Upon the middle of this intervening neck which we have called the Isthmus, stands the colony of Corinth, formerly known by the name of Ephyre[2176], situate upon the brow of a hill, at a distance of sixty stadia from the shore of either sea. From the heights of its citadel, which is called Acrocorinthos, or the “Heights of Corinth,” and in which is the Fountain of Pirene, it looks down upon the two seas which lie in the opposite directions. From Leucas to Patræ upon the Corinthian gulf is a distance of eighty-eight miles. The colony of Patræ[2177] is founded upon the most extensive promontory of the Peloponnesus, facing Ætolia and the river Evenus, the Corinthian Gulf being, as we have previously[2178] stated, less than a mile in width at the entrance there, though extending in length as far as the isthmus, a distance of eighty-five miles. CHAP. 6. (5.)—ACHAIA. The province called Achaia[2179] begins at the Isthmus; from the circumstance of its cities being ranged in regular succession on its coast, it formerly had the name of Ægialos[2180]. The first place there is Lecheæ, already mentioned, a port of the Corinthians; next to which is Olyros[2181], a fortress of the people of Pellene[2182]; then the former towns of Helice and Bura[2183], and the places in which their inhabitants took refuge after their towns had been swallowed up by the sea, Sicyon[2184] namely, Ægira[2185], Ægium, and Erineos[2186]. In the interior are Cleonæ and Hysiæ[2187]; then come the port of Panormus[2188], and Rhium already mentioned; from which promontory, Patræ, of which we have previously spoken, is distant five miles; and then the place where Pheræ[2189] stood. Of the nine mountains of Achaia, Scioessa is the most famous; there is also the Fountain of Cymothoë. Beyond Patræ we find the town of Olenum[2190], the colony of Dyme[2191], the places where Buprasium[2192] and Hyrmine once stood, the Promontory of Araxus[2193], the Bay of Cyllene, and the Promontory of Chelonates, at five miles’ distance from Cyllene[2194]. There is also the fortress of Phlius[2195]; the district around which was called by Homer Aræthyrea[2196], and, after his time, Asopis. The territory of the Eleans then begins, who were formerly called Epei, with the city of Elis[2197] in the interior, and, at a distance of twelve miles from Phlius, being also in the interior, the temple of Olympian Jupiter, which by the universal celebrity of its games, gives to Greece its mode of reckoning[2198]. Here too once stood the town of Pisa[2199], the river Alpheus flowing past it. On the coast there is the Promontory of Ichthys[2200]. The river Alpheus is navigable six miles, nearly as far as the towns of Aulon[2201] and Leprion. We next come to the Promontory of Platanodes[2202]. All these localities lie to the west. CHAP. 7.—MESSENIA.