Note 340 — Chapter I · GENERAL GEOGRAPHY AND LIMITS OF GREECE.

“Universa autem (Peloponnesus), velut pensante æquorum incursus naturâ, in montes 76 extollitur.” (Plin. H. N. iv. 6.)

Strabo touches, in a striking passage (ii. pp. 121-122), on the influence of the sea in determining the shape and boundaries of the land: his observations upon the great superiority of Europe over Asia and Africa, in respect of intersection and interpenetration of land by the sea-water are remarkable: ἡ μὲν οὖν Εὐρώπη πολυσχημονεστάτη πασῶν ἐστι, etc. He does not especially name the coast of Greece, though his remarks have a more exact bearing upon Greece than upon any other country. And we may copy a passage out of Tacitus (Agricol. c. 10), written in reference to Britain, which applies far more precisely to Greece: “nusquam latius dominari mare ... nec litore tenus accrescere aut resorberi, sed influere penitus et ambire, et jugis etiam atque montibus inseri velut in suo.”