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The Massacre of Thessaloniki was a retaliatory action by the Roman Emperor Theodosius I
Theodosius I

Flavius Theodosius , also called Theodosius I and Theodosius the Great , was Roman Emperor from 379 to 395. Reuniting the eastern and western portions of the empire, Theodosius was the last emperor of both the Eastern Roman Empire and Western Roman Empire....
 in 390
390

Events...
 against the inhabitants of the Greek city of Thessaloniki
Thessaloniki

Thessaloniki , Thessalonica, or Salonica is the List of largest cities and second largest cities by country in Greece and the capital of Macedonia , the nation's largest Regions of Greece....
, who had risen in revolt.

The cause of the uprising had been Butherich or Botheric, a Gothic
Goths

The Goths were East Germanic tribes who, in the 3rd and 4th centuries, invasion the Roman Empire and later adopted Arian Christianity. In the 5th and 6th centuries, divided as the Visigoths and the Ostrogoths, they established powerful successor-states of the Roman Empire in the Iberian peninsula and Italy....
 magister militum
Magister militum

Magister militum was a top-level military command used in the later Roman Empire, dating from the reign of Constantine I . Used alone, the term referred to the senior military officer of the Empire....
 in the Emperor's army, ordered to arrest a popular charioteer
Chariot racing

Chariot racing was one of the most popular Ancient Greece, Roman Empire and Byzantine empire sports. Chariot racing was often dangerous to both driver and horse?they frequently suffered serious injury and even death?but generated strong spectator enthusiasm....
 for trying to seduce and have sex with a servant of the emperor or even the magister militum himself.






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The Massacre of Thessaloniki was a retaliatory action by the Roman Emperor Theodosius I
Theodosius I

Flavius Theodosius , also called Theodosius I and Theodosius the Great , was Roman Emperor from 379 to 395. Reuniting the eastern and western portions of the empire, Theodosius was the last emperor of both the Eastern Roman Empire and Western Roman Empire....
 in 390
390

Events...
 against the inhabitants of the Greek city of Thessaloniki
Thessaloniki

Thessaloniki , Thessalonica, or Salonica is the List of largest cities and second largest cities by country in Greece and the capital of Macedonia , the nation's largest Regions of Greece....
, who had risen in revolt.

The cause of the uprising had been Butherich or Botheric, a Gothic
Goths

The Goths were East Germanic tribes who, in the 3rd and 4th centuries, invasion the Roman Empire and later adopted Arian Christianity. In the 5th and 6th centuries, divided as the Visigoths and the Ostrogoths, they established powerful successor-states of the Roman Empire in the Iberian peninsula and Italy....
 magister militum
Magister militum

Magister militum was a top-level military command used in the later Roman Empire, dating from the reign of Constantine I . Used alone, the term referred to the senior military officer of the Empire....
 in the Emperor's army, ordered to arrest a popular charioteer
Chariot racing

Chariot racing was one of the most popular Ancient Greece, Roman Empire and Byzantine empire sports. Chariot racing was often dangerous to both driver and horse?they frequently suffered serious injury and even death?but generated strong spectator enthusiasm....
 for trying to seduce and have sex with a servant of the emperor or even the magister militum himself. The charioteer was locked up in prison, but the citizens of Thessaloniki demanded his release. Butherich was murdered in the following turmoil, and so the Emperor intervened and ordered executions. However, the command was too little too late, and in the hippodrome
Hippodrome

A Hippodrome was a Greek stadium for horse racing and chariot racing. Some present-day horse racing tracks are also called hippodromes, for example the Central Moscow Hippodrome....
 in Thessaloniki angry Gothic troops allegedly massacred 7,000 people - the number is probably exaggerated, but gives a sense of the scale of the massacre. This incident aroused the wrath of the Bishop of Milan, Ambrose, and the church urged the Emperor to repentance. Ambrose in particular stated that the Emperor should imitate David
David

David , was the second king of the united Kingdom of Israel according to the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament. He is depicted as a righteous king, although not without fault, as well as an acclaimed warrior, musician and poet ....
 in the scale of his repentance as he had imitated him in the scale of his guilt, and excommunicated
Excommunication

Excommunication is a religious censure used to deprive or suspend membership in a religious community. The word literally means putting [someone] out of full communion....
 him until he did, only readmitting him to the Eucharist after several months of public penance.

Although Imperial authority did not come into question in this process, the increased moral importance of the church's representatives was nevertheless clear, as was the fact that the Emperor could no longer readily ignore their views. It also shows the strong position of a bishop in the Western part of the Empire, even when facing a strong Emperor and that, despite abolishing the pagan cults, the Emperor was not head of the church
Caesaropapism

Caesaropapism is the idea of combining the power of secularity government with, or making it superior to, the spiritual authority of the Christian Church; especially concerning the connection of the Christian Church with government....
 but limited by it - as Ambrose put it, "the Emperor is in the church, not over the church."

Sources

The massacre is treated in all accounts of Theodosius' reign, including:
  • Adolf Lippold: Theodosius der Große und seine Zeit. 2. 2nd Aufl., München 1980, S. 40ff. Ed, Munich 1980, p. 40ff.
  • J. Norwich, Byzantium: The Early Centuries, p112
  • Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, ch.27 2:56
  • Alexander Demandt: Magister Militum. In: Pauly-Wissowa. Paulys Realencyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft (neue Bearbeitung). Supplementband XII, Sp. 717 - Butherichh and Theodosius


de:Massaker von Thessaloniki de:Butherich