Cf. Clint. Fast. Hellen. ii. 335. Footnote 212: Xen. Hellen. v. 1. 11. Footnote 213: Chandler (ii. 12) speaks of the whole island as covered with trees. Much has been written on the extent and population of Attica, respecting which most of the philosophers of the last generation entertained very erroneous ideas. An examination of their statements might still, perhaps, be interesting; but it would lead me far beside the scope of my present work, and occupy space that can be better filled up. According to the most careful calculation Attica contained seven hundred and twenty square miles, or taking into account the island of Salamis seven hundred and forty-eight. The whole of this extremely limited space swarmed, however, with population; for even so late[214] as 317 B. C. after all the calamities which the republic had undergone, Attica still contained five hundred and twenty-seven thousand six hundred and sixty persons, or nearly seven hundred and seventy-three to the square mile, a proportion much higher than is found in the most thickly peopled counties of England. Footnote 214: Clint. Fast. Hellen. ii. 386. sqq. Cf. Boeckh, Pub. Econ. of Athens, i. 44. seq. On the number of the citizens _vide_ Philoch. Siebel, p. 17. 28. Schol. Vesp. Aristoph. 709. Strab. ix. i. t. ii. p. 234. Hermann. Pol. Ant. § 18. Bochart, Geog. Sac. i. 286. This, however, taking into account the form of government, the industrious habits, and extreme frugality of the people, is entirely within the bounds of probability. But in what is related of the population of Ægina, the calculations current among learned authors are so extravagant as to exceed all belief. Müller and Boeckh,[215] who on other occasions, and sometimes very unseasonably affect scepticism, unhesitatingly admit the account in Athenæus, which attributes four hundred and seventy thousand slaves to the Æginetans.[216] To these the former adds a free population of forty thousand, making the whole amount to upwards of half a million, or twelve thousand four hundred and fifty-seven to the square mile. Mr. Clinton,[217] clearly perceiving the absurdity of this calculation, proposes to read seventy thousand, which will leave a population in the proportion of two thousand six hundred and eighty-two to the square mile. The passage in Athenæus is no doubt, as Bochart suspects,[218] corrupt, and this being the case nothing is left but to determine from analogy the population of Ægina, which, supposing it equally dense with that of Attica would have amounted to something more than thirty thousand souls. Footnote 215: Æginet. 128. Econ. of Athens, i. 55, seq. Footnote 216: Deipnosoph. vi. 103. Cf. Schol. Pind. Olymp. viii. 30. Footnote 217: Fast. Hellen. ii. 423. Footnote 218: Geog. Sac. Pars Prior, l. iv. c. 20, p. 286. CHAPTER IV. CAPITAL CITIES OF GREECE.—ATHENS.