The Acropolis at Athens. 



HISTORY OF GREECE. 



THE name Graecia, or Greece, was unknown to 

 the inhabitants themselves, who called their 

 country Hellas, and themselves Hellenes. 



Hellas, or ancient Greece, extended farther 

 northward than the modern kingdom of that 

 name, the limit being about the fortieth degree 

 of north latitude ; and is throughout mountain- 

 ous. About the latitude above named, the 

 Pindus sends a lateral branch, Mount Lingon, 

 westward to the Adriatic, ending in the Acroce- 

 raunian Promontory ; and another at right angles 

 eastward, the Cambunian Mountains, which cul- 

 minates in Mount Olympus (9700 feet high), near 

 the coast of the ^Egaean. About a degree farther 

 to the south, the central range of Pindus sends 

 another lateral branch eastward to the strait at 

 the north end of the island of Eubcea. Between 

 this range, called Othrys, the Cambunians on the 

 north, and Pindus on the west, lies Thessaly, one 

 of the few extensive plains of Greece. Its eastern 

 coast is also skirted by the mountain-chain of 

 Pelion, whose northern summit, Ossa, is separated 

 from Olympus only by the narrow defile of Tempe, 

 through which the river Peneus, that drains the 

 whole plain, finds exit. The northern boundary 

 of the modern kingdom of Greece runs from the 

 Gulf of Volo along the ridge of Othrys to Pindus, 

 and thence west to the Gulf of Ambracia on the 

 Ionian Sea. It thus includes the whole of ancient 

 Hellas, with the exception of Thessaly ; for the i 

 58 



inhabitants of Epeirus now the southern part of 

 Albania were not considered as Hellenes. 



A little south of Othrys, the range of CEta forms 

 a third eastern offset from the central chain, and 

 was considered as forming the northern barrier of 

 Central Greece. Near the point of junction with 

 CEta, Pindus divides into two branches : one runs 

 south-east, under the names of Parnassus (8000 

 feet high), Helicon, Cithaeron, and Hymettus, to 

 Cape' Sunium in the south of Attica ; the other 

 south-west, towards the narrowest part of the 

 Corinthian Gulf. The mountains in Peloponnesus 

 (island of Pelops), now Morea, may be considered 

 as continuations of the two ranges last described. 

 A ring of mountains incloses the central district, 

 called Arcadia, and sends off branches in all direc- 

 tions ; one of these, Mount Taygetus (7800 feet 

 high), ends in Cape Taenarus, now Matapan. 



These main ranges and their numerous offsets 

 leave room for few plains of any considerable size. 

 One remarkable feature of Greece is the number 

 of shut valleys or basins, from which the water 

 can issue only by finding a subterranean passage 

 through the limestone rocks that bound them. 

 The Lake Copais, in the plain of Bceotia, has no 

 outlet but a number of such natural tunnels, and 

 is caused by their insufficiency to let off all the 

 water of the Cephissus. The remains of an artifi- 

 cial tunnel, four miles in length, are still discernible, 

 which is believed to have been made by the ancient 



