the town that grew up on the hill-side below. Accordingly, the first act of the tyrant is always to make himself master of the acropolis; and the same cause accounts for the long duration of oligarchy in some places where the general influences would seem to tend in the opposite direction. But in the main these causes were more than counteracted by the city life, with its busy discussions and conflicting interests, which encouraged democracy, and in a still greater degree by the maritime pursuits of a great part of the people. This was the nautical mob (vaurinòs öxλos), 44 so great an object of fear to statesmen and politicians, and above all to philosophers like Plato and Aristotle, as they seemed to them to have caught the nature of the restless element with which they were familiar, and imported a constant succession of new ideas, and were at the bottom of every political change. It is the mixture of all these different elements, brought together in every variety of combination, that gives such a lasting interest to the history of the Greek constitutions, and renders it so permanently instructive.

44 Ar. Pol. iv. (vii.) 6, § 7.

LECTURE VI.

GEOGRAPHY OF NORTHERN GREECE,

Survey of the several Districts-Macedonia-Pelagonia and Lyncestis-Position of Edessa-Pella-Peninsula of ChalcidiceThessaly Character of its Subdivisions; Effect on its History -Phthiotis-Passes leading into Thessaly-The Western Countries-Site of Dodona.

HAVING in the preceding lectures taken a general survey of the features of Greek geography, and having traced their influence on the character and politics of the people, it is time that we should study more in detail the several districts, in order to understand their peculiarities, and the effect of these on their history; at the same time we may perhaps obtain a more graphic idea of the scenes of some of the principal occurrences. In doing so, we must bear in mind what has been already said about the progressive articulation of the country in proportion as it advances further towards the south, and about the manner in which the water penetrates into the land, and the mountains into the sea. To avoid repetition, also, we must presuppose a knowledge of the general position of the mountains and of those

Macedonia.

localities which have already been described. As regards method, it may be well for us, besides noticing the natural conformation of each region, to pay attention to the passes and other points of strategic importance, and here and there to study the situation of the leading towns. Let us commence with Macedonia, a country in no sense Hellenic, though its rulers succeeded in claiming that title for themselves, but of great importance to Greece as commanding its entrance from the north.

The determining feature of this country is the river Axius, which formed a line of communication between the barbarous districts of the interior and the sea, the point of demarcation between the uplands and the lowlands being marked by the Stena, or, as it is now called, the Iron Gate (Demir Kapu) of the Vardar. Here the river, flowing from the north, cuts through, at right angles, the mountains that join the Scardus and Orbelus ranges, and forms a deep ravine, through which it rushes in rapids for the distance of a quarter of a mile, beneath the steep cliffs that rise to the height of 600 or 700 feet above. This must always have been an important position, and traces are visible of groovings in the rocks where a passage has been cut through, which may date even from the time of the Peloponnesian war; for Thucydides1 tells us that lines of road were then made through the country, and these

1 ii. 100.

and Lyn

must of necessity have followed the natural arteries. The ground to the east of the upper course of the river stretches away towards Thrace, and partakes of the wild and irregular character of that region; but to the west it rises to the great upland plain of Pelagonia, one of the richest districts in the whole Pelagonia Greek peninsula, which lies close under the flank of cestis. the Scardus chain, deeply sunk amongst the mountains, and is drained by the Erigon, a confluent of the Axius. This plain-the modern plain of Monastir which is 40 miles long by 10 wide, and 1500 feet above the sea, was one of the primitive seats of the Macedonian race, and, as Grote has remarked,2 formed a territory better calculated to nourish and to generate a considerable population than the less favoured home, and smaller breadth of valley and plain, occupied by Epirots or Illyrians. In this way a hardy yet thriving race was developed, which had in it the germs of a great nation. Here is laid the scene of the story that Herodotus has given of the foundation of the Macedonian monarchy, in which the three brothers, supposed descendants of Temenus, make their escape from the service of the king of the country in the midst of numerous fabulous incidents. The southern part of this plain was called Lyncestis ; and here it was that Brasidas, as the ally of Perdiccas, encountered the Illyrians, the scene of his masterly retreat being the pass at its south-eastern 2 History of Greece, iv. p. 15. 3 viii. 137, 138.

Position of

Edessa.

extremity, which leads in the direction of Edessa.1 Between this region and the lowlands is a lake district of somewhat inferior elevation, which bore in ancient times the name of Eordæa. It should further be noticed that there are only two passes through the Scardus chain-one near the headwaters of the Axius, between the modern towns of Prisrend and Calcandele; the other considerably further to the south, leading from the head of the Lacus Lychnitis into the Pelagonian plain—a double pass, for here the Scardus is divided into two branches, and a considerable valley intervenes between them. It was by the latter of these that the Illyrians descended to attack Brasidas on the occasion just referred to; and this, in later times, marked the line of the Egnatian Way, which ran from Dyrrhachium to Thessalonica, connecting the Adriatic and the Ægean.

At the point where the passes from Lyncestis and Eordæa enter lower Macedonia stood the ancient capital, Edessa. The position of this place is remarkable, not only from its strategic importance as commanding the communication with the upper country, but also on account of its extreme beauty, in which respect it is unrivalled in Greece. It is the Tivoli of the Balkan peninsula. At the opening of the valley, which is here about a mile and a half wide, the whole space is filled up from side to side

4 Thuc. iv. 124-8. See my Highlands of Turkey, ii. 361.