Chalcis

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Author: Laxman Burdak, IFS (R).
Map of Greece

Chalcis is the chief town of the island of Euboea or Evia in Greece, situated on the Euripus Strait at its narrowest point. Chalcis was a town destroyed in various wars as mentioned by Pliny.[1]

Variants

Jat Gotras Namesake

Jat Gotras Namesake

Mention by Pliny

Pliny[3] mentions Arabia....Ampelome57 also, a Milesian colony, the town of Athrida, the Calingii, whose city is called Mariva58, and signifies "the lord of all men;" the towns of Palon and Murannimal, near a river by which it is thought that the Euphrates discharges itself, the nations of the Agrei and the Ammonii, the town of Athenæ, the Caunaravi, a name which signifies "most rich in herds," the Coranitæ, the Œsani, and the Choani59. Here were also formerly the Greek towns of Arethusa, Larisa, and Chalcis, which have been destroyed in various wars.

57 Probably the same place as we find spoken of by Herodotus as Ampe, and at which Darius settled a colony of Miletians after the capture of Miletus, B. C. 494.

58 Hardouin remarks that Mariaba, the name found in former editions, has no such meaning in the modern Arabic.

59 Mentioned by Ovid in the Metamorphoses, B. v. 1. 165, et seq. Sillig, however, reads "Ciani."

Ch.2 The Persians capture Tenedus. — They are Defeated at Sea (p.80-81)

Arrian[4] mentions .... After accomplishing this, Pharnabazus sailed to Lycia, taking with him the Grecian mercenaries; but Autophradates sailed to the other islands. Meantime Darius sent Thymondas, son of Mentor,[1] down to the maritime districts, to take over the Grecian auxiliaries from Pharnabazus and to lead them up to him; and to tell Pharnabazus that he was to be the ruler of all that Memnon had ruled. So Pharnabazus handed over to him the Grecian auxiliaries and then sailed to join Autophradates and the fleet. When they met, they despatched Datames, a Persian, with ten ships to the islands called Cyclades,[2] whilst they with 100 sailed to Tenedus.[3] Having sailed into the harbour of Tenedus which is called Borēus, they sent a message to the inhabitants, commanding them to demolish the pillars on which the treaty made by them with Alexander and the Greeks was inscribed, and to observe in regard to Darius the terms of the peace which they had ratified with the king of Persia in the time of Antalcidas. The Tenedians preferred to be on terms of amity with Alexander and the Greeks; but in the present crisis it seemed impossible to save themselves except by yielding to the Persians, since Hegelochus, who had been commissioned by Alexander to collect another naval force, had not yet gathered so large a fleet as to warrant them in expecting any speedy succour from him. Accordingly Pharnabazus made the Tenedians comply with his demands rather from fear than good-will.

Meantime Proteas, son of Andronicus, by command of Antipater,[4] succeeded in collecting ships of war from Euboea and the Peloponnese, so that there might be some protection both for the islands and for Greece itself, if the foreigners attacked them by sea, as it was reported they intended to do. Learning that Datames with ten ships was moored near Siphnus,[5] Proteas set out by night with fifteen from Chalcis on the Euripus,[6] and approaching the island of Cythnus[7] at dawn, he spent the day there in order to get more certain information of the movements of the ten ships, resolving at the same time to fall upon the Phoenicians by night, when he would be likely to strike them with greater terror. Having discovered with certainty that Datames was moored with his ships at Siphnus, he sailed thither while it was still dark, and just at the very dawn fell upon them when they least expected it, and captured eight of the ships, men and all. But Datames, with the other two triremes, escaped by stealth at the beginning of the attack made by the ships with Proteas, and reached the rest of the Persian fleet in safety.

1. Cf. ii. 13 infra.

2. "Cyclades ideo sio appellatae, quod omnes ambiunt Delon partu deorum insignem."—Ammianus, xxii. 8, Cf. Horace (Carm.,i. 14, 19; iii. 28, 14).

3. Cf. Vergil (Aeneid, ii. 21).

4. The regent of Macedonia and Greece during Alexander's absence.

5. One of the Cyclades, a little to the north-east of Melos. It was noted for the low morality of its inhabitants. See Aristophanes (Fragment, 558; on the authority of Suidas).

6. Euripus properly means any narrow sea, where the ebb and flow of the tide is violent. The name was especially applied to the strait between Boeotia and Euboea, where the ancients asserted the sea ebbed and flowed seven times in the day (Strabo, ix. 1). Modern observers have noticed these extraordinary tides. The present name of the island, Negropont, is the Italian name formed from Egripo, the modern corruption of Euripus. Cf . Cicero, pro Muraena, xvii.:—Quod freturn, quem Euripum tot motus, tantas, tam varias habere putatis agitationes fluctuum, quantas perturbationes et quantos aestus habet ratio comitiorum. Aristotle, Ethica Nicomachea, ix. 6:—τῶν τοιούτων γὰρ μένει τὰ βουλήματα, καὶ οὐ μεταῤῥεῖ ὥσπερ Εὔριπος.

7. One of the Cyclades, about half-way between Attica and Siphnus.

p.80-81

Name

The name is preserved from antiquity and is derived from the Greek χαλκός (copper, bronze), though there is no trace of any mines in the area.[5] In the Late Middle Ages, it was known as Negropont(e), an Italian name that has also been applied to the entire island of Euboea.

History

The earliest recorded mention of Chalcis is in the Iliad,[6] where it is mentioned in the same line as its rival Eretria. It is also documented that the ships set for the Trojan War gathered at Aulis, the south bank of the strait near the city. Chamber tombs at Trypa and Vromousa dated to the Mycenaean period were excavated by Papavasiliou in 1910. In the 8th and 7th centuries BC, colonists from Chalcis founded thirty townships on the peninsula of Chalcidice and several important cities in Magna Graecia and Sicily, such as Naxos, Rhegion, Zankle and Cumae. Its mineral produces, metal-work, purple, and pottery not only found markets among these settlements but were distributed over the Mediterranean in the ships of Corinth and Samos.[7]

With the help of these allies, Chalcis engaged the rival league of its neighbor Eretria in the so-called Lelantine War, by which it acquired the best agricultural district of Euboea and became the chief city of the island. Late in the 6th century BC, its prosperity was broken by a disastrous war with the Athenians, who expelled the ruling aristocracy and settled a cleruchy on the site. Chalcis subsequently became a member of both the Delian Leagues.[8]

Chalkis has had a Greco-Jewish presence since antiquity, which is sometimes claimed to have been continuous and to thus form Europe's oldest Jewish community,[9] although there is no evidence of it through the early Middle Ages.[10]

In the Hellenistic period, it gained importance as a fortress by which the Macedonian rulers controlled central Greece. It was used by kings Antiochus III of Syria (192 BC) and Mithradates VI of Pontus (88 BC) as a base for invading Greece.[11]

Under Roman rule, Chalcis retained a measure of commercial prosperity within the province of Achaea (the north half of Greece).[12]

References

  1. ↑ Natural History by Pliny Book VI/Chapter 32
  2. ↑ Richmond, Henry J. (1905), The Pronunciation of Greek and Latin Proper Names in English, Ann Arbor: George Wahr, p. 32, ISBN 9780857927866
  3. ↑ Natural History by Pliny Book VI/Chapter 32
  4. ↑ The Anabasis of Alexander/2a, p.80-81
  5. ↑ Simon C. Bakhuizen, R. Kreulen, Chalcis-in-Euboea: Iron and Chalcidians Abroad, Brill Archive, 1976, p. 58.
  6. ↑ Homer, Il., Bk. II, l. 537.
  7. ↑ Chisholm 1911.
  8. ↑ Chisholm 1911.
  9. ↑ "ΚΟΙΝΟΤΗΤΑ ΧΑΛΚΙΔΑΣ - ΙΣΤΟΡΙΚΟ". Kis.gr.
  10. ↑ Deutsch, Gotthard; Caimi, M. (1902). "Chalcis". In Singer, Isidore; et al. (eds.). The Jewish Encyclopedia. Vol. 3. New York: Funk & Wagnalls. p. 661.
  11. ↑ Chisholm 1911.
  12. ↑ Chisholm 1911.
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