This volume brings together international scholars of religion, archaeologists, and scholars of art and architectural history to investigate social, political, and religious life in Roman and early Christian Thessalonike, an important metropolis in the Hellenistic, Roman, and early Christian periods and beyond. This volume is the first broadly interdisciplinary investigation of Roman and early Christian Thessalonike in English and offers new data and new interpretations by scholars of ancient religion and archaeology. The book covers materials usually treated by a broad range of disciplines: New Testament and early Christian literature, art historical materials, urban planning in antiquity, material culture and daily life, and archaeological artifacts from the Roman to the late antique period.

This volume fills a major gap: there are no modern publications describing the mosaics of the major Byzantine monuments of Thessaloniki aimed at the contemporary reader, both specialist and layman. The preserved mosaic decorations of the Rotonda, Hosios David, Ayia Sophia, Ayioi Apostoloi and the basilicas of Ayios Dimitrios and the Acheiropoietos are presented with lavish, high-quality illustrations and an elegant text that highlights the aesthetic values of the monuments. Th e mural mosaics of Thessaloniki are masterpieces of Byzantine art, of major historical and artistic importance. Nonetheless, they have not received the attention and enhancement that they deserve to make them accessible to the general public and to scholars. The authors of this important book served for over 40 years as Ephors of Byzantine Antiquities of Thessaloniki. After the 1978 earthquakes, they directed works on the consolidation and conservation of the mosaics, alongside their colleagues, archaeologists, architects and conservators from the Ephorate of Byzantine Antiquities of Thessaloniki. Their work has resulted in much new information on the mosaics becoming available, which is recorded in this volume. Illustrated with high quality photographs and drawings. 358 colour illustrations and 38 b&w drawings.

Representing a cooperative effort between archaeologists and New Testament scholars, this volume presents a full account of all archaeological finds related to Philippi as it existed in the early Roman Imperial period. In addition, it contains a discussion of the consequences of the discovery in Philippi of the early fourth-century "Basilika of Paul" and the subsequent construction of an octagon around an older tomb of a hero, suggesting that a cult of the martyr Paul flourished in Philippi during the fourth, fifth, and sixth centuries. The volume also includes the first-ever publication of a recently discovered inscription mentioning a Jewish synagogue, photographs, and illustrations.