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PELOPONNESUS

Volume 16 · 130 words · 1823 Edition

(Dionysius), a large peninsula to the south of the rest of Greece; called, as it were Pelopis nesus, 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 Pelasgia; 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 Achaeicum, to distinguish it from Thessaly, called Pelasgicum. Divided into six parts; namely, Argolis, Laconica, Messenia, Elis, Achaea, and Arcadia, (Mela.) Now called the Morea.