The state of things which is set before us in the catalogue was altogether broken up by later changes, but changes which still come before the beginnings of contemporary history, and which we understand chiefly by comparing the geography of the catalogue with the geography of later times. ♦Changes in Peloponnêsos.♦ According to received tradition, a number of _Dorian_ colonies from Northern Greece were gradually planted in the chief cities of Peloponnêsos, and drove out or reduced to subjection their older _Achaian_ inhabitants. Mykênê from this time loses its importance; Argos, Sparta, Corinth, and Sikyôn become Dorian cities; and Sparta gradually wins the dominion over all the towns, whether Dorian or Achaian, within her immediate dominion of Lakonia. To the west of Lakonia arises the Dorian state of _Messênê_, which is the name only of a district, as there was as yet no city so called. As part of the same movement, an Aitolian colony is said to have occupied _Êlis_ on the west coast of Peloponnêsos. Elis again was at this time the name of a district only; the cities both of Messênê and Êlis are of much later date. First Argos, and then Sparta, rises to a supremacy over their fellow-Dorians and over the whole of Peloponnêsos. Historical Peloponnêsos thus consists (i) of the cities, chiefly Dorian, of the Argolic _Aktê_ or peninsula, together with _Corinth_ on the Isthmus and _Megara_, a Dorian outpost beyond the Isthmus; (ii) of _Lakonikê_, the district immediately subject to Sparta, with a boundary towards Argos which changed as Sparta advanced and Argos went back; (iii) of _Messênê_, which was conquered by Sparta before the age of contemporary history, and was again separated in the fourth century B.C.; (iv) of _Elis_, with the border-districts between it and Messênê; (v) of the _Achaian_ cities on the coast of the Corinthian Gulf; (vi) of the inland country of _Arkadia_. The relations among these districts and the several cities within them often fluctuated, but the general aspect of the map of Peloponnêsos did not greatly change from the beginning of the fifth century to the later days of the third. ♦Changes in Northern Greece.♦