Acts gives no indication that Paul paused in Pella which had from ca. 400 BC until the Roman conquest been the capital of the Macedonian Kingdom and its largest city during the glory days of Philip II (d. 336 BC) and his son Alexander.1 Located in and around modern Pella, it not only sat astride the major east-west land route that later became the VE, but it was also a major port.
Although today it is some 29 kilometers from the coast, in antiquity it was on Lake Loudas and had direct access to the gulf via a river. Its prime location on the river and lake was noted by Livy (44.44.4–8) when he described the Roman takeover by the Roman general Lucius Aemilius Paulus in 168 BC after the Battle of Pydna. When twenty years later the Romans made Thessalonica their new provincial capital and the residence of the proconsul, Pella remained the administrative capital of the third μέρις of the province. An earthquake brought devastation to the city sometime in the following century, and the city was rebuilt and then refounded as a Roman colony in 40 BC with a new forum area 800 m south of the Hellenistic palace.2
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Last updated 11/12/2025 JTS