Cales (river)

Cales or Kales (Ancient Greek: Κάλης), also Calles or Kalles (Κάλλης), was a river of ancient Bithynia. At its mouth was the town of Cales, located 120 stadia east of Elaeus.[1][2] This seems to be the river which Thucydides calls Calex (Κάληξ), at the mouth of which Lamachus lost his ships, which were anchored there, owing to a sudden rise of the river.[3] Thucydides places the Calex in the Heracleotis, which agrees very well with the position of the Cales. Lamachus and his troops were compelled to walk along the coast to Chalcedon.[3] Pliny the Elder mentions a river Alces in Bithynia, which it has been conjectured, may be a corruption of Calex.[4]

It is identified with the modern Alaplı Su in Asiatic Turkey.[5]

  1. ^ Arrian. Periplus Ponti Euxini. Vol. p. 14.
  2. ^ Marcian of Heraclea, p. 70.
  3. ^ a b Thucydides. History of the Peloponnesian War. Vol. 4.75.
  4. ^ Pliny. Naturalis Historia. Vol. 5.32.
  5. ^ Richard Talbert, ed. (2000). Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World. Princeton University Press. p. 86, and directory notes accompanying. ISBN 978-0-691-03169-9.