Abstract

The following quotations will show what is thought about the origin and extension of the name Chalkidike and the work of Euboean Chalkis in those parts:—‘The barren islands of Sciathus and Peparethus were the bridge from Euboea to the coast of Macedonia, which, between the rivers Axius and Strymon, runs out into a huge three-pronged promontory. Here Chalcis planted so many towns that the whole promontory was named Chalcidice.’ ‘The whole peninsula was called Chalkidike, and the Greeks in it were comprised under the name of the Thracian Chalkidians.’Some passages of Herodotus and Thucydides led me to suspect that Chalkis took but a minor part, if any, in the colonization of this region; that the area of the Chalkidians of Thrace was comparatively small; that the name S0009838800021960_inline1 was confined to this area; and that these Chalkidians were not colonists from the cities of southern Greece, but, like their neighbours the Bottiaioi, a tribe. Further enquiry, though it has strengthened these suspicions, has not established them beyond doubt; but it seems to me worth while to set out the evidence, in the hope that others may throw light on a question of some importance for the history of Greece. At least I may expect that in future ‘Chalkidike’ and ‘Chalkidians’ will be used with care