Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 2.djvu/275

1016 GRAECIA. rashed upon the land and swallowed np whole cities. This was the iate of Helioe and Bora, which in one daj (b. c. 373) disappeared from Achaia. [Hs- UCB. J Similar disastvs have occnrred in the same neighbourhood in subsequent times. In the reign of Tiberius the inhabitants were relieved from tax- ation in consequence of their suffering irom an earthquake (Tac. Ann, iv. 13); and in 1817 the town of Vostiiasa (the andent Aegium) narrowly escaped the fate of Helioe and Bura, since the sea rushed inland with great fcat» and inundated all the level immediatelj* below the town (Leake, MoreOf vd. iil. p. 402). IX. Modern Wobks. Greece was, down to the middle of the 1 6th oen- tuiy, almost an unknown country to the western nations of Europe. In 1573, soon after Greek had b^un to be studied in Germany, Martin Kraus, or Crusids, profe8S(»- at Ttibingen, contrived to open a correspondence with some learned Greeks in Con- stantinople ; and, in one of his letters addressed to Theodore Zygomalas, he states that it was the general oplni<m in Germany that Athens was totally destroyed, and wishes to kiu>w from his correspondent whether this is the truth. Zygomalas answers that he had frequently visited Athens; but in his attraipt to describe the antiquities of Athens he ocxnmits many Uunders, among other things, calling^tiieTaritHera we Parthenon. -^Hxe inAmsation, thus obtained, Cru- Siiblished in his Tureo-GraeciOf of which the first book contained the political history, the second the ecclesiastical, and the remaining six his corre- spondence with the learned Greeks. Dkshates, who was French ambassador to the Porte in 1621, visited Athens in 1621, and wrote some ObsenxUioiu, which, though of little value, are interesting as the first account of any part of Greece from the personal observation of a native of Western Europe. Deshayes supposed the Parthenon to be the Church of the Unknown God. Some years afterwards, Palmbrius (Paulmier de Grentemesnil), a French nobleman of Normandy sgad a scholar, who died at Caen in 1670, undertook a voyage into Greece for the purpose of illus rating its ancient geography. His work, en- titled Grcieeiae Detcriptio^ ^ which a second edition was published in 1678, Lugd. Batav., was the first of any value upon Grecian geography, but it gave an account of only lUyricum, Macedonia, Epirus, and Acamania. In 1674, Noihtbl, who was sent as French ambassador to the Porte, carried with him a young artist, named Carrey, who for about five weeks was employed in making drawings, which are now in the National Library of Paris, and are of great interest, as among them are the architectural decorations of the Parthenon, which was then almost entire. A new era in the knowledge of Grecian geography commenced with Spon, a French physician at Lyons, and Sir George Whblbr, an Englishman, who travelled together through Attica, Boeotia, Phocis, and Locris, in 1675 and 1676. * Spon published hu account of their travels under the title of Voffage dliaUe, de DeimaUej de Grece^ et du l£- vaani^ fait en 1676 par Jacob Spon, D. M^ et George Wheler, Gentilhomtne Angloie, Lyon, 1678. Wheler, who was a more careful observer than Spon, gave his account of their travels four years litter, under the title of Journey into Greece in company of Doctor Spon^ London, 1682. The learned Greek, Meletios, wrote at Naupactus, in CBAECIA. 1682, a work upon general geqgnphy, in wbich he gives some valuable information upon many pbees in Greece, which he had visited in peraoa. aad in which he has also preserved many inscriplkos that have been subsequently lost This work was fint published at Venice, in 1728, under the title of Vtarypa^ waXcud koI via avXXtX^ttra 4k ti a^ f pav ^oyypnpww «aXai«r re jcal p4mr, and of which a second edition appeared at the same place in 1807. The next work of importance was by the French botanist, Toubkepokt, who tzmv«Ued through the islands oi the Levant, and ocfaer <»untries on the coasts of the Levant, in 1700 — 1703. Though his journey was undertaken dnefly with a scientOic object, he gives ns an intereslng account of the antiquities of the coontries which to visited. His Work was published after his death, ia 1717, 2 yds. 4to., under the title of Relation dum Voyage du Levant fait par ordre du Roi : it was translated into English, and published in London, 1718, 2 vols. 4to. Fou^oHT, who travelled in Greece in 1729, by order of Louis XV., copied a large number of inscriptions, which he deposited m the Boyal Library of Paris. He boasted of having defaced the inscriptions which he copied, and also of having destroyed the remains of several C^edan cities ; but he greatly exaggerated his baiiianns proceedings, and his chief object in ">*^'"y the boast was that he might palm upon the wmid a number of forged inscriptions : for, though Baoel • Rochette defended the genuineness of these inscrip- tions (Leitre sur VAuStentidtt dee InacripHonM cfe Fourmont, Paris, 1819), it is now admitted thit many of them are forgeries. In 1751 Stuabt. an English artist at Rome, »- companied by Revett, an^er artist, travelled to Greece, and spent the greater part of three jean at Athens. The result of their labours was the cde- brated Antiquitiee o/Atkent^ of which the first vo- lume appeared in London in 1762. The second volume was published after Stuart's death, edited by Newton, in 1790 ; the third, by Beveley, in 1794 ; and the fourth, by Woods, in 1816. Revett had bo connection with this work after the pnblication of the firbt volume ; and in the same yeur in which it ap- peared the Society of Dilettanti engaged him, to- gether with Mr. Pars and Dr. Chandler, to undertake an antiquarian journey to Greece. Chakdleb pub- lished the results of their researches in Greece and Asia Minor, of which the volume rdating to Greeoe appeared at Oxford in 1776. Chandler waa a man of learning, and did much to illustrate the geography of Greeoe ; but he has been justly censured by Lake for having omitted to cite the ancient authorities when he had recourse to them, in consequenoe of which it is often difficult to test the accuracy of hb conclusions. Choiseul-Gocffieb puUisfaed, in 1782, his Voyage pittoresqve de la Greee, toI. i. fol., which is a handsome book, but of no critical value. In 1784 he was sent, as French ambassador, to Constantinople-; and in 1809 he pnUi&hed the first part of the second volume of his Voyage piiUh- retque, which is much more carefully executed than the first volume. The second part of the second volume appeared in 1820, after the antfaor^s death. SiBTHORP and Hawkins %'isited Greece together in 1786 ; and Sibthorp undertook another joamey to the country in 1794. His object was to fnrn a cooi- plete Flora of Greece ; and on his death, in 1796, he bequeathed, by his will, to the University of Oxfcsd, an estate of 200^ a-year for the purpose of publish-