Zaliche

Zaliche (Greek: Ζαλίχη) or Zaliches (Greek: Ζαλίχης) was an ancient town in the late Roman province of Helenopontus.

Name

"Zaliche" is the form given in the indices of the editions, produced by Peter Wesseling,^[1] and by B.G. Niebuhr^[2] It is the form given also in Anthon's Classical Dictionary^[3] On the other hand, the contributor (Leonhard Schmitz) of the entry on the town in William Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography gives it the name "Zaliches".^[4] The Annuaire historique of the Société de l'histoire de France treats "Zaliches" instead as the genitive case of "Zaliche'.^[5] It appears that the city was at some time also called Leontopolis,

History

The manuscripts of the Synecdemus list among the seven cities of Helenopontus one called Σάλτον Ζαλίχην,^[6] which Peter Wesseling believes should be corrected to Σάλτος Ζαλίχης and suggests it indicates that the city was surrounded by forests (Latin, saltus),^[7][8] making the name equivalent to "Forest of Zaliche".

At the Second Council of Nicaea in 787, a priest named Andronicus represented the Bishop John "Ζαλίχων", i.e., of Zaliche (Ζαλίχη, neuter plural). The priest is also called a priest Λεοντοπόλεως ἤτοι Ζαλίχου, an expression that treats "Leontopolis" as another name for the same town. Both Wesseling and the contributor to Smith's Geography also believe that this is the Leontopolis spoken of in Novella 28 as one of the cities of Helenopontus.^[9]

Site

Modern scholars place the town at Alaçam, Samsun Province, Turkey.^[10][11]

References

1. Vetera Romanorum Itineraria (Amsterdam 1735)
2. Corpus Scriptorum Historiae Byzantinae (Bonn 1840), Volume 5, Part 3, p. 594
3. The North American Review, volume 1854 (January 1842), p. 196
4. William Smith (editor), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography: Iabadius-Zymethus (Little, Brown and Company, 1857), p. 1336
5. Société de l'histoire de France, Annuaire historique, vol. 10 (1845), p. 265
6. Corpus Scriptorum Historiae Byzantinae (Bonn 1840), Volume 5, Part 3, p. 396, line 31
7. Vetera Romanorum Itineraria (Amsterdam 1735), p. 701
8. Corpus Scriptorum Historiae Byzantinae, Volume 5, Part 3, p. 504
9. Novella XXVIII
10. Annuario Pontificio 2013 (Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2013, ISBN 978-88-209-9070-1), p. 1011
11. Richard Talbert, Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World, (ISBN 0-691-03169-X), Map 87 & notes.