is the second-largest city in Greece and the capital of Greek Macedonia, the administrative region of Central Macedonia and the Decentralized Administration of Macedonia and Thrace. Its nickname is η Συμπρωτεύουσα (Symprotévousa), literally "the co-capital", a reference to its historical status as the Συμβασιλεύουσα (Symvasilévousa) or "co-reigning" city of the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire, alongside Constantinople.

The municipality of Thessaloniki, the historical center, had a population of 385,406 in 2007, while the Thessaloniki Urban Area had a population of 800,764. and the Thessaloniki Metropolitan Area had 1,104,460 inhabitants in 2011.

Thessaloniki is Greece's second major economic, industrial, commercial and political centre, and a major transportation hub for the rest of southeastern Europe;its commercial port is also of great importance for Greece and the southeastern European hinterland. The city is renowned for its festivals, events and vibrant cultural life in general, and is considered to be Greece's cultural capital. Events such as the Thessaloniki International Trade Fair and the Thessaloniki International Film Festival are held annually, while the city also hosts the largest bi-annual meeting of the Greek diaspora. Thessaloniki is the 2014 European Youth Capital.

Thessalonica (theme)

The Theme of Thessalonica (Greek: θέμα Θεσσαλονίκης) was a military-civilian province (thema or theme) of the Byzantine Empire located in the southern Balkans, comprising varying parts of Central and Western Macedonia and centred on Thessalonica, the Empire's second-most important city.

History

In Late Antiquity, Thessalonica was the capital of the Roman province of Macedonia and of the Diocese of Macedonia, and the seat of the praetorian prefect of Illyricum. With the loss of most of the Balkan hinterland to the Slavic invasions in the 7th century, however, the authority of the prefect (in Greek eparchos, "eparch") was largely confined to the city and its immediate surroundings. The eparch continued to govern Thessalonica until the early 9th century, when he was replaced by a strategos at the head of the new theme of Thessalonica.

The strategos of Thessalonica is attested for the first time in 836, but a letter of Emperor Michael II (r. 820–829) to the Frankish king Louis the Pious (r. 814–840) may indicate the theme's existence already in 824. The historian Warren Treadgold dates the theme's creation to c. 809, during the anti-Slavic campaigns of Emperor Nikephoros I (r. 802–811) which extended Byzantine rule to the city's hinterland. Treadgold further conjectures that its troops in the 9th century numbered about 2,000 men. To the east, the theme extended to the river Strymon and the theme of the same name. To the south, it bounded the theme of Hellas, somewhere in northern Thessaly. Its western and northern bounds were undetermined, fluctuating with the tide of war between the Byzantines, the local Slavic tribes, and eventually the Bulgarians.

Thessalonike of Macedon

Thessalonike (Greek: Θεσσαλονίκη; 352 or 345 – 295 BC) was a Macedonian princess, the daughter of king Philip II of Macedon by his Thessalian wife or concubine, Nicesipolis, from Pherae. History links her to three of the most powerful men in Macedon—daughter of King Philip II, half sister of Alexander the Great and wife of Cassander.

Life

Thessalonike was born around 352 or 345 BC. To commemorate the birth of his daughter, which fell on the same day as the armies of Macedon and Thessalian league won the significant battle of Crocus Field in Thessaly over the Phocians, King Philip is said to have proclaimed, "Let her be called victory in Thessaly". In the Greek language her name is made up of two words Thessaly and nike, that translates into 'Thessalian Victory'. Her mother did not live long after her birth and upon her death Thessalonike appears to have been brought up by her stepmother Olympias. In memory of her close friend, Nicesipolis, the queen took Thessalonike to be raised as her own daughter. Thessalonike was, by far, the youngest child in the care of Olympias. Her interaction with her older brother Alexander would have been minimal, as he was under the tutelage of Aristotle in "The Gardens Of Midas" when she was born, and at the age of six or seven when he left on his Persian expedition. She was only twenty-one when Alexander, king of the then most known world, died.