1. Historical Background

Chalcedon, the city of Bithynia, was built on a small peninsula on the Asian shore of the Bosporus. Together with Byzantium, built on the exactly opposite shore, they were the most powerful cities of the region in Antiquity. Today it is a suburb of Constantinople named Kadiköy.

The name Kalchedon is also often evidenced in ancient texts, although in the course of time the word Chalcedon prevailed. As regards the origin of the name, it remains unclear due to several different traditions.¹ In the Prehistoric era the place seems to have been inhabited by Phoenicians and Thracians.

The Greek city was founded by Megarian colonists under Archias in 685 BC. According to Herodotus,² those colonists were considered ‘blind’, which is the only reason that justifies why they did not realize the advantageous position of the opposite European shore of the Bosporus, on the site where 17 years later Byzantium was founded.

The history of the city remained unknown until deep in the 6^th century BC. It was then that the Persian king Darius, on his way back from the unsuccessful campaign against the Scythians (513/12 BC), subjected Chalcedon and Byzantium, thus safeguarding a beachhead on European land. The conditions of the subordination instigated the Chalcedonians to take part in the Ionian Revolt against the Persian Empire (499-494 BC). The suppression of the revolt by the Persians made lots of inhabitants escape to Mesembria (now Nesebar), a Chalcedonian colony on the Black Sea coast. The Persian domination in the region ended when the Spartan general Pausanias besieged and conquered Byzantium in 478 BC.

In the years following the Persian wars Chalcedon joined the Delian League paying a tax of 6 to 9 talents. During the Peloponnesian War (431-404 BC) the city allied with the Athenians and the Spartans interchangeably.³ In 386 BC, under Antalcidas' Peace, it came under the Persian King again.

Things changed again in 357 BC, when the city was occupied by Byzantium. The two cities formed a confederation, a local union, whose existence is evidenced by the bronze coins of the 3^rd and 2^nd century BC bearing the inscription ‘ΒΥΖΑΝΚΑΛΧΑΔΩ’.⁴

In the turbulent years of the wars among the successors of Alexander the Great, Chalcedon managed to maintain its independence. In 281 BC its inhabitants allied with Heraclea, Byzantium and Mithradates I, the king of Pontus, against the Seleucids, who wished to expand their domination over Asia Minor. Shortly later (280 BC) Nicomedes I, the king of Bithynia, joined the alliance.⁵

In 202 BC the city was occupied by Philip V, the king of Macedonia. When Philip V was defeated at Cynoscephalae (Thessaly) in 196 BC, the Macedonian domination ended and the Romans proclaimed Chalcedon, as well as all Greek cities subjected to Macedonia so far, independent. The grateful inhabitants of Chalcedon allied with the Romans in the following Macedonian war against Perseus, son of Philip V (171-168 BC).

As an ally of Rome, Chalcedon shared the heavy defeat of the Roman ground and naval forces, when in 73 BC Mithradates VI Eupator Dionysus, the king of Pontus, invaded Bithynia. The previous year Nicomedes III, the king of Bithynia, had bequeathed his kingdom to Rome. After Asia was reorganised by Pompey, Bithynia together with the neighbouring region of Pontus formed a common province (64 BC).

In the years of Augustus (27 BC -14 AD) Chalcedon briefly came under the control of the king of Thrace Rhοimetalkes I. From then on, and throughout the Imperial years, the city remained independent. In 258, in Valerian’s years, the city did not escape the destructive raids of Black Sea Scythians. The administrative reforms of Diocletian (286-305 AD) more than doubled the number of Roman provinces by partitioning the former ones. It was then that Bithynia became a separate province and came under the eastern state after the Empire was divided into two parts. According to Zonaras,⁶ Chalcedon was a candidate city for the new capital of the Byzantine state. In 365/66 the city suffered the destructive revenge of the Byzantine Emperor Valens (364-378) because it was on the side of the pretender of the throne Prokopios. What is more, Valens used the building material of the ruined city walls to build an aqueduct in Constantinople.

In 451 the 4th Ecumenical Council was held in Chalcedon, which proves that the city was partially rebuilt after it was devastated by Valens. In the following centuries the successive wars of the Byzantine Empire did not let the city unharmed. The end came shortly before the Fall of Constantinople to the Turks in 1453.

2. Colonies

According to ancient sources, Chalcedon took part in the foundation of three colonies,⁷ although only one of them may be considered a purely Chalcedonian colony. It is Astacοs, on the northeastern coast of the Propontis, founded in the 7^th century BC. The participation of Chalcedon in the foundation of Byzantium, on the opposite shore of the Bosporus, is supported by literary tradition and the institution of the hieromnemon, common in both cities, –a religious archon with political jurisdictions– in contrast to the lack of the institution in Megara, the metropolis of both cities. However, the majority of modern scholars agree that the participation of Chalcedon in the foundation of Byzantium is still nothing but a supposition. Finally, together with Megara, Chalcedon founded Mesembria on the western shore of the Black Sea in the late 6^th century BC, when the Persian king Darius campaigned against the Scythians. In 493 BC, after the Ionian Revolt was suppressed, refugees from Byzantium and Chalcedon populated again the colony in Pontus.⁸

3. Economy

As regards commerce, the location of the city on the eastern shore of the Bosporus was less favourable in comparison with the location of Byzantium on the opposite shore. The strong sea currents made it difficult for the ships to get to the port and hindered the development of fishing. However, one of the major sources of Chalcedon was fishing, as it happened in all the cities of the Propontis and northern Black Sea. Although Chalcedon never became as important as Byzantium, it benefited from the major commercial sea route connecting the Aegean with the Black Sea. Both cities were important hubs along the commercial arteries to southern Russia, the breadbasket of Antiquity, and the Caucasus Mountains, a region rich in mineral deposits.

Another natural resource was the fertile, well-irrigated land around the namesake river. According to students, the wealthy land, ideal for cultivation, was the reason why the first Megarian colonists chose the particular location instead of Byzantium. The agricultural character of the area is indicated by the ear of the wheat appearing on the front side of Chalcedonian coins. Coinage in the city started in the 5^th century BC. The coins are similar to the Byzantine ones, signifying the close relations between the two Megarian colonies.⁹

The economic prosperity of the city was also helped by the exploitation of the island of Chalke,¹⁰ rich in semiprecious stones and copper, which belonged in the territory of Chalcedon.

4. Political System

The only information about the political system of Chalcedon is that, after the city was occupied by Byzantium in 357 BC, democracy was established instead of the moderate oligarchy existing so far. Political institutions, to the extent they are known, verify the evidenced foundation of Chalcedon by Megara. The Megarian origin is also verified by the common division of the citizens of both cities into tribes, the hekatosties.¹¹

The metropolis bequeathed to the Chalcedonians the institutions of the eponymous archon, the so-called basileus, and the aesymnetes. In Chalcedon as well as in other Megarian colonies, the aesymnetes were the members of a committee of the Boule. Like the respective institution of the prytaneis in the Athenian Democracy, the aesymnetes of the democratic city of Chalcedon were chosen by lot and served a one-month term. One of them presided over the Boule as well, like the epistates ('chairman') of the prytaneis in Athens. The Boule, just like the Demos, is evidenced on inscriptions from the 3^rd and the 2^nd century BC. Another sovereignty of the city of Chalcedon was the hieromnemon, a religious archon with political jurisdictions as well, second in order behind the eponymous king. Other posts evidenced in epigraphic texts are the law-keepers, the generals and the bursars, a widely spread economic authority in Asia Minor cities in the Hellenistic period.¹²

5. Religion

Both inscriptions and ancient sources provide almost full information about the city’s religious life. As it happened in the metropolis of Megara, Apollo Pythios or Chresterios was the patron god. The ritual included athletic and musical competitions, the Pythian Games. Both the name and the games prove the Delphic origin of the cult. In Chalcedon the high-priest of the god was called a prophet and his post was very important, judging from the fact that in the inscriptions he appears together with the top authorities of the city.

The importance of the sanctuary of Chalcedon was recognised by the Delphic oracle in the late 3^rd century BC. At the time Delphi was under the control of the Aetolians, with whom Chalcedon had established a system of confederation (isopoliteia)(213-203 BC).

According to ancient sources, the most famous sanctuary in the territory of the city was the Hieron, on the eastern coast of the Bosporus. Tradition says that Jason performed sacrifices here on his way back from Colchis, while in historical years Zeus Ourios (‘of the fair wind’) was worshipped here.¹³

6. Architecture and Arts

The remains of the ancient city were still visible in the 16^th century AD. However, because of the extensive building nothing is preserved today. For this reason, there is no information about the city plan and the general characteristics of the city’s development. Literary sources provide very little information about ancient topography. According to mediaeval literature, the city was built on a peninsula in the vicinity of the namesake river; it had two ports, one on each side of the strait. Mediaeval travellers’ texts report remains of the jetties of both ancient ports.¹⁴ Today, the displaced shoreline has obliterated any traces of the jetties and the strait. Apart from these two ports, there was an even more important port, Φρίξου λιμήν(port of Phrixos), whose location remains unknown.

Chalcedon was protected by a fortification wall, whose existence is concluded by the known sieges of the city and verified by Polyaenus.¹⁵ In 365 AD, while the Byzantine Emperor Valens was laying siege to the city, the walls were demolished and their material was used for the construction of an aqueduct in Constantinople.

In the course of time the territory of Chalcedon included the eastern coast of the Bosporus to the Hieron of Zeus to the north, while to the east it extended along the coast of the Propontis. The most important city of the territory was Chrysopolis (now Üsküdar), which in 410/9 BC was walled in by Alcibiades, in an attempt of the Athenians to maintain the Straits and the Propontis under their control.

Insufficient systematic excavations do not verify the literary and epigraphic evidence concerning the city’s public buildings with the only exception of the recent discovery of a necropolis at the foot of Yeldeğirmeni Hill.¹⁶ The majority of the tombs date back to the Hellenistic and Imperial period, while the cemetery continued to be in use in the Byzantine years as well.

It seems very probable that in Chalcedon developed an intensive sculptural and metalworking activity, although direct archaeological evidence is missing, since it was the native city of the famous sculptor and toreut Boethus. According to the recent research Boethus worked in Chalcedon for a long period and his works were very popular among the Romans.¹⁷