defiles of Thermopylae, where Leonidas and three hundred heroes died
defending the pass, against the army of Xerxes, and which in one place was
only twenty-five feet wide, so that, in so narrow a defile, the Spartans
were able to withstand for three days the whole power of Persia. In this
famous pass the Amphictyonic council met annually to deliberate on the
common affairs of all the States.

(M290) South of Epirus, on the Ionian Sea, and west of AEtolia, was
Acarnania, occupied by a barbarous people before the Pelasgi settled in
it. It had no historic fame, except as furnishing on its waters a place
for the decisive battle which Augustus gained over Antony, at Actium, and
for the islands on the coast, one of which, Ithaca, a rugged and
mountainous island, was the residence of Ulysses.

(M291) AEtolia, to the east of Acarnania, and south of Thessaly, and
separated from Achaia by the Corinthian Gulf, contained nine hundred and
thirty square miles. Its principal city was Thermon, considered
impregnable, at which were held splendid games and festivals. The AEtolians
were little known in the palmy days of Athens and Sparta, except as a
hardy race, but covetous and faithless.

(M292) Doris was a small tract to the east of AEtolia, inhabited by one of
the most ancient of the Greek tribes--the Dorians, called so from Dorus,
son of Deucalion, and originally inhabited that part of Thessaly in which
were the mountains of Olympus and Ossa. From this section they were driven
by the Cadmeans. Doris was the abode of the Heraclidae when exiled from the
Peloponnesus, and which was given to Hyllas, the son of Hercules, in
gratitude by AEgiminius, the king, who was reinstated by the hero in his
dispossessed dominion.

(M293) Locri Ozolae was another small State, south of Doris, from which it
is separated by the range of the Parnassus situated on the Corinthian
Gulf, the most important city of which was Salona, surrounded on all sides
by hills. Naupactus was also a considerable place, known in the Middle
Ages as Lepanto, where was fought one of the decisive naval battles of the
world, in which the Turks were defeated by the Venetians. It contained
three hundred and fifty square miles.

(M294) Phocis was directly to the east, bounded on the north by Doris and
the Locri Epicnemidii, and south by the Corinthian Gulf. This State
embraced six hundred and ten square miles. The Phocians are known in
history from the sacred or Phocian war,