[161] This case of Thessalonica is an interesting illustration of Bishop Lightfoot's statement:--"The government of the Roman provinces at this time was peculiarly dangerous ground for the romance-writer to venture upon" (_Essays on Supernatural Religion_, p. 291). If the Roman provinces were a dangerous ground for a romance-writer, such as some critics would make the author of the Acts, the government of the large Græco-Roman towns and cities was still more dangerous, as scarcely any two successive ones were alike. Thessalonica is a good instance of this. St. Luke calls the magistrates politarchs, and the triumphal arch at Thessalonica calls them politarchs; a title which seems to have been a very rare one, as only one other instance of its occurrence has been discovered. Monastir, in the north-west of Macedonia, is an important town, and there an inscription belonging to the ancient Deuriopus, twelve miles distant, was found more than twenty years ago containing the same title, politarchs. Surely the stones out of the walls of Thessalonica and of Monastir cry out in defence of St. Luke's accuracy! See Mr. Tozer's _Highlands of Turkey_, vol. i., p. 145, and vol. ii., p. 358, Append. B; Bœckh's _Corp. Ins. Græc._, No. 1967; articles by the Abbé Belley in the _Acad. des Inscript._, xxxviii., p. 125, and by Mr. Vaux in the _Trans. of Roy. Soc. of Literature_, vol. viii., new series. CHAPTER XIII. _ST. PAUL IN GREECE._ "Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him, as he beheld the city full of idols. So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and in the market-place every day with them that met with him. And certain also of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers encountered him. And some said, What would this babbler say? other some, He seemeth to be a setter forth of strange gods: because he preached Jesus and the resurrection."--ACTS xvii. 16-18. "After these things Paul departed from Athens, and came to Corinth."--ACTS xviii. 1.