Lukes reference to Philippi as the leading [or first] city of the district of Macedonia (prt ts meridos Makedonias polis, according to the majority reading of , A, and C,together with P74with B basically in agreement, though placing the article ts before Makedonias) is somewhat confusing. Actually, Amphipolis, the early districtcapital between 167146 b.c., and Thessalonica, the provincial capital after that,had a more valid claim to that title. Some Alexandrian MSS read prts (of the first)for prt (the first), thus suggesting that Philippi was a city of the first districtof Macedoniathat is, a city of the first of the four administrative districts Macedonia was divided into by the Romans in 167 b.c., before the whole area was reorganized into the province of Macedonia in 146 b.c.It was the first Macedonian city to which Paul and his companions came in that district,Neapolis properly belonging to Thrace. And this epithet of would belongno only as egaded e jouney of Paul and Silas, bu as Wiesele emaks (Con. d. Agsc. . 37, no e) as lying fu es eas wad, fo wic eason alsoe dis ic was called Macedonia ima, oug fu es fom Rome.o ia majo ci y of a dis ic of Macedonia. Tis endeing of t ts meridos Makedonias polis follows the oldest witnesses: P74 A C 81 (Metzger 1994:393395). The UBS3 editorial committee preferred an emendation reconstructed from ancient versions which reads, a city of the first district of Macedonia (prts meridos ts Makedoniaspolis). This is geo-politically more accurate on the surface. Thessalonica wasthe capital of the province of Macedonia, and Amphipolis was the seat of government for the first district, the one in which Philippi was located. If Philippi is designated as first city not politically but as a matter of civic pride, the difficulty is removed. If of Macedonia is a partitive genitive, not a genitive of apposition, as the definite article which precedes it indicates, and if the definite article before district is taken as a demonstrative (a major city of that district of Macedonia), another potential inaccuracyidentifying the province Macedonia asa districtis removed (Barrett 1994:778; Witherington [1998:489] suggests meris be taken not as a technical term, district, but simply as portion, part).