Thessalonica in the first century was the capital of Macedonia and its largest city. The geographical importance of its site may be gauged from the fact that Thessaloniki (until 1937, Salonika1) is still an important city. It is usually said that the name of the city in earlier days was Therma (from its hot springs), and that c. 315 BC it was renamed by Cassander after his wife Thessalonica, half-sister to Alexander the Great. But as the elder Pliny refers to Therma and