Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 2.djvu/274

 GBAECIA. intestine win erentnally proved their rnin by open- ing their oountiy to Philip of Macedonia. (Gomp. Grote, Hiatorjf of Greece voL ii. p. 300, seq.) VL Chixv PsoDucnosB. The meet fertile districts in Greece, according to Thucydides (i. 2), were Thessalj, Boeotia, and a great part of Pelopoimesns: the least fertile were Arcadia and Attica. Wheat, barley, flax, wine, and oil, wvre the chief productions; bnt itiore careful at- tention seems to btve been bestowed npon the cul- ture of the vine and of the olive than upon the cereal crops. Bread seems to have been more generally made of barley than of wheat. We are told that by one of SoIon*s laws barley-cakes were provided on ordinary days, and wheatm loaves on festivals, for those who dined in the Prytandum. (Athen. iv. 137.) The hills afforded excellent pasture for cattle, and in antiquity supplied plenty of timber, though th^ are at prpsent nearly destitute of woods. The disappearance of thtoe forests has been one of the causes of the diminished fertility of Greece as compared with ancient times. By losing the shade which they afforded, the springs have been burnt up; and, in consequence of less moisture, v^tation has become poorer. Among the domestic animals we find horses, asses, mules, oxen, swine, sheep, goats, and d(^ Horses were not nnmeroos in Greece, since the country is too mountainoos to rsar any numbor. Hence the Greek cavalry was always insignificant. Mules vrere extensively tued in Peloponnesus, where they were found more useful than horses in traversing the mountains. Swine were very numerous, and pork was a fiivourite article of food, especially among the Arcadians. The milk of sheep and goats was pre- ferred to that of cows. (Aristot Hut. An. iiL 15. § 5, seq.) Among the wild animals we find mention of bears, wolves, and boars. Bears seem to have been com- mon in the forests of the Arcadian mountains. He- rodotus relates that lioiu were found between the Nestns in Thrsoe and the Acheleus in Aetolia (He- rod, vii. 126); and the existence of lions in Greece, at least at an early period, is rendered probable by the legend of the Nemean Uon. The mountains of Greece consist for the most part of hard Ihnestone, of which were built those massive Cyclopian walls and fortifications the re- mains of which still exist upon the summits of the hills. In almost every part of Greece there were rich and varied veins of marble, affording abundant and beautiful materials to the architect and the sculptor. The best marble-quarries were at Garystus in Euboea, at Pentelicus and Hymettos in Attica, and in the island of Paros. In the precious metab Greece was poor. Gold and silver were found in the island of Siphnos ; but the most productive silver-mines were at Laurium, in the south of Attica. Both copper and iron were found near Ghalcis in Euboea; and there were also iron-mines in the mountains of Taygetus in Laeonia. VII. Glimatr. The climate of Greece was probably more healthy in ancient than in modem times. The malaria, which now poisons the atmosphere during the sum- mer months, probably did not exist to the same ex- tent when the land was more thickly populated and better cultivated. Herodotus remarks that of all countries in the world Greece possessed the most GBAEGIA. 1015 happily tempered seasons (Herod, iii. 106) ; and Hip- pocrates and Aristotle considered the climate as highly fiivoursble to the intellectual energy of the in- habitants, since it was equally remov»i from the extremities of heat and cold. (Hippocrat. de Aere, 12, 13; Aristot PoL vii. 6. § 1.) But owing to the inequalities of its surface, to its lofty mountains and depressed valleys, the climate varies greatly in difierent districts. In the highlands in tlie interior the winter is often long and rigorous, the snow lying upon the ground till late in the spring; while in the lowlands open to the sea* there is haMly ever any severe weather, and snow is almost entirely unknown. Modem travellers who have suffered from excessive cold and snow-storms passing through Boeotia in the middle of February, have found upon arriving in Attica warm and genial weather. In like manner, in the montli of March, travellers find midwinter on the highlands of Mantineia and Tegea in Arcadia, spring in Argos and Laeonia, and dmost the beat of summer in the plain of KalamdtOy at the head of the Messenian gulf. To a native of the northern latitudes of Europe one of the meet striking phaeno^ mena of the Grecian climate is the transparent. purity of the atmosphere and the brilliant colouring of the sl^: though even in this point there was a great diflbrenoe between the various parts of Greece; and the Athenian writere frequently contrast the thick and damp air of Boeotia with the light and dry atmosphere of Athens. VIIL Volcanic Ghanges. Traces of volcanio agency are visible in many parts of Greece, although no volcanoes, either in ac- tivity or extinct, are found in the country. There were hot-springs at Thermopylae, Aedepsus in Euboea, and other pkces ; but the peninsula of 5Iethana in the Peloponnesus, opposite Aegina, and the island of Thera in the Aegaean are the two spots which exhibit the clearest traces of volcanic agency. The greater part of Methana consists of trachyte ; and here in historical times a volcanic emption took place, of which the particulars are recorded both by Strabo and Ovid. (Strab. i. p. 59; Ov. Met. xv. 296, seq.) In this pemnsula there are still two hot suljdiureous springs, near one of which exist ves- tiges of volcanio emption. The island of Thera is covered with pumice-stone; and it is related by Strabo (JL c.) that on one occasicm flames burst out from the sea between Thera and the neighbouring island of Therasia, and that an island was thrown up four stadia in circumfiBrence. In modem times there have been eraptions of the same kind at Thera and its neighbonrhd : of one of the most terrible, which occurred in 1650, we possess a circumstantial account by an eye-witness. (Boss, Heiten aufden Grieck. Intdnj vol. i. p. 194.) Earthquakes have in aU ages been of frequent oc- currence in Greece, especially in Peloponnesus. La- eonia was called a land "easily shaken** (jUatimoi ^ hoHmviKii^ Strab. viii. p. 367); and in the terrible earthquake which happened in b. c. 464, not more than five houses are said to have been left standing at Sparta; more than 20,000 persons were believed to have perished, and huge masses of rock were rolled down from the highest peaks of Taygetus. (Thuc iii. 89; Diod. xi. 63; Plut. Cim. 16.) On the Pe- loponnesian shores of the Gorinthian gulf the earth- quakes have been still more destractive. In conse- quence of the waves having no outlet into a wide- spread and open sea, they have m these convulsions 3t 4