38 HISTORY OF GREECE. which at length united a group of islands, once | feelings: it seems to have been viewed as an Acarnania, lying between the lower part of the Achelous, which took its rise in Pindus beyond the limits of Greece, and the Ionian Sea, was, like Ætolia, a mountainous land, but its hills, still clothed with thick forests, are less lofty and rugged. The valleys of both countries contain some extensive lakes, surrounded by rich pastures. Northward of Acarnania, on the Ambracian Gulf, lay the territory of the semibarbarous Amphilochians, and that of Ambracia, which met the southern confines of Epirus. A peninsula, called Leucas, from the white cliff celebrated in ancient fable for the cure of desperate love, once projected from the western coast of Acarnania, but was afterward severed from the mainland by a narrow channel opened by its Corinthian colonists. Southward of it, a cluster of islands, including Ithaca, Cephallenia, and Zacynthus, cover the opposite shores of Acarnania and Peloponnesus. The face of Peloponnesus presents outlines At first sight, the whole land appears somewhat more intricate than those of Northern Greece. one pile of mountains, which, towards the northwest, where it reaches its greatest height, forms a compact mass, pressing close upon the Gulf of Corinth. On the western coast it recedes farther from the sea; towards the centre, is pierced more and more by little hollows; and on the south and east, is broken by three great gulfs, and the valleys opening into them, which suggested to the ancients the form of a plane leaf, to illustrate that of the peninsula. On closer inspection, the highest summits of this pile, Thus to form an irregular ring, which separates the with their connecting ridges, may be observed central region, Arcadia, from the rest. bounds it on the east, is connected, by a chain the range of Artemisium, and Parthenium, which of highlands running from east to west, with the northern extremity of Taygetus; this, again, is linked with the Lycaan and Nomian Mountains, which form the western frontier, and stretch on towards Pholoe, which meets the great northern barrier, including Olenus, Scollis, Erymanthus, Aroanius, and Cyllene. The territories which skirt the three principal gulfs are likewise enclosed by lofty ranges, ending in bold promontories, and exhibit each a peculiar character. The northern and western sides contain no such prominent landmarks; and the states which possessed them were separated by artificial rather than by natural limits. We observed that the Onean range, which extends over the greater part of the territory of Megara, terminates in the Isthmus; and this is true for a general and distant survey. The Isthmus, however, is not exactly level. The roots of the Onean Mountains are continued along the eastern coast in a line of low cliffs, till they meet another range, which seems to have borne the same name, at the opposite exThis is an important tremity of the Isthmus." feature in the face of the country: the Isthmus, at its narrowest part, between the inlets of Schanus and Lechaum, is only between three The mountains which encircle Arcadia are so and four miles broad; and along this line, hence called the Diolcus, or Draughtway, vessels were often transported from sea to sea, to avoid the connected as to afford a passage for its waters This is the principal feadelay and danger which attended the circum-only by one opening, the defile (below Caritena, navigation of Peloponnesus. Yet it seems not or Brenthe) through which the Alpheus descends to have been before the Macedonian period to the Western Sea. eastern part of Arcadia. On the west, a numthat the narrowness of the intervening space ture which distinguishes the western from the suggested the project of uniting the two seas It was entertained for a ber of valleys open into the basin of the Alpheby means of a canal. are considerable rivers, as the Ladon, and the time by Demetrius Poliorcetes; but he is said us, bringing down tributaries, some of which to have been deterred by the reports of his engineers, who were persuaded that the surface Erymanthus, which flow from the northern of the Corinthian Gulf was so much higher than mountains; and several ancient towns in this the Saronic, that a channel cut between them region were built on heights near the confluence would be useless from the rapidity of the cur- of the neighbouring streams: as Cleitor, Psophis, rent, and might even endanger the safety of Methydrium, Brenthe, Gortys, and Heraa. On the Ægina and the neighbouring isles. Three cen- other hand, the eastern portion of Arcadia is inturies later, the dictator Cæsar formed the same tersected by lower ridges, which completely enThe streams which fall into them find no visible outplan, and was perhaps only prevented from ac- close a great number of little plains, so that the complishing it by his untimely death. above-mentioned inequality of the ground would let. Such are the plains of Asea, Pallantium, always render this undertaking very laborious Tegea, Mantinea, Orchomenus, Alea, Stymphalus, and expensive. But the work was of a nature and Pheneus. Hence a great part of the countii., 1, 5. † N. H., iv., 5. rather to shock than to interest genuine Greek try would be covered with stagnant pools, and *Leake, iii., p. 311. * Dio Cass., lxiii., 16. its air generally infected by noxious vapours, the ancients for its luxuriant fertility. The dodid not the inland rivers and lakes find means minions of Corinth, which also extended beyond of escaping through chasms and subterraneous the Isthmus, meeting those of Megara a little channels, not uncommon in limestone mount- south of the Scironian Rocks, occupied a conains, but which perhaps nowhere occur so fre- siderable portion of Argolis. The two cities, quently, within an equally narrow compass, as Sicyon and Corinth, were similarly situated, in Arcadia. So the Aroanius, even after Her- both commanding important passes into the incules had cut a canal to guide its course into terior of the peninsula.* The hill which was the Lake of Pheneus, would have encroached on the site of Sicyon, probably in the earliest as well the surrounding plain, if it had not been receiv- as the latest period of its history, rose near the ed by a vast gap at the foot of a mountain. openings of two ravines or valleys, those of the through which it descends to rise again, under Helisson and the Asopus. The latter river dethe more celebrated name of the Ladon. So scended from the plains of Phlius and Ornea. the waters collected in the plain of Mantinea, The lofty and precipitous rock, called the Acroat the western foot of Mount Artemisium, gush | corinthus, on which stood the citadel of Corinth, up out of the sea near the eastern coast. So though, being, commanded by a neighbouring the Lake of Stymphalus disgorges itself into a height, it is of no great value for the purpochasm, from which it issues again in the plain ses of modern warfare, was in ancient times of Argos as the Erasinus. The Alpheus, above an impregnable fortress, and a point of the highall, is a Protean stream, and acts at home a est importance, both for the protection of the wonderful prelude to his fabled submarine ad- Isthmus, and of the pass which led up to the ventures. According to a general, and appa- | plain of Cleone, and thence to that of Nemea. rently a well-grounded belief, it is the same riv- From the vale of Orneæ a rugged road crossed er which, springing from several sources on the the mountains into the plain of Argos. But the western side of Mount Parnon, sinks under more frequented approach from the north was ground at the foot of Mount Cresium, and rises the narrow, rocky glen of the Tretus, the faagain in the plain of Asea, where it is thought bled haunt of the Nemean lion, which branchto mingle with the principal source of the Euro-ed off to Cleona and Nemea. A third pass, a In this case, both are once more swal- little to the east of these, called the Contopolowed by the earth, and, after parting below its reia, or staff-road, was accessible only to footsurface, reappear-the one in the plain of Me- passengers. † galopolis, the other in the north of Laconia. Many of the Arcadian legends were filled with the mythical history of these natural wonders, and with the changes wrought by the opening or the obstruction of the subterraneous watercourses. The land was a fit theatre for the labours of Hercules; and its peculiar features sufficiently explain the worship of the earthshaking Poseidon, and his struggles with the offended Demeter. The mountains were clothed with forests, which abounded with game: the bear was frequently found in them, even in the days of Pausanias; and it is probable that they may have afforded attraction for tribes of hunters or shepherds, while few of the plains were in a state to repay the labours of the husbandmen. In later times, the Arcadians, according to their countryman Polybius, enjoyed a high reputation among the Greeks for hospitality, kindness, and piety; but he ascribes these qualities to the success of their social institutions, in counteracting the natural tendency of a rugged climate, which, while it inured them to toil and hardship, disposed their char-lated rock of Nauplia, at the foot of which lay acter to an excess of harshness. tas.* The plain of Argos, which is bounded on three sides by lofty mountains, but open to the sea, is, for Greece, and especially for Peloponnesus, of considerable extent, being ten or twelve miles in length, and four or five in width. But the western side is lower than the eastern, and is watered by a number of streams, in which the upper side is singularly deficient. In very ancient times the lower level was injured by excess of moisture, as it is at this day; and hence, perhaps, Argos, which lay on the western side, notwithstanding its advantageous position and the strength of its citadel, flourished less for a time than Mycena and Tiryns, which were situate to the east, where the plain is now barren through drought. A great mass of Argive legends owed its origin to these local features, and especially to the marsh of Lerna and the fathomless Alcyonian pool, which bordered the western shore of the gulf, where popular tradition placed one of the monsters overpowered by the strength of Hercules. On the eastern side the Argolic plain was bounded by the insu the port of Argos, not a very commodious shelter even for the ancient shipping; its road appears to be much better adapted to a modern fleet. The other great divisions of Peloponnesus are Argolis, Laconia, Messenia, Elis, and Achaia. Argolis, when the name is taken in its largest sense, as the part of Peloponnesus which is The peninsula which parted the Saronic from bounded on the land side by Arcadia, Achaia, the Argolic Gulf, and which was sometimes and Laconia, comprehends several districts, called the Acté of Argolis, is almost wholly ocwhich, during the period of the independence cupied by a chain of hills, which, in the northof Greece, were never united under one govern and loftiest part, bore the name of Mount ernment, but were considered, for the purpose of description, as one region by the later geographers. It begins on the western side with the little territory of Sicyon, which, besides some inland valleys, shared with Corinth a small maritime plain, which was proverbial among Arachnæum. The territory of Corinth extended along the eastern coast, till, near the harbour called Peiræus, it met the confines of Epidaurus, which, besides a few small maritime plains, possessed some little inland valleys, one of which was in great part dedicated to the worship of * Leake, Morea, iii., p. 372. On those passes, see Leake, iii.. p. 328. and ii., p. 415. |