MENDE
Chalkidike, Greece.
A city on the
peninsula of Pallene located on the Thermaic Gulf near
the modern village of Kalandra. According to Thucydides (
4.123.1) it was founded by Eretria probably in the 8th c. It later founded colonies of its own: Neapolis on the E coast of Pallene (
ATL I 354) and Eion (
Thuc.
4.7). An important trading city, Mende's best known
commodity was its wine which was famed (Athen. I
29,d,e) and sent out all over the Mediterranean. It is
likely that Mende also dealt in grain and wood.
Mende's wealth is indicated by the high amounts of
tribute paid to the Delian Confederacy: 8 talents until
451-450 and then again after 438-437 with fluctuations
in between of from 5 to 9 talents. In the Peloponnesian
War Mende originally sided with Athens, then on the
urging of the oligarchs went over to Brasidas (
Thuc.
4.123), but eventually returned to Athens (Thuc. 4.
129ff). It is not mentioned in connection with the Peace
of Nikias. From 415-414 Mende again appears in the
Athenian Tribute Lists. By 404 the city was minting copper on the Phoenician standard.
Little is known of the city in the 4th c. except that it
engaged in a war with Olynthos (Arist.,
Oec. 2. 1350a.
11ff). The city was not destroyed by Philip II but lost its
importance with the founding of Kassandreia nearby in
315. Livy (
31.45.14) calls Mende a “maritimus vicus” of
Kassandreia.
Mendean amphoras, which carried its famed wine, have
been found throughout the Mediterranean. Silver coinage
began in Mende in the 6th c. on the Euboic standard and
featured various Dionysiac symbols.
Mende's most famous citizen was the renowned 5th c.
sculptor Paionios if, as seems likely, the “Mende in
Thrace” which Pausanias (
5.10.8) gives as that artist's
home is in fact the Chalkidean city.
No systematic excavations have been carried out at the
site nor are there any substantial remains preserved. The
section of fortification wall seen in 1923 by B. D. Meritt
is no longer to be found and the blocks have reportedly
been carried off for reuse by villagers. The outline of the
acropolis is unmistakable, however. There is a sheer drop
on the S to the sea, a steep decline on the E, a ravine on
the W, and a gentler but discernible slope off to the N.
A few architectural blocks and quantities of pottery from
archaic to Hellenistic date at the site are the chief indications of ancient habitation.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
W. M. Leake,
Nor. Gr. (1835) III 155;
B. V. Head,
Catalogue of Greek Coins, 5,
Macedonia
(1879) 80-83; A. Struck,
Makedonische Fahrten (1970)
53; B. D. Meritt, “Scione, Mende, and Torone,”
AJA 27
(1923) 447-60
IM; G. P. Oikonomos,
Μίνδη-Μένδη ἠ Πατρὶς τοῦ Παιωνίου,
ArchEph (1924) 27-40; S. P. Noe, “The Mende (Kaliandra) Hoard,”
Numismatic Notes and Monographs 27 (1926); B. Lenk, “Mende,”
RE XV (1931) 777-80 (bibliography); P. E. Corbett, “Attic Pottery of the Later Fifth Century,”
Hesperia 18 (1949)
336-37; I. B. Brashinsky, “From the History of the Commerce between the North Black Sea Region and Mende in the Fifth and Fourth Centuries,”
Numizmatika i Epigrafika 3 (1962) 45ff; M. Zahrnt,
Olynth und die
Chalkidier (1971) 200-03.
S. G. MILLER
