Chalcis

Chalcis (/ˈkælsᵻs/;Ancient Greek & Katharevousa: Χαλκίς, Chalkís) or Chalkida (Modern Greek: Χαλκίδα, [xalˈciða]) is the chief town of the island of Euboea in Greece, is situated on the Euripus Strait at its narrowest point. The name is preserved from antiquity and is derived from the Greek χαλκός (copper, bronze), though there is no trace of any mines in the area. In the late Middle Ages, it was known as Negropont (Italian: Negroponte, "black bridge"), a name that was applied to the entire island of Euboea as well. Its people are known in English as Chalcidians.

History

Ancient Greece

The earliest recorded mention of Chalcis is in the Iliad (2.537), where it is mentioned in the same line as its rival Eretria. It is also documented that the ships set for the Trojan War gathered at Avlis, the south bank of the strait nearby the city. Chamber tombs at Trypa and Vromousa dated to the Mycenaean period were excavated by Papavasiliou in 1910. In the 8th and 7th centuries BC, colonists from Chalcis founded thirty townships on the peninsula of Chalcidice and several important cities in Magna Graecia, such as Naxos, Rhegion and Cumae. Its mineral produce, metal-work, purple and pottery not only found markets among these settlements, but were distributed over the Mediterranean in the ships of Corinth and Samos.

Qinnasrin

Qinnasrin (Arabic: قنسرين‎; Syriac: ܩܢܫܪܝܢ‎, Qinnašrīn), also known by numerous other romanizations and originally known as Chalcis-on-Belus (Latin: Chalcis ad Belum;Greek: Χαλκὶς, Khalkìs), was a historical town in northern Syria. The town was situated 25 km south west of Aleppo on the west bank of the Queiq River and was connected to Aleppo with a major road during Roman times.

History

Chalcis was distinguished from its namesake by its river, the ancient Belus. The river—but not the city—was named for the Semitic god Bel or Baʿal.

The ancient Chalcis was the seat of a minor Roman client kingdom under three tetrarchs of the Herodian dynasty, Herod of Chalcis (died AD 48), Herod Agrippa II (ruler of Chalcis from 48-53), and Aristobulus of Chalcis (ruler of Chalcis from 57-92). Chalcis was the birthplace of 3rd century Neoplatonist philosopher Iamblichus and Rabbula, a bishop of Edessa from 411 to August 435.

The city was a Christian bishopric from an early stage, at first a suffragan of Seleucia Pieria, but later raised to the dignity of autocephalous archdiocese. The names of several of its bishops are known, from that of 3rd-century Tranquillus to that of Probus, who lived at the end of the 6th century and whom Emperor Mauritius Tiberius sent as his envoy to the Persian king Chosroes I. Later it became an important religious and cultural center of Syriac Christianity, gaining fame for its school of theology and monastery until the 10th century.

Chalcis (wasp)

Chalcis is a wasp genus in the tribe Chalcidini.

Species

According to waspweb.org, there are 19 species :

References