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PELOPONNESUS

Volume 8 · 129 words · 1778 Edition

(Dionysius); a large peninsula, to the south of the rest of Greece; called, as it were, Pelopis nefus or insula, though properly not an island, but a peninsula; yet wanting but little to be one, viz. the isthmus of Corinth, ending in a point like the leaf of the Platane or plane-tree. Anciently called Apià and Pelagia; a peninsula second to no other country for noblenes; situate between two seas, the Egean and Ionian, and resembling a platane-leaf, on account of its angular recesses or bays, (Pliny, Strabo, Mela). Strabo adds from Homer, that one of its ancient names was Argos, with the epithet Achaicum, to distinguish it from Thessaly, called Pelaigicum. Divided into six parts; namely, Argolis, Laconica, Messenia, Elis, Achaia, and Arcadia, (Mela). Now called the Morea.