A city in eastern Macedonia, named for Philip II of Macedon (Alexander's father), who took it in 356 BC for its gold mines. Rome refounded it as a COLONY after the battle fought on its plain in 42 BC — where Antony and Octavian defeated Brutus and Cassius — settling it with army veterans, so it was unusually Roman and unusually proud of it: Latin-speaking, governed on the Italian model, and full of citizens. ⚠ That civic pride is why Paul writes 'live out your CITIZENSHIP worthily of the gospel' (1:27) and 'our commonwealth is in the heavens' (3:20) instead of his usual 'walk'. It was the FIRST city in Europe where he preached (Acts 16), summoned by a night vision; his first convert there was Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth, and he and Silas were beaten and jailed — after which the magistrates, learning they had flogged Roman citizens, came in person to ask them to leave quietly. The congregation that grew there was the one that never gave him trouble and repeatedly sent him money.