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GREECE 



the continent of Europe is an extension of the Bal- 

 kans. From it run chains from north to south, or 

 rather from north-north-west to south-south-east, 

 which form the skeleton of Greece. The most im- 

 portant of these is the range which forms the back- 

 bone of the country, separating first Illyria on the 

 west from Macedonia on the east, and then Epirus 

 on the west from Thessaly on the east. Thus the 

 western boundary of Thessaly is formed by Pindus 

 (7111 feet), the main offshoot of the Balkans. 

 The eastern boundary is also marked not ,only 

 by the sea, but by important mountains derived 

 from the Balkan system. These are Olympus (9750 

 feet), Ossa, Mavrovuni, and Pelion. Returning to 

 Pindus, we find that its tendency to the east becomes 

 now more pronounced, and a branch of it, under 

 the name of Othrys, starting from the mighty 

 Tymphrestus (mod. Veluchi, 7606 feet), forms the 

 south boundary of Thessaly. It then is continued 

 in the celebrated mountains Parnassus (8036 feet) 

 and Helicon, forms the land of Attica, and reappears 

 as the islands of Ceos, Cythnos, Seriphos, and Siph- 

 nos. The subsequent course of that branch of the 

 Balkans which we have mentioned as marking in 

 part the eastern boundary of Thessaly is equally 

 interesting, for it forms first the island of Eubcea, 

 and then the isles of Andros, Tenos, Myconus, 

 Naxos, and Amorgos. The Peloponnese, ' the 

 island of Pelops,' or by its modern name the Morea, 

 is connected with northern Greece merely by the 

 narrow isthmus of Corinth, and is separated from it 

 by the long if narrow Gulf of Corinth on the west 

 and the Saronic Gulf on the east. The commercial 

 supremacy of ancient Corinth, standing as it did on 

 ' two bright havens,' and on the road from Pelopon- 

 nese to the mainland, was due to its position ; and 

 we need only add, in further explanation, that all 

 the great trade routes from the Ural Mountains, 

 the Black Sea, and Asia Minor to Sicily, Marseilles, 

 and the West converged at Corinth. 



The Peloponnese has a mountain-system which 

 is derived, like the others of Greece, from the 

 Balkans, runs parallel to and west of Pindus, and 

 shows itself in the Acroceraunian Mountains and 

 in Aracynthus. From the central group of 

 mountains which surround Arcadia, and are 

 highest on its north frontiers between Arcadia and 

 Acluea e.g. Cyllene (Ziria), Aroania (Chelmos, 

 7724 feet), and Erymanthus (Olonus) run two 

 important chains, in the same north-north-west 

 to south -south-east direction which we observed 

 in the Pindus. Of these, the westernmost is the 

 Taygetus (Hagios Elias, 7901 feet), the highest 

 peak in the Peloponnese, which, after dividing 

 Laconia on the east from Messenia on the west, 

 ends in the promontory of Tsenarum ; while 

 the eastern one separates Arcadia from Argolis, 

 runs down Laconia under the name of Parnon 

 (Malevo), and makes its last appearance as the 

 island of Cythera. And here we may complete our 

 account of the isles of Greece by adding that the 

 Ionian Isles, Corcyra, Cephallenia, Leucas, and 

 Zacynthus, off the west coast, follow the same 

 north-north-west to south-south-east direction as 

 the mountain-chains of the Peloponnese and the 

 mainland. 



The rivers of Greece are unimportant. They flow 

 generally, both in the Peloponnese and the main- 

 land, south or west. In the latter the four princi- 

 pal rivers have their source on Mount Lakmon, 

 the starting-point of Pindus, and flow, the Aoos 

 ( Viosa) into the Adriatic, the Achelous (Aspropo- 

 tamos) to the Gulf of Patrse, the Peneus (Salam- 

 brias) and Haliacmon into the Thermaic Gulf. 

 The principal rivers of the Peloponnese rise near 

 the north of Taygetus : the Alpheus (Buphia) 

 flows west, the Eurotas south. 



People. The ancient Greeks were a branch 



of that family which includes most Europear 

 peoples, and also the Persians and the Hindus, and 

 is variously called Indo-Germanic, Indo-European, 

 and Aryan. The Indo-European family is not an 

 ethnological division of the human race, but a 

 linguistic : the languages spoken by the various 

 Indo-Europeans are descended from one and the 

 same original language ( now lost ), but the peoples 

 who speak it, indeed the people who spoke the 

 original language, need not necessarily, though 

 they may quite possibly, be all of the sanu 

 descent, for one nation may, directly or indirectly. 

 compel another to adopt its language. Whethei 

 the original Indo-European home was in Europe 01 

 in Asia is a matter still in dispute. What is less 

 open to doubt is that it was from the north that the 

 Greeks entered Greece, and that they were nomad 

 tribes depending for subsistence mainly on theii 

 flocks, though they knew how in extremity to culti 

 vate the ground in a primitive fashion. Metals 

 they were hardly acquainted with ; they were stil 

 in the Stone Age. As they moved southwards ir 

 separate tribes, the foremost tribes were impelled 

 forward by the pressure of those behind ; and ever 

 when the whole of the peninsula had been for some 

 time filled and fully occupied, a fresh wave of ini 

 migrants might wash over the whole country, 

 disturbing everything. Such a wave was the 

 'Return of the Heraclidae,' or the 'Dorian In 

 vasion." The result was to drive emigrants on tc 

 and over the isles of Greece to plant Greek cities 

 and Greek culture on the coasts or Asia Minor. Al 

 later times Sicily, the Black Sea, Libya, &c. were 

 dotted with Greek colonies ; and wherever Greeks 

 were, there, to the Greek mind, was Hellas, which 

 is thus an ethnological rather than a territorial 

 term. As for the name of the Greeks, they called 

 themselves Hellenes, a designation the origin oi 

 which is still unknown ; the inhabitants of Italj 

 called them Greed ; the Orientals, lonians ; while 

 in Homer they are called Danaans and Achasans. 



The modern Greeks are by no means pure-bred 

 descendants of the ancient Greeks. Indeed, it has 

 been maintained by Fallmerayer that from the 7th 

 century A.D. there have been no pure Greeks in the 

 country, but only Slavs. It is, however, prettj 

 certain that the 1^ million of modern inhabitants 

 are descendants of the three races that occupied the 

 soil at the time of the Roman Conquest viz. 

 Greeks, Thracians (mod. Wallachians), and Illy- 

 rians (Albanians). 



Language. The Indo-European family of speech 

 includes, in addition to Greek, the following 

 branches : Hindu-Persian, Armenian, Albanian, 

 Italian, Celtic, Teutonic, and Slavo-Baltic. Oi 

 these that with which Greek was supposed tc 

 have the most affinities was the other classical 

 language, Latin ; and the two peoples were accord 

 ingly supposed to have dwelt together after leaving 

 the original home, and to have jointly gone through 

 a Grseco-Italian period. This view, however, is 

 exposed to many difficulties : the inflections of the 

 Latin verb are more closely connected with Celtic : 

 the syntax of Greek bears more resemblance to that 

 of Sanskrit ; and while the vocabulary of Latin is 

 more closely bound up with that of the Teutonic 

 languages, the Greek coincides more frequently 

 with the Hindu-Persian. The dialects into which 

 the ancient language was divided may be grouped 

 as follows : ( 1 ) Ionic and Attic ; ( 2 ) Dorian ( cover 

 ing the Peloponnese and its colonies ) ; ( 3 ) the 

 North-western dialects (those of Phocis, Locris, 

 Mtolia, Acarnania, and Epirus) ; (4) foliar 

 (Lesbos, North Thessaly, Bceotia); (5) Elis ; (6| 

 Arcadian and Cyprian ; ( 7 ) Pamphylian. 



The ancient dialects continued to be spoken al 

 anyrate till the time of Tatian (adv. Grcec. 171) 

 i.e. the end of the 2d century A.D. By 263 A.D., 



