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I came to know many things which I had not yet known. 3.2 and having just now become known to you, I demand in return the knowledge about that very city, a great city and the first of the Macedonians, renowned in other respects in which a city takes pride, and yielding to none of the nearby cities, not to say to be seen as its equal, but most renowned for its piety, which from the beginning it received and having received it, has preserved until now. 3.3 For Thessalonica boasts to have Paul himself as its teacher of piety, the chosen instrument, who from Jerusalem and round about as far as Illyricum, having encompassed the world with the evangelical preaching, in it especially cast the seed of the knowledge of God and was zealous that the fruit of faith be rendered abundantly; 3.4 and after him the great one among martyrs and admirable among athletes, Demetrius the myrrh-gusher, who himself also waged a great struggle for the sake of piety (for in addition to his other boasts of virtue he was also distinguished in divine teachings and adorned with precision concerning the doctrines, from which also the fame concerning him was spread all the more to the ends of the earth); 3.5 then all the successive bishops firmly holding to the word of salvation, by whom, being ever perfected and instructed in the more divine discipline, it has sent away demonic and abominable errors and opinions and idolatrous foolish tales to those who honor demons, and having sealed the faith with orthodox teaching, and having never mixed any weedy and heretical and alien plant whatsoever with the divine seed, it has preserved its piety pure and unadulterated. 3.6 Of this piety there were many other signs, from which fame, taking its occasions, proclaimed its brilliant name, but this one thing was shown to be first and most particular, that it both was and was called orthodox and took pride in this more than in other things. 3.7 But since you have also diligently sought to learn the things concerning that city itself, and this is difficult for me to undertake and almost inconsistent with the present impulse of my discourse, having added a few things to the narrative, by which it is especially possible for you to seem to see the reality of what is said, I will turn to our own calamity. 4.1 The city, then, is, as has been said, both great and wide, strongly fortified with many walls and bulwarks and providing as much security for its inhabitants as comes from the construction of these, having a gulf of the sea spread out from the south, by which, its side being washed, it provides an easy passage to itself for the merchant ships flowing in from all directions. 4.2 For a certain marvelous harbor is hollowed out there, safely laying open the entrance for sailors, completely unacquainted with disturbances from winds and rendering the anchorage waveless. 4.3 which the craftsman cut off from the rest of the sea; for having barred in the middle by a certain wall the inflow of the waters, he also barred out from the seaward side the surge of the winds. 4.4 For the sea, being stirred up from the deep and belching forth its surge toward the land, being hindered by the barrier of the wall here, having nothing on which to discharge its threat, proceeds to the parts on either side of the wall, and the water, having slipped in somehow quietly, preserves such an anchorage apart from all surge. 4.5 And the gulf, being cut off from the great sea by a certain neck of land, projecting like an elbow and extending for a very great distance into the waters, which the locals call Ekbolos because it has been cast out far somewhere into the waters, and being narrowed toward the other land opposite by the novel formation of this neck of land, becomes another open-sea harbor; 4.6 From this very elbow up to the very wall of the city the water imitates a most comely circle, being extended for a great distance to the parts on either side and being gradually contracted toward the city. 4.7 And the gulf looks from the south upon the rest of the sea, and the harbor likewise looks upon it, and the city upon the harbor. 4.8 But the harbor is contained by four corners, while the gulf is circular, having its basin extending through a very great depth, but its extremities and before

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ἔγνων ὧν οὔπω ἐγνώκειν πολλά· 3.2 καὶ σοί γε γνωσθεὶς ἄρτι τὴν περὶ αὐτῆς ἐκείνης γνῶσιν εἰσπράττομαι, πόλεως μεγάλης καὶ πρώτης τῶν Μακεδόνων, τἆλλα μὲν περιφανοῦς οἷς σεμνύνεται πόλις, καὶ μηδεμιᾷ τῶν ἔγγιστα παραχωρούσης μὴ ὅτι κατ' αὐτὴν ὀφθῆναι, περιφανεστέρας δὲ τὴν εὐσέβειαν, ἣν ἐξ ἀρχῆς ἐδέξατο καὶ δεξαμένη μέχρι τοῦ νῦν διεσώσατο. 3.3 αὐτὸν γὰρ αὐχεῖ Θεσσαλονίκη τὸν Παῦλον ἔχειν τῆς εὐσεβείας διδάσκαλον, τὸ σκεῦος τῆς ἐκλογῆς, ὃς ἀπὸ Ἱερουσαλὴμ κύκλῳ καὶ μέχρι τοῦ Ἰλλυρικοῦ τῷ εὐαγγελικῷ περιλαβὼν τὴν οἰκουμένην κηρύγματι ἐν αὐτῇ μᾶλλον τὸν τῆς θεογνωσίας σπόρον κατέβαλε καὶ πολύχουν ἀποδίδοσθαι τὸν τῆς πίστεως καρπὸν διεσπούδασε· 3.4 μετ' ἐκεῖνον δὲ τὸν μέγαν ἐν μάρτυσι καὶ ἀξιοθαύμαστον ἐν ἀθλοφόροις ∆ημήτριον τὸν μυροβλύτην, πολὺν ἀγῶνα καὶ αὐτὸν ὑπὲρ τῆς εὐσεβείας καταβαλλόμενον (καὶ γὰρ ἦν πρὸς τοῖς ἄλλοις τῆς ἀρετῆς αὐχήμασιν ἔτι καὶ θείοις ἐμπρέπων διδάγμασιν καὶ τῇ περὶ τῶν δογμάτων ἀκριβείᾳ κεκοσμημένος, ἐξ οὗ καὶ μᾶλλον τὸ περὶ αὐτοῦ διεδόθη κλέος τοῖς πέρασιν)· 3.5 εἶτα τοὺς καθεξῆς ἀρχιερεῖς πάντας τοῦ σωτηρίου λόγου στερρῶς ἀντεχομένους, ἐξ ὧν ἀεὶ καταρτιζομένη καὶ παιδαγωγουμένη τὴν θειοτέραν παίδευσιν δαιμονιώδεις καὶ μυσαρὰς πλάνας καὶ δόξας καὶ εἰδωλικὰς εἰκαιομυθίας τοῖς τιμῶσι τοὺς δαίμονας ἀπεπέμψατο, ὀρθοδόξῳ δὲ διδαχῇ τὴν πίστιν σφραγίσασα, καὶ πᾶν ζιζανιῶδες φυτὸν καὶ αἱρετικὸν καὶ ἀλλόφυλον οὐμενοῦν οὐδέποτε τῷ θείῳ σπόρῳ συγκαταμίξασα, καθαρὰν καὶ ἀκίβδηλον διεσώσατο τὴν εὐσέβειαν. 3.6 ἧς πολλὰ μὲν ἦν καὶ ἄλλα γνωρίσματα, ἐξ ὧν ἡ φήμη τὰς ἀφορμὰς λαμβάνουσα λαμπρὸν τὸ περὶ αὐτῆς ἐκήρυττεν ὄνομα, ἓν δὲ τοῦτο πρῶτον καὶ ἰδιαίτατον διεδείκνυτο, τὸ ὀρθόδοξον αὐτὴν καὶ εἶναι καὶ ὀνομάζεσθαι καὶ τούτῳ μᾶλλον ἤπερ τοῖς ἄλλοις σεμνύνεσθαι. 3.7 ἀλλ' ἐπειδὴ καὶ τὰ κατ' αὐτὴν ἐκείνην τὴν πόλιν φιλοπόνως μαθεῖν ἐπεζήτησας, τοῦτο δὲ δυσεπιχείρητόν τε ὡς ἐμοὶ τῇ τε παρούσῃ ὁρμῇ τοῦ λόγου παρὰ μικρὸν ἀνακόλουθον, ὀλίγα τινά, καὶ οἷς μάλιστα ἔξεστι δοκεῖν ὁρᾶν σε τῶν λεγομένων τὰ πράγματα, τῇ διηγήσει προσθεὶς ἐπὶ τὴν καθ' ἡμᾶς αὐτοὺς τραπήσομαι συμφοράν. 4.1 Ἔστιν οὖν ἡ πόλις, ὡς εἴρηται, μεγάλη τε καὶ εὐρεῖα, τείχεσι καὶ προβόλοις συχνοῖς κατωχυρωμένη καὶ τὸ ἀσφαλὲς τοῖς οἰκήτορσιν ὅσον ἐκ τῆς τούτων οἰκοδομῆς παρεχομένη, θαλάσσιον ἔχουσα κόλπον ἐκ νότου καθηπλωμένον, ᾧ καὶ περικλυζομένη τὴν ἐκ πλαγίου πλευρὰν ταῖς ἁπανταχόθεν εἰσρεούσαις ὁλκάσιν εὐεπίβατον τὴν πρὸς αὐτὴν πορείαν παρέχεται. 4.2 ὑποκοιλαίνεται γάρ τις ἐκεῖσε θαυμαστὸς λιμήν, ἀσφαλῶς ὑπτιάζων τοῖς πλωτῆρσι τὴν εἴσοδον, ταῖς ἐκ πνευμάτων παντελῶς ἀπείρατος ταραχαῖς καὶ τὸν ὅρμον ἀκύμονα καθιστῶν. 4.3 ὃν ἐκ τῆς λοιπῆς θαλάσσης ὁ τεχνίτης ἀπέτεμε· μέσον γὰρ ἀπείρξας διά τινος τείχους τὴν τῶν ὑδάτων ἐπίρροιαν, συναπεῖρξεν ἐκ τοῦ πρὸς θάλασσαν καὶ τῶν πνευμάτων τὸν κλύδωνα. 4.4 ἡ θάλασσα γὰρ τῷ βυθῷ φυσωμένη καὶ τὴν ἐκδρομὴν πρὸς τὴν χέρσον ἐρευγομένη, τῷ διαφράγματι τοῦ τῇδε τείχους κωλυομένη, μὴ ἔχουσα τίνι τὴν ἀπειλὴν ἐπαφήσει, χωρεῖ τοῖς ἐφ' ἑκάτερα τοῦ τείχους μέρεσι, καὶ τὸ ὕδωρ ἠρέμα πως ὀλισθῆσαν ζάλης ἁπάσης ἐκτὸς τὸν τοιοῦτον ὅρμον διατηρεῖ. 4.5 ὁ δὲ δὴ κόλπος ἐκ τῆς μεγάλης θαλάσσης ἀποτμηθεὶς διά τινος αὐχένος, ἀγκῶνος δίκην προβεβλημένου καὶ ἐπὶ μήκιστον τοῖς ὕδασι διικνουμένου, ὃν οἱ κατὰ χώρας Ἔκβολον ὀνομάζουσι διὰ τὸ πόρρω που τοῖς ὕδασιν ἐκβεβλῆσθαι, στενούμενός τε πρὸς τὴν ἑτέραν ἐξ ἐναντίας χέρσον τῇ τοῦ αὐχένος τούτου καινοτομίᾳ, ἕτερος λιμὴν πελάγιος γίνεται· 4.6 ἐξ οὗ δήπερ ἀγκῶνος μέχρις αὐτοῦ τοῦ τείχους τῆς πόλεως κύκλον πανευπρεπῆ τὸ ὕδωρ μιμεῖται, τοῖς ἐφ' ἑκάτερα μέρεσιν ἐπὶ πολὺ ἐκτεινόμενον καὶ πρὸς τὴν πόλιν κατὰ βραχὺ συστελλόμενον. 4.7 καὶ ἀφορᾷ μὲν ὁ κόλπος ἐκ νότου τὴν λοιπὴν θάλασσαν, ἀφορᾷ δὲ τοῦτον ὁμοίως ὁ λιμὴν καὶ τὸν λιμένα ἡ πόλις. 4.8 ἀλλ' ὁ μὲν λιμὴν τέτρασι γωνίαις ἐμπεριείληπται, ὁ δὲ κόλπος ἐστὶ περιφερής, τὸ κύτος ἔχων διὰ πλείστου βάθους χωροῦν, τὰ πέρατα δὲ καὶ πρὸ