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, in 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 Thessa ly, 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. Ætolia (q. v.); 3. Doris, or Doris Tetrapolis (formerly Dryopolis); 4. Locris (q. v.), with the pass of Thermopyla; 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, Ionia, 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, Cythnus (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. Grecian islands lie under a fortunate sky, and are most of them very rich in wine and in wild and cultivated fruits.*

The

See also

The History of Greece is divided into three principal periods the periods of its rise, its power, and its fall. The first extends from the origin of the people, about 1800 years B. C., to Lycurgus, 875 years B. C.; the second extends from that time to the 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 Inachus, were the first people who wandered into Greece. They dwelt in caves in the earth, supporting themselves on wild fruits, and eating the flesh of their conquered enemies, until Phoroneus, who is called king of Argos, began to introduce civilization among them. Pelasgus in Arcadia, and Egialeus in Achaia, endeavored at the same time to civilize their savage subjects. The Cyclopean walls are their work. (See Cyclopean Works.) Small kingdoms arose; e. g., Sparta and Athens. Some barbarous tribes received names from the three brothers, Achæus, Pelasgus and Pythius, who led colonies from Arcadia to Thessaly, and also from Thessalus and Græcus (the sons of Pelasgus), and others. Deucalion's flood, 1514 B. C., and the emigration 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 60 years after the flood of Deucalion, Cadmus, the Phonician, settled in Thebes, and introduced a knowledge of the alphabet. Ceres, from Sicily, and Triptolemus, from Eleusis, taught the nation agriculture, and Bacvant, 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 consal-general near Ali Pacha) Voy. dans la Grèce (Paris, 1820, six volumes). Iken's Hellenion, &c., contains information on the history of the cultivation of the modern Greeks. Gell, in his Narrative of a Journey in the Morea (London, 1823), maintains that the Greeks do not possess such cultivation as to be worthy of freedom. The contrary opinion is maintained by Ed. Blaquiere, in his Report on the present State of the Greek Confederation, &c. (London, 1823). P. O. Bronsted's Voyages dans la Grèce accompagnés de Recherches Archéologiques (Paris, 1826, with engravings), is a valuable work. (For a list of works on the Greek revolution, see the close of that division of this article, in which it is treated.)

chus 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 belong, and that of the old bards and sages, as Thamyris, Amphion, Orpheus, Linus, Musæus, 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 Heraclide took advantage, 80 years after the destruction of Troy, to possess themselves of the Peloponnesus. They drove out the Ionians and Achæans, who took refuge in Attica. But, not finding here sufficient room, Neleus (1044) led an Ionian colony to Asia Minor, where a colony of Æolians, from the Peloponnesus, had already settled, and was followed, 80 years after, by a colony of Dorians. In other states republics were founded, viz., in Phocis, in Thebes, and in the Asiatic colonies, 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 occupied 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 Hesiod. There commerce, navigation and law flourished. Greece, however, still retained its ancient simplicity of manners, and was unacquainted with luxury. If the population of any state became too numerous, colonies were sent out; for example, in the 7th and 8th 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 Gracia.) The small independent states of Greece needed a common bond of union. This bond was found in the temple of Delphi, the Amphictyonic council, and the solemn games, among which the Olympic were the most distinguished, the institution, or rather revival of which, 776 B. C., furnished the Greeks with a chronological era. (See Epoch.) From this time, Athens and Sparta began to surpass the other states of Greece in power and importance. At the time of the Persian war, Greece had already made important advances in civilization. Besides the art

of poetry, we find that philosophy began to be cultivated 600 B. C., and even earlier in Ionia and Lower Italy than in Greece Proper. Statuary and painting were in a flourishing condition. The important colonies of Massilia (Marseilles), in Gaul, and Agrigentum, in Sicily, were founded. Athens was continually extending her commerce, and established important commercial posts in Thrace. In Asia Minor, the Grecian colonies were brought under the dominion of the Lydian Croesus, and soon after under that of Cyrus. Greece itself was threatened with a similar fate by the Persian kings Darius and Xerxes. Then the heroic spirit of the free Greeks showed itself in its greatest brilliancy. Athens and Sparta almost alone withstood the vast armies of the Persian, and the battles of Marathon, Thermopyla and Platea, as well as the sea-fights at Artemisium, Salamis and Mycale, taught the Persians that the Greeks were not to be subdued by them. Athens now exceeded all the other states in splendor and in power. The supremacy which Sparta had hitherto maintained, devolved on this city, whose commander, Cimon, compelled the Persians to acknowledge the independence of Asia Minor. Athens was also the centre of the arts and sciences. The Peloponnesian war now broke out, Sparta being no longer able to endure the overbearing pride of Athens. This war devastated Greece, and enslaved Athens, until Thrasybulus again restored its freedom; and, for a short time, Sparta was compelled, in her turn, to bend before the Theban heroes Epaminondas and Pelopidas. In spite of these disturbances, poets, philosophers, artists and statesmen, continued to arise, commerce flourished, and manners and customs were carried to the highest degree of refinement. But that unhappy period had now arrived, when the Greeks, ceasing to be free, ceased to advance in civilization. A kingdom, formed by conquest, had grown up on the north of Greece, the ruler of which, Philip, united courage with cunning. The dissensions which prevailed among the different states, afforded him an opportunity to execute his ambitious plans, and the battle of Charonea, 338 B. C., gave Macedonia the command of all Greece. In vain did the subjugated states hope to become free after his death. The destruction of Thebes was sufficient to subject all Greece to the young Alexander. This prince, as generalissimo of the Greeks, gained the most splendid victories over the Persians.

An attempt to liberate Greece, occasioned by a false report of his death, was frustrated by Antipater. The Lamian war, after the death of Alexander, was equally unsuccessful. Greece was now little better than a Macedonian province. Luxury had enervated the ancient courage and energy of the nation. At length, most of the states of Southern Greece, Sparta and Etolia excepted, concluded the Achæan league, for the maintenance of their freedom against the Macedonians. A dispute having arisen between this league and Sparta, the latter applied to Macedonia for help, and was victorious. But this friendship was soon fatal, for it involved Greece in the contest between Philip and the Romans, who, at first, indeed, restored freedom to the Grecian states, while they changed Ætolia, and soon after Macedonia, into Roman provinces; but they afterwards began to excite dissensions in the Achæan league, interfered in the quarrels of the Greeks, and finally compelled them to take up arms to maintain their freedom. So unequal a contest could not long remain undecided; the capture of Corinth, 146 B. C., placed the Greeks in the power of the Romans. During the whole period which elapsed between the battle of Charonea and the destruction of Corinth by the Romans, the arts and sciences flourished among the Greeks; indeed, the golden age of the arts was in the time of Alexander. The Grecian colonies were yet in a more flourishing condition than the mother country; especially Alexandria, in Egypt, became the seat of learning. As they, also, in process of time, fell under the dominion of the Romans, they became, like their mother country, the instructers of their conquerors. In the time of Augustus, the Greeks lost even the shadow of their former freedom, and ceased to be an independent people, although their language, manners, customs, learning, arts and taste spread over the whole Roman empire. The character of the nation was now sunk so low, that the Romans esteemed a Greek as the most worthless of creatures. Asiatic luxury had wholly corrupted them; their ancient love of freedom and independence was extinguished; and a mean servility was substituted in its place. At the beginning of the fourth century, the nation scarcely showed a trace of the noble characteristics of their fathers. The barbarians soon after began their ruinous incursions into Greece.-Besides the well known works on the history of Greece,