Lectures on ancient ethnography and geography, volume 1 (of 2)

TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN EDITION OF DR. ISLER, BY DR. LEONHARD SCHMITZ, F.R.S.E. RECTOR OF THE HIGH SCHOOL OF EDINBURGH; WITH ADDITIONS AND CORRECTIONS FROM HIS OWN MS. NOTES.

His example was followed by a no less distinguished man, who attempted to compose a chorography of Greece, which was even far more difficult than that of Italy. This undertaking...

The maps which existed among the Greeks at a very early period, were made in accordance with these notions. Herodotus’ account of Aristagoras, who laid a map before Cleomenes, k...

The peninsula of Peloponnesus is properly a system of mountains of very different kinds; those by which it is connected with the main land of Greece, the Geranean and Oenean mou...

MYCENAE, at a distance of forty-three stadia from Argos, was situated on a hill; at the time when Greece was most flourishing, Mycenae was no more than a name, for after the Per...

AEGINA, though not in Peloponnesus, belongs to it more than to any other country out of Peloponnesus. According to the statement which makes its circumference largest, it amount...

At the time of its restoration, Messene was not at once made so large a state as it originally was, and as it subsequently became again through the mediation of Macedonia. We st...

For a considerable period, Elis was the most peaceable and most undisturbed country in Greece, and was chiefly inhabited by small landed proprietors. Polybius too mentions the l...

The whole territory of Attica is a thoroughly mountainous country, like Megaris, with one considerable plain on one side and another on the opposite side. The length of the Acte...

Piraeeus was connected with the city by the μακρά σκέλη, which must not be regarded by any means as a work of Themistocles, for they were built during the administration of Cimo...

According to tradition, the Boeotians were a wandering people; they are said first to have been driven by the Cadmeans into the Thessalian valley of Arne, which therefore cannot...

The Locrians on the Euripus formed two states, that of OPUS and that of CNEMIS. In the east of Epicnemidian Locris is mount (the town of?) NARYX, whence the Locrians are called...

As far back as we can trace history, we always find the AETOLIANS and CURETES as two nations dwelling by the side of each other in the south of Aetolia: such is the case in the...

In this condition the Acarnanians remained until the time of the Macedonian supremacy; but when the Macedonian empire gained consistency, the Acarnanians thoughtlessly placed th...

There existed in Thessaly a number of towns forming independent states by themselves; but that at the same time they were united by political bonds, is evident partly from the c...

There remains one people, the Dolopians, who in the earliest history of Greece are scarcely mentioned at all. They must have occupied a very extensive country, but it was of an...

Wherever we meet with notices of the Cyclades in the historical times, they are at first all independent of one another; with the exception of Cythnos, all received Ionian colon...

Rhodes had three towns which formed the three tribes in the island; this is expressed in a passage of the Catalogue: τριχθὰ δὲ ᾤκηθεν καταφυλαδόν; these towns were LINDOS, IALYS...

While Colophon is important to us only in legendary history, MILETUS is the most illustrious city on the Ionian coast during the period of accredited history. It was itself a gr...

MITYLENE: the orthography of this name is very uncertain; on coins and inscriptions we find Mytilana,[77] while in Greek MSS. and even in more recent Latin inscriptions, it is i...

East from mount Athos the Greek towns are found at greater intervals from one another. APOLLONIA (there are at least a dozen towns of this name), an important city, maintained i...

The ancient city of OLBIA, once, as its name indicates, a wealthy town, was situated between Odessa and Oczakow; it was also termed _Borysthenis_ or _Borysthenopolis_, but the c...

Epirus, with the exception of the district on the Ambracian gulf, is altogether a mountainous country. The mountains coming down from the north rise, as in Illyricum, between th...

Among the Epirots proper, as I have already stated, there were no towns surrounded with walls; those which are found, are either of later origin, or Greek colonies on the coast....

This kingdom had acquired considerable power even before the outbreak of the Persian war; after that war, during which Amyntas had been obliged to submit, affairs were for a tim...

BEROEA (now Veria) is the second place in Emathia; its name-sake in Syria was far more important, but both still exist. Beroea was a flourishing place throughout the middle ages...

The Illyrians are unquestionably the ancestors of the modern Albanese or Arnauts. This opinion was expressed long ago, but has been disturbed in a very strange way by objections...

The country of the Dalmatians (more correctly Dalmatans) extends from Illyricum, in the Greek sense of the term, as far as the frontier of the Liburnians, who inhabited the whol...

[95] “I have here mentioned the Ibis, on account of this historical fact, which is not the only one in that poem. I recommend its study to any scholar who wishes to ascertain wh...