Aegospotami (Ancient Greek: Αἰγὸς Ποταμοί, Aigos Potamoi) or Aegospotamos[1] (i.e. Goat Streams) is the ancient Greek name for a small river issuing into the Hellespont (Modern Turkish Çanakkale Boğazı), northeast of Sestos.[2]

Aegospotami is located on the Dardanelles, south of the modern Turkish town of Sütlüce, Gelibolu.[3][4]

At its mouth was the scene of the decisive battle in 405 BC in which Lysander destroyed the Athenian fleet, ending the Peloponnesian War.[5][6] The ancient Greek township of the same name, whose existence is attested by coins of the 5th and 4th centuries,[7] and the river itself were located in ancient Thrace in the Chersonese.[1]

According to ancient sources including Pliny the Elder and Aristotle, in 467 BC a large meteorite landed near Aegospotami. It was described as brown in colour and the size of a wagon load. A comet, tentatively identified as Halley's Comet, was reported at the time the meteorite landed. This is possibly the first European record of Halley's comet.[8][9]

References

  1. 1 2 Mish, Frederick C., Editor in Chief. “Aegospotami.” Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary. 9th ed. Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster Inc., 1985. ISBN 0-87779-508-8, ISBN 0-87779-509-6 (indexed), and ISBN 0-87779-510-X (deluxe).
  2. ↑ John Freely -The companion guide to Turkey 1993 "... a stream known to the Greeks as Aegospotami, or Goats' River, which empties into the strait at Ince Limam, ..."
  3. ↑ Kagan, Donald (1991). The Fall of the Athenian Empire. Cornell University Press. pp. 386–388. ISBN 978-0-8014-9984-5.
  4. ↑ Tzvetkova, Julia (2008) History of the Thracian Chersonese, Faber, pp. 263-335 (ISBN 978-954-400-001-1)
  5. ↑ Guralnik, David B., Editor in Chief. “Aegospotami.” Webster’s New World Dictionary of the American Language. Second College Edition. New York, NY: Prentice Hall Press, 1986. ISBN 0-671-41809-2 (indexed), ISBN 0-671-41807-6 (plain edge), ISBN 0-671-41811-4 (pbk.), and ISBN 0-671-47035-3 (LeatherKraft).
  6. ↑ Donald Kagan, The Fall of the Athenian Empire, (Cornell University Press, 1991), p.386. "A key to understanding the course of events is that Aegospotami was only a beach, a place without a proper harbor, a little to the east of the modern Turkish town called Sütlüce, or Galata in its Greek form, the ancient town of ..."
  7. ↑ Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Aegospotami" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 1 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 255.
  8. ↑ Donald K. Yeomans (1991). Comets: A Chronological History of Observation, Science, Myth and Folklore. Donald Wiley and Sons. p. 4. ISBN 978-0-471-61011-3.
  9. ↑ "Halley's comet 'was spotted by the ancient Greeks'". BBC. 10 September 2010.

40°19′55″N 26°36′00″E / 40.332°N 26.6°E / 40.332; 26.6


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