Gale (Chalcidice)

Gale (Greek: Γάλη) was an ancient Greek town on the west coast of the peninsula of Sithonia, Chalcidice, ancient Macedonia. It was a colony of Chalcis.[1][2]

Gale was mentioned in the Athenian tribute lists for 435/4 – 433/432 BCE. Before 435 its name is absent from the lists, probably because the city then paid its due via a syntely, a federation of several cities paying their taxes jointly. In 432/1 Gale's name is absent too, probably because in that year, at the beginning of the Peloponnesian War, the city took part in a revolt against Athens as head of the Delian League. In the lists for 425 and 421 BCE Gale was assessed a negligible tax amount, which suggests that the city by that time had been destroyed, or at least depopulated.[3]

In classical literature Gale's name is mentioned nowhere, but it is believed that the city of Gale was in fact meant in two cases where, due to an error in writing, a better-known nearby city was mentioned: Herodotus (Histories, VII.122) speaks of Galepsus where Gale was meant,[4] and Thucydides (The Peloponnesian War, V.18.6) speaks of "Sanaious" (inhabitants of Sane, a nearby colony of Andros) where "Galaious" (inhabitants of Gale) was meant.[5]

References
  1. Bradeen, Donald W. (1952). "The Chalcidians in Thrace". The American Journal of Philology. 73 (4): 356–380: p. 375. Retrieved 13 November 2022.
  2. Tsetskhladze, Gocha R. (2006). Greek Colonisation. An account of Greek Colonies and Other Settlements Overseas. Vol. 1. Leiden, Boston: Brill. p. lxix (Table 6). ISBN 978-90-04-12204-8.
  3. West, Allen Brown (1937). "Thucydides V, 18, 6. Sane or Gale". The American Journal of Philology. 58 (2): 166-173: pp. 171-173. Retrieved 13 November 2022.
  4. West (1937), p. 171 n. 15.
  5. West (1937), pp. 172-173.

40°6′N 23°47′E


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