526 



GREECE. (HISTORY.) 



of islands in the Argolic gulf ; 8. the island of 

 Pelops, mar tin- territory of '1 ru-zenc, and, not far 

 off, Sphaeria, Calauria (Poros) ; 9. /Egiua ; 10. 

 Salamis (Coluri), and many surrounding islands ; 11. 

 Crete (Candia). II. In the ^Egean sea, now called 

 the Archipelago, on the south and east sides of the 

 main laiul, lie, 1. Carpathos (Scarpanto) ; 2. Rhodes; 

 3. Cyprus ; 4. tlie Cyclades, i. e., Delos, and the 

 surrounding islands on the west; and, 5. the Spora- 

 des, i. e., those scattered over the eastern Archipe- 

 lago. To the Cyclades belong Delos (Sdilli), Rhenaea, 

 Miconos, Teiios (Tine), Andros, Gyaros, Ceos (Zia), 

 Syros, Cythnus (Thennia), Seriphos, Siphnos, Cimolis 

 (Argentiere), Melos (Milo), Thera (Santorin), los, 

 where Homer is said to have been buried, Naxos (in 

 more ancient times, Dia), Paros (Paria), &c. To the 

 Sporades belong Cos (Stanchio, Stingo), Parmacusa, 

 Patnios (Pahno, Palmosa), Samos, Chios (Scio), with 

 many smaller surrounding islands, Lesbos (Mitylene), 

 the surrounding islands called Hecatonnysoi, i. e., the 

 hundred islands, Tenedos (Bogdseha, Adassi), Len 1 - 

 nos (Stalimene), Imbros (Lembro),Samothrace, Tha- 

 sos, and, nearer the Grecian coast, Scyros and Eubcea 

 (Negropont). Ancient Macedonia was, in its interior, 

 rough, woody, and barren, and produced wine, oil, 

 and fruit-trees only on the coast. The same is true 

 of Epirus. But Thessaly was a fruitful and well 

 watered country, and produced the finest horses. 

 Boeotia was likewise fruitful, and abounded in fine 

 herds of cattle. The soil of Locris was moderately 

 good, that of Doris was more fruitful, and that of 

 Phocis still more so, producing, in abundance, good 

 wine, fine oil, and madder. The rough mountains of 

 ^Etolia were neither suited to pasturage nor to agri- 

 culture. Acarnania, the sea-coast of Attica, and the 

 mountainous parts of Megaris, were as little remark- 

 able for fertility as Achaia. Argolis had a fruitful 

 soil ; and in Laconia, Messenia, and Elis, both agri- 

 culture and pasturage flourished. Arcadia was a 

 mountainous country, well adapted for the raising of 

 flocks. The Grecian islands lie under a fortunate sky, 

 and are most of them very rich in wine and in wild 

 and cultivated fruits.* 



The History of Greece is divided into three princi- 

 pal periods the periods of its rise, its power, and its 

 tall. The first extends from the origin of the people ? 



* See Hellas, or a Geographical and Antiquarian Account 

 of Ancient Greece and its Colonies, with a View of the 

 Modern Discoveries made in that Country, by V. K. G. 

 Kruse, professor (Leipsic, 1876), two volumes with an Atlas. 

 A Journal of a Tour through Greece and Albania (Berlin, 

 1S26), contains very satisfactory accounts of Ancient 

 Greece, particularly in a military point of view. Gt-11 and 

 Dod<vell have written on the geography, topography, and 

 history of Greece in ancient and modern times, with the 

 writings of the ancients in their hands. Dodwell's com- 

 panion, Pomardi, has given some additional information 

 (Rome, 1820), Chandler, Stuart, Revett, have given accu- 

 rate descriptions of the remains of the architecture and 

 sculpture of the ancient Greeks. Spohn and Wheeler, Le 

 Chevalier, Choiseul-Gouffier, and Clark and Turner have 

 furnished accurate accounts of parts of the country pre- 

 viously little known. See also Horner's Picture of Gre- 

 cian Antiquities, or an Account of the most celebrated 

 Places and most important Works of Art of Ancient 

 Greece, (Zurich, 1824, et seq.) The journals cf Hughes, 

 Holland, Vaudoricourt, Leake, Douglas, Castellan, and also 

 Gait's Letters from the Levant, contain good observations 

 on the manners and customs of Modern Greece, and the 

 islands of the Archipelago. The principal work, however, 

 is that of Pouqueville (formerly French consul-general near 

 Ali Pacha) Voy. dans la Grece (Paris, 1820, six volumes). 

 Iken's Hellenion, &c., contains information on the history 

 of the cultivation of the modern Greeks. Cell, in his Nar- 

 rative of a Journey in the Morea (London, 1&23), maintains 

 that the Greeks do not possess such cultivation as to he 

 worthy of freedom. The contrary opinion is maintained (>y 

 Ed. Blaquiere, in his Report on the present state of the 

 Greek Confederation, &r., {London, 1823). P. O. Bioen- 

 ted's Voyages dans la Grfce accprnpagnts tie Becherches 

 Archi?ologiquex(Par\f, 1826, with engrav-ngn), in a valuable 

 work. F< r a list of works on the Greek revolution, see f.lte 

 close of that division of this article, in which it is treated. 



about 1800 years B. C., to Lycurgus, 875 years 

 B. C.; the second extends from that time to th 

 conquest of Greece by the Romans, 146 B. C'.; the 

 third shows us the Greeks as a conquered people, 

 constantly on the decline, until at length, about 

 A. D. 300, the old Grecian states were swallowed 

 up in the Byzantine empire. According to tradition, 

 the Pelasgi, under Inacluis, were the first people who 

 wandered into Greece. They dwelt in caves in the 

 earth, supporting themselves on wild fruits, and rat- 

 ing the flesh of their conquered enemies, until 1'iio- 

 roneus, who is called king of Argos, began to intro- 

 duce civilization among them. Pelasgus in Arcadia, 

 and .flSgialeus in Achaia, endeavoured at the same 

 time to civilize their savage subjects. The Cyclo- 

 pean walls are their work. (See Cyclopean Works.) 

 Small kingdoms arose ; e. g., Sparta and Athens. 

 Some barbarous tribes received names from the three 

 brothers, Achajus, Pelasgus, and Pythius, who led 

 colonies from Arcadia to Thessaly, and also from 

 Thessalus and Gnecus (the sons of Pelasgus), and 

 others. Deucalion's flood, 1514 B. C., and the emi- 

 gration of a new people from Asia, the Hellenes, 

 produced great changes. The Hellenes spread 

 themselves over Greece, and drove out the Pelasgi, 

 or mingled with them. Their name became the 

 general name of the Greeks. Greece now raised itself 

 from its savage state, and improved still more rapidly 

 after the arrival of some Phoenician and Egyptian 

 colonies. About sixty years after the flood of Deu- 

 calion, Cadmus the Phoenician settled in Thebes, 

 and introduced a knowledge of the alphabet. Ceres, 

 from Sicily, and Triptolemus, from Eleusis, taught 

 the nation agriculture, and Bacchus planted the vine. 

 The Egyptian fugitive Danaus came to Argos, and 

 Cecrops to Attica. Now began the heroic age, to 

 which Hercules, Jason, Pirithous, and Theseus be- 

 long, and that of the old bards and sages, as Thamy- 

 ris, Amphion, Orpheus, Linus, Musasus, Chiron, and 

 many others. A warlike spirit filled the whole 

 nation, so that every quarrel called all the heroes of 

 Greece to arms, as, for instance, the war against 

 Thebes, and the Trojan war, 1200 years B. C., which 

 latter forms one of the principal epochs in the history 

 of Greece. This war deprived many kingdoms of 

 their princes, and produced a general confusion, of 

 which the Heraclidse took advantage, eighty years 

 after the destruction of Troy, to possess themselves 

 of the Peloponnesus. They drove out the lonhms 

 and Achseans, who took refuge in Attica. But, not 

 finding here sufficient room, Neleus (1044) led an 

 Ionian colony to Asia Minor, where a colony of 

 JEolians, from the Peloponnesus, had already settled, 

 and was followed, eighty years after, by a colony of 

 Dorians. In other states republics were founded, 

 viz., in Phocis, in Thebes, and in the Asiatic colo- 

 nies, and at length also in Athens and many other 

 places ; so that, for the next 400 years, all the 

 southern part of Greece was for the most part occu- 

 pied by republics. Their prosperity and the fineness 

 of the climate, in the mean time, made the Asiatic 

 colonies the mother of the arts and of learning. They 

 gave birth to the songs of Homer and Hesiocl. Then-, 

 commerce, navigation, and law flourished. Greece, 

 however, still retained its ancient simplicity of man- 

 ners, and was unacquainted with luxury. If the 

 population of any state became too numerous, colonies 

 were sent out ; for example, in the seventh and 

 eighth centuries, the powerful colonies of Rhegium, 

 Syracuse, Sybaris, Crotona, Tarentum, Gela, Locris, 

 and Messena were planted in Sicily and the southern 

 part of Italy. (See Magna Gratia.) The small in- 

 dependent states of Greece needed a common bond 

 of union. This bond was found in the temple of 

 Delphi, the Amphictyonic council, and the solemn 



