Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 2.djvu/272

 GRAECIA. <»f Cnemifl, Ptoon, and Teoroessas, till it joins Parnee, which is a lateral branch of Cithaeron ex- tending from west to east By means of Pentelicos, with its celebrated marble qnarries to the south of Pames, the range is farther connected with the chain running from Cithaeron to Soninm. Between Parnassus and Oeta is a narrow plain called Doris, from which the I>orians are said to have descended to the conquest of Peloponnesus. Here rises the CephissuSf winch flows through the plain of Phocis and Boeotia, and fiills into the lake Copais. Phocis possesses some fertile plains on the Cephissns, lying Iwtween Parnassus and the Locrian mountains. Boeotia is a large hollow basin shut in on every side by mountains, and containing a ooo- siderable quantity of very fertile land. Attica is another peninsula, resembling in shape the great peninsula to which Greece itself belongs. It is in the form of a triangle, having two of its sides washed by the sea, and its base united to the land. As the Cambunian range forms the outer, and Mount Oeta the inner barrier of Greece, so the chain of Cithaeron and Pames, extending along the base of Attica, is a natural rampart protecting this country. It has been already seen that the range of Cithaeron is continued towards the east under the name of Pames. In like manner it is prolonged towards the south-west, skirting the shores of the Corinthian gulf and forming the mountainous country of Megaris. Here it rises into a new chain, between four and five thousand feet in height, under the name of the Geraneian mountains, which stretch across Megaris frtnn west to east parallel to Cithae- ron. It is highest on the western side, and gra- dually sinks down towards the Saronic gulf. The island of Salamis and its surrounding rocks are only a continuation of this chain. Southwards the Ge- raneian mountains sink down still more towards the isthmus which separates Hellas Proper from Pelo- ponnesus. Here the Corinthian gutf on the west and the Saronic gulf on the east penetrate so far inland as to leave but a narrow neck of land be- tween them, only four miles across at its narrowest part The isthmus is comparatively level, being in its highest p(nnt not more than 246 foet above the level of the sea, but immediately to the south rise the lofty range of the Oneian hills, parallel to the Ge- raneian, with which they have often been confounded. Here stood the city of Corinth, with its impregnable fortress the Acrocorinthua, and here the isthmus opened out into the Peloponnesus. Before proceeding to the description of Pelopon- nesus, it deserves remark that Strabo divides Greece into five peninsulas. The first is the Peloponnesus^ separated by an isthmus of 40 stadia. The second is the one of which the isthmus extends from the Megarian Pagae to Nisaea, the harbour of Megara, being 120 stadia from sea to sea. The third is the one of which the isthmus extends frvm the recess of the Crissaean golf to Thermopylae, an imaginary straight Ime, 508 stadia in length, being drawn, which includes within it the whole of Boeotia, and cuts across Phocis and the Locri EpicnemidiL The fourth has an isthmus of about 800 stadia, extending from the Ambradan gulf to the Malian gulf. The fifth isthmus is more than 1000 stadia, extending from the same Ambracian gulf through Thessaly and Macedonia to the Thermaic gulf. (Strab. viii. p. 334.) The mountain-system of Peloponnesus hasnocon- necti(Hi with the rest of Greece. The mountains in GRAECIA. 1013 HeUas Proper form an unintenrupted series of chains, running out from the mountains in the countries to the north of Greece. The mountains of Peloponnesus on the contrary, have their roots in Arcadia, the central district of the countiy, where they rise to a great height. Hence Arcadia has been aptly called the Switzerland of Peloponnesus, to which it stands in the same relation as Switserlimd does to the rest of Europe. Upon closer inspection it will be seen that this Alpine district is encircled by an irregular ring of mountains, forming a kind of natural wall, fipom which lateral branches extend in all directions towards the sea. The mountains forming the northern boundary of Arcadia are the loftiest 'and most massive. They extend from west to east, terminating in the magni- ficent height of Mount Cyllene {Zyria), 7788 feet above the level of the sea, the first of the Peloponne- sian mountains seen by a person coming over the isthmus from Northem Greece. The most westerly point of this northem barrier is Erymanthus ( (/lonos), 7297 feet high ; and between it and Cyllene are the Aroanian mountains {Khelmot)^ 7726 feet in height. The eastern boundary is also formed by a continuous series of mountains, stretching from Mount Cyllene towards the south. Those bearing a special name in this range are Artemisium (TlurmJb'), 5814 feet in height; and Partheninm (Jidino%S99S feet in height, south of the former. The range terminates in Pamon. On the southern frontier of Arcadia there is no clearly defined chain of mountains, but only a series of heights forming the water-shed between the tributaries of the Alpheius and those of the Eurotas. It is not till reaiching the south-west frontier that the highlands again rise into a loffy and continuous chain, under the name of Lycaeus (^Dhiofirit), 4659 feet high. From Lycaeus a range of mountains, ranning south till it. joins Erymanthus, constitutes the western boundary of Arcadia ; but it bears no special name, except in its northern half, where it is called PholoS. The northern, eastern, and southern barriers of Arcadia are unbroken ; but the western wall is divided by the Alpheius, which finds its way through an open- ing on this side, and thence descends to the western The other chief divisions of Peloponnesus are La- oonia and Messenia, on the south ; Argolis, on the east; Ehs, on the west; and Achaia, on the north. From the southern frontier of Arcadia a lofty chain of mountains, under the name of Taygetus, runs from north to south, forming the boundary between Messenia and Laoonia, and terminating in the pro- montoiy of Taenaram, the southemmost point of Greece and Europe. The chain of Taygetus is the longest and highest in all Peloponnesus, being in one part 7902 feet above the level of the sea, or more than 100 feet above Cyllene. From Mount Pamon, at the south-eastern comer of Arcadia, another range of mountains extends from north to south along the coast, parallel to the range of Taenarus, and termi- nating in the promontory of Malea. fiietween this range, which may be called by the general name of Pamon, and that of Taygetus, was U)e valley of the Eurotas, in which Sparta hiy, and which to the south of Sparta opened out into a plain of considerable ex- tent Messenia, in like manner, was drained by the Panusus, whose plain was still more extensive than that of the Eurotas ; for Messenia contained no con- tinuous duun of mountains to the west of the Pami- sus, answering to the range of Pamon in Laconia. Both the Pamisufl and the Eurotas flow into gu]£i 3t 3