CHAPTER IX.

GRÆCIA ANTIQUA.

Plates X. XI. XII.

THE most general name for Greece among the natives themselves was Hellas, and the people were called Hellenes; but even this term did not comprise the inhabitants of Macedonia and Epirus. The poets, however, used, by synecdoche, to put the names of several small tribes for the whole body of the nation. The most usual term in Homer* is Achæi and Danai, and sometimes Argivi. They were also called Pelasgi, from an antient nation of that name in Thessaly: Iones, Dores, and Æoles, from the inhabitants of particular districts. Attica was the original seat of the Ionians, the Peloponnese the principal seat of the Dorians, and Thessaly the original country of the Æolians.

* The word Hellenes occurs only once in Homer, Iliad II. 648.; where it is used, not as a generic, but a specific name of the inhabitants of that part of Thessaly called Hellas: and, what is also remarkable, the word Græcia was not legally recognised by the Romans, who divided it into two provinces. The one called Macedonia, after the defeat of Perseus, the last king of Macedon, by Paulus Æmilius, A. U. c. 586, B. C. 168; and the other called Achaia, after the defeat of the Achæans, and the capture of Corinth by Mummius, a. u. c. 609, b. c. 145. The name of Græcia, however, was sufficiently familiar among the Romans in writing and conversation.

The lowest part of Greece (Pl. XII.), below the Sinus Corinthiacus and Sinus Saronicus, was called the Peloponnese, from IIλoos voos, the Island of Pelops. It was most antiently called Ægialea, from Ægialeus, Apia from Apis, Pelasgia from Pelasgus, said to have been its more antient Kings; but took the name of Peloponnese, from Pelops, the son of Tantalus, who reigned there. It was very nearly an island, being connected with the rest of Greece only by the narrow isthmus of Corinth. The modern name of Peloponnese is Morea, from the mulberrytrees which grow there, having been introduced for supplying silk-worms. The first province on the eastern side, under the Sinus Saronicus, is Argolis; and below it is Laconia; on the western side, opposite to Laconia, is Messenia; above it is Elis; along the Sinus Corinthiacus is Achaia; and in the middle is Arcadia.

Argolis derives its name from Argos, situated near the river Inachus, above the Sinus Argolicus, and still called Argo. Its Acropolis was called Larissa. About five miles north of Argos was Mycenæ, near Krabati, the royal city of Agamemnon; north-west of which was Nemea, celebrated for the Nemean games, instituted in honour of Archemorus, who was killed there by a serpent, and for the victory of Hercules over the Nemean lion. North-east of Mycena was Cleonæ. Eastward of Argos were Midea, the birth-place of Alcmena, the mother of Hercules, and Tiryns, or Tirynthus, a favourite residence of Hercules, who is thence called Tirynthius. North-east of Tiryns is the Mons Arachnæus, on which was one of the beacons, or fire telegraphs, of Agamemnon, by which he announced the capture of Troy the same night that

it was taken.*

Still east, on the coast of the Sinus Saronicus, is Epidaurus, celebrated for its worship of Esculapius; and below it is Troezen, or Troezene, now Damala, the birthplace of Theseus, and scene of the Hippolytus of Euripides. Off the coast is the island Calauria, sacred to Neptune, where Demosthenes poisoned himself. Near the south point of Argolis is the city of Hermione, now Castri, giving to the adjacent bay the name of Sinus Hermionicus. At the top of the Sinus Argolicus was Nauplia, now Napoli, the naval station of the Argives. Southward, below Argos, near the shore was Lerna, celebrated for the destruction of the Lernean Hydra by Hercules; and toward the confines of Arcadia was Cenchreæ, mentioned by Eschylus in his Prometheus Vinctus, v. 577. Near the borders of Argolis and Laconia was Thyrea, the subject of a contest between 300 Spartans and as many Argives, wherein only two Argives and one Spartan survived. (See Herod. i. 82.)

Below Argolis was Laconia, whose capital was Lacedæmon, afterwards called Sparta, now Paleo-Castro, on the river Eurotas, near the more recent town of Misitra, at the foot of Mount Taygetus. To the north was Sellasia, a frontier town commanding the principal pass from Argolis into Laconia; and a little south of Sparta was Amycle, now Sclavocorio, built by Amyclas. Castor and Pollux were born here, and Apollo was here worshipped with peculiar solemnities. Amycle was called Tacitæ †, or the silent, either from the inhabitants being Pythagoreans, or from their having made a law which forbade the mention of an enemy's approach. They were afterwards the victims of their absurd statute. Amycla was also the burial-place of Hyacinthus, who was born at Therapne, on the other side of the Eurotas. The south

* See Æschylus, Agam. v. 317.
t-

Tacitis regnavit Amyclis.

Virg. Æn. X. 564.

eastern promontory of Laconia was called Malea *, now Cape Malio, or St. Angelo: and the gulf contained between it and the south-western promontory of Tænarus, or Cape Matapan (one of the fabled entrances into the infernal regions †), was called the Sinus Laconicus, now the Gulf of Colokythia, from the antient town of Gytheum, or Colokythia, near the upper part of the bay. Not far from Gytheum was Helos, whose inhabitants the Lacedæmonians reduced to slavery, whence their slaves were called Helotes.

West of Laconia was Messenia, the capital of which was Messene, now Mavromati, inland, above the top of the Sinus Messeniacus, now the Gulf of Kalamata. The fortress of Ithome was near it, and served as its citadel. North-east of it, near the confines of Laconia, was Stenyclarus; on the Sinus Messeniacus was Pheræ, now Kalamata, and Corone. On the western coast was the Messenian Methone, now Modon ; and above it the Messenian Pylos, now Navarin; off which was the Island of Sphacteria, so memorable in Thucydides for the capture of many of the noblest Lacedæmonians, Ol. 88. 3. In the north, on the confines of Elis, is the river Cyparissus, having at its mouth the city of Cyparissæ, which gives name to the adjacent Sinus Cyparissius; and inland the fortress of Ira, the last which held out against the Lacedæmonians, who ejected the Messenians, Ol. 27. 2., and held the province from them for 300 years, till Ol. 102. 3.

Above Messenia was Elis, divided into Triphylia, in the south, Pisatis in the middle, and Cole in the North. In Triphylia we meet with the Triphylian Pylos, which disputes with the Messenian the honour of being the country of Nestor; and a little above it, Scillus, now Sidera, the retreat of

* Maleæque sequacibus undis.

Tænarias etiam fauces, alta ostia Ditis,
Ingressus.

Virg. Æn. V. 193.

Virg. Georg. IV. 467.

Xenophon. Above it was the river Alpheus, or Rofeo, fabled to flow beneath the sea, until it mingled its waters with those of the fountain Arethusa near Syracuse. On the northern side of the Alpheus was the plain of Olympia, now the plain of Antilalo or Antilalla, terminated on the west by the little river Cladeus, and the hill Cronium, or the hill of Saturn, so often mentioned by Pindar. Near this must have been the city of Pisa, of which no vestiges are now discoverable. In this plain, the Olympic games were held in honour of Jupiter Olympius. They were of very antient foundation, and revived B. C. 776, and serve as the epoch of Grecian chronology. They were celebrated at the conclusion of every fourth year, or rather of every forty-ninth month, and were held for five successive days. The Roman Lustrum was a period of five years. Elis itself, now Palæopoli, was situated on the river Peneus, in the district of Cole; it was a little north-east of Gastonni; south-east of this was a third Pylos, which has also strong claims to be allowed as the country of Nestor. Near it was a little stream called Geron, and a village called Gerena, whence Nestor appears to be so often styled in Homer the Gerenian. Pindar, however, calls him a King of Messene, as does also Pausanias, and there was also a town bearing the name Gerenia in that district. The port of the Eleans was Cyllene, now Chiarenza, a little north of the bay and promontory of Chelonates, now Cape Tornese.

The rest of the coast of the Peloponnesus was occupied by Achaia, lying along the southern side of the Sinus Corinthiacus, comprising also the districts of Sicyon and Corinth, called Sicyonia and Corinthia. It was antiently called Ægialea, from lying along the coast. Before we enter the straits of the Sinus Corinthiacus, or Gulf of Lepanto, is Dyme, on the coast of the Ionian Sea; and above it is Patræ, now Patras, near the mouth of the straits. At the entrance into them is

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