LEUCAE
LEUCAE or
LEUCE (
Λεῦκαι,
Λεύκη) a small town of Ionia, in the neighbourhood of Phocaea, was situated, according to Pliny (
5.31), “in promontorio quod insula fuit.” From Scylax (p. 37) we learn that it was a place with harbours.
According to Diodorus (
15.18) the Persian admiral Tachos founded this town on an eminence on the sea coast, in B.C. 352; but shortly after, when Tachos had died, the Clazomenians and Cymaeans quarrelled about its possession, and the former succeeded by a stratagem in making themselves masters of it.
At a later time Leucae became remarkable for the battle fought in its neighbourhood between the consul Licinius Crassus and Aristonicus, B.C. 131. (
Strab. xiv. p.646; Justin,
36.4.) Some have supposed this place to be identical with the Leuconium mentioned by Thucydides (
8.24); but this is impossible, as this latter place must be looked for in Chios.
The site of the ancient Leucae cannot be a matter of doubt, as a village of the name of
Levke, close upon the sea, at the foot of a hill, is evidently the modern representative of its ancient namesake. (Arundell,
Seven Churches, p. 295.)
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L.S]
