The Hickman courier. [volume] (Hickman, Ky.) 1859-current, 1876-06-09
A Land of RenOwn for Massacres and
BIOOdshed.

SalOnica, anciently Thessalonica (and
Therma Also), has many sources of re-
nown besides the fact that st. Paul wrote
to its christians. Cicero spent his exile
there the emperor Theodosius resided
there, and afterwards, when living at
Milan, subjected the people to one of the
most cruel and indiscriminate massacres
which history records. Salonica is next
to STEAMBOAT, the chief commercial city
of Roumelia, and, in spite of its ruins
and adaptations, still presents an i'm
posing appearance. Its population is
nigh seventy-five thousand, OF whom only
one fifteenth are Turks; the rest, in
nearly equal proportions, being Jews and
Greeks or Franks. 1t still preserves a
mosque that was once a christian tenn
pie, the rival of St. Sophia, and another
that was temple to Venus; noble
hippOdrome entered by a magnificent
Corinthian colonnade; gate that was
built by Augustus after the battle of
Philippi, and triumphial arch erected
by Marcus Aurelius. Its extensive
bazaars are still busy with a various
commerce in corn, and wine, oil, wool,
timber, sponges, fruit. and silk, and as a
pashalik it continues to be one of the
most profitable that still holds allegiance
to the Porte.
Under the Roman empire Thessalonica
was the metropolis of all the southern
part of Roumelia, of what was then con-
sidered Eastern Illyria. it was strongly
fortified, and the citadel, known as The
Seven Towers" still frowns above its
five miles of circuit walls In 800 A.
ID after the Gothic war, its garrison
was commanded by general called Both
eric, himself barbarian. In his suite
was handsome page, who was enticed
from him by some brutal charioteer of
the circus, favorite of the mob. Both
eric imprisoned the athlete, the people
clamored for his release, and, upon the
generals refusal, rose upon him and his
feeble garrison, murdered Botheric and
his officers, and dragged their bodies
about the streets Theodosius deter
mined upon a bloody punishment, and
contrived perfdio':s artifice to achieve
his purpose, inviting the people, in the
emperor's name, to the games of the cir
Gus, and, when all were assembled, loos-
ing the soldiers upon them at a given
signal. A general massacre epsued the
butchery lasted three hours, without dis
tinction of sex or age, and the slain are
put at not less than seven thousand per-
sons, while others claim that the victims
numbered fifteen thousand. All the re-
speot and veneration which the bishop
of Milan had for the defender of ortho-
doxy and the destroyer of Arianism
could not induce st. Ambrose to over
look this cruel and treacberous massacre.
Theodosius was accommodated and
forced to purchase the pardon of the
church by the most humble penance,
after an exclusion of eight months from
all religious rites.
What penance on the part of the pres
ent sultan of Roum will suffice to ex-
plate the wrath of the present represeE-
: uives of the Greek church? Eight of
the rioters have already been executed at
Salonica, but it is hardly probable that
this, nor the imprisonment of two hun
bred and fifty more, will go far towards
satisfying ore who is determined to see
he crescent yield to the cross on the |
spires Of st. Sophia.