This place, which stands opposite Byzantium, was built by a colony from
Megara, some years before Byzantium, viz. B.C. 685. Its position was so
imprudently selected, that it was called the city of blind men[187]; by
which was intimated the inconsiderate plan of the founders. It was built
on a sandy and barren soil, in preference to the rich one on the
opposite side of the Bosphorus, on which Byzantium was afterwards
founded.
Chalcedon, in the time of its prosperity, was considerable; not only on
account of its buildings, but the wealth of its inhabitants, who
enriched themselves greatly by commerce; more especially by the
exportation of purple dye, which was found in great quantities upon its
coast.
In ancient times it underwent many revolutions; being first subdued by
Otanes, general of the Persians, whose father Sisanes, one of the judges
of the Persian empire, having pronounced an unjust sentence, was flayed
alive by the order of Cambyses. Not long after this the Lacedemonians
made themselves masters of it, but were obliged to give place to the
Athenians, who contented themselves with imposing upon the inhabitants
an annual tribute, which they in time neglecting to pay, were again
reduced to obedience by Alcibiades. Afterwards, with the rest of the
world, it passed under the dominion of the Romans, who were succeeded by
the Greek emperors, under whose administration it became famous by a
celebrated council of the church (A.D. 327), which is recorded under the
name of the council of Chalcedon.
A tribunal also was here erected by the Emperor Julian, to try and
punish the evil ministers of his predecessor, Constantius. "We are now
delivered," said Julian, in a familiar letter to one of his most
intimate friends, "we are now surprisingly delivered from the voracious
jaws of the hydra. I do not mean to apply that epithet to my brother,
Constantius. He is no more;--may the earth lie light on his head! But
his artful and cruel favourites studied to deceive and exasperate a
prince, whose natural mildness cannot be praised without some efforts of
adulation. It is not my intention, however, that these men should be
oppressed; they are accused, and they shall enjoy the benefit of a fair
and impartial trial." The executions of some of these men, one of whom
(Paulus) was burned alive, were accepted, says the historian, as an
inadequate atonement by the widows and orphans of so many hundred
Romans, whom those legal tyrants had betrayed and murdered.
Persians, Greeks, Goths, Saracens, and Turks, by turns, despoiled
Chalcedon. The walls were razed by Valens, and much of the materials was
employed in the aqueduct of Constantinople that bears his name, and
which was, by a singular coincidence, repaired by Soliman II., from the
remaining ruins of this devoted city.
Here it was that the infamous Rufinus, so justly stigmatised by
Claudian, built a magnificent villa, which he called the Oak[188]. He
built, also, a church; and a numerous synod of bishops met in order to
consecrate the wealth and baptise the founder. This double ceremony was
performed with extraordinary pomp.
A.D. 602, Chalcedon became remarkable for the murder of the Emperor
Maurice and his five sons; and afterwards for that of the empress, his
widow, and her three daughters[189]. The ministers of death were
despatched to Chalcedon (by Phocas). They dragged the emperor into his
sanctuary; and the five sons of Maurice were successively murdered
before the eyes of their agonised parent. At each stroke, which he felt
in his heart, he found strength to rehearse a pious ejaculation:--"Thou
art just, O Lord! and thy judgments are righteous."
It is now a small place, known to the Turks by the name of Cadiaci; but
the Greeks still call it by its ancient name. It is a miserable village,
inhabited by a few Greeks, who maintain themselves by their fishery, and
the cultivation of their lands. Wheler found an inscription, importing
that Evante, the son of Antipater, having made a prosperous voyage
towards the Abrotanians and the islands Cyaneæ, and hence desiring to
return by the Ægean Sea and Pontus, offered cakes to the statue he had
erected to Jupiter, who had sent him good weather as a token of a good
voyage.
Pococke says, "There are no remains of the ancient city, all being
destroyed, and the ground occupied by gardens and vineyards." "We
visited the site of Chalcedon," says Dr. Clarke, "of which city scarcely
a trace remains; landing also upon the remarkable rock, where the
light-house is situate, called the tower of Leander. The Turks call it
the 'Maiden's Castle;' possibly it may have been formerly used as a
retreat for nuns, but they relate one of their romantic traditions
concerning a princess, who secluded herself upon this rock, because it
had been foretold she should die by the bite of a serpent, adding, that
she ultimately here encountered the death she sought to avoid[190]."