Short history of Thessalonika

Steven Lowe
This is not by any means a complete history of Thessalonika during the Byzantine period. Between the battles, the massacres and the sieges, there were long periods during which the city presumably got on calmly with its main business, as a thriving seaport and centre of trade. (If the Saracen raid of 904 is anything to go by, it must have previously enjoyed a very long interval of peace for the walls to be in such a state of unpreparedness.)

Thessalonika was commonly regarded as the second city of the Empire, and was certainly its second biggest port. It was known as Therma in ancient Greek times, and its modern name is Salonika. It is located in the region of Greece known as Makedonia, near Thessaly. In mediaeval times, the city had an annual fair which attracted merchants from as far away as Flanders (Godfrey pp 17-18), and was on the pilgrim route to the Holy Land in the 10th century (Runciman Vol. 1, p 48). Though its patron Saint Demetrios, who was martyred in Roman times, was originally conceived as a civilian, by our period he was thought of as a military saint and was believed to be the city’s protector. (Cormack, pp.54, 66)

In 321 AD, while engaged in a campaign against his rival the Eastern Emperor Licinius, Western Emperor Constantine I based himself at Thessalonika and deepened its harbour to take his fleet. In a combined operation in 323 his army and navy defeated those of Licinius, and Constantine became sole Emperor, beginning the period we now know as the Byzantine era. (Norwich Vol. 1, p 48)

The Eastern Emperor Valens was defeated and killed by the Goths at the battle of Adrianople in 378, and was succeeded by Theodosius, who established his military headquarters at Thessalonika. After two years restoring order in Thrace, Theodosius made his formal entry into the capital, Constantinople. (Norwich. Vol. 1, p108.) In 390 AD 7000 people were massacred at the Thessalonika hippodrome on Theodosius’ orders after a mob murdered the unpopular captain of the city garrison. (Norwich Vol. 1, p112)

In the 5th and 6th centuries, after plagues caused massive depopulation in Greece and the Balkans, huge numbers of Slavs and Bulgars moved into the vacuum, and had effectively taken possession by the end of the 6th century. Thessalonika was one of the few cities in the region not to fall to the Slavs despite at least three sieges, and became the provincial capital. In 586 the city was saved from plague and an Avar/Slav seige, with credit going to St Demetrios. (Cormack pp. 54,58,66)

In 609 AD, General Heraclius sailed from Carthage and using Thessalonika as a base to rally support and increase his fleet, he went on to overthrow Emperor Phocas the following year. Emperor Heraclius went on to rebuild the Empire after attacks from Avars and Persians, but by the time he died vast tracts of territory had been lost to the newly arisen Arabs. (Norwich Vol. 1, p 282-3)

In 688-9 AD Justinian II Rhinometus ("cut-nose") carried out a large scale military expedition into the Slav lands of the Balkans. He made a triumphal entry into Thessalonika, and transported large numbers of Slav captives to resettle depopulated areas of Asia Minor. (Norwich Vol. 1, p 329)

864 AD. Emperor Michael III sent two monks, the brothers Cyril (Constantine) & Methodius, to Moravia to convert the Slavs to Orthodox Christianity saying, "you are both natives of Thessalonika, and all Thessalonikans speak pure Slav." (Obolensky, p 138). Saints Cyril and Methodius invented the first alphabet for Slavic languages, known as the Cyrillic alphabet.

In 894 corrupt officials forced Bulgarian merchants to bring their goods into the Empire through Thessalonika instead of Constantinople (making official scrutiny more difficult), and dramatically increased customs dues. This imposed great hardships: Thessalonika was much further from Bulgaria, and the road was rough and frequently impassable in winter. Protests by Tsar Symeon proving futile, a Bulgar army invaded Thrace, at a time when the Empire was particularly vulnerable. After a long and costly war Emperor Leo agreed to pay a large tribute to Bulgaria in return for peace, and Constantinople again became the centre of trade with Bulgaria. (Norwich Vol. 2, p109-110)

In 904, a Saracen fleet, beaten off by the Imperial fleet not far from Constantinople, turned aside and attacked Thessalonika. The city’s walls were in bad condition and its two commanders were at each other’s throats; after three days, on 29 July, the city fell. After a week of bloodshed and butchery, the Saracens left, taking with them priceless treasures and over 30,000 prisoners. Emperor Leo rebuilt the fortifications of Thessalonika, and the Imperial fleet, destroying the Saracen ships sent out to intercept it, laid waste the large Saracen seaport of Tarsus in revenge. Leo of Tripoli, the Greek renegade who had led the raid on Thessalonika, made further devastating attacks on the Empire, but was finally defeated and his fleet destroyed by John Curcuas in 923. (Norwich. Vol. 2, pp110, 120, 149)

In 989, Tsar Samuel of Bulgaria invaded the Empire, capturing the fortress of Berrhoea at the approaches to Thessalonika. Emperor Basil II began a carefully organised campaign which ended twenty-five years later with the destruction of Bulgaria as a military power. In spring 991, Basil went to Thessalonika, strengthened its defences, and prostrated himself before the altar of the city’s patron Saint Demetrios. (Norwich Vol. 2, p248, 249) In 1001 he recaptured Berrhoea and expelled the Bulgar garrison from Thessaly. (Norwich Vol. II, p 258) In 1009 the Tsar suffered a crippling defeat at a village called Creta, near Thessalonika, and in 1014 Basil trapped and destroyed the Bulgarian army in a defile at Clidion. Samuel died shortly afterwards (Norwich Vol. 2, p 261).

In 1040 a revitalised Bulgaria under Tsar Peter Deljan and his cousin Alusian invaded the Empire. When the news arrived Emperor Michael IV was in Thessalonika at the tomb of St Demetrios, consumed with guilt over his assassination of his predecessor, Emperor Romanus III Argyrus. Though in agonising pain from a disease which had caused his body to swell grotesquely and would soon kill him, Michael organised a counter-campaign and led the army into the field. A Bulgarian seige of Thessalonika became so disorganised that the city garrison was able to come out and destroy the beseigers and the Bulgarian campaign collapsed. (Norwich Vol. 2, p286, 288)

In 1096 the armies of the First Crusade passed Thessalonika on their way to Constantinople - Robert of Normandy and Steven of Blois stayed before its walls 4 days before moving on, and the Bishop of le Puy, who had been attacked by Pecheneg police after straying off the road, had to leave Raymond of Toulouse’s force at Thessalonika to have his wounds tended; without his calming influence brigandage by crusaders worsened. (Runciman Vol. 1, pp 156,161, 168)

In 1147-8 King Conrad of Hohenstaufen passed through Thessalonika on his way to and from the Holy Land on the Second Crusade. He was officially welcomed by the Emperor’s cousin Michael Paleologus, and on his return voyage the following year he was received by Emperor Manuel in person. (Runciman Vol. 2, pp.260, 285)

On August 24, 1185, after a brief siege, Thessalonika was brutally sacked by an army of freebooters, (the fleet even included pirate vessels) under the Norman William II of Sicily. (Godfrey pp. 17-18) Emperor Andronicus, convinced that Constantinople would be next, strengthened the City’s defences, and even approached Saladin for help. But Andronicus was deposed and killed by Isaac II Angelus, who made a humiliating peace that stopped the advance of William II’s army.(Runciman Vol.. 2, p 429) [Runciman disagrees with Godfrey (Runciman Vol. 3, p 4) stating that William’s troops had tried to capture Thessalonika and been heavily defeated]. In 1195 Western Emperor Henry VI sent a letter to Isaac demanding cession of lands taken by William in 1185. (Godfrey p22)

In 1201 Boniface, Marquis of Montferrat, was made leader of the Fourth Crusade. Boniface’s brother Rainier had been married to the daughter of Emperor Manuel, receiving Thessalonika as his personal estate. (Godfrey pp. 52-53).

After the capture of Constantinople in1204, the new Latin Emperor Baldwin promised Boniface overlordship of Anatolia, but as it was in Turkish hands he was made King of Thessalonika instead. (Godfrey p136, Runciman Vol. 3, p125) The two set off together to take possession of Thessalonika, but quarreled and parted company. Boniface went to Demotica and besieged Adrianople, which was garrisoned by Baldwin’s troops, but failed to capture it. Baldwin, on the other hand, captured Thessalonika; however, his army was weakened by plague and he sent Villehardoin to reason with Boniface. The two patched up their differences and Boniface was given Thessaly, centred on Thessalonika.(Godfrey p138)

Michael I Komnenos Dukas, cousin of Emperors Isaac II and Alexios III, attached himself to Boniface after the fall of Constantinople, but seceded during the Latin invasion of northern Greece, and set himself up as independent ruler (Despot) of Epiros. He recaptured Durazzo and Corfu from Venice, and harboured refugee artists and craftsmen from Constantinople. (Godfrey p158-9)

In 1207 Boniface was fatally wounded in a skirmish with Bulgarians under King Kalojan (Godfrey p142-3). Kalojan conquered most of Makedonia, but was murdered by Manastras, the Voivoda (leader) of the Cumans while besieging Thessalonika. The Thessalonikans, however, credited his death to their patron Saint, Demetrios.

In 1224 Theodore I , Despot of Epiros, seized Thessalonika from Boniface’s son Demetrius. Theodore was proclaimed and crowned Emperor at Thessalonika, and threatened Constantinople itself. However, jealousy between Thessalonika and the other Byzantine Empire-in-exile based at Nicea allowed the ineffective Latin Empire to continue after death of Emperor Henry of Flanders. Theodore was defeated by the Bulgarians in 1230; the Thessalonikan "empire" collapsed and was conquered by the second Nicaean Emperor Vatatzes in 1246. Epiros, ruled by Theodore’s nephew Michael II Dukas, remained independent but came under influence of Nicea. (Godfrey p158-9)

After the fall of the Latins, Thessalonika was part of the restored Byzantine realm. In 1342, during a period of instability and peasant uprisings throughout the Empire, the Zealots party gained power in Thessalonika and ran the city for seven years as what has been described as a "People’s Republic" (Alastos p191). However, at the end of that period it was returned to Imperial rule and remained so until conquered by the Ottoman Turks in the final years of the Empire.

References
Alastos, Doros Cyprus in History Zeno, London 1976
Godfrey, John 1204 The Unholy Crusade Oxford University Press 1980
Norwich, John Julius Byzantium: (Vol 1: the Early Centuries, Vol. 2: the Apogee) Guild London 1988
Obolensky, Dimitri The Byzantine Commonwealth Weidenfeld and Nicolson London 1971
Runciman, Sir Steven A history of the Crusades Penguin London 1991
Cormack, Robin Writing in Gold: Byzantine Society and Its Icons George Philip, London 1985

Thessalonika in relation to the Empire

The walls of Thessalonika, probably late 4th century, frequently rebuilt in the Byzantine period (Obolensky).

The church of St Demetrios in Thessalonika, 5th century (Cormack).

A mosaic representation of St Demetrios, probably early 7th century; from the church bearing his name (Cormack).