“Thessalonica remained Greek and the capital of the country”

The Provinces of the Roman Empire, vol.1, translated by W.P.Dickson, from the 1909 edition (Chicago, Ares Publishers, 1974), pp. 299–301.
The Provinces of the Roman Empire, From Caesar to Diocletian 1854-6
Context: While the Macedonians proper on the lower course of the Haliacmon (Vistritza) and the Axius (Vardar), as far as the Strymon, were an originally Greek stock, whose diversity from the more southern Hellenes had no further significance for the present epoch, and while the Hellenic colonization embraced within its sphere both coasts -on the west with Apollonia and Dyrrachium, on the east in particular with the townships of the Chalcidian peninsula - the interior of the province, on the other hand, was filled with a confused mass of non-Greek peoples, [... ] The Greek cities, which the Romans found existing, retained their organisation and their rights; Thessalonica, the most considerable of them, also freedom and autonomy. There existed a League and a Diet ('koinon') of the Macedonian towns, similar to those in Achaia and Thessaly. It deserves mention, as an evidence of the continued working of the memories of the old and great times, that still in the middle of the third century after Christ the diet of Macedonia and individual Macedonian towns issued coins on which, in place of the head and name of the reigning emperor, came those of Alexander the Great. The pretty numerous colonies of Roman burgesses which Augustus established in Macedonia, Byllis not far from Apollonia, Dyrrachium on the Adriatic, on the other coast Dium, Pella, Cassandreia, in the region of Thrace proper Philippi, were all of them older Greek towns, which obtained merely a number of new burgesses and a different legal position, and were called into life primarily by the need of providing quarters in a civilised and not greatly populous province for Italian soldiers who had served their time, and for whom there was no longer room in Italy itself. The granting of Italian rights certainly took place only to gild for the veterans their settlement abroad. That it was never intended to draw Macedonia into a development of Italian culture is evinced, apart from all else, by the fact that Thessalonica remained Greek and the capital of the country.

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Thessalonica remained Greek and the capital of the country" by Theodor Mommsen?
Theodor Mommsen photo
Theodor Mommsen 65
German classical scholar, historian, jurist, journalist, po… 1817–1903

Related quotes

Charles Rollin photo

“It is not reasonable they should be solely employed in the study of the Greek and Latin authors, and having no curiosity to become acquainted with the writers of their own nation, remain always strangers in their own country.”

Charles Rollin (1661–1741) French historian

The Method of Teaching and Studying the Belles Lettres, Vol. I, The Third Edition (1742), Book II, Ch. 2, Article 3: 'Of the different sorts of poems', p. 278

Henry Morgenthau, Sr. photo

“When the Turks and the Bulgarians left, Macedonia remained a purely Greek region.”

Henry Morgenthau, Sr. (1856–1946) American diplomat

I was sent to Athens http://www.hri.org/docs/Morgenthau/

Viktor Orbán photo
Daniel Webster photo

“Labor in this country is independent and proud. It has not to ask the patronage of capital, but capital solicits the aid of labor.”

Daniel Webster (1782–1852) Leading American senator and statesman. January 18, 1782 – October 24, 1852. Served as the Secretary of Sta…

Speech (2 April 1824); reported in Edward Everett, ed., The Works of Daniel Webster (1851), volume iii, page 141

Vladimir Lenin photo
Indíra Gándhí photo

“Dacca is now the free capital of a free country.”

Indíra Gándhí (1917–1984) Indian politician and Prime Minister

Address to Parliament announcing the victory of Bangladesh-India Forces over the Pakistan Army, (December 16, 1971) http://www.bharat-rakshak.com/1971/Dec16/index.html.

“South Korea is a very capital-centric country.”

Brian Reynolds Myers (1963) American professor of international studies

2010s, Interview with Colin Marshall (February 2015)

Thomas Robert Malthus photo
Earl Browder photo

“We are determined to save our country from the hell of capitalism.”

Earl Browder (1891–1973) American political activist (1891-1973)

Source: What is Communism? (1934), p. 18

Related topics