=6.= Although the name of Greece is now strictly limited to the peninsula which we have described, it was often more generally applied by the ancients to all the homes and colonies of the Hellenic race. The south of Italy was long known as _Mag´na Græ´cia_; the eastern shores of the Ægean constituted Asiatic Greece, and the cities of Cyrene in Africa, Syracuse in Sicily, and Massilia in southern France, were all, to the Greeks, equally essential parts of Hellas. The description of the numerous and important colonies belongs to a later period. A few of the islands more immediately belonging to Greece will alone be mentioned here. =7.= Chief of these was Eubœ´a, the great breakwater of the eastern coast, which extended a distance of 100 miles in length and 15 in width. Nearly as important, though smaller, was Corcy´ra, on the western coast; and south of it lay Paxos, Leuca´dia, Ith´aca, Cephalle´nia, and Zacyn´thus. On the south were the Œnus´sæ and the important island of Cythe´ra. On the east, among others were Hy´drea, Ægina, and Salamis. Besides these littoral, or coast, islands there were, in the northern Ægean, Lemnos, Imbros, Thasos, and Samothra´ce; in the central, the Cyc´lades; and, in the southern, the large island of Crete. HISTORY OF GREECE. PERIODS. I. Traditional and Fabulous History, from the earliest times to the Dorian Migrations, about B. C. 1100. II. Authentic History, from the Dorian Migrations to the beginning of the Persian wars; B. C. 1100-500. III. From the beginning of the Persian wars to the victory of Philip of Macedon at Chæronea, B. C. 500-336. =8.= FIRST PERIOD. The name of Greece was unknown to the Greeks, who called their country _Hellas_ and themselves _Helle´nes_. But the Romans, having probably made their first acquaintance with the people of that peninsula through the _Grai´koi_, a tribe who inhabited the coast nearest Italy, applied their name to the whole Hellenic race. A more ancient name, _Pelas´gia_, was derived from the earliest known inhabitants of the country—a widely extended people, who may be traced by the remains of their massive architecture in various parts of Italy as well as Greece. The _Pelasgi_ were among the first of the Indo-Germanic family to migrate from Asia to Europe. =9.= By conquest or influence, the Hellenes very early acquired the control of their neighbors, and spread their name, language, and customs over the whole peninsula. They were then regarded as consisting of four tribes, the Dorians, Achæ´ans, Æo´lians, and Ionians; but the last two, if not all four, were probably members of the earlier race.