The history of the Jewish population of Thessaloniki began around 140 BC, when a number of Jews arrived from Alexandria, a port city in Egypt. However, some researchers believe that as early as 315 BC, the year of Thessaloniki’s founding, a small community had already settled here. Flavius Josephus, a Jewish historian of the 1st century CE., made reference to the existence of a Jewish community in Macedonia. In 50 A.D. Paul The Apostle came to the city and preached, so the story goes, in the synagogue Ets Al Haim, presumably located near the harbour, for three consecutive Saturdays. During the Roman era, the Jews, the so-called Romaniotes since they were Hellenized and spoke the Greek language, had gained a certain autonomy, forming a coherent community that was continuously growing and expanding in different parts of the city.