View source for Aegospotami

{{Short description|River in Turkey}}
{{expand Greek|date=November 2024}}
'''Aegospotami''' ({{langx|grc|Αἰγὸς Ποταμοί}}, ''Aigos Potamoi'') or '''Aegospotamos'''<ref name="WebsterNinthNewCollege">Mish, Frederick C., Editor in Chief. “Aegospotami.” ''[[Webster's Dictionary#Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary|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).</ref> (i.e. ''Goat Streams'') is the ancient Greek name for a small river or rivers issuing into the [[Hellespont]] (Modern Turkish ''Çanakkale Boğazı''), northeast of [[Sestos]].<ref>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, ..."</ref>
Aegospotami is plural, which suggests that the name may have referred to multiple rivers. As is often the case, interpretation of geography described by ancient sources has difficulties, not the least of which is evolution of the terrain, and the river or rivers have been identified with both the modern Karakova Dere and Büyük Dere ("Big Creek", now called Münipbey Deresi).<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Strauss |first1=Barry |title=A Note on the Topography and Tactics of the Battle of Aegospotami |journal=The American Journal of Philology |date=1987 |volume=108 |issue=4 |pages=741-745 |doi=10.2307/294797 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/294797 |access-date=13 October 2024}}</ref> Körpe and Yavuz concurred with both Bommelaer and Strauss that the latter stream is the more likely candidate and additionally identified the probable site of the associated settlement as a rise on the left bank of the Münipbey Deresi known as Kalanuro Tepesi, based on geographical features and archaeological remnants.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Körpe |first1=Reyhan |last2=Yavuz |first2=Mehmet F. |editor1-last=Aygün |editor1-first=C̊iğdem Özkan |title=SOMA 2007: Proceedings of the XI Symposium on Mediterranean Archaeology, Istanbul Technical University, 24-29 April 2007 |date=2009 |publisher=Archaeopress |location=Oxford, England |isbn=9781407303826 |pages=226-227 |access-date=13 October 2024 |chapter=The Location of Aigospotamoi|url=https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Reyhan_Koerpe/publication/323240116_The_Location_of_Aigospotamoi/links/5a880836aca272017e5b4f7b/The-Location-of-Aigospotamoi.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwipw-Kw8oqJAxX8OUQIHfAjEXAQFnoECBMQAQ&usg=AOvVaw0mdG8OeOYtIqzeQatNVLTS}}</ref>
Aegospotami is located on the [[Dardanelles]], near the modern Turkish town of [[Sütlüce, Gelibolu]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Kagan|first=Donald|title=The Fall of the Athenian Empire|publisher=Cornell University Press|year=1991|isbn=978-0-8014-9984-5|pages=386–388}}</ref><ref>Tzvetkova, Julia (2008) ''History of the Thracian Chersonese'', Faber, pp. 263-335 (ISBN 978-954-400-001-1)</ref>
At its mouth was the scene of the decisive [[battle of Aegospotami|battle]] in 405 BC in which [[Lysander]] destroyed the [[Athens|Athenian]] fleet, ending the [[Peloponnesian War]].<ref name="WebsterNewWorldSecondCollege">Guralnik, David B., Editor in Chief. “Aegospotami.” ''[[Webster's New World Dictionary|Webster’s New World Dictionary of the American Language]]''. Second College Edition. New York, NY: [[Prentice Hall|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).</ref><ref>Donald Kagan, ''The Fall of the Athenian Empire'', (Cornell University Press, 1991), [https://books.google.com/books?id=DNNCnTmLbPYC&pg=PA386 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 ..."</ref> The [[ancient Greek]] township of the same name, whose existence is attested by coins of the 5th and 4th centuries,<ref>{{Cite EB1911|wstitle=Aegospotami |volume=1|page=255}}</ref> and the river itself were located in ancient [[Thrace]] in the [[Thracian Chersonese|Chersonese]].<ref name="WebsterNinthNewCollege"/>
According to ancient sources including [[Pliny the Elder]] and [[Aristotle]], in 467&nbsp;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.<ref>{{cite book|title=Comets: A Chronological History of Observation, Science, Myth and Folklore |url=https://archive.org/details/cometschronologi0000yeom |url-access=registration |author=Donald K. Yeomans|page=[https://archive.org/details/cometschronologi0000yeom/page/4 4]|year=1991|publisher=Donald Wiley and Sons|isbn=978-0-471-61011-3}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Halley's comet 'was spotted by the ancient Greeks'|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11255168|publisher=BBC |date=10 September 2010}}</ref>
==References==
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{{Former settlements in Turkey}}
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[[Category:Greek colonies in the Thracian Chersonese]]
[[Category:Ancient Greek archaeological sites in Turkey]]
[[Category:Rivers of Turkey]]
[[Category:Former populated places in Turkey]]
[[Category:Landforms of Çanakkale Province]]
[[Category:History of Çanakkale Province]]
[[Category:Tourist attractions in Çanakkale Province| (+)]]
[[Category:Populated places in ancient Thrace]]
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{{Çanakkale-geo-stub}}