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Chalcedon
- ''For the Ecumenical Council of 451, see Council of Chalcedon; For the religious/political organization, see Chalcedon Foundation.''
Chalcedon (modern English language|English pronunciation or ;["Chalcedon". Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1). Random House, Inc. (accessed: September 21, 2008).] , sometimes transliteration|transliterated as ''Chalkedon'') was an ancient maritime town of Bithynia, in Anatolia|Asia Minor, almost directly opposite Byzantium, south of Üsküdar|Scutari (modern Üsküdar). Today, in modern Turkish language|Turkish, Chalcedon is called Kadıköy, and is a district of Istanbul, Turkey. The variant '''Calchedon''' () is found on all the coins of Chalcedon as well as in manuscripts of Herodotus's ''Histories (Herodotus)|Histories'', Xenophon's ''Hellenica'', Arrian's ''Anabasis'' and other works.
The site of Chalcedon is located on a small peninsula on the north coast of the Sea of Marmara, near the mouth of the Bosphorus. A stream, called the Chalcis or Chalcedon in antiquity,[William Smith (lexicographer)|William Smith, LLD, ed. (1854). ''Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography''. "Chalcedon".] flows into Fenerbahçe bay. There Greek colonists from Megara in Attica founded the settlement of Chalcedon in 685 BC, some seventeen years before Byzantium.
The name of the mineral chalcedony is derived from that of this town.
Prehistory
The mound of Fikirtepe has yielded remains dating to the Copper Age|Chalcolithic period (5500-3500 BC) and attest to a continuous settlement since prehistoric times. Phoenicians were active traders in this area.
Pliny states that Chalcedon was first named Procerastis, a name which may be derived from a point of land near it: then it was named Colpusa, from the form of the harbour probably; and finally Caecorum Oppidum, or the town of the blind.[Pliny. ''Nat.'' 5.32]
Megarian colony
It was a Megara|Megarian colony founded on a site that was viewed at the time as so obviously inferior to that which was within view on the opposite shore, that the Persian general Megabazus is said to have remarked that Chalcedon's founders must have been blind.[Herodotus. ''Histories (Herodotus)|Histories''. 4.144.] Indeed, Strabo and Pliny relate that the oracle of Apollo had told the Athenians and Megarians who founded Byzantium to build their city opposite to the blind, and that the story was interpreted to mean Chalcedon, the 'City of the Blind'.[Strabo (p. 320).][Pliny. ''Nat.'' 9.15]
Chalcedon, however, was a flourishing town in which trade thrived. It contained many temples, including one of Apollo, which had an oracle. Chalcedonia, the territory dependent upon Chalcedon,[Herodotus. ''Histories''. 4.85.)] stretched up the Anatolian bank of the Bosphorus at least as far as the temple of Zeus|Zeus Urius, now the site of Yoros Castle, and may have included the north bank of the Bay of Astacus (ancient city)|Astacus which extends towards İzmit|Nicomedia. Important villages in Chalcedonia included Chrysopolis[Xenophon, Xen. Anab. 6.6, 38-Z1.] (the modern Üsküdar) and Panteicheion (Pendik). Strabo notes that "a little above the sea" in Chalcedonia, there lies "the fountain Azaritia, which contains small crocodiles."[Strabo 1.597.]
In its early history it shared the fortunes of Byzantium, was taken by the satrap Otanes, vacillated long between the Sparta|Lacedaemonian and the Athens|Athenian interests. Darius I of Persia|Darius' bridge of boats, built in 512 BC for the Scythian campaign, extended from Chalcedonia to Thrace.
Chalcedon was included within the kingdom of Bithynia, whose king Nicomedes willed Bithynia to the Romans upon his death in 74 BC.
Roman city
The city was partly destroyed by Mithridates VI of Pontus|Mithridates. The governor of Bithynia, Cotta, had fled to Chalcedon for safety along with thousands of other Romans. Three thousand of them were killed, sixty ships captured, and four ships destroyed in Mithridates' assault on the city.[Appian. ''Mithrid.'' 71; Plut. ''Luc.'' 8.]
During the Empire, Chalcedon recovered, and was given the status of a free city. It fell under the repeated attacks of the barbarian hordes who crossed over after having ravaged Byzantium, including some referred to as Scythians who attacked during the reign of Valerian and Gallienus in the Crisis of the Third Century|mid 3rd century.[Zosimus 1.34.]
Byzantine and Ottoman suburb
Chalcedon suffered somewhat from its proximity to the new imperial capital at Constantinople. First the Byzantines and later the Ottoman Turks used it as a quarry for building materials for Constantinople's monumental structures.[Ammian. 31.1, and the notes of Valesius.] Chalcedon also fell repeatedly to armies attacking Constantinople from the east.
In 361 AD it was the location of the Chalcedon tribunal, where Julian the apostate brought his enemies to trial.
In 451 AD an ecumenical council of Christian leaders convened here. The Council of Chalcedon defined the human and divine natures of Jesus and provoked the schism with the churches composing Oriental Orthodoxy.
The general Belisarius may have spent his years of retirement on his estate of Rufinianae in Chalcedonia.
Beginning in 616 and for at least a decade thereafter, Chalcedon furnished an encampment to the Persian Empire|Persians under Khosrau II of Persia|Chosroes II[Gibbon. ''Decline, &c.'' 100.46.] (cf. Siege of Constantinople (626)). It later fell for a time to the Arabs under Yazid I|Yazid (cf. Siege of Constantinople (674)).
Chalcedon was badly damaged during the Fourth Crusade (1204). It came definitively under Ottoman Empire|Ottoman rule under Orhan I|Orhan Gazi a century before the Fall of Constantinople|Ottoman conquest of Constantinople.
Bishopric
The Metropolitan of Chalcedon holds senior rank (currently third position) within the Greek Orthodox patriarchal synod of Constantinople. The incumbent is Metropolitan Athanasios Papas. The cathedral is that of St. Euphemia.
The last appointment to the Latin titular see of the Roman Catholic Church dates to 1967. The Armenian Catholic titular see has been suppressed. Its last occupant as also that of the Syrian Catholic titular see dates to the 1950s. [Chalcedon - Catholic Encyclopedia article]
Notable people
- Boethus (2nd century BC), Greek sculptor
- Herophilos (2nd century BC), Greek physician
- Thrasymachus (5th century BC), Greek sophist
- Xenocrates (4th century BC), Greek philosopher
See also
- List of traditional Greek place names
References
Category:Greek mythology
Category:Megarian colonies
Category:Ancient Greek cities
Related Images- Small silver jug from Chalcedon.
- Funerary stele from the 1st century BC.
Sources: StartLearningNow, Wikipedia | Usage license: GNU FDL
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