Halōtus, a eunuch, who used to taste the meat of Claudius. He poisoned the emperor’s food by order of Agrippina. Tacitus, Annals, bk. 2, ch. 66.
Halus, a city of Achaia,——of Thessaly,——of Parthia.
Hălyæetus, a man changed into a bird of the same name. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 3, li. 176.
Halyattes. See: [Alyattes].
Halycus, now Platani, a river at the south of Sicily.
Halys, now Kizil-ermark, a river of Asia Minor, rising in Cappadocia, and falling into the Euxine sea. It received its name ἀπο του ἁλος from salt, because its waters are of a salt and bitter taste, from the nature of the soil over which they flow. It is famous for the defeat of Crœsus king of Lydia, who was mistaken by the ambiguous words of this oracle:
Χροισος Ἁλυν διαβας μεγαλην ἀρχην διαλυσει.
If Crœsus passes over the Halys, he shall destroy a great empire.
That empire was his own. Cicero, de Divinatione, bk. 2, ch. 56.—Curtius, bk. 4, ch. 11.—Strabo, bk. 12.—Lucan, bk. 3, li. 272.—Herodotus, bk. 1, ch. 28.——A man of Cyzicus, killed by Pollux. Valerius Flaccus, bk. 3, li. 157.
Halyzia, a town of Epirus near the Achelous, where the Athenians obtained a naval victory over the Lacedæmonians.