Dicaea (Thrace)

Dicaea or Dikaia (Ancient Greek: Δικαία or Δίκαια), also called Dikaiopolis (Ancient Greek: Δικαιόπολις)[1] was a Greek[2] port town on the coast of ancient Thrace on Lake Bistonis, in the country of the Bistones.

Stephanus of Byzantium wrote that it took its name from the Dicaeus (Ancient Greek: Δίκαιος) who was son of Poseidon.[3]

The place appears to have decayed at an early period.[4][5][6][7] In the 19th century, William Hazlitt wrote that its site was that of the later Stabulum Diomedis ('Diomedes's stable'),[8] where Theodoric Strabo died in 481 CE.[9] However, modern scholarship rejects this identification and identifies Stabulum Diomedis with Tirida.[10]

The site of Dicaea is located about 2 miles (3.2 km) west of Mese.[10][11]

  1. ^ Suda Encyclopedia, §del.1067
  2. ^ An Inventory of Archaic and Classical Poleis: An Investigation Conducted by The Copenhagen Polis Centre for the Danish National Research Foundation by Mogens Herman Hansen,2005,Index
  3. ^ Stephanus of Byzantium, Ethnica, §D230.14
  4. ^ The Histories by Herodotus, Carolyn Dewald, and Robin Waterfield, 2008, p. 442: "... bed of the Lisus, Xerxes passed the Greek towns of Maronea, Dicaea, and Abdera. His route also took him past a ..."; Herodotus. Histories. Vol. 7.109.
  5. ^ Periplus of Pseudo-Scylax, p. 27; Strabo. Geographica. Vol. vii. p. 331. Page numbers refer to those of Isaac Casaubon's edition.
  6. ^ Stephanus of Byzantium. Ethnica. Vol. s.v.
  7. ^ Pliny. Naturalis Historia. Vol. 4.18.
  8. ^ William Hazlitt (1851). The Classical Gazetteer. Vol. p. 135.
  9. ^ Marcellinus Comes, 481.1.
  10. ^ a b Richard Talbert, ed. (2000). Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World. Princeton University Press. p. 51, and directory notes accompanying. ISBN 978-0-691-03169-9.
  11. ^ Lund University. Digital Atlas of the Roman Empire.