Berea sat at the base of Mount Bermius, which is part of the Vermio Mountains and provides an ample supply of water for the city and the region.

The main sources of water were the Haliacmon and Axios Rivers, which supported apple, peach and pear orchards.

[1] The city is reputed to have been named by its mythical founder Beres (also spelled Pheres) or from the daughter of the king of Berroia, who was thought to be the son of Macedon.

In Polybius's history there were two insertions about an inscription that dates the city back to the later part of the 4th century BC.

No one has verified the historical date of the establishment of the city although it has been known to have been surrendered to the Romans from the Macedonians after the Battle of Pydna in 168 BC.

During that time, Veria became the seat of the Koinon of Macedonians (Κοινόν Μακεδόνων), minted its own coinage and held sports games named Alexandreia in honour of Alexander the Great, with athletes from all over Greece competing in them.

In the 1st, century there were two major roads joining the towns of Thessalonica and Beroea, one of them passing close to the ancient city of Pella.

[7] Many of the Beroeans believed, both men and women, but when the Jewish Thessalonian non-believers heard about that, they came to Beroea; stirred up crowds; started riots and ensured that Paul, Silas, and Timothy could not preach.

It is said[citation needed] that Sopater was ordered by a delegation from Beroea to go to Judea with funds that would help the needy of that region.

[8][9] The Byzantine emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos promoted the local see to an archbishopric after 1261, and it advanced further to the rank of a metropolitan see by 1300.