In addition to his many wives, Philip had, as mistresses, women of no political importance to whom he was attracted. This was as perfectly normal for a Macedonian King as were the young men with whom he shared his bed. If anything, this virtuoso performance of sexual prowess only added to his formidable reputation. In 344 he took, as his mistress, an unusually beautiful woman from Thessaly called, Nicesipolis. So remarkable was his passion for this woman that it attracted the attention of The Queen. Olympias did not care a thing about The King’s boys or mistresses, they posed no danger to her, but Philip’s passion for this woman was so extraordinary that it is said she suspected witchcraft. The women of Thessaly were infamous for the black arts and herein there might be some peril. She commanded the presence of Nicesiopolis in her chambers and the royal court held its breath.

To the everlasting surprise of the world, the two women immediately liked each other and became close friends. Olympias is said to have proclaimed, “You are your own best magic, dear”.

About the year 342 BCE, Nicesipolis bore to Philip a daughter. On the day the girl was born, the armies of Macedon won a significant battle in Thessaly. When the king was told of the birth of his daughter, he is said to have proclaimed, “ Let her be called victory in Thessaly.” which in the Greek language is, Thessalonike.

Her mother did not long survive the birth and upon her death,Thessalonike would become just another of Philip’s illegitimate children to be brought up in the palace by servants and with dim prospects for the future. The best she could hope for would be a political marriage arranged with some minor baron or barbarian chief.

Once again Olympias stepped into the picture. In memory of her close friend, Nicesipolis, the queen took Thessalonike to raise as her own daughter.

Thessaloniki, thus favored, spent her childhood in the queen’s quarters raised, as would be a daughter of Olympias and Philip. Her early childhood would have been no different from that of any of the other royal children in the great palace at Pella. She could not have known Alexander at all as he was under the tutelage of Aristotle in The Gardens Of Midas when she was born and only 6 or 7 when he left on his Persian expedition.

Though only little of it has been excavated, we can see that the palace was a complex of four buildings covering 15 acres in the hills overlooking the city and the sea beyond it. One of these buildings would have been used mainly for housing the wives and children of the king and here Thessalonike would have learned the skills needed for a royal woman’s life.

She would have learned to make fine threads and yarns from the highland wools of Macedon. She would learn to set up a loom and weave the best quality fabrics of a royal household. In these things the Macedonian woman took great pride. She would need to know pattern weaving and tapestry making as well as embroidery and other decorative needlework techniques.

No matter how many servants she had, the Macedonian wife was expected to be proficient in all the household arts and Thessalonike, like every woman in Hellas, was meant to be a wife and mother and no more.

As a royal woman it is possible that she was taught to read and write and to keep household accounts, but education beyond that would not be considered proper. If so, she would learn to read and write in the proper Attic dialect of the Macedonian ruling class though she could not escape familiarity with the thick Macedonian patois which was in use all around her.

She would have learned her religion from Olympias who was a priestess of Dionysius as well as a devotee of the mother goddess worshiped in Pellas under the official name of Aphrodite, Mother Of The Gods. This Aphrodite was really no more than the old earth goddess dressed up for show with a classical Greek aspect. Her worship included dark rites involving the handling of snakes which would seem quite barbarous in the Athens of the day.

Thessalonike was, by far, the youngest child in the care of Olympias. She was only 19 when when her half brother, now King of most of the world and officially a God, died.
As the half sister of Alexander, she now became a far greater prize in the marriage game than when she had merely been the illegitimate daughter of Philip II Of Macedon. Instead she stayed with Olympias who seemed loath to part with her.

As the world was thrown into a turmoil after the death of Alexander, battles raged throughout Asia Minor and Greece for control of the empire. New nations arose under the leadership of Alexander’s generals and jockeyed for world power. Kassandros, the son of Antipater, the old regent of Macedon, had been judged unsuitable for succession by his father. He fought back after the death of Antipater and succeeded in taking over The Kingdom Of Macedon now ruled by Olympias in the name of Alexander’s son by Roxane, Alexander IV.

In 315 BCE Olympias was cornered and besieged by Kassandros in the seaside fortress of Pydna. It is most likely that Thessalonike was with her and withstood a years siege enduring, near the end, near starvation with her foster mother.

Upon the promise of safety, Olympias surrendered. Kassandros immediately had her executed, but he had other plans for poor Thessalonike, now 26.

Having no rightful claim to the throne of Macedon, Kassandros forced a marriage upon Thessalonike who had just been present at her foster mother’s betrayal. She would have had no choice in the matter. By marrying Thessalonike, Kassandros gained some tenuous connection with the family of Alexander and Thessalonike’s life was made more secure. They were wed and Thessalonike eventually became Queen Of Macedon. The little illegitimate daughter, orphaned at 6, with little hope for her future had risen to the highest possible position. She would reign for 21 years and bear Kassandros three sons, Philip, Antipatros, and Alexander and she would have a new capitol city named after her, Thessaloniki, which bears her name to this day.

Kassandros died in May of 297 BCE and was succeeded by his eldest son, Philip, who ruled but briefly before succumbing to the same tuberculosis which had killed his father. Though Antipatros was next in line for the throne, Queen Thessaloniki demanded that it be shared between he and his brother, Alexandros. in the naive belief that they might rule jointly as co kings of Macedon. It was a foolish and unrealistic move as Antipatros quite simply, murdered his mother staightaway and assumed the crown.

So ended the nearly 50 years of Thessalonike, the half sister of Alexander The Great. Born the illegitimate daughter of Philip II and Olympias, she was brought up with little hope of high position, all of her half brothers and sisters were dead before she died a great queen. She was forced to endure a marriage to the murderer of her surrogate mother and outlasted her odious husband only to be murdered by her own son.