New Britain herald., 1923-01-19
.SALON|KI 4 TOWN
 OF HISTORIC NOTE
Its Founding Dates Back 300
 Years Before Christ's Birth

Washington. Jan, is,-salnniki
 safely outside both Eastern and West
 ern Thraes. but near enough to those
 troubled regions of Greek and Turk
 ish rivalry to be in easy reach Of
 refugees. has had tremendous Isab-
 lem thrust upon her, dispatches state.
 ny the tens of thousands Of Greeks
 who fioeked there both by land and sea.
 ''saioniki does not stand at q great
 world crossroads. and it's name. therefore. is not so familiar as that Of eonstantineple." says a bulletin in regard to the city. issued from the
 Washington. D, C., headquarters of the National Geographical society, Tn past and present importance. how ever. 1t Is second only to its great sister Of the straits.
 Named for Alesander's Sister.
 ..saloniki. too. reaches far back in- to the past Cities rose and fell on its site more than half millennium before Christ; and the present town was founded before 300 B. c. Its rather queer name represents the last three syllables in the name of Thes- salonike. half sister of Alexander the Great. It became Little Rome during the height of that empires power: q free city. capital of tho sur rounding region .and the homo of many Roman colonists. Cicero lived there for time in exile; Nero and Traian decorated the city: and it was the temporary home of tho Emperors Licinius and Thedosins.
 Under the Byzantlnes. salonlki was the second city Of the empire: and 1t has remained ever since the rival Of the City of the Straits wheth- CT tho latter has been called Byzan- tium, Stamboul. or Constantinople. | might be called the exten- sion university of the Near East for from there went forth St. Cyril. who carried to the Slavic world to the north the .Cyrilic alphabet in which It's literature has been wrought
 xerxes' Soldiers Trod Highway.
 Tt is not surprising that so ancient l city should contain interesting rel cs of its past. What is surprising is hat these should be so little known o the world.
 'The oldest and most accessible # Saloniki's antiquities is the street fl # the Vardar which cuts the city in wo at the foot of it's hill. It is a 'art of the old Roman highway from he Adriatic to the Bosporus, which arlier stiIl was the Royal Way of the ginks.
 .'The xstreet is not particularly im- 'osing. A There is little to remind the eholder of the Janissaries of yester- ay. the Roman legions. the pha- anxeS ef Alexander. and the Immor- als oS NArxes, all of whom trod its urface. And if you would dream of hese marchers of the past you must 0 so to the somewhat incongruous lang of an American electric car, riyen by modern Greek or Span- 'h Jew. under the Roman Arch 'hich spans the street of the vardar.
 One of Worlds Finest Mosaics.
 .'The fizsst remains of the city are le tWenty-two churches which some- ow survived the turbulent Middle ges. There they stand. turned back to churches after five hundred years
 use as mosques. They illustrate e story of Byzantine architecture ore beautifully in certain ways than , those of Constantinople. One es- 'cially interesting fact in connection th these churches is that they ake among them museum of the st Byzantine art of mosaic. Mo- here else are such. beautiful cx-