GREECE 



GREECE 



GREECE: IN ANCIENT TIMES AND TO-DAY 



HAMILTON FYFE and A. D. INKES, M.A. 



This article describes the existing Stale of Greece, saving something about its industrial and other 



activities. Its history is then outlined, while articles on its Art, Law, Literature, and Religion follow. 



See the articles on Greek statesmen, both ancient and modem, e.g. Pericles, Themistocles, and Venizelos; 



and those on Athens, and other cities. See also Alexander ; Europe ; Macedonia ; Sparta, etc. 



Greece lies in the S. of the Balkan 

 Peninsula with a very long coast- 

 line to the Aegean and Ionian Seas, 

 including a number of islands in the 

 Aegean Sea and off the coast of 

 Asia Minor. 



Its superficial area is larger than 

 that of England, but so much of it 

 is mountainous that it could never 

 support a large 

 population. The 

 mountains, 

 though not very 

 high, divide the 

 country into a 

 number of small 

 districts between 

 which communi- 

 Arms of Greece cation ig difficu i t . 



It is the sea which links up the 

 different regions of Greece. There 

 are no long rivers ; most of them dry 

 up in summer. There are many 

 lakes of moderate depth ; one of the 

 largest, Copais in Boaotia, has been 

 drained and turned into a most 

 fertile tract of land by a British 

 company. There are only a few 

 forests and little wooded country. 

 The climate varies considerably ; 

 generally it is sub-tropical on the 

 lower levels, and subject to ex- 

 tremes of heat and cold. Whether 

 the present inhabitants are truly 

 descended from the ancient Greeks 

 is disputed by many. There have 

 been so many invasions of the 

 country, both warlike and peaceful, 

 by other races, chiefly Slav, that 

 the admixture of stocks must be 

 considerable. 



Modern Expansion 



Owing to its recent extension, 

 it is a very much larger country 

 than was ancient Greece. Before 

 the Great War it already covered 

 nearly 42,000 sq. m. with a popula- 

 tion of nearly 5,000,000. In conse- 

 quence of the Great War it re- 

 ceived a large part of the Turkish 

 province of Izmir or Smyrna in 

 Asia Minor (2,500,000 inhabitants 

 and 21,000 sq. m.) and western 

 Thrace, formerly Bulgarian and 

 before that Turkish (500,000 in- 

 habitants, 2,500 sq. m. ), including 

 the whole of the Aegean seaboard 

 in Macedonia, and the islands of 

 the Dodecanese. The great idea 

 of the modern Greeks, a vast 

 dominion including Macedonia, 

 Thrace, Epirus, Asia Minor, Crete, 

 and the whole of the Aegean 

 Islands, was thus to a large extent 

 realized. 



It was always hoped that the 

 capital of this Greater Greece 



Flag of Greece 

 as a kingdom 



would be Constantinople, and many 

 Greeks still cherish this ambition 

 and thus regard Bulgaria as " the 

 enemy," the Bulgarians being the 

 people most likely to dispute with 

 Greece the inheritance of the Turk. 

 This Greek idea was lor the time 

 being shattered as the result of the 

 treaty of Lausanne (1923), which 

 gavVback to Turkey much tern- 

 tory. A tide of emigration to 

 the U.S.A. set in during the 

 early years of the 20th century, 

 and after the Balkan War in one 

 year (1913-14) 45,000 Greeks left 

 their country. Afterwards, how- 

 ever, the drain was not so serious. 

 Since April 1924 Greece has been 

 a republic. There is only one 

 legislative chamber, the Boule or 

 chamber, to which each 16,000 in- 

 habitants return one member.They 

 are elected for 

 four years, and 

 are paid 160 

 a year, those 

 who live in the 

 neighbour- 

 hood of the 

 capital receiv- 

 ing rather less. 

 If a member 

 is absent without leave on more 

 than five days in a month, he is 

 fined 17s. 6d. for each sitting that he 

 has missed. The chamber must be 

 in session for at least three months 

 every year and cannot transact 

 business unless one-third of its 

 members are present. Call-over is 

 taken at the beginning of every 

 sitting, and much time can be 

 wasted by obstructionists who de- 

 mand frequent counts. There is a 

 council of state, but its functions 

 are judicial, not legislative, and 

 provisions for a revision of the 

 constitution. 



The short white kilt (fustaneUa) 

 is still worn by a great many of the 

 peasants, though in the country, as 

 in the towns, the fashion of wear- 

 ing coats and trousers and hard 

 felt hats is spreading. In agricul- 

 ture the peasant proprietors and 

 the cultivators who work on the 

 metayer systems are mostly back- 

 ward. Few have adopted deep dig- 

 ging as a means of keeping mois- 

 ture in the soil, which, in so dry a 

 climate and in the absence of rivers 

 suitable for irrigation, would add 

 much to the yield of the farms. 



The chief crop is that of currants, 

 which are grown on a very large 

 extent of land and exported all over 

 the world. Olives are grown exten- 



sively, tobacco is an increasing 

 crop, and wine is made in large 

 quantities, mainly for home con- 

 sumption, the strong flavour of 

 resin in most of it making it un- 

 pleasant to anyone not accustomed 

 to this peculiarity. Only about one- 

 fifth of the country is worth culti- 

 vating by present methods. The 

 rest is mountainous and barren. 



Of the cultivated lands half are 

 given up to growing food for the 

 population, wheat, barley, rice, and 

 maize. Many peasants eat meat 

 only a few times a year, on festival 

 occasions. Where meat is usual, 

 lamb is the universal dish ; vege- 

 tables are apt to be scarce ; rice as 

 an ingredient of pilaff is very com- 

 mon ; marrows stuffed with rice 

 and meat lend variety ; sweet- 

 meats are plentiful in some dis- 

 tricts ; fruit is fairly so, since figs 

 and oranges grow easily ; wine is 

 drunk everywhere. 



Railways and Steamers 



Until 1869 there were no railway 

 communications in the country. 

 Tricoupis ardently encouraged their 

 construction, but in a mountainous 

 country this is a costly business and 

 there would not probably for a long 

 time be traffic enough to make new 

 lines pay. There are good steamer 

 services on the long coast-line. Most 

 of them are run by a Scottish firm 

 which is known all over Greece as 

 " John," because the founder bore 

 the name of John MacDowell. 



The Greeks have between seven 

 and eight hundred trading vessels, 

 mostly small, for coasting and 

 island trade. The Corinth canal, 

 which had been talked about for 

 2,000 years, was completed in 1893, 

 but for a long time it was not used 

 largely and Corinth remained less 

 important commercially than Pat- 

 ras, Volo, Kalamata, and Larissa. 



Until 19l>3 the chief ports vere 

 Smyrna and Salonica, the latter 

 acquired after the. Balkan War, the 

 former allotted to the Greeks when 

 the Turkish Empire was reduced 

 by the Peace Treaty of Sevres 

 ( 1920). Of the other' Greek towns 

 known to antiquity Sparta is mo- 

 dern and featureless; Thebes pic- 

 turesque, but small and sleepy ; 

 Laurium is disfigured by the smoke- 

 stacks and the spoil-banks of mines. 

 Athens is the only centre of popu- 

 lation, ancient or modern, which 

 can lay claim to the title of " city." 



When it became the capital of 

 the new kingdom it was a village, 

 with only 162 dwelling,'} in it. Now 



F fi 



