BEROEA (now Veria) is the second place in Emathia; its name-sake in Syria was far more important, but both still exist. Beroea was a flourishing place throughout the middle ages, and continued to be a wealthy town until its present destruction. Edessa is at present only a village. Whenever the ancient seat of the Macedonian kings is mentioned, when you read in Thucydides of Perdiccas and Archelaus (the latter is spoken of also by Plato as a prince who drew to his court the wits and talents from Athens, just as German princes formerly invited Frenchmen), and even when Amyntas, Philip’s father, is spoken of, you must always conceive them as residing at Aegeae. Philip was the first to make PELLA on the Ludias great; it was previously a small Bottiaean place, which was conquered by the Macedonians, when they drove the Bottiaeans into Chalcidice; Herodotus calls it a πολίχνιον. The district lost its name Bottiaeis, which in Herodotus it still bears, and became part of Macedonia. Philip, who, like Peter the Great, from the moment of his accession, set about raising the kingdom from its obscurity, took the first step towards this object in transferring his residence from the distant Aegeae to Pella, which was near enough to the sea to carry on commerce. The rivers in that part of the country, especially the Ludias, were then navigable, but they are now filled up with sand. Pella, however, was not so near the sea as to enable the Athenians to take it by surprise in a maritime expedition. Its situation on a hill surrounded by waters (τόπος χερσονησοειδής) was very strong. It was now quickly changed into a considerable city, though we must not conceive it to have been very large. Had Alexander not become estranged from Macedonia, it would probably have risen to still greater importance; but it remained the capital of an empire which was at all events considerable. Antipater lived there as regent of Macedonia in his barbarous and cynic simplicity, the picture of an Albanese or Illyrian chief in his affected wretchedness: he had a disgust for regal splendour, and his government certainly added nothing to the beauty of Pella. He appeared in public as a common Macedonian soldier, wrapped up in his cloak (τρίβων), wearing the καυσία (the Illyrian cap), and a stick. Cassander spent less of his time at Pella than at Thessalonica and Cassandrea; but the Antigonids resided there, and from the time of Antigonus Gonatas till that of Perseus, a period of nearly a century, Pella remained the capital, and was a splendid town, though not to be compared with the great cities of Antioch and Alexandria. After the wars of Perseus, the Romans took it without resistance, and carried off a large number of works of art, with which Alexander had adorned the city; the masterworks of Lysippus, which were erected at Pella, were carried away by Aemilius Paullus. Dion Chrysostomus,[103] in his very excellent Tarsian oration, says that Pella was a heap of ruins.