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550
Slavic Invasions I
John of Ephesus, Ecclesiastical History, VI. 25
"That same year, being the third after the death of king Justin, was famous also for the invasion of an accursed people, called Slavonians, who overran the whole of Greece, and the country of the Thessalonians, and all Thrace, and captured the cities, and took numerous forts, and devastated and burnt, and reduced the people to slavery, and made themselves masters of the whole country, and settled in it by main force, and dwelt in i -
550
Slavic Invasions II
of the whole country, and settled in it by main force, and dwelt in it as though it had been their own without fear. And four years have now elapsed, and still, because the king is engaged in the war with the Persians, and has sent all his forces to the East, they live at their ease in the land, and dwell in it, and spread themselves far and wide as far as God permits them, and ravage and burn and take captive. And to such an extent do they carry their ravages, that they have even ridden. -
550
Slavic Invasions III
The Slavic invasions mark the beginning of the 'sullying' of the Greek bloodline.
The modern (18th-19th c.) travellers to Greece often attribute the imperfections of Greece as compared to the accounts of Classical Greece to the surge of Slavs into Greece. -
Period: 550 to Mar 29, 1430
During the Byzantine Era
The Byzantine Era began much before the year 550. This was only done to fit the timespan on the timeline. -
Jan 1, 1429
Sultan Murad II
Spanish traveller Pero Tarfur described him as "a discreet person, grave in his looks and so handsomely attended that I never saw the likes." http://library.thinkquest.org/04apr/00040/ottoman.htm -
Mar 30, 1430
Salonica Seized Part II
Ioannis Anagnostes: "And the city was filled with wailing and despair." When Salonica was seized by the Ottomans, the character of the city began to change from Greek to visibly Turkish. Thus the Orientalist aspect is even stronger in Salonica than in the rest of Greece. -
Mar 30, 1430
Salonica Seized by Sultan Murad II's Ottoman Troops
Surviving witness Ioannis Anagnostes: "They gathered men, women and children, people of all ages, bound like animals, and marched them all to the camp outside the city. Nor do I speak of those who fell and were not counted in the fortress and did not merit a burial. Every soldier, with the mass of captives he had taken... Any slave who as he saw from old age or some illness... he cut off his head on the spot. Then for the first time they separated parents from children, wives from husbands..." -
Period: Mar 30, 1430 to
Under Ottoman Rule
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Jan 1, 1435
Bertrandon de la Broquiere
Bertrandon de la Broquiere, 'Le Voyage d'Outremer,' 1435. https://archive.org/stream/levoyagedoutreme00labruoft#page/220/mode/2up -
Beginnings of Antiquarianism in Salonica
More and more travelers to Salonica began collecting ancient coins, to the great disappointment of those used to cheap ancient coins.
Said Father Etienne Souciet:
"Il y a tant d'hommes qui achètent des sous que les prix sont devenus trop élévés."
Excessive tourism was already affecting Greece! -
James Stuart & Nicholas Revett
Stuart & Revett sketch of the Incantada (or Propylaea) at Salonica. http://www.grosvenorprints.com/stock.php?artist=Stuart%2C+James&WADbSearch1=Submit -
Stuart & Revett (notes) II
"support an entablature, over which is an attic adorned with figures in alto-relievo; on the side next the street are a Victory, a Medea, or, perhaps a Helen, with a diadem and sceptre, a Telephus, and a Ganymede; and, next the court-yard of the Jews' House, a Bacchante dancing and playing on the flute, a
Bacchus, a Bacchante crowned with vine leaves, and a Leda. It seems difficult, if not impossible, to ascertain the species of building of which this ruin once made a part." -
James Stuart & Nicholas Revett (notes) I
http://digi.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/diglit/stuart1827bd3/0120/ocr
"We had visited such objects of curiosity as our inquiries could discover at Thessalonica before we left it ; but, although it is a large and populous city, said at that time to contain 100,000 inhabitants, we found the remains of only one building, the description of which we could flatter ourselves would interest the lovers of ancient art. This is situated in the Jews' quarter; five Corinthian columns on their pedestals supported" -
Auguste Boué
Traces of Orientalism abound in traveller's logs.
''Les Turques mêmes les plus éduqués, sont incapables de comprendre le respect que l'on donne au morceau d'une magnifique ruine architecturale."
Boué does not pause to wonder why the Turks are so blasé. -
Sir Charles Newton
"The most interesting relic of classical antiquity in Salonica is the Incantadas... supported by Corinthian columns half-buried in the ground, above which are square pilasters... Dionysus, Hermes, Ariadne, Ganymede, Leda, a Bacchante, a Victory." 121
http://books.google.ca/books?id=kmRCAAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=Travels+and+Discoveries+in+the+Levant&ei=LPL0SMu-HZPMMNW1pNQI&hl=nl&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=Travels%20and%20Discoveries%20in%20the%20Levant&f=false -
'Salonica's Elgin'
Bénigne Emmanuel-Clement Miller: "Partout it y a des traces d'une belle époque, et aussi des traces de barbarisme indescriptible."
Miller considered himself a savior of Salonica's artefacts, rescuing them from the barbarous Turks. -
Henry Fanshawe Tozer
An English academic, he considered Salonica to be part of 'Turkey' - not the Ottoman Empire - in his two volumes of 'The Highlands of Turkey', published in 1869.
Salonica is an interesting city because it long occupied a liminal space between Greece and the Ottoman Empire. It was rejected by both entities as being too much like the other. Poor Salonica. -
Salonica Postcard
Plays up the Orientalist aspects of Salonica. -
E. Isambert
Isambert "was much more fortunate than other travellers, always in a hurry." Nineteenth century travellers were already in a hurry to see the Greek sights. Things have not much changed... -
Salonica's White Tower
Photograph taken of the White Tower during Ottoman rule. The White Tower was a prison built in the fifteenth century. It is an enduring symbol for Salonica. Despite claims that the Turks neglected this structure, they clearly maintained it and treated with deference, as proved by the photograph. -
Selanik Seized by Greece I
There had been increasing tension between Greece and Bulgaria over the issue. In the First Balkan War, the Greek army took advantage of the turmoil to seize Salonica from the Ottoman Empire. This was a crucial point: Salonica had long been 'too Turkish,' but given the chance, Greece seized Salonica in a heartbeat. -
Selanik Seized by Greece II
Moreover, it was only a matter of luck that the Greek army had gotten there before the Bulgarian one - in which case Salonica would have become Bulgarian. Although, with its large Slavic population, it would not have been a stretch of the imagination.
I wrote 'seized by the Greeks' because the passing of Salonica was purely a matter of luck. -
Period: to
A Part of Greece
Greece will not end in 2015 (unless Germany does something again). This is merely to fit the timespan on the timeline. -
Salonica and the Gerrys
German troops marching through Salonica in 1916. The German elite had long had an affinity for Classical Greece, and that wasn't going to change just because there was a war. The picture also is an eerie forerunner for the events of 1941. -
Salonica and the Expulsion of Muslims
A local Salonica daily announced:
"Since the term for exchangeable Muslims to leave the city expired on December 26, we are informed that there will be a detailed census of those remaining after that date."
Greece was trying to rewrite its own history by purging the Muslims from the country. They were trying to portray the Greeks as straight-line descendants of Classical Greeks, and as 'racially pure' - an ideology Germany would soon seize. -
Salonica seized by Nazi Germany
The German army invaded Salonica in 1941. Nazi ideology had long revolved around Classical Greek ideas, so capturing Greece gave them much pleasure.
The wife of the Swiss Consul wrote in a letter: "The specter of a contrived extermination of a whole population cannot be dismissed as a hallucination conjured up by starved stomachs but rather viewed as a logical appraisal of German behavior in Greece," The Nazis soon rounded up the Jews of Salonica, and sent them to concentration camps. -
George Polk Murder (1948) II
Lippman Report, cont'd
"He was the victim of a plot to murder him with the deliberate intent of influencing the course of events in Greece. So far as we know, Polk is the first American correspondant abroad who was murdered for political reasons."
Greece was suffering its own inner turmoil with Communists during the Cold War. Polk was simply an American victim. -
George Polk Murder (1948) I
The Lippman Report on the Murder of CBS Correspondant George Polk, 1951:
"It was also established that Polk was murdered while he was attempting to reach the headquarters of the guerilla forces. There is no doubt that Polk's purpose was to obtain news. The committee is satisfied that Polk's efforts to make contact with Markos and to cross the lines of the Greek civil war were the actions of a bold, enterprising and adventurous American reporter." -
Salonica is Soccer!
http://www.ussoccer.com/news/womens-national-team/2004/08/u-s-olympic-womens-soccer-team-set-for-quarterfinal-clash-with-japan-on-friday.aspx
During the 2004 Athens Olympics, Salonica hosted the soccer events. It seems to have been a nod to the importance of Thessaloniki as the second-biggest city in Greece. It also gave Salonica the change to show itself as truly Olympic, and thus Greek. An opportunity for some image redemption. -
Salonica's Metro I
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-21743758
"Archaeologists and city authorities dream of a metro station combined with a subterranean museum, that will become a major tourist attraction and a constant reminder of the city's glorious past - a past lamentably hidden today by decades of anarchical construction and disastrous city planning." -
Salonica's Metro II
This is a truly Greek phenomena: Ancient ruins popping up everytime the state tries to build something. Some pundits say ruins and artefacts impede modernity and progress, but the city will do its best to balance both by integrating ancient structures into the subway system.
