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228 CHALCONDYLES CHALDEA side. Over against Chalcis, at about 3 m. dis- tance, is a steep craggy promontory on the mainland, considerably 8. of the strait. This is undoubtedly the "rocky Aulis," on which was pitched the camp of Agamemnon when his fleet was wind-bound through the wrath of Diana. This promontory separates two rocky inlets ; one is of small size and inconsid- erable depth of water ; the other is much lar- ger, and is still called Vathy, the modern cor- ruption for fiadve fafijfv, the deep harbor, in which lay moored the Grecian fleet. The strait is divided by a rocky islet, which is con- nected with the mainland by a stone bridge, 70 ft. long, and with Euboea by a wooden bridge, with draws at each end for the passage of vessels. There are no vestiges of ancient Chalcis, except a few fragments of white mar- ble in the walls of mosques and houses, and the bust of a statue in the wall of a house in the fortress. Many of the better houses are of Venetian construction, and there is a church with a high pointed roof, a square tower, and Gothic windows, which was probably built by the same people. Chalcis was a flourishing town in remote antiquity. It planted colonies in Italy, Sicily, and chiefly in the Macedonian peninsula between the Strymonic and Thermaic gulfs, which from its Euboean settlements re- ceived the name of Chalcidice. On account of its situation it was important in the Grecian wars, and it largely figures in them. The Ve- netians took it from the Byzantine empire in 1205, and the Turks from them, under the con- queror of Constantinople. Aristotle died here. CHALCONDYLES, or duleocondyles. I. Laonl- cns or Mfolans, a Byzantine historian, born in Athens near the end of the 14th century, died about 1464. He was present at the siege of Constantinople, and wrote a history of the Turks and the fall of the Byzantine empire, which is quoted by Gibbon. The best Greek edition was published in 1650, and a French translation by Blaise de Vigneres (1557-'84). II. Demetrius, a Greek scholar, a relative, some say a son, of the preceding, born in Athens about 1423, died in Milan about 1510. He taught Greek at Perugia, and was afterward appointed professor at Florence, where he re- mained till 1492, when he removed to Milan. He prepared the first printed editions of Homer (Florence, 1488), of Isocrates (Milan, 1493), and of Suidas (1499) ; and composed a Greek gram- mar, Erotemato (Milan, 1493). CHALDEA, properly the name of the S. W. part of ancient Babylonia, bordering on the N. E. confines of Arabia. So it is mentioned by Ptolemy the geog-apher. Strabo also speaks of a Chaldean tribe living in that region. This district comprised tin most fertile plains of Babylonia, made wonderfully productive by the numberless canals constructed by the rulers of that empire for defence, commerce, and ir- rigation. But commonly the name is applied to Babylonia in general, designating the whole of the province, sometimes even the empire of that name. The Hebrew term, probably for all these meanings, is Chasdim, or land of the Chasdim (Chaldees). The latter first appear in the Scriptures as the owners of the region which was the abode of the ancestors of Abra- ham, then as a conquering tribe and nation, and besides as a caste of priests or astrologists. The Ur Chasdim (Ur of the Chaldees) of Abra- ham was considered by many modern critics to have been a place in Mesopotamia, and identi- cal with the castle of the same name, men- tioned by Ammianus as situated between Nisi- bis and the Tigris. This, as well as the circum- stance that Chaldeans are mentioned by Hero- dotus as soldiers in the Assyrian army of Xerxes, and by Xenophon, in the history of the retreat of the ten thousand, as a free and warlike people in the Carduchian mountains, made it appear probable that the original home of this nation was among, or at least near, the mountains of Armenia, whence they made their incursions, it was supposed at different periods, into the neighboring southern countries, sub- duing Babylon, and afterward Syria. Gesenius supposed 'their name to have been originally Card, which was changed into Chasd and Chald, and preserved in that of the modern Kurds, inhabiting the region of the ancient Carduchi. Their Semitic descent seemed to be proved by the language called after them ; so Josephus represents them as descendants of Arphaxad, son of Shem, the latter part of that compound name supporting his opinion. But there re- mained considerable difficulties in critically establishing the early history of this nation. Nimrod, the mighty hunter, who is mentioned in the book of Genesis as the founder of the empire of Babylonia, which is afterward styled the land of the Chaldees, was a Hamite, and seems to have extended his conquest north- ward, at least according to an almost generally adopted explanation of the passage which speaks of him. The Greeks name Belus as the founder of the same empire. Nothing is said in the Bible about the nation to which be- longed Amraphel, the king of Shinar, that is, Babylonia, who fought a battle in Palestine in the days of Abraham ; and a chasm of about 13 centuries separates the first mention of the Chaldeans, in connection with the Ur of the ancestors of the patriarch, from their next re- appearance in the Scriptural history, in the time of Isaiah (except their being mentioned in the book of Job as capturing the camels of the patriarch of Uz) ; while Babylonia, which ap- pears first at the same time in relation with the history of the Hebrews, is known from the testimony of the classical writers to have ex- isted during this whole period as a highly de- veloped state, by turns conquering and con- quered, 'a product of its advanced industry being also mentioned in the history of Joshua. A natural consequence of these dates would therefore have been the conclusion that Baby- lonia, having been founded by Nimrod or Belus, be these names identical or not, had reached a