Greece

a kingdom of modern Europe. It occupies the southern part of the Balkan peninsula and a number of adjacent islands. The southwestern portion is a peninsula, known as the Peloponnesus. It is connected with the mainland by the Isthmus of Corinth. In proportion to its area, Greece has a greater extent of seacoast than any other country of Europe. There are granitic rocks in the northern portion, but the greater part of the country is composed of hills of limestone. In places this limestone has been changed into exquisite marble. There are mines of iron, zinc, copper, lead, and silver. Coal of the variety known as lignite is mined. Salt, gypsum, sulphur, pumice, and an excellent quality of emery are exported.

CLIMATE. There is considerable diversity of climate. The upland regions have long, cold winters and hot summers. Districts near the sea have a milder and a more even climate. The soil of Greece, being composed of crumbling limestone, is fertile. Rain is lacking in the summer time. The country was once covered with forests but they have long since disappeared. Vales once described in literature as delightful shady glens are now rocky runs open to the glare of the sun. At a certain height above the sea level, oak groves set in. Over 8,000 tons of acorn cups are collected annually for use in tanning. Like those of Switzerland, the mountains of Greece, especially Mt. Hymettus, are noted for honey, figs, olives, and wine.

PRODUCTS. Grapes thrive. The chief export crop is the small grape, which, when dried, produces the peculiar raisin known in commerce as a currant, from the city of Corinth, whence it was chiefly exported. Over $1,000,000 worth of currants are sent abroad each year. Among other exports are sponges, fish, butter, hides, olive oil, olives, soap, dynamite, powder, yarn, woolen and cotton cloth, silk, leather, thread, and glass. In the northeastern district, known as Thessaly, there are fertile plains producing about 7,000,000 bushels of wheat annually. The chief domestic animals are cattle, sheep, and goats. The coin of commerce is the drachma (plural drachmae). It is equivalent in value to the franc, being worth about nineteen cents, or, roughly speaking, five to the dollar.

CIVILIZATION. The Greeks were the most celebrated people of antiquity. Their civilization was later than that developed in the valleys of the Nile and of the Euphrates, but it preceded that of Rome. The origin of the Greeks is wrapped in obscurity. The early ruling element is believed to have been a people of German or Teutonic origin, who came down from the north, overthrew the cities of the native population, and made the early inhabitants serfs or helots, as they were known. The Greeks called themselves Hellenes and the territory they occupied Hellas. They called outsiders barbarians or babblers; that is to say, people whose language could not be understood. The term Hellas included not only the peninsula now known as Greece, but adjacent parts of Asia Minor. For the prehistoric period of Greece, the reader is referred to the articles on the legends of TROY and the GOLDEN FLEECE, and to ARGONAUTS, MYCENAE, ACHILLES, HERUCLES, HOMER, ILIAD and ODYSSEY.

EARLY HISTORY AND GOVERNMENT. Greek history begins to emerge from the mists about 1,000 B. C. The Greeks were never a nation in the modern sense of the word. There were four divisions, the Aeolians, Dorians, Achaeans, and Ionians. The chief city of the Dorians was Sparta, that of the Ionians, Athens. These divisions or races, as they were sometimes called, were subdivided into petty states. The state consisted of a city and its surrounding territory. The agricultural land belonged to owners who resided in the cities. Cultivation was carried on chiefly by helots. When a city became overpopulated, the inhabitants swarmed like bees from a hive and established a new and independent city. In this way Greek civilization spread eastward over the isles of the Aegean, along the shores of the Bosporus, and the Black Sea, and along the coast of Asia Minor. Southern Italy and Sicily were occupied by Greek colonies. Tarentum and Syracuse were Greek cities. In spite of petty dissensions and local wars innumerable the Greek cities or states were held together by several influences. First of all were the surrounding barbarians, against whom it was necessary to unite for common defense. Then, too, they spoke the same language and listened to recitations of the same literature. They had a common religion and similar customs of worship. They consulted the same oracles and contested in the same games. Last of all, they listened for many centuries to the decrees of the Amphictyonic Council, a body without an army or a war chest, but whose decisions were enforced by public opinion.

The leading states were Sparta and Athens. The Spartans, who represented the Dorians, were a moderate, conservative state of warriors, under an aristocratic form of government. They lived in a fertile valley. The citizens were largely agriculturists. Their laws were severe. They lived plainly. The citizens of Athens were Ionians. They dwelt near the sea and engaged in shipping. They were a commercial, stirring, progressive, artistic sort of people. They replaced their aristocratic rulers or tyrants, as they were called, by a democratic form of government.

RELIGION. All Greeks shared a common form of religious belief. They had a plurality of deities, each having his own province. Zeus, or Jupiter, as he was known to the Romans, was the father of gods and of men. He was the god of the sky. Hera, or Juno, the sister and wife of Zeus, was queen of the sky. Appollo, the sun god, was the deity of wisdom, poetry, and medicine. Athene, or Minerva, was the counterpart of Apollo. She was the goddess of wisdom. Poseidon, or Neptune, was the god of the sea. Hephaestus, or Vulcan, was the god of fire. Hermes, or Mercury, was the god of the wind. He was the swiftest messenger of the deities--the god to whom thieves looked for protection, and the promoter of commerce. Artemis, or Diana, was the goddess of the moon and of hunting; Aphrodite, or Venus, the goddess of love; Demeter, or Ceres, the goddess of the earth who gave bountiful crops. Hestia, or Vesta, was the goddess of the home or the hearth. Mt. Olympus was the home or the gods. Separate articles may be found on each of these deities. Literature is full of allusions to them.

MYTHOLOGY. The mythology of the Greeks is the most wonderful of all mythologies. Every stream, spring, fountain, cave, precipice, grove, flower, constellation, the sunset, the dawn, the north wind, the south wind, the zephyr, had its myth or legend. See Aeolus; Etna; Arethusa; Atlantis; Aurora; Cassiopeia; Cerberus; Delphi; Echo; Endymion; Eros; Fates; Flora; Helicon; Hesiod; Morpheus; Muses; Narcissus; Olympus; Pandora; Titans, etc.

ART AND SCIENCE. The Greeks were unacquainted with modern science, but in certain departments of learning it has been considered that they have not been surpassed. The Hebrews gave the world the Hebrew religion. Rome bequeathed the science of lawmaking and of government. In literature, sculpture, and architecture, Greek models are still unsurpassed. To obviate reduplication, the reader who is interested in architecture and sculpture is referred to articles on ATHENS; SPARTA; CORINTH; LAOCOON; COLOSSUS; CARYATIDES; ELGIN; EPHESUS; PHIDIAS; TEMPLE; THEATER; ACROPOLIS. Apelles was the chief painter.

The history of Greece is that of its various cities, for which the reader may consult separate articles. The most glorious period of Greek history is that of the Persian Wars. See Darius; Xerxes; Marathon; Salamis; Thermopolae; Pericles; Themistocles; Piraeus; Aristides; Epaminondas, etc.

GREEK SUPREMACY. For a time Athens was the greatest power in the world. Taking advantage of local jealousies between the large cities, which culminated in the battle of Chaeronea, 338 B. C., Philip, king of Macedon, a district only half Greek, succeeded in forcing himself into the Amphictyonic Council. Although opposed heroically by Demosthenes, the orator, he placed himself at the head of Greek affairs. His son, Alexander the Great, followed up his father's success and made himself master of the Greek world and converted Greece into a province of an empire. Under Alexander and his successors the empire of the Greeks was extended from Italy to Central Asia and the shores of the Indus. See Alexander; Philip; Phalanx; Alexandria The political supremacy of Greece was of comparatively short duration. As soon as the Romans had brought the Punic Wars to a successful close they turned their attention to the Greeks. Greece proper became a part of the Roman empire, 146 B. C. When the Roman empire was divided Greece fell, of course, into the eastern half. In fact, Constantinople was an ancient Grecian colony. See Constantine

DECLINE. During the early centuries of Roman and eastern or Byzantine supremacy, the Greeks were the most intellectual people in Europe. Learned Greeks with their parchment, pens, and inkhorns were in demand the eastern world over. In 1460 Greece was conquered by the Turks. With the exception of a short interval, when a portion of the country was ceded to the Venetians, it remained under Turkish control until 1830. So far as its native home was concerned, Greek civilization was seemingly destroyed. Commerce died. Towns and cities fell into decay. Temples and marketplaces fell into ruins. The sites of prosperous cities became buried beneath drifting sands. The olive groves were neglected; agriculture languished; herds and fields were at the mercy of the invader; the people became half brigand. After various unsuccessful attempts, the Greeks, aided by outside money and sympathizers, among whom was Lord Byron, regained their independence. An independent monarchy was set up in 1832. MODERN GREECE. The modern Greeks speak a language differing little from that of the ancients. Although during the centuries they have become mixed somewhat with outside races, they are still a well formed, athletic people among whom corpulency is unknown. They are proud of the history of their race. Under the protection of England, France, and Russia, they have set up a stable government, suppressed brigands, made agriculture and grazing safe, reclothed their hills with olive groves, reopened mines, built railroads and telegraph lines, established a postal system and a system of public education. Greece now does a business amounting to $30,000,000 a year with other countries. The total area is about 25,014 square miles. The population at the beginning of the twentieth century was not far from 2,500,000, or a trifle over ninety-seven people to the square mile. STATISTICS. The following statistics are the latest to be had from reliable sources: