GREECE, ANCIENT. The name of Gracia originated in Italy, and was probably derived from Pelasgian colonies, who, coming from Epirus, and calling themselves Grecians, from Græcus, the son of their ancestor, Thessalus, occasioned the application of this name to all the people who spoke the same language with them. In earlier times, e. g., in the time of Homer, Greece had no general name among the natives. It afterwards received the name of Hellas, and still later after the country was conquered by the Romans, the name of Achaia, under which Macedonia and Epirus were not included. The Grecian tribes were so widely dispersed, that it is difficult to determine, with precision, the limits of Greece, properly so called. The name was sometimes applied only to that country which was surrounded on three sides by the Mediterranean sea, was separated from Macedonia by the Cambunian mountains, and contained about 42,000 square miles; sometimes it was taken in a wider sense, including Macedonia and Epirus, having mount Hamus and the Egean and Ionian seas for its boundaries, and comprising the islands of these two seas. Greece consists partly of continental, and partly of insular regions. A chain of mountains, extending from the Ambracian gulf, the west, to Thermopyla, on the east, separates Northern Greece from Southern. The climate is alternately severe or mild, as the mountains or valleys predominate, but it is agreeable and healthy. People are not unfrequently found here, whose age is over 100 years. The soil of the valleys and plains is favor able to the growth of the finest tropical fruits, while the summits of the high

mountains are covered with the plants of the polar regions. In Athens, the thermometer very seldom falls below the freezing point, or rises above 25° Reaumur (88 Fahrenheit). In the islands, every evening, at a particular hour, a gentle sea breeze sets in, which tempers the heat of the day. But in the plains of Thessaly, which lie 1200 feet above the level of the sea, and more especially in the mountains of Arcadia, the winter is as severe as in England. The fruits of the soil are as abundant as they are various. Even where it is not adapted for the purposes of husbandry, it produces thyme, marjoram, and a number of aromatic herbs, which afford a rich pasturage. Greece produces eight kinds of corn and ten kinds of olives. It is, perhaps, the native country of the grape, particularly of the small sort, from which the currants of commerce are made. The name of these is a corruption of Corinth, the chief plantation having formerly been on the isthmus of this name. There are 40 kinds of Grecian grapes known. The honey of this country is very famous. (See Hymettus. Greece produces all the necessaries of life, and there is no country whose coast is so well supplied with bays and harbors for commerce. The main land is now divided into Northern Greece, Middle Greece, Greece Proper, or Hellas, in its narrower sense, and the Peloponnesus (Morea). I. Northern Greece includes, 1. Thessaly (q. v.) (now Janna); 2. Epirus (q. v.) (now Albania); 3. Macedonia (now Macedonia, or Filiba-Vilajeti), accounted a part of Greece from the time of Philip and Alexander, and making a link in the chain between Greece and Thrace, of which, in earlier times, Mace

donia made a part. II. Middle Greece, or Hellas (now Livadia), contains, 1. Acarnania, inhabited by a rough and warlike people, with no remarkable rivers or mountains; 2. Etolia (q. v.); 3. Doris, or Doris Tetrapolis (formerly Dryopolis); 4. Locris (q. v.), with the pass of Ther mopyla; 5. Phocis, watered by the Cephissus, and containing mount Parnassus, under which lay Delphi (q. v.); 6. Bootia (q. v.); 7. Attica (q. v.); 8. Megaris, with the city of Megara, the smallest of all the Grecian states. III. The peninsula of the Peloponnesus, to which the isthmus of Corinth led through Megaris, contained, 1. the territory of Corinth (q. v.), with the city of the same name, called, in earlier times, Ephyra; 2. the small territory of Sicyon, with the ancient city of the same name; 3. Achaia, anciently called Egialos, and, afterwards, Jonia, contained 12 cities on the coast which stretched along the Corinthian gulf to the river Melas; 4. Elis, divided into two parts by the river Alpheus, stretched from Achaia, south-west, to the sea-coast; it contained the celebrated cities of Cyllene and Olympia (q. v.); 5. Messenia, with the river Pamisus, extending from the southern part of Elis along the sea to the extremity of the continent, with the city of Messene, and the frontier towns of Ithome and Ira; 6. Laconia, Laconica, Lacedæmon, a mountainous country traversed by the Taygetus, and watered by the Eurotas, bounded on three sides by the Messenian, the Laconian and the Argolic gulfs; Sparta (q. v.) was the capital; 7. Argolis (q. v.); 8. Arcadia (q. v.). The islands which belong to Greece, lie, I. in the Ionian sea, on the west and south of the main land. 1. Corcyra (Corfu); 2. Cephalonia; 3. Asteris; 4. Ithaca (Teaki); 5. Zacynthus (Zante: St. Maura is the ancient peninsula of Leucadia, formerly connected with the main land of Acarnania); 6. Cythera (Cerigo); 7. the group of islands in the Argolic gulf; 8. the island of Pelops, near the territory of Trozene, and, not far off, Sphæria, Calauria (Poros); 9. Ægina; 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 land, lie, 1. Carpathos (Scarpanto); 2. Rhodes; 3. Cyprus; 4. the Cyclades, i. e., Delos, and the surrounding islands on the west; and, 5. the Sporades, i. e., those scattered over the eastern Archipelago. To the Cyclades belong Delos (Sdilli), Rhenæa, Miconos, Tenos

(Tine), Andros, Gyaros, Ceos (Zia), Syros, Cythmus (Thermia), Seriphos, Siphnos, Cimolis (Argentiere), Melos (Milo), Thera (Santorin), Ios, 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, Patmos (Palmo, Palmosa), Samos, Chios (Scio), with many smaller surrounding islands, Lesbos (Mitylene), the surrounding islands called Hecatonnysoi, i. e., the hundred islands, Tenedos (Bogdscha, Adassi), Lemnos (Stalimene), Imbros (Lembro), Samothrace, Thasos, and, nearer the Grecian coast, Scyros and Eubœa (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 agriculture. Acarnania, the sea-coast of Attica, and the mountainous parts of Megaris, were as little remarkable for fertility as Achaia. Argolis had a fruitful soil; and in Laconia, Messenia and Elis, both agriculture 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.*

rian Account of Ancient Greece and its Colonies, * See Hellas, or a Geographical and Antiquawith a View of the Modern Discoveries made in that Country, by F. K. G. Kruse, professor (Leipsic, 1826), two volumes, with an Atlas. A Journal of a Tour through Greece and Albania of Ancient Greece, particularly in a military (Berlin, 1826), contains very satisfactory accounts point of view. Gell and Dodwell have written on the geography, topography and history of Greece in ancient and modern times, with the well's companion, Pomardi, has given some adwritings of the ancients in their hands. Dodditional information (Rome, 1820), Chandler, Stuart, Revett, have given accurate descriptions of the remains of the architecture and sculpture of the ancient Greeks. Spohn and Wheeler, Le Turner have furnished accurate accounts of parts Chevalier, Choiseul-Gouffier, and Clark of the country previously little known. See also Horner's Picture of Grecian Antiquities, or an Account of the most celebrated Places and most important Works of Art of Ancient Greece, (Zurich, 1824, et seq.). The journals of Hughes, Holland, Vaudoncourt, Leake, Douglas, Castellan, and also Galt's Letters from the Le

and