Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 1.djvu/617

 GHALGIS. hood of which at the Tillage of Hmmm Nkha, are some remarkable remains (comp. CheenQr, Exped, Euphrat. Tol. i. p. 47S). Or perhaps at Majdel AnjoTy where Abu-1-feda {Tab. Syr, p. 20) speaks of great mins of hewii-8t(me8. (Robinson, BibKoih. Saer, vol. v. p. 90). [E. B. J.] GHALGIS (XaA«c/» : EiK, Xaic<8ev9, Ghald- densb). 1. {'EgripOj KegroporU^ the chief town of Enboea, separated from the opposite coast of Boeotia bj the narrow strait of the Euripns, which is at this spot onlj 40 yards across. The Knripus is here divided into two channeb by a rock in the middle of the strait. This rock is at present occu- pied by a square castle; a stone bridge, 60 or 70 feet in length, connects the Boeotian shore with this castle; and another wooden bridge, about 35 feet long, reaches from the castle to the Enboean coast. In antiquity also, as we shall presently see, a bridge also connected Ghalcis with the Boeotian coast The channel between the Boeotian coast and the nx:k is very shallow, being not more than three feet in depth ; but the channel between the rock a!id Ghalcts is about seven or eight feet in depth. It is in the latter channel that the extraordinary tides take place, which are frequently mentioned by the ancient writers. According to the common account the tide changed seven times in the day, and seven times in the night; but Livy states that there was no regularity in the change, and that the flnx and reflux constantly varied, — a phaenomenon t k CfC^^'^^ b® ascribes to the sudden squalls of wind '^ ' 'from the mountains. (Strabftx. p. ^03 ; Mehi, il. /cro 7; Plm. ii. ftTj Gic f^ Nat, Dear, iii. 10; Liv. xxviii. 6.) -tH^^^. w^i^. Ae,y3»i^ An intelligent modem traveller observes that " at times the water runs as much as eight miles an hour, with a fall under the bridge of about 1| feet; but what is most singular is the feet, that vessels lying 150 yards from the bridge are not in the least affected by this rapid. It remains hut a short time in a quiescent state, changing its direction in a few minutes, and almost immediately resuming its velocity, which is generally from feur to five miles an hour either way, its greatest ra- pidity being however always to the southward. The results of three months' observation, in which the above phaenomena were noted, afforded no suf- ficient data for reducing them to any regularity.** (Penny Cyclopaedia^ vol. x. p. 59.) Ghidcis was a city of great antiquity, and con- tinued to be an important place from the earliest to the latest times. It is said to have been founded before the Trojan war by an Ionic colony from Athens, under the conduct c^ Pandorus, the son of Erechtheus. (Strab. x. p. 447 ; Scymn. Gh. 573.) It is mentioned by Homer. {IL ii. 537.) After the Trojan war Gothus settled in the city another Ionic colony from Athens. (Strab. l c.) Ghalcis soon became one of the greatest of the Ionic cities, and at an early period carried on an extensive com- merce with almost all parts of the Hellenic world. Its greatness at this early period is attested by the numerous colonies which it planted upon the coasts of Macedonia, Italy, Sicily^ and in tlie islands of the Aegaean. It gave its name to the peninsula of Ghalcidice between the Thermaic and Singitic gulfs, in consequence of the large number of cities which it founded m this district. Its first colony, and the earliest of the Greek settlements in the west, was Gumae in Gampania, which it is said to hare founded as eajly as b. c. 1050, in conjunction with GHALGIS. 599 the Aeoliaiu of Gnme and the Eretrians. Bhegium in Italy, and Naxos, Zancle, Tauromenium and other cities in Sicily, are also mentioned as Ghal- cidian colonies. During the early period of its history, the govern* ment of Ghalcis was in the hands of an aristocracy, called Hippobotae ('Iinro^^eu, i. e. the feeders of horses), who corresponded to the 'Ivirc/f in other Grecian states. (Herod, v. 77, vL 100; Strab. x. p. 447 ; Pint Pend, 23 ; Aelian, V, H, vi 1.) These Hippobotae were prdbably proprietors of the fertile plain of Lelantum, which lay between Ghalcis and Eretria. The possession of this plain was a frequent subject of dispute between these two cities (Strab. X. p. 448), and probably occasioned the war between them at an early period, in which some of the most powerftd states of Greece, such as Samos and Miletus, took part (Tfauc. i. 15 ; Herod, v. 99 ; Spanheim, ad Gallim. Del 289 ; Hermann, in Rhemiachet Miueum, vol. L p. 85.) Soon after the expulsion of the Peisistratidae from Athens, the Ghalcidians joined the Boeotians in making war upon the Athenians; bat the latter crossed over into Euboea with a great force, defeated the Ghalcidians in a decisive battle, and divided the lands of the wealthy Hippobotae among 4000 Athe^ nian citizens as clemuhs B. c. 506. (Her. v. 77.) These settlers, however, abandoned their possessions when the Persians, uiKler Datis and Artaphemes, landed at Eretria. (Herod, vi. 100.) After the Persian wars, Ghalcis, with the rest of Euboea, became a tributary of Athens, and continued under her rule, with the exception of a few ninths, till the downfal of the Athenian empire at the close of the Peloponnestan war. In B. c. 445, Ghalcis joined the other Euboeans in their revolt from Athens; but the whole isUmd was speedily recon- quered by Pericles, who altered the government of Ghalcis by the expulsion of the Hippobotae from the dty. (Pint Per. 23.) In the 2 1 St year of the Peloponnesian war, b. a 411, Euboea revolted from Athens (Thuc viii. 95), and on this occasion we first read of the construction of a bridge across the Euripus. Anxious to secure an uninterrupted communication with the Boeotians, the Ghalcidians built a mole fhttn either shore, leaving a passage in the centre for only a single ship: and fortif3ring by towen each side of the opening in the mole. (Diod. xiii. 47.) Ghalcis was now independent for a short time ; but when the Athenians had recovered a pcntion of their former power, it again came under their supremacy, together with the other cities in the island. (Died. XV. 30.) In hiter times it was successively occu- pied by the Macedonians, Antiochus, Mithridates, and the Romans. It was a place of great military importance, commanding, as it did, the navigation between the north and south of Greece, and hence was often taken and retaken by the different parties contending for the supremacy of Greece. Ghalcis, Gorinth, and Demetrias in Thessaly, were called by the last Philip of Maoedon the fetters of Greece, which could not possibly be free, as long as these fortresses were in the possession of a foreign power. (Pol. xvii. 11 ; Liv. xxxii. 37.) Dicaearchus, a contemporary of Alexander the Great, describes Ghalcis as 70 stadia (nearly 9 miles) in circumference, situated upon the slope of a hill, and abounding in gymnasia, temples, theatres, and other public buildings. It was well supplied with water from the fountain Arcthusa. [See above, p. QQ4 J f «. V. .1* .'4 . 'fZ, , , •