city state · Greece and the Aegean

Chalcedon

685 BCE – 74 BCE (approx.) · capital Chalcedon

Megarian colony on the Asian shore of the Bosporus, mocked as the 'city of the blind' for overlooking the better site of Byzantium opposite.

Origins

Settlers from Megara founded Chalcedon c. 685 BCE on the Asian side of the Bosporus, opposite the later site of Byzantium. Herodotus reports the Persian Megabazus calling its founders blind for choosing the poorer site when the better one lay across the strait.

Rule and society

Chalcedon lived from farming, fishing and Bosporus traffic, though Byzantium controlled the main currents. It came under the Achaemenid Empire, then paid tribute in the Delian League. The sophist Thrasymachus came from Chalcedon. In the Hellenistic period it was closely tied to Byzantium and pressed by the Kingdom of Bithynia.

Decline and legacy

When Nicomedes IV left Bithynia to Rome in 74 BCE, Chalcedon passed under Roman rule; Mithridates defeated a Roman force there that year. It later hosted the Council of Chalcedon of 451 CE and is now Kadıköy in Istanbul.

Connections (3)

More states of Greece and the Aegean →

Cite this page
APA
The Epoch Institute. (2026). Chalcedon. In The Epoch Institute States Register. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/chalcedon
MLA
“Chalcedon.” The Epoch Institute States Register, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/chalcedon. Accessed .
Chicago
The Epoch Institute. “Chalcedon.” The Epoch Institute States Register. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/chalcedon.
Harvard
The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Chalcedon’, The Epoch Institute States Register. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/chalcedon (Accessed: ).

Last reviewed October 2026Random state ↻