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On this page: Chalceia – Chalcidicum – Chalcioicia – Chalcus – Charistia

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CHALCIDICU.M.

small light shield (cetratos, qnos peltastas vacant^ xxxi. 36). [pelta.] [J.Y.]

CHALCEIA (xaA/ce?a), a very ancient festival celebrated at Athens, which at different times seems to have had a different character, for at first it was solemnised in honour of Athena, surnamed Ergane, and by the whole people of Athens, whence it was called 'AQ-fjvaia. or Tlavd^aos. (Suidas, s. v. ; Etymol. Magn.; Eustath. ad II. ii. p. 284, 36.) At a later period, however, it was celebrated only by artisans, especially smiths, and iii honour of Hephaestus, whence its name was changed into XaA/ceta. (Pollux, vii. 105.) It was kept on the 30th day of the month of P3ranepsion. (Suidas, Harpocrat. Eustath. L c.} Menander had written a comedy called XoA/ce?a, a fragment of which is preserved in Athen. xi. p. 502. (Comp. Welcker, Die Aescliyl. Trilog. p. 290.) [L. S.]

CHALCIDICUM is merely defined by Festus (s. v.) as a sort of building (genus aedificii'), so called from the city of Chalcis, but what sort is not explained ; neither do the inscriptions or the passages of ancient writers, in which the word oc­curs, give any description from which a conclusion can be drawn with certainty respecting the form, use, and locality of such buildings.

Chalcidica were certainly appurtenances to some lasilicae (Vitalv. v. 1), in reference to which the following attempts at identification have been suggested: — LA mint attached to the basilica, from x«A/cbyand Siicr), which, though an ingenious conjecture, is not supported by sufficient classical aiithont}r. 2. That part of a basilica which lies directly in front of the tribune, corresponding to the nave in a modern church, of which it was the original, where the lawyers stood, and thence termed navis causidica. 3. An apartment thrown out at the back of a basilica, either on the ground floor or at the extremity of the upper gallery, in the form of a balcony. 4. Internal chambers on each side of the tribune for the convenience of the judices, as in the basilica of Pompeii. 5. The vestibule of a basilica, either in front or rear ; which interpretation is founded upon an inscription discovered at Pompeii, in the building appropriated to the fullers of cloth (fuUonica) : —

eumachia. L. F. sacerd. pub. * * * *

****#« chalcidicum. cryptam porticus

* * * sua. pequnia. fecit. eademque. dedicavit.

By comparing the plan of the building with this inscription, it is clear that the chalcidicum men­tioned can only be referred to the vestibule. Its

CHARISflA.

decorations likewise correspond in richness: and character with the vestibule of a basilica described by Procopius (De Aedific. Justin. i. 10), which is twice designated by the term xaA/cr). The vesti­bule of the basilica at Pompeii is shown upon the plan on page 199, a.

In another sense the word is used as a synonyme with coenaculum. " Scribuntur Dii vestri in tricliniis coelestibus atque in clialcidicis aureis coenitare *" (Arnobius, p. 149). These words, com­pared with Horn. Od. xxiii. 1,

Tpr]vs 5' els virepq? a^ۤ-f)(raro and the translation of virepwoy by Ausoniua (Perlock, xiii. Odyss.\

" Chalcidicum gressu nutrix superabat anili," together with the known locality of the ancient coenacida, seem fully to authorise the interpreta­tion given. (Turneb. Advers. xviii. 34 ; Salmas, inSpart. Pescen. Nigr. c. 12. p. 677.)

Finall}T, the word seems also to have been used in the same sense as maenianum^ a balcony. (Isid. De Orig. • Reinesins, Var. Led. iii. 5.) [A. R.J

CHALCIOICIA (x«A/£i0//aa), an annual fes­ tival, with sacrifices, celebrated at Sparta in honour of Athena, surnamed XaA/doz/cos, i. e. the goddess of the brazen-house. (Pans. iii. 17. § 3, x. 5. § 5; and Goeller ad Thucyd. i. 128, &c.) Young men marched on the occasion in full armour to the temple of the goddess ; and the ephors, although not entering the temple, but remaining within its sacred precincts, were obliged to take part in the sacrifice. (Polyb. iv. 35. § 2.) [L. S.]

CHALCUS (x«AKoDs), a denomination of Greek copper-money.

Bronze or copper (x^A/cos) was very little used by the Greeks for money in early times. Silver was original^ the universal currency, and copper appears to have been seldom coined till after the time of Alexander the Great. The •x.aXKia. irovripa at Athens issued in E. c. 406 (Schol. ad Aristoph, Ran. 737) were a peculiar exception; and they were soon afterwards called in, and the silver currency restored. (Aristoph. Ecdesiax. 815—822 ; Au-rum.) It is not improbable, however, that the copper coin called xo.xkqvs was in circulation in Athens still earlier. The smallest silver coin at Athens was the quarter obol, and the xa^K0^!S was the half of that, or the eighth of an obol. Its value was somewhat more than 3-4ths of a farthing. It seems to have been used on account of the dif­ficulty of coining silver in such minute pieces. The XaAKoDs in later times was divided into lepta, of which, according to Suidas(s.vv.Td\avTovJOgo\6s), it contained seven. There was another copper coin current in Greece, called (rvpSoXoV) of which the value is liot known. Pollux (iii. 9) also mentions ko\\v§os as a copper coin of an earlier age ; but, as Mr. Hussey has remarked, this may have been a common name for small money ; since ic6\\v§os signified generally " changing money," and /coA-Au£i<TT7]$', "a money-changer." In later times, the obol was coined of copper as well as silver. The Greek states of Sicily and Italy had a copper coin­age at a very early period [litra]. (Hussey, Ancient Weights and Money^ c. 8 ; Bockh, Econ. of Athens; p. 592, 2nd eel.; Munzfmse, &c., pp. 142, 342. &c.) [P. S.]

CHARISTIA (from x^&Wh to grant a favour or pardon), a Roman feast, to which none but relations and members of the same family were invited, in order that any quarrel or disagreement