ce of Pan, the god of
shepherds, and its people were famed for their love of liberty and music.

(M301) Argolis was the eastern portion of the Peloponnesus, watered by the
Saronic Gulf, whose original inhabitants were Pelasgi. It boasted of the
cities of Argos and Mycenae, the former of which was the oldest city of
Greece. Agamemnon reigned at Mycenae, the most powerful of the kings of
Greece during the Trojan war.

(M302) Laconia, at the southeastern extremity of the peninsula, was the
largest and most important of the States of the Peloponnesus. It was
rugged and mountainous, but its people were brave and noble. Its largest
city, Sparta, for several generations controlled the fortune of Greece,
the most warlike of the Grecian cities.

(M303) Messenia was the southwestern part of the peninsula--mountainous,
but well watered, and abounding in pasture. It was early coveted by the
Lacedaemonians, inhabitants of Laconia, and was subjugated in a series of
famous wars, called the Messenian.

Such were the principal States of Greece. But in connection with these
were the islands in the seas which surrounded it, and these are nearly as
famous as the States on the main land.

(M304) The most important of these was Crete, at the southern extremity of
the AEgean Sea. It was the fabled birthplace of Jupiter. To the south of
Thrace were Thasos, remarkable for fertility, and for mines of gold and
silver; Samothrace, celebrated for the mysteries of Cybele; Imbros, sacred
to Ceres and Mercury. Lemnos, in latitude forty, equidistant from Mount
Athos and the Hellespont, rendered infamous by the massacre of all the
male inhabitants of the island by the women. The island of Euboea stretched
along the coast of Attica, Locris, and Boeotia, and was exceedingly
fertile, and from this island the Athenians drew large supplies of
corn--the largest island in the Archipelago, next to Crete. Its principal
city was Chalcis, one of the strongest in Greece.

(M305) To the southeast of Euboea are the Cyclades--a group of islands of
which Delos, Andros, Tenos, Myeonos, Naxos, Paros, Olearos, Siphnos,
Melos, and Syros, were the most important. All these islands are famous
for temples and the birthplace of celebrated men.

(M306) The islands called the Sporades lie to the south and east of the
Cyclades, among which are Amorgo, Ios, Sicinos, Thera, and Anaphe--some of
which are barren, and others favorable to the vine.

(M307) Besides these islands