The Founding of Thessaloniki: A Comparison of Literary, Archaeological and Topographical Evidence

A detailed study of Thessaloniki’s founding, combining archaeological evidence, Strabo’s texts, and Hellenistic urban planning.This book examines the founding of Thessaloniki, one of the most important and enduring Hellenistic cities. It brings together various topics relating to Cassander’s foundation, some of them reconsidered and others examined for the first time, and is informed by the results of the archaeological research of the region around modern Thessaloniki that has taken place in the last 40 years and the significant topographical observations that result from them, including the huge impact that the foundation of Thessaloniki had on the settlement map around the Thermaic Gulf.Most important is the examination of the data on the founding of Thessaloniki that may be derived from Strabo’s work, the only ancient source that describes the event. The two relevant fragments are discussed in detail. Finally, the book examines some issues relating to the founding of Thessaloniki that were not touched upon by Strabo, including the motivations and ambitions behind Cassander’s founding of the new city, as well as the outcomes and general impact of its establishment.In this monograph, all the components of both the textual and the current archaeological evidence are analytically and comparatively examined, while comparisons with other cases of synoecism, especially within the same timeframe, that are described in the ancient literature are made in an effort to shed more light on the topography around Thessaloniki before and immediately after its founding. Among the main objectives of the book are: to produce an original contribution to modern scholarship by advancing our understanding of the way an important Hellenistic city was founded through the procedure of synoecism; to demonstrate that when it comes to historical/archaeological questions of a topographical nature, the literary and archaeological evidence is deficient if it is not supplemented by topographical data, something for which there are many more convenient tools available today than there were some decades ago; and to encourage further research on key aspects of the archaeology and ancient history of central Macedonia. Read more