Page:History of Greece Vol IV.djvu/42

24 mSTOKY OF GREECE. sand four hundred feet in height, connected with the mainland by a ridge not more than half the height of the mountain itself, yet still high, rugged, and woody from sea to sea, leaving only little occasional spaces fit to be occupied or cultivated. The intermediate or Sithonian headland is also hilly and woody, though in a less degree, both less inviting and less productive than Pallene.1 JEneia, near that cape which marks the entrance of the inner Thermaic gulf, and Potidaea, at the narrow isthmus of Pallene, were both founded by Corinth. Between these two towns lay the fertile territory called Krusis, or Krossrea, forming in after- times a part of the domain of Olynthus, but in the sixth century B.C. occupied by petty Thracian townships. 2 Within Pallene were the towns of Mende, a colony from Eretria, Skione, which, having no legitimate mother-city traced its origin to Pelle- nian warriors returning from Troy, Aphy tis, Neapolis, -^Ege, Therambos, and Sane, 3 either wholly or partly colonies from Eretria. In the Sithonian peninsula were Assa, Pilorus, Singus, Sarte, Torone, Galepsus, Sermyle, and Mekyberna ; all or most of these seem to have been of Chalkidic origin. But at the head of the Toronaic gulf (which lies between Sithonia and Pal- lene) was placed Olynthus, surrounded by an extensive and fertile plain. Originally a Bottiasan town, Olynthus will be seen at the time of the Persian invasion to pass into the hands of the Chalkidian Greeks, 4 and gradually to incorporate with itself sever- al of the petty neighboring establishments belonging to that race ; whereby the Chalkidians acquired that marked preponderance in the peninsula which they retained, even against the efforts of Athens, until the days of Philip of Macedon. 1 For the description of Chalkidike, see Grisebach's Reisen, vol. ii, ch. 10, pp. 6-16, and Leake, Travels in Northern Greece, vol. iii, ch. 24, p. 152. If we read attentively the description of Chalkidike as given by Skylax (c. 67), we shall see that he did not conceive it as three-pronged, but as terminating only in the peninsula of Pallene, with Potidsea at its isthmus 8 llerodot. vii, 1 23 ; Skymnus Chins, v, 627. 'Strabo, x, p. 447; Thucyd. iv, 120-123; Pompon. Mela, ii, 2; Herodot. vii, 123. 4 Herodot. vii, 122; viii. 127. Stephanus Byz. (v, Tla}.~A.f)vri) gives us some idea of the mythes of e lost Greek writers, Hegesippus and Theag- en3 about Pallene.