CHALCEDON, or rather Calchedon, an ancient maritime town of Bithynia, in Asia Minor, called also Procerastis and Colpusa, almost directly opposite Byzantium, to the south of the present town of Scutari. It was founded by a colony from Megara, on a site so obviously inferior to that which was within their view on the opposite shore, that it received from the oracle the name of “The City of the Blind.” In its early history it shared the fortunes of Byzantium, was taken by the satrap Otanes, vacillated long between the Lacedaemonian and the Athenian interest, and at last fell into the hands of the kings of Bithynia, by the last of whom it was bequeathed to the Romans. It was taken and partly destroyed by Mithridates, but it recovered during the empire, and in 451 a.d. was the seat of the Fourth General Council, which condemned the Monophysites. It fell under the repeated attacks of the barbarian hordes, who crossed over after having ravaged Byzantium, and it furnished an encampment to the Persians under Chosroes for about ten years after 616. Its ruin was completed by the Turks, who used it as a quarry from which to draw the building materials for Constantinople. The site is now occupied by the village of Kadi Keui, or “Village of the Judge,” which contains a number of fine villas and a large Roman Catholic cathedral. At a short distance to the south are the ruins of Panteichon, or, as it is now called, Pandik, where Belisarius is said to have lived in retirement. A plain in the neighbourhood affords camping ground for the caravans after they leave Scutari.

χαλκηδών, Rev. xxi, 19; a precious stone. Arethas, who has written an account of Bithynia, says that it was so called from Chalcedon, a city of that country, opposite to Byzantium; and it was in colour like a carbuncle. Some have supposed this also to be the stone called נפך, translated “emerald,” Exodus xxviii, 18.