Gale (Greek: Γάλη) was an ancient Greek town on the west coast of the peninsula of Sithonia, Chalcidice, ancient Macedonia. It was a colony of Chalcis.[1] [2]
Gale was mentioned in the Athenian tribute lists for 435/4 – 433/432 BCE. Before 435 its name is absent from the lists, probably because the city then paid its due via a syntely, a federation of several cities paying their taxes jointly. In 432/1 Gale's name is absent too, probably because in that year, at the beginning of the Peloponnesian War, the city took part in a revolt against Athens as head of the Delian League. In the lists for 425 and 421 BCE Gale was assessed a negligible tax amount, which suggests that the city by that time had been destroyed, or at least depopulated.[3]
In classical literature Gale's name is mentioned nowhere, but it is believed that the city of Gale was in fact meant in two cases where, due to an error in writing, a better-known nearby city was mentioned: Herodotus (Histories, VII.122) speaks of Galepsus where Gale was meant,[4] and Thucydides (The Peloponnesian War, V.18.6) speaks of "Sanaious" (inhabitants of Sane, a nearby colony of Andros) where "Galaious" (inhabitants of Gale) was meant.[5]