Aegospotami

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]

At its mouth was the scene of the decisive battle in 405 BC in which Lysander destroyed the Athenian fleet, ending the Peloponnesian War.[3][4] The ancient Greek township of the same name, whose existence is attested by coins of the 5th and 4th centuries,[5] 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.[6][7]

Aegospotami is located on the Dardanelles, northeast of the modern Turkish town of Sütlüce, Gelibolu.[8]

References

1. 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. 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).
4. 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 ..."
5. Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Aegospotami" . Encyclopædia Britannica. 1 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 255.
6. 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.
7. "Halley's comet 'was spotted by the ancient Greeks'". BBC. 10 September 2010.
8. Kagan, Donald (1991). The Fall of the Athenian Empire. Cornell University Press. pp. 386–388. ISBN 978-0-8014-9984-5.