Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 11.djvu/93

Rh there was Hellas, and a Greek colony in Sicily or Africa was thought to participate as essentially in all that con stituted Hellas as either Attica or Lacedasmon. Still the name was usually applied to the land which formed the geographical centre of the race, of which the greatest length was 250 miles and the greatest breadth 180, and which had an area, exclusive of Epirus (4690 square miles) but including Eubcea (1410 square miles), of 21,121 square miles. This territory comprised (1) Northern Greece, all north of the Maliac (Zeitoum) and Ambracian (Arta) Gulfs ; (2) Central Greece, extending from these gulfs to the isthmus of Corinth ; (3) the peninsula of the Peloponnesus (Morea) to the south of the isthmus ; (4) the following islands, Euboea (Negropont) in the east, the Ionian Islands in the Ionian Sea on the west, Crete and Cyprus in the south, and the Cyclades and Sporades across the mouth of the ^Egean from the south-east headlands of Attica and Euboe.i. Continental Greece i.e., all the country now specified, exclusive of the islands consists of a series of natural cantons, hedged from one another and from the outer world by mountain ranges from 5000 to 8000 feet high, and so was almost by a physical necessity occupied in the times of its ancient political independence by seven teen separate states, none of which was larger than an ordinary English county. The whole eight states of the Peloponnesus covered less area than York and Lancaster together; and Attica, the most celebrated state of antiquity, was less than Cornwall. These states, which are noticed separately under the special headings, were Thessaly in North Greece ; Acarnania, JEtolia, Locris, Doris, Phocis, Megaris, Bceotia, and Attica in Central Greece ; and Corinthia, Sicyonia, Achah, Elis, Messenia, Laconia, Argolis, and Arcadia in the Peloponnesus.

Modern Greece is of smaller extent, and its limits are strictly determined by the arrangement between Great Britain, France, Russia, and Turkey, concluded at Constantinople on the 21st [9th] July 1832, which finally settled the question of frontier between Greece and Turkey. It left to Turkey the fertile Greek-speaking province of Thessaly and part of Acarnania, and fixed the northern boundary of Greece at a line running from the Gulf of Arta (Sinus Ambracius) to the Gulf of Volo (S. Pagasseus), keep ing along the crest of the Othrys mountain range. The pass of Khlomo was to belong entirely to Greece, and the fort of Punta (Actium) at the southern head of the Gulf of Arta was to continue to belong to Turkey, though Greek vessels were required to have free entry into the gulf. The Ionian islands, consisting of Corfu (Corey ra), Paxo (Paxos), Santa Maura (Leucas), Cephalonia, Thiake (Ithaca), and Zanto (Zacynthus) on the west coast of Greece, and Cerigo (Cythera) on the south, which had remained under British protectorate for 50 years, were voluntarily ceded by Britain to Greece in 1864, after the accession of king George. Modern Greece is not more than two-thirds the size of Scotland ; it is 200 miles long from north to south, and 180 broad from east to west, and has an entire area of 19,353 square miles, of which 8288 square miles are in the Morea, 7558 in the northern part of continental Greece, 2500 in the islands of the yEgean, and 1007 in the Ionian Islands.

Its most obvious geographical peculiarity is its remarkable richness in mountains, bays, and islands, which give it unexampled natural defences, unusual maritime facilities, and quite a peculiar variety of climate, vegetation, and scenery. In this respect it but gathers into a smaller page and expresses in distincter type the structural peculiarities of the continent to which it belongs. In the complexity of its make and the variety of its natural features Greece excels every country of Europe, as Europe excels every continent of the world. No part of Greece is 40 miles from the sea or 10 from the hills. Though not mucii more than half the size of Portugal, it has a coast-line greater than that of Spain. and Portugal together, and that coast line is broken everywhere into all manner of gulf s, and bays, and inlets, affording a rich supply of good natural harbours. The country is divided by its mountain chains into a num ber of independent parts, the capture of one of which by an enemy is but a single step towards possession of the whole. The small basins of arable land between these hills maintained comparatively isolated populations, on ac count of the difficulty of inland intercommunication, and naturally developed that individuality of character, that local patriotism, and that political independence, which marked the ancient Greek communities. And the great variety of pursuit, interest, and stimulus which the geographical fea tures of the country created could not fail to conduce to the uncommon mental vigour, quickness, and versatility which the people exhibited. The Greeks therefore owed their great ness largely to the country it was their fortune to dwell in.

The ruling feature in the mountain system of ancient Greece and, to a certain extent, in modern Greece also is the great chain of Pindus, which takes its rise in the Balkans (Hæmus), and runs like a backbone through the entire length of the northern half of the peninsula, throwing out various branches to the east and the west on its way. At about 40 N. lat. the Cambunians leave it and go east, forming the boundary between Macedonia (Roumelia) and Thessaly, and as they approach the coast they turn in a southerly direction at the lofty and famous Mount Olympus, the highest mountain in ancient Greece, and are continued at intervals, on the other side of the vale of Tempe, by Ossa (Kissovo), Pelion (Zagora), and the hills of Eubcea. At 39 the Othrys chain (Helloro), whose chief elevation is the conical Mount Veluchi (Tymphrestus), is sent out also to the east, and forms the northern bulwark of the present kingdom. A little further south the CEta range (Katavothra) goes in the same direction, and reaches the Gulf of Zeitoum (Maliac Gulf) at the celebrated pa?s of Thermopylae. The Cambunian chain intersects Pindus ^at Mount Lacmon (Zygo), and thence westward the chain passes under the name of Taenarus and the Ceraunian Hills (Montes Acroceraunii) till it enters the sea at the Acroceraunian promontory (Cape Linguelta). From the point of junction with the Othrys, the Pindus chain is continued southwards in a series of separate peaks Parnassus (Liakura), Helicon, Cithaeron, Parnes, and Hymettus, on to the promontory of Sunium (Cape Colonna) in the south east of Attica. Parnes divides Attica from Boeotia. The mountains of the Morea have no connexion with the mountain system of Northern Greece ; they do not run in chains, but rather cluster in knots. The most important of these are Ziria (Cyllene), Khelmos, Olonos, and the range of Pentedaktylon (Taygetus), which stretches from the centre of Arcadia through the length of Laconia to Cape Matapan (Taenarum), and is the most imposing of all the mountains of Greece. The hegemony of Sparta in the Peloponnesus is attributed by some to ity possessing both sides of this chain. Its highest poir.l is Mount St Elias, called, like several other Greek mountains, after the prophet Elijah. None of the mountains of Greece is within the line of perpetual snow, though the tops of several are white for some months in the year. What is peculiar to Greece is not the presence of any one hill of pre-eminent height, but the great number it possesses of considerable and nearly equal elevation. Modern Greece has no summit so high as Olympus (9754 feet), but within its narrow area it has twenty-six hills above 3000 feet, of which eight are above 7000 feet, viz., Parnassus (8068), Taygetus (7904), Tymphrestus (7610), (Eta (7071), the three summits of Cyllene in Arcadia (7788), and Corax