Page:History of Greece Vol II.djvu/240

 224 HISTORY OF GREECE. It will thus appear that there was no part of Greece proper which could be considered as out of reach of the sea, while most parts of it were convenient and easy of access : in fact, the Arca- dians Avere the only large section of the Hellenic name, (we may add the Doric, Tetrapolis, and the mountaineers along the chain of Pindus and Tymphrestus,) who were altogether without a seaport. 1 But Greece proper constituted only a fraction of the entire Hellenic world, during the historical age : there were the numerous islands, and still more numerous continental colonies, all located as independent intruders on distinct points of the coast, 3 in the Euxine, the -ZEgean, the Mediterranean, and the Adriatic ; and distant from each other by the space which sepa- rates Trebizond from Marseilles. All these various cities were comprised in the name Hellas, which implied no geographical continuity : all prided themselves on Hellenic blood, name, religion, and mythical ancestry. As the only communication gales and currents round Mount Atbos : the canal cut by Xerxes through the isthmus was justiricd by sound reasons (Travels in Northern Greece, vol. iii. c. 24, p. 145). 1 The Periplus of Skylax enumerates every section of the Greek name, with the insignificant exceptions noticed in the text, as partaking of the line of coast; it even mentions Arcadia (c. 45), because at that time Lepreum had shaken off the supremacy of Elis, and was confederated with the Arca- dians (about 360 B. c.) : Lepreum possessed about twelve miles of coast^ which therefore count as Arcadian. Mail) notices emphatically both the general maritime accessibility of Grecian towns, and the effects of that circumstance on Grecian character : " Quod de Corintho dixi, id haud scio an liceat de cunctS. Gratia verissime dicere. Nam et ipsa Peloponnesus fere tota in mari est : nee praeter Phliuntios ulli sunt, quorum agri non contingant mare : et extra Peloponnesum JEnianes et Dores et Dolopes soli absunt a mari. Quid dicam insulas Graeciae, qua) fluctibus cinctae natant pazne ipsse simul cum civitatium institutis et mori- bus ? Atque hajc quidem, ut supra dixi, veteris sunt Grasciae. Colonuirum vero quae est deducta a Graiis in Asiam, Thraciam, Italiam, Siciliam, Afri- cam, praeter unam Magnesiam, quam unda non alluat ? Ita barbarorum agris quasi adtexta quaedam videtur ora esse Graecias." Compare Cicero, Epistol. ad Attic, vi 2, with the reference to Dikasarchns, who agreed to a great extent in Plato's objections against a maritime site (De Legg. iv. p. 705 ; also, Aristot. Politic, vii. 5-6). The sea (says Plato) U indeed a salt and bitter neighbor (pd^a ye utjv ovruf <! Iftvpfo nal iri/ipuv though convenient for purposes of daily use.
 * Cicero (De Republica, ii. 2-4, in the Fragments of that lost treatise, ed