Page:History of Greece Vol II.djvu/482

 4<J6 HISTORY OF GREECE. subsequently aggregated into towns thus Patrae was formed bj a coalescence of seven villages, Dyine from eight (one of which wra named Teuthea), and JEgium also from seven or eight. But all these towns were small, and some of them underwent a farther junction one with the other ; thus JEgae was joined with ./Egeira, and Olenus with Dyme. 1 All the authors seem disposed to recognize twelve cities, and no more, in Achaia ; for Polybius, still adhering to that number, substitutes Leontium and Keryneia in place of JEgae and Rhypes ; Pausanias gives Keryneia in place of Patrae. 2 We hear of no facts respecting these Achasan towns until a short time before the Peloponnesian war, and even then their part was inconsiderable. The greater portion of the territory comprised under the name of Achaia was mountain, forming the northern descent of those high ranges, passable only through very difficult gorges, which separate the country from Arcadia to the south, and which throw out various spurs approaching closely to the gulf of Co- rinth. A strip of flat land, with white clayey soil, often very fertile, between these mountains and the sea, formed the plain of each of the Achaean towns, which were situated for the most part upon steep outlying eminences overhanging it. From the mountains between Achaia and Arcadia, numerous streams flow into the Corinthian gulf, but few of them are perennial, and tha whole length of coast is represented as harborless. 3 1 Strabo, viii. pp. 337, 342, 386. Polyb. il 41
 * Sec Lcake's Travels in Morea. c. xxvii. and