History by miman
The city was founded circa 315 BC by Cassander, the King of Macedon (Μακεδών), on or near the site of the ancient town of Therma and twenty six other local villages. He named it after his wife Thessalonica, the sister of Alexander the Great. She gained her name from her father, Philip II of Macedon, to commemorate her birth on the day of his gaining a victory (Gr. Nike) over the Thessalians. After the fall of the kingdom of Macedon in 168 BC, Thessalonica became a city of the Roman Empire. It grew to be an important trade-hub located on the Via Egnatia, a Roman road that connected Byzantium (later Constantinople), with Dyrrhachium , facilitating trade between Europe and Asia. The city was made capital of one of the four Roman districts of Macedonia.When the Roman Empire was divided into eastern and western segments ruled from Byzantium/Constantinople and Rome respectively, Thessaloníki came under the control of the Byzantine Empire. The Byzantine Empire, unable to hold it against the Ottoman Empire advance, sold it to Venice, who held it until it was captured by the Ottoman ruler Murad II on 29 March 1430, after a three day long siege of the cityThessaloniki passed out of Byzantine hands in 1204, when Constantinople was captured by the Fourth Crusade.
Thessaloniki was the main prize of the First Balkan War of 1912, during which it was captured by Greece on 26 October 1912, which is now a local holiday. King George I of Greece was assassinated during a visit to Thessaloniki on 18 March 1913.
Thessaloniki fell to the forces of Nazi Germany on 9 April 1941 and remained under German occupation until 30 October 1944.Monuments
