In the Homeric Catalogue, Euboea belongs to the group of Argive states, but Abantes also dwell in the island. Respecting the origin of these Abantes nothing can be ascertained. Afterwards we find the island divided into five states, three of which are called Ionic and regarded as Ionic colonies; the fourth is Dryopian, and the fifth, Hestiaean, both evidently of the same race as the ancient inhabitants of Thessaly about mount Pindus, that is, Pelasgian. CHALCIS and ERETRIA are said to have been founded by Ionians from Athens; the former was situated on the Euripus, the latter, to the south-east of it. In the early history of Greece, between Olymp. 20 and 40, a period which is so much neglected, both places were of great importance. It is perfectly clear that, though we cannot explain how, they possessed a power far superior to that of Athens at the same time; the great power of the Colophonians also belongs to that period of which the history is lost to us. We only know accidentally, that those two states carried on a long, protracted, and fierce war against each other, in which nearly all the states of Greece joined either the one or the other of them. This shows but too plainly how little the history of Greece is known. Both cities founded an endless number of colonies, and Chalcis more particularly on the Thracian coast (the Chalcidian towns in Epithrace), in Sicily and Italy (Cumae, Himera, Zancle, Catana, Naxos, Rhegium, and others). It cannot be supposed, that these numerous colonies contained an efflux of population commensurate with the size of the place, but only oecistae went out with a fleet under the protection of Chalcis, and a multitude of people then assembled from all parts of Greece, who were in want of a home; the Chalcidians however were the leaders, and the colony, out of gratitude, formed the noblest phyle from the Chalcidian oecistae, who made the laws. These colonies are another great proof of the deficiency of our knowledge of that stirring period, and show how much we should know, if we possessed Ephorus or only the portion of the work of Diodorus from the sixth to the tenth book. Our information is principally derived from Strabo and Heraclides Ponticus. The last occurrence in which Chalcis appears as a great state, is related by Herodotus, and belongs to the period subsequent to the expulsion of the Pisistratids. The Chalcidians, in conjunction with the Boeotians, carried on war against Athens, but were defeated. The numbers mentioned by Herodotus on that occasion show to what extent precision is lost and how delusive accounts become, even within the space of a century. But certain it is, that Chalcis was conquered by Athens, and that cleruchi were sent to it, of whom, however, subsequently not a trace appears, whence it must be supposed that they had been expelled. The Eretrians are mentioned as being in alliance with Athens; hence we may perhaps assume, that this