Pale

PALE (Πάλη: Eth. Παλεῖς, Παλῆς, Thuc.; Palenses: the city itself is usually called Παλεῖς: also ἡ Παλαιέων πόλις, Plb. 5.3), a town in Cephallenia on the eastern side of a bay in the north-western part of the island. It is first mentioned in the Persian wars, when two hundred of its citizens fought at the battle of Plataea, alongside of the Leucadians and Anactorians. (Hdt. 9.28.) It also sent four ships to the assistance of the Corinthians against the Corcyraeans just before the commencement of the Peloponnesian War (Thuc. 1.27); from which circumstance, together with its fighting along with the Corinthian Leucadians and Anactorians at the battle of Plataea, it has been conjectured that Pale was a Corinthian colony. But whether this was the case or not, it joined the Athenian alliance, together with the other towns of the island, in B.C. 431. (Thuc. 2.30.) At a later period Pale espoused the side of the Aetolians against the Achaeans, and was accordingly besieged by Philip, who would have taken the city but for the treachery of one of his own officers. (Plb. 5.3, 4.) Polybius describes Pale as surrounded by the sea, and by precipitous heights on every side, except the one looking towards Zacynthus. He further states that it possessed a fertile territory, in which a considerable quantity of corn was grown. Pale surrendered to the Romans without resistance in ra. 100.189 (Liv. 38.28); and after the capture of Same by the Romans in that year, it became the chief town in the island. It was in existence in the time of Hadrian, in whose reign it is called in an inscription ἐλευθέρα καὶ αὐτόνομος. (Böckh, Inscr. No. 340.) According to Pherecydes, Pale was the Homeric Dulichium : this opinion was rejected by Strabo (10. p. 456), but accepted by Pausanias (Paus. 6.15.7).

The remains of Pale are seen on a small height, about a mile and a half to the north of the modern Lixúri. Scarcely anything is left of the ancient city; but the name is still retained in that of Pálio and of Paliki, the former being the name of the plain around the ruins of the city, and the latter that of the whole peninsula. (Leake, Northern Greece, vol. 3. p. 64.) COIN OP PALE.

(Πάλη). A city of Cephallenia opposite Zacynthus (Polyb. v. 3).