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CALYNDA

CALYNDA (Κάλυνδα: Eth. Καλυνδεύς), a town of Caria, according to Stephanus, is placed by Strabo 60 stadia from the sea (p. 56,), west of the Gulf of Glaucus, and east of Caunus. The MSS. of Strabo appear to have Calymna, which, however, is an error of the copyists. It appears, from a passage in Herodotus (1.172), that the territory of Caunus bordered on that of Calynda. Damasithymus (Hdt. 8.87), king of Calynda, was at the battle of Salamis with some ships on the, side of, Xerxes; from which we may conclude that Calynda was near the coast, or had some sea-port. Calynda was afterwards, as it appears from Polybius (31.17), subject to Caunus; but having revolted from Caunus, it placed itself under the protection of the Rhodians.

Fellows supposes Calynda to be under a range of mountains near the sea, between two ridges of rocks; “many large squared stones lie in heaps down the slope facing the east, and the valley is guarded by walls of a very early date, of Greek workmanship.” He concludes, from the style of the tombs, that the city was in Lycia. The place is near the gulf of Glaucus or Makri, and east of the river Talaman-su. The remains: which he saw are assigned to Daedala by Hoskyn. (Spratt's Lycia, vol. i. p. 42.) But Fellows discovered a city which is proved by inscriptions to be Cadyanda, a name otherwise unknown to us. It lies NNE. of Makri, on the Gulf of Glaucus or Makri, at a place called Hoozoomlee, situated on an elevated plain, immediately above which are the ruins of Cadyanda. There are many rock tombs and sculptures, one of which is represented in the, frontispiece to Fellows' Lycia, “The ruins, of the city are seated on the level summit of a high mountain; a, great. street, bordered with temples and public buildings, runs down the centre.” (Spratt's Lycia.) Hoskyn, who discovered Caunus, looked in vain for ruins between that place and Cadyanda. Accordingly it is suggested that, the mountains of Hoozoomlee may be the Calyndian mountains. (Spratt's Lycia, vol. i. p. 43.) But these Calyndian mountains are a modern invention, perhaps originating ina misunderstanding of Herodotus (1.132), who speaks of the “Calyndian frontiers” (οὔρων τῶν Καλυνδικῶν). Between Hoozoomlee and Makri, a distance of about 9 miles, there are no ruins; “but in the centre of the plain of Makri there is a burial ground, where some large inscribed blocks, apparently the remains of a building which stood on [p. 1.486]the spot, have the name ‘Cadyands’ included in their inscriptions.” (Spratt's Lycia, vol. i. p. 44.) It is stated in another passage in this work that the monumental inscription was found five or six miles south of Cadyanda.

The name Calynda occurs in Ptolemy (5.3) as a Lycian city, and it is the nearest Lycian city to Caunus in Caria. Pliny (5.28) mentions “Flumen Axon, Oppidum Calynda.” It is plain that Ptolemy's Calynda will not suit the position of Cadyanda; nor can the position of Cadyanda be reconciled with Strabo's position of Calynda. It is certain that Calynda is not Cadyanda. None of the inscriptions of Cadyanda which are given by Fellows and in Spratt's Lycia are of an early period. There is little or no doubt that Calynda is in the basin of the large river Talaman-Su, which seems to be the Calbis of Strabo, and the same river that Pliny and Livy call the Indus.

[G.L]

hide References (5 total)
  • Cross-references from this page (5):
    • Herodotus, Histories, 1.132
    • Herodotus, Histories, 1.172
    • Herodotus, Histories, 8.87
    • Polybius, Histories, 31.17
    • Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia, 5.28
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