Therma or Thermē ( grc, Θέρμα, ) was a Greek city founded by

Eretria Eretria (; el, Ερέτρια, , grc, Ἐρέτρια, , literally 'city of the rowers') is a town in Euboea, Greece, facing the coast of Attica across the narrow South Euboean Gulf. It was an important Greek polis in the 6th and 5th centu ...

ns or Corinthians in late 7th century BC in ancient

Mygdonia Mygdonia (; el, Μυγδονία / Μygdonia) was an ancient territory, part of Ancient Thrace, later conquered by Macedon, which comprised the plains around Therma (Thessalonica) together with the valleys of Klisali and Besikia, including the ...

(which was later incorporated into Macedon), situated at the northeastern extremity of a great gulf of the

Aegean Sea The Aegean Sea ; tr, Ege Denizi (Greek: Αιγαίο Πέλαγος: "Egéo Pélagos", Turkish: "Ege Denizi" or "Adalar Denizi") is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea between Europe and Asia. It is located between the Balkans ...

, the

Thermaic Gulf The Thermaic Gulf (), also called the Gulf of Salonika and the Macedonian Gulf, is a gulf constituting the northwest corner of the Aegean Sea. The city of Thessaloniki is at its northeastern tip, and it is bounded by Pieria Imathia and Laris ...

. The city was built amidst

mosquito Mosquitoes (or mosquitos) are members of a group of almost 3,600 species of small flies within the family Culicidae (from the Latin ''culex'' meaning "gnat"). The word "mosquito" (formed by ''mosca'' and diminutive ''-ito'') is Spanish for "litt ...

-infested swampland, and its name derives from the

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

''thérmē/thérma'', "(

malaria Malaria is a Mosquito-borne disease, mosquito-borne infectious disease that affects humans and other animals. Malaria causes Signs and symptoms, symptoms that typically include fever, fatigue (medical), tiredness, vomiting, and headaches. In se ...

l) fever". Therma was later renamed Thessalonica by

Cassander Cassander ( el, Κάσσανδρος ; c. 355 BC – 297 BC) was king of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia from 305 BC until 297 BC, and ''de facto'' ruler of southern Greece from 317 BC until his death. A son of Antipater and a cont ...

. By that time the port of the previous capital of Macedonia,

Pella Pella ( el, Πέλλα) is an ancient city located in Central Macedonia, Greece. It is best-known for serving as the capital city of the ancient Greek kingdom of Macedon, and was the birthplace of Alexander the Great. On site of the ancient c ...

, had begun silting up, so Cassander took advantage of the deep-water port to the northwest of Therma to expand the settlement. The site of Therma is tentatively located 3 miles (5 km) south of modern

Thessaloniki Thessaloniki (; el, Θεσσαλονίκη, , also known as Thessalonica (), Saloniki, or Salonica (), is the second-largest city in Greece, with over one million inhabitants in its metropolitan area, and the capital of the geographic region of ...

around the suburb of modern

Thermi Thermi ( el, Θέρμη) is a Southeastern suburb and a municipality in the Thessaloniki regional unit, Greece. Its population was 53,201 at the 2011 census. It is located over the site of ancient Therma Therma or Thermē ( grc, Θέρμα, ) was ...

References

*Herodotus, the Seventh, Eighth, & Ninth Books, with Introductio

Reginald Walter Macan *The Letters to the Thessalonian

by Gene L. Green *From Mycenae to Constantinople: The Evolution of the Ancient Cit

By Richard Allan Tomlinson *Hidryma Meletōn Chersonēsou tou Haimou (Thessalonikē, Greec

External links

Ancient coinage from Therma
Cities in ancient Macedonia Greek colonies in Mygdonia Ancient Thessalonica Populated places established in the 7th century BC Former populated places in Greece Populated places in ancient Macedonia Eretrian colonies Corinthian colonies {{AncientMygdonia-geo-stub

See also

References

External links