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PELOPONNESUS

Volume 17 · 130 words · 1810 Edition

(Dionysius), a large peninsula to the south of the rest of Greece; called, as it were Pelopis nefusa, 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 Apia and Pelafisia; a peninsula second to no other country for nobleness; situated 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 Achaimum, to distinguish it from Thessaly, called Pelasgicum. Divided into six parts; namely, Argolis, Laconica, Messenia, Elis, Achaea, and Arcadia, (Mela). Now called the Morea.