CHALKEDON
or Kalchedon (Kadiköy) Turkey.
City in Bithynia, across the Bosporus from Istanbul. The site appears to have been originally occupied
by Phoenicians and Thracians; the Greek city was
founded by Megarian colonists led by Archias in 685
B.C., 17 years before Byzantium. Since they overlooked
the far superior site a mile or so across the water,
Chalkedon became known as the city of the blind. As
a member of the Delian Confederation the city paid a
tribute varying between nine talents and three, and in
416 B.C., as an independent city, Chalkedon attacked and
defeated the Bithynians (Diod. Sik. 12.82.2). It passed
to the Persians in 387 B.C., but was liberated by Alexander and remained free until Philip V subjected it for
a short time. After his defeat the city obtained freedom
and an alliance from Rome, and became wholly Roman
when in 74 B.C. Nikomedes IV bequeathed his kingdom
to Rome. In the following year Aur. Cotta, barricaded
in Chalkedon, was attacked and decisively defeated by
Mithridates. A free city under the Empire, Chalkedon
was raided and plundered by Scythians during the reign
of Valerian (Zosim. 1.34). The coinage extends from the
early 5th c. B.C. to the 3d c. A.D.
The site is described by Dionysios Byzantios (
GGM II,
93, fr. 67). It stood on a peninsula close above a river
also called Chalkedon, with a harbor on either side of
the isthmus, E and W, and an oracular shrine of Apollo.
The river is the stream, now mostly built over, which
flows into Moda Bay; the city stood on the higher
ground between the Kadiköy boat station and Moda
Point. The harbors have filled up and the isthmus has
disappeared. Remnants of the ancient city were still to
be seen in the 16th c., but nothing remains today. Some
Greek sherds have been found on Moda Point, and a few
fragments of ancient wall are said to have been visible
until recently, but nothing more.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
C. Müller,
Geographi Graeci Minores
(1861) II, 96; E. Mamboury,
Constantinople, Tourists'
Guide (English ed. 1924) 412-13.
G. E. BEAN
