MOREA, the name borne by the ancient Peloponnesus (q.v.) since the middle ages, if not from as early a period as the 4th century. It is usnally said to be derived from mores, a mulberry—the outline of the peninsula bearing a resemblance to the leaf of that tree; others, however, such as Fallmerayer, trace it back to the Slavic word more, the sea, which nearly encircles the Mores, The Morea forms the most southern part of the kingdom of Greece, and is divided into the nomarchies of Argolis, Corinth, Laconia, Messema, Arcadia, Achaia, and Ells.
Overrun by the Goths and Vandals, it became a prey, in the second half of the 8th c., to bands of Slavic invaders, who found it wasted by war and pestilence. Gradually, however, these barbarians were subdued and Grecianized by the Byzantine emperors. Nevertheless, the numerous names of places, rivers, etc., in the Mores of Slavic origin, prove how firmly they had rooted themselves, and that the Moreotes are anything but pure Greeks. In 1207 the peninsula was conquered by French knights, and Adimia was formed into a principality with all the feudal institutions of the west. After 1261 the Byzantine
emperor, Michael VIII. Palreologus, reconque•ed part of the country; but the princi pality of Achaia remained in the family of Villehardouin till 1346. when the male line became extinct. Various claimants now arose, and much strife and confusion ensued. At' length, in 1460, the greater portion of the Mores fell into the hands of the Turks, who retained possession of it down to the period of the Greek revolution, except from 1687 to 1715, when it was held by the Venetians. The long struggle between the Turks and Venetians diminished the population so much that in 1719 it had only 200,000 inhab itants, and the plagues of 1756 and 1782 even reduced it to half this number. After the French revolution, however, it began to increase; at the outbreak of the war of inde pendence, in 1827 it had reached 300,000, of whom only one-sixth were Turks; and in 1870 it was 645,34.