Thessalonica, known today as Thessaloníki or Salonika, is a thriving seaport city in northeastern Greece.

About 315 B.C.E., Cassander built a city on the west side of the Chalcidice Peninsula and named it after his wife.

Thessalonica was also a prosperous city. It had one of the best natural harbors in the Aegean Sea. In Roman times, it was also located on the famous highway Via Egnatia. Favored with such a strategic location on sea and land routes, Thessalonica was one of the Roman Empire’s trade gateways. Over the ages, the city’s prosperity made it the coveted prize of Goths, Slavs, Franks, Venetians, and Turks. Some of them conquered the place by force and bloodshed.