Classical Geography Author:Henry Fanshawe Tozer Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER VI. NORTHERN GREECE. i. General Characteristics of Greece, and Effect on the Greeks.—The country commonly called Greece, but by the Greeks themselv... more »es Hellas, properly begins with Thessaly. It was in many respects the most remarkably formed country of the ancient world, and this formation had a great influence on the character and history of its inhabitants. The remarks that have already been made on the characteristics of Europe (p. i4), as compared with the other two continents, can be applied with still greater force to Greece. No other country has so long a sea-board in proportion to its area, or so diversified an outline, or such innumerable bays and harbours. Again, though Greece is a very mountainous country, yet it is not, like Thrace, an irregular jumble of mountains ; but the whole surface, whether highland or lowlandj is delicately marked and carefully defined in small distinct districts. The effect of these peculiarities at once appears in the history. As the sea was everywhere in their neighbourhood, the Greeks were essentially a maritime people ; and the separation of the country into areas of limited extent caused them to form a number of separate states without being combined into a united nation. And the character of the people was affected by the same influences. For the mountaineer is usually characterised by his patriotism and love of freedom, and the seafaring man, from his changeful and adventurous life, gains boldness and an aptitude for new ideas; and thus in the Greek, with whom both influences were present, these two elements of character were combined. At the same time the great variety of surface that the country presented, being diversified by mountains, hills, valleys, and plains, and the consequent variety of occupation of the inhabit...« less