Philippi: a major episcopal centre
  Philippi in Thrace, midway between Thessalonika and Constantinople, was one of the major Christian centres in the Aegean. A vast episcopal centre, it featured a number of churches, as well as residential and administrative quarters, clustered around the so-called Octagon (c. 500), the cathedral church of Philippi. The splendid Basilica A (c. 500) was reached through a series of courtyards and nartheces. Basilica B, of the transept domed type, was erected shortly before 540. Philippi had an active community of artisans involved in the decoration of its churches. Much of the carved structural elements of the buildings is of local manufacture. Numerous coloured glass fragments and lead strips, identified as debris of stained glass panels used in apse windows, have been discovered in the episcopal residence, the Octagon, the extra-mural basilica and Basilica C. The finds date from the sixth century and can be related to the discovery of a small glass workshop in the remains of a Roman building in the south of the city. The same building also housed a metal workshop, identified by casting scraps, slag, bronze weights, numerous nails and knives.
  In the immediate vicinity of the Octagon, to the north of the baptistery, lay a Roman bathing establishment, which was later included in the church complex and was thus probably administrated by the church. One entered the baths through a colonnaded court. To the right of the vestibule, in the north wing, was the keeper's logde, followed by a changing room and an chamber for annointing. To the left, were a washing room and lavatory. A secondary entrance in the west wall of the complex also led onto the court; opposite, lay the cold bath (frigidarium). The south wing of the bathing complex was occupied by the hot and tepid baths (caldarium and tepidarium), the substructure of which is dotted with brick supports allowing the circulation of hot air, firechambers and rooms of unknown function. In the middle of the sixth century, the tepidarium was divided into two separate rooms for simultaneous use by both sexes; consequently, a firechamber room was added.