Next to Ætolia are the Locri[2143], surnamed Ozolæ; a people exempt from tribute. Here is the town of Œanthe[2144], the port[2145] of Apollo Phæstius, and the Gulf of Crissa[2146]. In the interior are the towns of Argyna, Eupalia[2147], Phæstum, and Calamisus. Beyond are the Cirrhæan plains of Phocis, the town of Cirrha[2148], and the port of Chalæon[2149], seven miles from which, in the interior, is situate the free town of Delphi[2150], at the foot of Mount Parnassus[2151], and having the most celebrated oracle of Apollo throughout the whole world. There is the Fountain too of Castalia[2152], and the river Cephisus[2153] which flows past Delphi, rising in the former city of Lilæa[2154]. Besides these, there is the town of Crissa[2155] and that of Anticyra[2156], with the Bulenses[2157]; as also Naulochum[2158], Pyrrha, Amphissa[2159], exempt from all tribute, Tithrone, Tritea[2160], Ambrysus[2161], and Drymæa[2162], which district has also the name of Daulis. The extremity of the gulf washes one corner of Bœotia, with its towns of Siphæ[2163] and Thebes[2164], surnamed the Corsian, in the vicinity of Helicon[2165]. The third town of Bœotia on this sea is that of Pagæ[2166], from which point the Isthmus of the Peloponnesus projects in the form of a neck. CHAP. 5. (4.)—THE PELOPONNESUS. The Peloponnesus, which was formerly called Apia[2167] and Pelasgia, is a peninsula, inferior in fame to no land upon the face of the earth. Situate between the two seas, the Ægean and the Ionian, it is in shape like the leaf of a plane-tree, in consequence of the angular indentations made in its shores. According to Isidorus, it is 563 miles in circumference; and nearly as much again, allowing for the sea-line on the margin of its gulfs. The narrow pass at which it commences is known by the name of the Isthmus. At this spot the two seas, which we have previously mentioned, running from the north and the east, invade the land from opposite sides[2168], and swallow up its entire breadth, the result being that through these inroads in opposite directions of such vast bodies of water, the sides of the land are eaten away to such an extent, that Hellas[2169] only holds on to the Peloponnesus by the narrow neck, five miles in width, which intervenes. The Gulfs thus formed, the one on this side, the other on that, are known as the Corinthian[2170] and the Saronic Gulfs. The ports of Lecheæ[2171], on the one side, and of Cenchreæ on the other, form the frontiers of this narrow passage, which thus compels to a tedious and perilous circumnavigation such vessels as from their magnitude cannot be carried across by land on vehicles. For this reason it is that both King Demetrius[2172], Cæsar the Dictator, the prince Caius[2173], and Domitius Nero[2174], have at different times made the attempt to cut through this neck by forming a navigable canal; a profane design, as may be clearly seen by the result[2175] in every one of these instances.