Crete is a large island, presenting a grave, and not an Ionian aspect, but in many parts it is rich and fertile. The great woody mountain Ida (Ἴδη is the Ionian name of a woody mountain) extends through the whole length of the island. Mythology describes this mountain as the birth-place of Zeus, and the other statement that he was born on mount Ida near Troy arose only from a confusion. The Cretan Ida is covered with most magnificent forests, and furnishes not only timber for shipbuilding, but is also rich in medicinal herbs. The coast contains a number of the most fertile plains. All the promontories of Crete are branches issuing from mount Ida. In the historical times, the number of Cretan towns, if we gather the names from the different writers, amounts to thirty. How many of them were sovereign and how many subject, is a question which can be answered only approximately. The greatest towns were CNOSOS (better than Cnossos) and GORTYN, or in Latin poets Gortyna, like Cortona and Ancona. The Latin language does not recognise the termination _on_, whence in names of male persons the Greek ων is shortened into a single _o_; hence the Romans in the earlier times did not say _Solon_, but _Solo_, and the editors of Cicero should always write the name in this manner. In later times this practice was forgotten; and Pliny has Hieron and Solon; but names of towns are generally lengthened by the addition of _a_. Both Cnosos and Gortyn were very ancient Cretan towns, but were taken possession of by later settlers. The magnitude of the ruins of Gortyn, situated on a beautiful table land, points to a brilliant period, which must have been a very early one. Near them is the labyrinth, the construction of which is ascribed to Minos; it is however not fabulous, but a mighty palace-like building of the heroic age. CYDONIA reminds us of the people of the same name in the Odyssey. LYCTOS is expressly mentioned as a Spartan colony. I point out these places to you because they are of some historical importance; I might add a great many others, but they are only empty names. During the Peloponnesian war, when all Greece was divided between Athens and Sparta, the Cretans sided with neither. There are a tolerable number of Cretan monuments with inscriptions, belonging to the period of the power of the Aetolians; they are for the most part treaties by which they were admitted by the Aetolians into the relation of sympolity.