Pella

Pella , ancient city of Greek Macedonia, about 24 mi (39 km) NW of Thessalonica (now Thessaloníki). It became the capital of the Macedonian kingdom in the 4th cent. BC It prospered under Macedonian rule but declined after the Roman conquest of Macedonia (168 BC). Alexander the Great was born at Pella. Modern excavations have revealed a grid pattern of large houses decorated with a variety of mosaics.

Pella A city of the Decapolis (Mark 5: 20) captured for the Romans by Pompey in 63 BCE, about 29 km. (18 miles) south of the Sea of Galilee and east of the Jordan. It has been suggested that on the basis of Mark 13: 14 Christians made a mass exodus in 66 CE, leaving Jerusalem to escape the devastation of the imminent siege, and that it was to Pella that they went. But against this is the sense of Jesus' words: they envisage a flight from a rural area in sudden unpremeditated urgency. (Although there is no archaeological evidence at Pella of Christian occupation, the Christians' escape to this Greek city is recorded by the historian Eusebius in the 4th cent.)