surrounded by a wall; it possesses two tolerably respectable academies, and the inhabitants are represented as more polished and better educated than in almost any other Greek town; they consist chiefly of Greeks and Albanians, with a few Turks and Jews. Janina was founded in the 15th century, and in the beginning of the 19th it became famous as the capital of the late monster Ali Pacha, a chief who exercised unlimited power, and brought under his dominion not only the province, which had been originally committed to his charge, but the whole of Albania, and a considerable part of Thessaly. By extortion and rapine he contrived to secure himself an ample revenue, and to defend himself from the vengeance of the Porte by a powerful standing army; but he fell a victim at last to his own perfidy and cruelty. About 30 miles to the S. W. of Janina, and about 10 from the Ionian Sea, lies the district of Souli, the country of the brave Souliotes, who defended themselves for nearly 20 years against the invasions of Ali Pacha. They were a tribe of Greeks, about 10,000 in number, who maintained themselves for some time in the form of an independent republic: their country contained about 18 villages, and was almost surrounded by inaccessible mountains. It was not till the year 1803 that Ali Pacha succeeded in depriving them of their liberty, when many of those who escaped from his barbarity, took service in Russia and France: their country is at present, like all the rest of Albania, subject to the Porte. Farther S. is Arta, situated on the left bank of a river of the same name, which runs into the Gulf of Arta; it is the residence of several European consuls, and it's inhabitants, about 6,000 in number, carry on a considerable trade. Valona, or Avlona as it is also called, stands on a gulf of the same name, about the centre of Albania, and opposite the South Eastern extremity of Italy; the narrow channel between the two countries is called the Strait of Otranto, from an Italian town of that name, and forms the Southern termination of the Gulf of Venice. Valona has an indifferent port; but it's situation renders it an important place, and adds materially to it's commerce. Next to Constantinople, Salonica is by far the most important place in point of commerce; it is conveniently and delightfully situated at the head of the Gulf of Salonica, on the declivity of a hill, and the approach to it from the sea is very imposing. The domes and minarets of mosques, together with other buildings, environed with cypresses, give it an air of splendour; but, like other Turkish towns, it's interior by no means corresponds with it's external magnificence. It is surrounded by a lofty stone wall about five miles in circumference, which ascends in a triangular form from the sea, and is surmounted by a fortress with seven towers. The population is about one half Turks, the remainder being Greeks, Jews, and Franks (i. e. English, French, Dutch, and Italian, all of whom have consuls here). In the year 1313 it was ceded by the Greek emperor to the Venetians, who were dispossessed of it shortly afterwards by the Turks under Amurath the First. 44. The island of Candia, or Crete, called also Kirid by the Turks, continued under the dominion of the Emperors of the East until the year 823, when it was overrun by the Arabs: it was recovered, however, in 960. The Genoese ceded it to Boniface, marquis of Montferrat, who in 1204 sold it to the Venetians. It remained in their possession till the middle of the 17th century, when the Turks made themselves masters of it after a disastrous war of 20 years; the whole island was secured to them by the peace of 1699, with the exception of the fortresses Suda and Spinalonga, which were likewise delivered up to them at the beginning of the following century: since this period Candia has continued in the almost undisturbed possession of the Ottoman Porte. It is divided by the Turks into the three pachalics of Candia, Retimo, and Canea, the two last being subject in a manner to the first, the governor of which resides at Candia: the whole island contains nearly 300,000 inhabitants, of whom about 150,000 are Greeks, the remainder being chiefly Turks. Candia, the capital of the island, stands about the centre of it's Northern shore; it is defended by walls, trenches, and outworks, which enabled it to stand a siege of 24 years by the Turks, who took it in 1669; it is of a semicircular figure, and nearly four miles in circumference. It was a flourishing little city when in the hands of the Venetians; but, owing to the insecurity of property under the despotic sway of the Crescent, it is now a very wretched and inferior town: it's harbour, which was once capable of containing many large vessels, has been so neglected, that it is now nearly choked up with sand. Retimo, or Rhetzmo as it is also called, is the capital of the central province of the island, and lies likewise on it's Northern coast, about 35 miles to the W. of the city of Candia. Beyond this, in the same direction, is Canea, the capital of the Western province, and the second town in the island; it is a neat little place, the buildings being nearly all Venetian, and is the residence of the consuls-general of Great Britain and France. CHAPTER XVI. GRÆCIA. 1. The name of Hellas, which was applied to the country now known as Greece, designated originally but a small district of Thessaly, whose inhabitants were called Hellenes, and, though in this term the whole of the Greeks were latterly comprised, it was at first employed to distinguish one of the clans then dwelling in the country, and not as a collective name for the whole people: these are called by Homer Achæi, Argivi, Danai, and in one instance Panhellenes1. The Romans obtained the name of Græcia, by which they knew the country we are describing, from the Græci, an inconsiderable tribe in Epirus, with whom, owing to their proximity, they were first acquainted, and this before the general name of Hellenes had been adopted. But when in a much later age, they had completed the conquest of the whole country, by the reduction of the states which constituted the Achaan league, and by the destruction of Corinth, B. c. 146, they borrowed the name of the last nation that opposed their ambition, to denote their new province; and in all their official proceedings, Greece was thenceforward termed Achaia, although the recollection of it's former names was still preserved by the orator and poet. 2. But little is known about the earliest inhabitants of the country; they are presumed to have been descendants of Japhet, and to have quitted the banks of the Euphrates and Tigris for the shores of the Egean Sea. Their great ancestors appear to have been Javan, the son of Japhet, and two of his sons, or rather two families descended from them, viz. Elishah and Dodanim: we have already seen that the Kittim, another of Javan's families, probably settled in Macedonia and gave name to that country. Javan himself is thought to have dwelled on the Western shores of Asia Minor, in that part of the country, which in after ages was called Ionia, a name plainly derived from that of Javan: to the N. of his own settie 1 Εγχείη δ' ἐκέκαστο Πανέλληνας καὶ ̓Αχαιούς. Il. B. 530. This derivation seems to be strengthened by the circumstance of the Ionians, or "Iovic as they are commonly styled, being also called 'laoveg; thus, Homer: ̓Αλλὰ σὺ Δήλῳ, Φοῖβε, μάλιστ ̓ ἐπιτέρπεαι ἦτορ, Hymn, in Apoll. 146. ments here, were those of Elishah, or the Eolians, as they are called by profane writers, and to the South of his settlements were those of the Dodanim, or Dorians. These three great families appear, in process of time, to have migrated Westward into Greece, and to have communicated their name to that country: and although ancient historians generally assert that the Asiatic Ionians, Dorians, and Æolians, were colonists from Europe, this can only be true with reference to some few bands of people sent from Greece to Asia in a much later age. For as to the original plantation of the world, the Asiatic Ionia lying nearer to the place whence mankind was dispersed, than the European Ionia, it is only agreeable to reason to suppose that the former must be in a natural order first planted, or peopled, and then the latter by colonies from it: and this is positively asserted by some of the heathen writers, for instance, Hecatæus, who declares that the Athenians, or Ionians of Europe, were descended from those of Asia. It is very probable that the colonies, which passed over from Asia into Greece, though they were distinguished in reference to their distinct families by different names, yet, were all originally comprehended under the general appellation of Iones: hence we find the country of Greece denoted in the Prophecies of Ezechiel and Daniel by the name Javan; and the scholiast on Aristophanes expressly says that the Barbarians called all the Greeks Iaones or Ionians. This extensive application of the appellation Iones, seems to account for the name of the Ionium Mare being used to designate the whole sea washing the Western shores of Greece, as far Northwards as the limits of Macedonia. It may likewise be mentioned that a tribe, called Aones, is said to have once occupied Boeotia, before the invasion of Cadmus and the reign of Cecrops in Attica, that is, in the primeval times of Grecian history. It has been already observed in a preceding chapter that the islands of the Egean Sea are called by the Prophet Ezekiel, The Isles of Elishah, from their having been first peopled by the descendants of Elishah; and that the sea, in which these isles lay, was originally called the Sea of Elishah, the recollection of which is preserved to our own day in a small portion of it distinguished as the Hellespont. It is likewise conjectured that the descendants of Elishah passing over into Europe from these islands, and from the coast of Asia Minor, came afterwards to be termed "EXAŋves and their country "EXXag, names, which in process of time became common to all Greece. There were other traces of Elishah's name to be found formerly in the country, as in the city and district of Elis in the Peloponnesus; in the river Helisson in Elis, and a river and town of the same name in Arcadia; in the river and town Aleisium in Elis; in the mountain Alesium in Arcadia, and the town Alesiæ in Laconia; in several towns called Helos; in the city of Eleusis and the river Ilissus in Attica; in the mountain Helicon in Boeotia; the tribe Helli in Epirus, and many others. As to the Dodanim, or Dorians, in addition to this being the common appellation for all the inhabitants of the Peloponnese, their name was attached to a part of the country N. of the isthmus, hence called Doris, not to mention the strong traces of it which are found in Dodona, one of the most ancient establishments in all Greece: indeed, the whole Greek nation is sometimes denoted by the profane authors under the appellation Dores. The origin of the name Pelasgi is likewise referred by some to Elishah, though others derive it, with much probability, from Peleg, the descendant of Shem, in whose days the earth was divided: this great nation, which spread itself over so large a portion of Greece, is said to have dwelled originally in that part of Asia Minor, called in after ages Ionia". Connected with them were the Tyrseni, or Tyrrheni, as they are also called, who appear to have derived their origin from Tarshish, the fourth son of Japhet, and who, it is likely, would settle colonists near his brethren the Kittim, or Macedonians, and the descendants of Elishah and the * Ezech. xxvii. 19; Dan. xi. 2. In the latter it is rendered Grecia in our Translation. 5 In Acharnan. Thus, Dorica Castra' is used by Virgil to denote the whole Græcian camp: juvat ire, et Dorica castra, Desertosque videre locos, litusque relictum. En. II. 27. Id. VI. 88. * P. 322. Sect. 22, supra. Non Simois tibi, nec Xanthus, nec Dorica castra 7 Strab. XIII. p. 621. Dodanim, or the Greeks. A branch of these two last nations, the Tyrrheni-Pelasgi, (as has been already stated) passed over into Italy, and settled in Etruria. But the Italians are likewise thought by some critics, to have partly owed their origin to the Kittim, and there is one passage in Scripture, where Kittim, by the consent of almost all expositors, denotes the Romans. There are also several traces of the name Kittim, or Chittim, to be found in Italy, amongst the ancient authors, as two towns in Latium called Cetia and Echetia, and a little river near Cuma called Cetus: indeed, the appellation Kittim itself is said in the Arabic tongue to denote a thing hid, so that the name Latium, which the heathen authors pretended to be derived from lateo, is thought by some critics to have been only a translation of the old Eastern name. 3. The names which have been handed down by historians as those of the most ancient inhabitants of Greece, are Leleges, Caucones, Hyantes, Dryopes, Aones, Ectenes, Temmices, and Pelasgi. But of all these, the Pelasgi 10 were far the most important; indeed so much so, that the whole of Northern Greece, including part of Macedonia to the West of the Strymon, was at one time called Pelasgia. We find them scattered over the North Western parts of Asia Minor, and the shores of the Hellespont; in Crete ", the Cyclades, and in all the Northern islands of the Egæan Sea; in Thrace, Macedonia, and Illyria; in Epirus, Thessaly, Boeotia, Attica, and the Northern half of the Peloponnesus: in addition to which it may be mentioned, that the oracle of Dodona, the oldest in Greece, and the city of Athens itself, both owed their origin to the Pelasgi 12. These migratory habits drew down upon them, from the Athenians, the nickname of eλapyoi or storks. They are said to have derived their name from their progenitor and king Pelasgus, who is represented by some to have been the son of Jupiter and Niobe, but by others to have sprung from the earth. In later times the principal nations inhabiting Greece were otherwise distinguished, being equal in number to the dialects spoken in the country, which were four. Of these the Ionic and Attic may be considered as the same, since the inhabitants of Attica, who were once called Ionians, were probably descended from those Ionians who colonized Asia Minor, and used the dialect called Ionic: at all events the two people sprung from one common stock. All the Greeks beyond the Isthmus, excepting the Athenians, Megareans, and those Dorians who dwelled round Parnassus, were called Eolians, and used the Eolic dialect; this, however, was not confined to these countries, but was spoken by some of the people in the Peloponnesus, especially by the Arcadians and Eleans. The nations inhabiting the peninsula were all called Dorians, and in conjunction with the small tribe near Parnassus, spoke the Doric dialect, which partook more or less of the Æolic, in proportion as the two nations had intercourse with each other. 4. The limits of Greece are variously given by different authors, many of them excluding Epirus, and not a few Thessaly; the Peloponnesus itself, too, though forming part of the Hellenic territory, was generally distinguished from the rest of it, and was considered under it's own particular name, as a distinct country. This last exception certainly seems a distinction rather than a difference; with respect to Diodorus Siculus (XIV. p. 453) describes the Pelasgi as flying into Italy, to avoid the flood of Deucalion : Τινὲς δέ φασι Πελασγούς, πρὸ τῶν Τρωϊκῶν ἐκ Θετταλίας φυγόντας τὸν ἐπὶ Δευκαλίωνος γενόμενον κατακλυσμὸν, ἐν τούτῳ τῷ τόπῳ κατοικήσαι. 9 Dan. XI. 30. By the ships of Chittim there mentioned, is generally understood the Roman fleet, by the coming of which Antiochus was obliged to desist from his designs against Egypt. 10 Ιππόθοος δ' ἄγε φύλα Πελασγῶν ἐγχεσιμώρων, casus mihi cognitus urbis Trojanæ, nomenque tuum, regesque Pelasgi. Hom. Il. B. 840. Virg. Æn. I. 621. Hom. Od. T. 177. Εν δ' Ετεόκρητες μεγαλήτορες, ἐν δὲ Κύδωνες, Id. II. II. 233. Epirus and Thessaly, most of the nations inhabiting the former are mentioned as honourable descendants from the great Græcian hero Pelasgus, whilst the latter was the very cradle of the whole body, and furnished them from it's ample means, with that powerful name, from the participation of which not a few afterwards sought to deprive it. Whatever, in the opinion of some writers, may be the doubt about including within the limits of Greece the Northern parts of Thessaly and Epirus, it's natural boundaries are in this direction so strongly defined, that in the absence of more certain data we cannot do better than follow them. Thus then, 5. Greece was bounded on the N. by the Cambunii Ms. Volutza, and Ceraunii M3. Khimera: on the E. by the Ægæum Mare 13 Archipelago; on the S. by the Creticum Mare 14 Sea of Candia; and on the W. by the Ionium Mare 15: being washed by the sea on all sides, except to the North, where Macedonia alone separated it from the rest of Europe. It contained, with it's islands, excepting such as are in the Egean Sea, 21.290 square miles, or about 3.000 less than Ireland. No country in Europe, save Switzerland, is so mountainous in it's whole extent as Greece, being traversed in every direction by several ridges, some of which nearly attain the height of perpetual congelation, or that altitude at which water ceases to be a fluid, and constant freezing takes place. The Northernmost of these ranges are the Ceraunii Ms. Khimera, so called from Kepaνvòs fulmen, owing to their being the seat of storms and tempests; they commence at Acra Ceraunia 16 C. Linguetta on the Adriatic Sea, and trend S. E. above Dodona and the L. of Ianina, till they join the Cambunii Ms. Volutza, which attach themselves a little above the mouth of the Peneus, to the magnificent Olympus 17 Elymbo. Hence the chain winds along the |