4. ARGOLIS is formed by a ridge of hills which branches from Mount Cyllene and Parthenium in Arcadia, and is connected with it by a mountain-chain, very much broken, and abounding in ravines and caverns (hence called Τρητὸν);(265) through which runs the celebrated _Contoporia_,(266) a road cut out, as it were, between walls of rock, connecting Argos with Corinth. By similar passes Cleonæ, Nemea, and Phlius, more to the south, and eastwards Mycenæ, Tiryns, and Epidaurus, were connected; and this natural division into many small districts had a considerable effect upon the political state of Argos. The southern part of this chain ends in a plain, at the opening of which, and near the pass just alluded to, was situated Mycenæ, and in a wider part of it the city of Argos. The nature of this anciently cultivated plain is very remarkable; it was, as is evident, gradually formed by the torrents which constantly filled up the bay between the mountains; and hence it was originally little else than fen and morass.(267) Inachus, “_the stream_,” and Melia, the daughter of Oceanus, “_the damp valley_” (where ash-trees, μελίαι, grow), were called the parents of the ancient Argives; and the epithet “thirsty” (πολυδίψιον Ἄργος), which is applied to Argos in ancient poems, refers only to the scarcity of spring-water in the neighbourhood of the town. Yet, notwithstanding the rugged nature of the rest of Argolis, there are, both in the interior and near the sea, here and there, small plains, which by the fertility of their soil attract and encourage the husbandman; the south-eastern coast slopes regularly down to the sea. To the north of the mountain-ridge which bounded Argolis, extending from the Isthmus as far as a narrow pass on the boundaries of Achaia, there is a beautiful, and in ancient times highly-celebrated plain, in which Corinth and Sicyon were situated.(268) With respect to the progress of civilization at Argos, it is important to know that the mountains between that town and Corinth contain copper:(269) accordingly, in the former town the forging of metals appears to have been early introduced; and hence arose the ancient celebrity of the Argive shields.(270) But no precious metal has been ever found in any part of Peloponnesus: a circumstance which greatly tended to direct the attention of its inhabitants to agriculture and war, rather than commerce and manufactures. 5. That region which was in later times called ACHAIA, is only a narrow tract of land along the coast, lying upon the slope of the northern mountain-range of Arcadia. Hence most of the Achæan cities are situated on hills above the sea, and some few in enclosed valleys. The sources of the numerous streams by which the country is watered lie almost without exception in Arcadia, whose frontiers here reach beyond the water-line.