Page:History of Greece Vol IV.djvu/43

 AKANTHL'S, STAGKIKA, ETC. 25 On the scanty spaces, admitted by the mountainous promontory, or ridge, ending in Athos, were planted some Thracian and some Pelasgic settlements of the same inhabitants as those who occu- pied Lemnos and Imbros ; a few Chalkidic citizens being domici- liated with them, and the people speaking both Pelasgic and Hellenic. But near the narrow isthmus which joins this promon- toiy to Thrace, and along the north-western coast of the Strymo- nic gulf, were Grecian towns of considerable importance, Sane, Akanthus, Stageira, and Argilus, all colonies from Andros, which had itself been colon! red from Eretria. 1 Akanthus and Stageira are said to have been ibimded in 654 B.C. Following the southern coast of Thrace, from the mouth of the river Strymon towards the east, we may doubt whether, in the year 560 B.C., any considerable independent colonies of Greeks Lad yet been formed upon it. The Ionic colony of Abdera, east- ward of the mouth of the river Nestus, formed from Teos in Ionia, is of more recent date, though the Klazomenians' 2 had begun an unsuccessful settlement there as early as the year 651 B.C.; while Dikaea the Chian settlement of Maroneia and the Lesbian settlement of -ZEnus at the mouth of the Hebrus, are of unknown date. 3 The important and valuable territory near the mouth of the Strymon, where, after many ruinous fail- ures, 4 the Athenian colony of Amphipolis afterwards maintained itself, was at the date here mentioned possessed by Edonian Thracians and Pierians : the various Thracian tribes, Satrae, Edonians, Dersaeans, Sapaeans, Bistones, Kikones, Pictians, etc. were in force on the principal part of the tract between Stry- mon and Hebrus, even to the sea-coast. It is to be remarked, however, that the island of Thasus, and that of Samothrace, each possessed what in Greek was called a Peraea, 5 a strip of the adjoining mainland cultivated and defended by means of for- 1 Thucyd. iv, 84, 103, 109. See Mr. Clinton's Fasti Hellenic!, ad ann. G54 B.C. 8 Solinus, x, 10. 3 Hcrodot. i, 168; vii, 58-59, 109 ; Skymnus Chins, v, 675. 4 Thucyd. i, 100, iv 102; Hcrodot. v, 11. Large quantities of corn are now exported from this territor) to Constantinople (Leakc, North. Gr. vol. iii, ch. 25, p. 172). Ilerodot. rii, 108-109 ; Thucj 1. i, 101. VOL. IV. 2