Fig. 7. Tlie I'artheuon restored.
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shapa of an arc of a circle, and was 140 feet high. Thou"-h built in a period when noble inspiration had left Grecian art, it was marked by an elegance of exe- cution that was not surpassed in any edifice erected durin" tlie history of Greek architecture. The chief works of Greek architecture in Africa were in Cyrene, and especially in Alexandria. In this cit}' all the re- sources of a luxuriant architecture were called into requisition in the erection of every class of edifices that should adorn a new and gorgeous capital city.
(For the literature upon Grecian architecture, see the article Architecture.) G. F. C.
Greece ('E/\/\hc)i pi'operly the country in Europe inhabited by the Greek race (1 Mace, i, 1) ; but in Acts XX, 2, apparently desig'nating only that part of it com- prising the Roman province of Macedonia (q. v.). See Wetstein, Nov. Test, ii, 590 ; Kruso, Hellas, i, 557. Compare Achaia.
1. Greece is sometimes described as a countr_v con- taining the four provinces of Macedonia, Epirus, Achaia or Hellas, and Peloponnesus, but more commonly the two latter alone are understood to be comprised in it. We will consider it as composed of Hellas and Pelo- ponnesus, though there seems to be no question that the four provinces were originall}' inhabited by peo- ple of similar language and origin, and whose relii;- ion and manners were alike. Except upon its north- ern boundary' it is surrounded on all sides Ijy the sea, which intersects it in every direction, and naturally' gives to its population seafaring habits. It is also a very mountainous countrj^, abounding in eminences of great height, which branch out and intersect the land from its northern to its southern extremity, and form the natural limits of many of the provinces into which it is divided. At the isthmus of Corinth it is separated into its two great divisions, of which the northern was called Grcfcia intra Feloponnesum, and the southern the Peloponnesus, now called the Morea. The moun- tain and sea are thus the grand natural characteristics of Greece, and had a very considerable influence on the character of its inhabitants, as is evidenced in the re- ligion, poetry, history, and manners of the people. The country has alwaj's been famous for the temperature of its climate, the salubrity of its air, and the fertility of its soil.
The Greek nation had a broad division into two races, Dorians and lonians, of whom the former seem to have long lain hid in continental parts, or on the western side of the coiintry, and had a temperament and institutions more approaching the Italic. The lonians, on the contrary, retained many Asiatic usages and tendencies, witnessing that they had never been so thoroughl}' cut ofl"as the Dorians from Oriental con- nection. When afterwards the Ionic colonies in Asia Minor rose to eminence, the Ionian race, in spite of the competition of the half Doric vEolians, continued to at- tract most attention in Asia.
Of tiie history of Greece before the first recorded Olympiad, B.C. 77(), little that can be depended upon is known. There is no doubt that from very remote periods of antiquity, long prior to this date, the coun- try had been inhaliited, but facts are so intermingled with legend and fable in the traditions which have come down to us of these ancient times, that it is im- possible with certainty to distinguish the false from the true ((irote. Hist, of Greece, pref. to vol. i). After its conquest by the Romans, B.C. 14G, Greece contin- ued for one thousand three hundred and fifty years to be either really or nominally a portion of the Roman empire. Literature and the arts, long on the decline, were at length destroj'cd by Justinian, who closed the schools of Athens. Alaric the Goth invaded the coun- try in the year 400, followed by Genseric and Zaber Khan in the sixth and seventh, and by the Normans in the eleventh century. After the Latin conquest of Constantinople in l-'04, Greece was divided into feudal principalities, and governed by a variety of Roman,
Venetian, and Frankisli nobles; but in 12G1, with the exception of the dukedoms of Athens and Nauplia, and some portions of the Archipelago, it was reunited to the Constantinopolitan empire by Michael Pahcologus. In 1438 it was invaded Ijy the Turks, who completed its conquest in 1481. The Venetians, however, were not disposed to allow its new masters quiet possession, and the countrj' during the sixteenth and seventeenth cen- turies was the theatre of obstinate wars, which contin- ued till the treaty of Passarovitz in 1718 confirmed the Turks in their conquest With the exception of Maina, the whole country remained under their despot- ic sway till 1821, when tlie Greeks once more aroused from their lethargy, and asserted their claim to a na- tional existence. The revolutionary struggle was con- tinued with varied success and much bloodshed till the great European powers interfered, and the battle of Navarino, in 1827, secured the independence of Greece, which was reluctantly acknowledged by the Porte in 1829. In 1831 Greece was erected into an independent monarch}' : it retains its classic name, and nearly its ancient limits, comprehending the Morea, or ancient Peloponnesus, south of the Gulf of Corinth, now Gulf of Lepanto, and the province of Livadia, or the ancient Gra'cia propria, ■with part of Thessaly and Epirns, north of that gulf; besides the island of Negropont, the ancient Eubcea, and other smaller islands in the Archipelago. The Republic of the Ionian Islands, Cephalonia, Zante, Corfu, and others on the western coast of Greece, is under the protection of Great Brit- ain.— Fairbairn, s. v. ; Bastow, s. v.