History history of Greece for sonic centuries after the capture of Corinth belongs to thd 'hiAtOry Of her Contriefor. The: Roman Wars with Antiochus, Mithridates, and others, involved Greece in countless hardships; and the fierce strug gles of Caesar and Pompey, of Brutus and Cassius with Antony and Octavianus, of Antony and Octavianns, of which Greece was often the theater, entailed upon her many calamities. For nearly two centuries after the accession of Augustus, Greece enjoyed comparative tranquillity, during which Christianity spread among her people, churches were founded, and many devoted Greeks went abroad to strange lauds and periled their lives in the propagation of the gospel. But dark days again awaited her, and successive inroads of Slavonians, Albanians, and other barbarous hordes, overran the country from the wintry plains of the north. When Constantine divided his empire, Greece was attached to the eastern portion; but when; in 1204 A.D., the Venetian fleet under Dandolo overpowered the rickety throne of the Cwsars, Greece too changed masters. The Osman Turks, who migrated and other parts, captured Constanti nople in 1453 A.D. ; and from that time until recent years, Greece was subject to Mohammedan dominion. All the annoyances that ignorance, brutality, tyranny, and greed could suggest, were practiced by the Turks on the much enduring Greeks, but at length human nature could no longer endure, and in 1820 broke out that rebellion against Turkish rule, which, by the bravery and determination of the Greeks, and the friendly countenance of Christian Europe, ended in the establishment of Greece as an independent kingdom in 1829. Two unsuccessful attempts at rebellion had been made in 1770 and 1790. Capo d'Istrias, the first president of liberated Greece, was assas sinated in 1831; and after several candidates for the throne of the infant kingdom had been proposed and rejected, Otho, second son of the king of Bavaria, was at length (1832) chosen by the three powers (Britain, France, Russia) which had assisted Greece in her noble struggle. The reign of Otho was not a peaceful one, and he had very serious difficulties to contend with after he had assumed the reins of government in 1835. But his rule has not been altogether devoid of fruit; and law and order, industry and commerce, literature and notions of self-government, have advanced. On. the banish ment of Otho in 1862, the crown was offered to prince Alfred of England. The agree ment bet ween the protecting powers, however, stood in the way of his election, and the present king, Georgias I., son of Christian IX. of Denmark, became king of the Helleneis in 1863. The Berlin congress of 1878 recommended the addition to Greece of the southern portions of Thes.saly and Albania; but difficulties occurred to postpone this desirable restoration. .
population of ancient Greece at any one time it is quite impossible to conjecture. Of modern Greece, the inhabitants numbered, in 1871, 1,457,894.
Tice islands of the tEgean sea may be comprehended, as in ancient times, under two groups—the Cyclades and the Sporades. The former were so called
from the legend of their circling round Delos, when that island was rendered stationary for the birth of Diana and Apollo. The latter receive their name from the circumstance of their being xcattered or sown in an irregular manner round the coasts of the adjoining countries, and mostly belong to Turkey. The following list contains the islands belong ing to Greece; the first 20 are the Cyclades; the others, part of the northern Sporades, lie off Eubma. The Italian names are in parentheses. The Ionian islands, formerly republican dependency of Great Britain, were annexed to Greece in 1864.
1. Delos with Rhenea (Dili); 2. Syros (Syra); 3. Myconos Mycono); 4. Tenos (Tino): 5. Naxos (Naxia); 6. Andros (Andro); 7. Ceos (Zea); 8. Cythnos (Thermic); 9. Seriphos (Serpho); 10. Siphnos (Siphanto); 11. Ciniolos (Argentiera); 12. Melos (Milo); 13. Phole gandros (Policandro); 14. Sicinos 15. Ios (Nio); 16. Thera (Santorin); 17. Anaphe (Nanfio); 18. Amorgos (Amorgo); 19. Paros (Paro); 20. Oliaros or Antiparos (Antiparo): 21. Seyros (Scyro); 22. Scathos (Sciatho); 23. Scopelos (Scopelo); 24. fens (Chiliodromia). Besides these, there are many smaller islands and barren rocks, which to Greece, but which from their unimportance scarce deserve mention. These islands possess many of the features which mark the mainland: the climate is varied; the soil is in one fruitful, in another barren; the productions are much the same as in Greece, except that in some of them, as Santorin, the vine grows in greater variety and luxuriance; the population is more primitive, and less mixed, and consequently retain more pertinaciously the customs of their forefathers. The, islanders are generally more industrious and more happy than the continentals—the sea is their highway, and they can more easily get a market for the fruits of their industry. The islanders are excel lent seamen, and a very large proportion of the males are employed in navigation. Delos is now little more than a barren rock; and scarce a vestige remains of the temple of the Sun-god, or other memorial of its former religions and commercial pre-eminence.
Syra (population 21,000) is the principal port of Greece, and a great center of trade. The Mediterranean steamers call at it. Wine is almost the only production of the The people of Tenos are famed for the manufacture of marble tables, chimney pieces, etc., which are largely exported. and the finest Malvasian or Malmsey wine is produced in the island. Of the other islands, the most volcanic is Thera; it produces in large quantity the wine called Vino Santo, or Santorin, of which the Russians are specially fond. Naxos is the largest and most beautiful and most fertile of the Cyclades. These islands cOMprise an urea o1 rather more than 1000 sq.m., and tiTpopulation in '71 of 122,299 souls. The Cyclades are generally high and rocky in their coasts, and all are of a very similar aspect in this and other regards.