An Excursion in the Peloponnesus in the Year 1858; By the Late Thomas Wyse. Edited by His Niece, Winifrede M. Wyse. with Numerous Illustrations (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1865 Excerpt: ...times could never boast a population, either in numbers or equal distribution, to compare with that of Attica. At an early period "the Hundred Cities"--iroXivia--of Lakonia dwindled to Kwfiat, and the attempt made by Augustus to restore something of the old importance, by constituting the Eleutherolakones into a confederation, was not more successful. Their twentyfour towns had diminished to eighteen in the time of Pausanias. Even under Turkish rule, there was a more crowded population, at least in this portion of the Nomarchy, than at the present day. Mistra is said to have contained 20,000 inhabitants, just before the breaking out of the revolution: this, however, seems an exaggeration: in 1851 it had not quite 1,000 (968). If the contemporary historians are to be relied on, at the beginning of the Peloponnesian war, the large Attic village of Acbarute alone could furnish 12,000 warriors. In this respect, however, Attica and Lakonia are at present on a par; Attica rather below Lakonia. The whole of Attica and Megaris does not include more than from 50,000 to 60,000 inhabitants; and, a single Nomarch governs these states, which had their fleets and armies, and which maintained many an obstinate war, one against the other. t Wages for unskilled labour vary greatly, throughout Greece, according to locality and season. Recent events, the war of independence especially, with its various incidents, have produced great butes, more or less, to maintain this state of things. Pood is plentiful, because no egress has been provided for produce: small possessions and direct changes, not in prices only but in system. It was formerly customary for large bodies of Albanians to travel down to Greece at harvest-time, much as the Cephaloniotes and Ithakans still a...