The only Greek town in the middle peninsula was TORONE, on the western coast of the Toronean gulf; the towns on the eastern coast and in the interior were Thracian. Sithonia (Σιθωνία), the name of this peninsula, is sometimes used by Latin poets for Thrace, but the _o_ is made short, the ear of the early Roman writers probably not catching the name correctly. The whole of the interior of the northern part of the peninsula containing mount Athos is a hilly country with few plains; even its isthmus is hilly, but then the ground rises higher and higher till it reaches the top of mount Athos, the height of which has not yet been measured. This peninsula was inhabited by barbarians, that is, by Thracians and Tyrrhenians of Lemnos and Imbros, mixed with Greeks, whence they were δίγλωττοι, just as, previously to the reduction of Greece, both Greek and Romaic were spoken, e.g. by the Albanese at Castri (Delphi) and Marathon. ACANTHUS, an Andrian colony, was situated on the gulf near the isthmus; it is remarkable on account of the canal which Xerxes caused to be dug near it—a senseless undertaking worthy of a barbarian. East from mount Athos the Greek towns are found at greater intervals from one another. APOLLONIA (there are at least a dozen towns of this name), an important city, maintained its independence of Olynthus. Near it was situated STAGIRA, the birth-place of Aristotle, which was destroyed by Philip, but was restored in consequence of the entreaties of Aristotle. The district then following is now called the country of SERES, a town situated at the mouth of the Strymon, and mentioned in the middle ages under the name of _Serrae_; it is an important place, but did not exist in antiquity. The river Strymon was, for a time, regarded as the boundary of Macedonia, but it belongs, properly speaking, to Paeonia. The country about its mouth, like that of Pella and Pallene, is one of the most productive districts, and particularly fit for the growth of cotton and tobacco, whence it was a χώρα περιμάχητος at an early period. It was as important to the Greeks as the ports of the Baltic are to the Dutch and English.