The geography of Greece presents great difficulties at the very outset. Hellas is not a country with natural boundaries; and the application of the name varies at different times. The ancients did not take it in the same sense in which we do; with them the names of countries are so intimately connected with those of the nations inhabiting them, that they called Hellas all the countries inhabited by Hellenes, including the Siceliot and Italiot towns as well as the colonies in Asia Minor, as far as Iberia and Scythia. The country to the east and south of Ambracia, until the time of the Romans, was not simply called Ἑλλάς, but ἡ συνεχὴς Ἑλλάς. This designation, however, so peculiar to the whole mode of thinking of the ancients, is too national, and for us inconvenient, and we unhesitatingly apply the name of Greece to the country called by the ancients ἡ συνεχὴς Ἑλλάς. It extends beyond the natural boundary of Mount Oeta and the Aetolian mountains which are connected with Oeta, because Thessaly must necessarily be included. We must choose the most convenient designation; and if in this we differ from the ancients, it is a necessary deviation made for the purpose of making ourselves understood. The only countries which have natural boundaries are first Peloponnesus, and secondly those parts which are separated from Thessaly by mountains. But these boundaries are only partial, and the natural limits of the whole country ought to be extended as far as the north of Thrace, so as to include that country together with Macedonia and Illyricum as far as Mount Scardus, and the heights which separate Illyricum and Macedonia from Servia. But only a portion of this extensive territory was inhabited by Greeks. Originally it was one united country, being inhabited by the race of the Pelasgians, while in the historical times the Hellenes became separated from them; but how this nation arose is one of the most mysterious points in history. All we can do is carefully to distinguish between Pelasgians and Hellenes, although there was a relationship between the two, which is perfectly obscure to us. In the historical period the whole is already in a state of confusion. The Hellenic nation, like that of the Latins in Italy, seems to have proceeded from a small centre; but how this came to pass is a question involved in impenetrable darkness. A nation calling itself Σελλοί, Ἑλλοί, Ἕλληνες, is said to have inhabited the highest mountains of Epirus, and thence to have spread over the whole country which was inhabited by Pelasgians. This nation was called by its neighbours by the name of Γραικοί which however was never employed by the nation itself.