Lectures on the geography of Greece 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: LECTUEE IV. PHYSICAL CONDITIONS OF THE COUNTRY?SOIL AND MINERALS?EARTHQUAKES AND VOLCANIC ACTION? CLIMATE AND WINDS?VEGETATION. Nature of the Soil ? The c... more »hief Products?Minerals?Marbles? Earthquakes in Antiquity : in Modern Times?Greece near a Volcanic Centre?Eruptions in Historic Times?Climate of Greece ? Contrasts in Different Districts ? The Winds in Homer?Their Subsequent Nomenclature ? Character of the Several Winds?" Temple of the Winds " at Athens?Distribu- tion of the Vegetation?The Forests?Important Trees in Antiquity?Lesser Growths and Shrubs?Flowers. The soil of Greece is for the most part light and thin, Nature of and requires very careful agriculture to develop its produce. This feature, which Thucydides has noticed in the case of Attica (ri Xiirroyiioii),1 belongs not only to the mountain sides, but also to the maritime plains, and had considerable influence on the development of those districts, because their inhabitants were led at an early period to take to the sea. To this rule there is one remarkable exception, the plain of Mes- senia, the soil of which was the most fertile in Greece, and thus became the primary source of all the misfortunes of that ill-fated country. The inland plains, on the other hand, being deeply sunk in 1 Thuc. i. 2. mountain basins, which, as we saw in the last lecture, are subject to frequent inundations, and in other ways well provided in respect of their water supply, afforded the richest land; especially those of Thes- saly and Bceotia. This accounts for the fame of the Theban and Thessalian cavalry, for it was only in the plains that the horse could be reared ; and for the same reason that animal was usually an accompaniment of oligarchy, because it was associated with fertile soil and consequent wealth. Aristotle remar...« less