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108 The Peloponnese, the Isthmus, Achaea 12 THE PELOPONNESE, THE ISTHMUS, ACHAEA 51. THE PELOPONNESE is connected to Attica.208 It was once called the acropolis of all Greece. For in addition to the distinction and power of the peoples who inhabit it, its very topography marks it out for hegemony and power. It contains many gulfs and many capes as well as large and remarkable peninsulas, which are delightful for their variety. Its shape has been said to resemble the leaf of a plane tree, being almost equal in length and breadth. From west to east, it measures one thousand four hundred stades; according to Polybius, its perimeter or circumference, if one omits the gulfs,209 amounts to four thousand stades. Artemidorus adds four hundred more to this, and Pliny seems to agree with him, following the authority of Isidore.210 The same writer says that the land is encircled by two seas: the Ionian and the Aegean. 52. The narrow neck of land where it begins is called the Isthmus , which is five miles wide. King Demetrius, the dictator Caesar, the emperor Gaius, and Domitius Nero attempted to dig a channel through this strip—an ill-starred enterprise, as the fate of them all revealed.211 Here was located the famous colony of Corinth. After the power of the Turks penetrated into Europe, the Greek leaders ran a wall across the strip from sea to sea and sundered the Peloponnese from the rest of Greece; they called the wall the Hexamilion .212 Today, the Latins call this country [i.e., the Peloponnese] the Morea. It includes Achaea, Messenia, Laconia, the Argolid, and 208. The following paragraph is a paraphrase of Strabo, Geography, 8.1.3–8.2.1. 209. Reading sinibus for van Heck’s finibus. 210. Pliny, Natural History, 4.9. 211. Demetrius Poliorcetes (d. 283 BCE), son of Antigonus, the king of Macedonia, and Stratonice; Julius Caesar (d. 44 BCE); Gaius, also known as Caligula (r. 37–41 CE); Nero (Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus) (r. 54–68 CE). See Pliny, Natural History, 4.9. 212. The Hexamilion (“Six Mile Wall”) was built in 1415 by Emperor Manuel II Paleologus . The Peloponnese, the Isthmus, Achaea 109 Arcadia, which occupies the center of the peninsula. When Murad had sacked Thessalonica and subdued Boeotia and Attica (except for Athens), he marched as far as the Hexamilion and, to the consternation of the Greeks, demolished the wall and imposed an annual tribute on the Peloponnesians when they surrendered.213 But when the Hungarians were persuaded to take up arms against the Turks by Cardinal Giuliano Cesarini, and, having succeeded in a few battles, began to bring more pressure to bear on the enemy, Constantine, the despot of this country, who, as I described previously , later reigned as emperor in Constantinople and there met his death,214 was emboldened to deny tribute to the Turks and to rebuild the Hexamilion. For this he was fined a large sum, and the Hexamilion was destroyed again.215 53. When Murad had defeated and destroyed the Hungarians at Varna and Constantinople had fallen, the Albanians, a large number of whom then inhabited the Peloponnese, took up arms and strove to depose Constantine’s brothers—Demetrius and Thomas —and raise a minor Greek nobleman to the rank of king.216 Both sides begged for the help of Mehmed, to whom the nobler side seemed more deserving; he therefore supplied Demetrius and his brother with reinforcements to use against the Albanians. The Albanians were suppressed, submitted to their former masters, and paid a tribute of fifteen thousand gold pieces to Mehmed.217 213. The first destruction of the Hexamilion and attacks in the Peloponnese took place in 1423; here Aeneas refers to Murad’s second destruction of the wall in 1431; see Setton, Papacy and Levant, vol. 2: 96. 214. See paras. 36–39. 215. Constantine Paleologus rebuilt the Hexamilion in 1443 when he became Despot of the Morea; the wall was destroyed by Murad II’s cannon in 1446 and the Morea was again ravaged. It is estimated that 60,000 people were carried off in the raids; see George Ostrogorsky, History of the Byzantine State, trans. Joan Hussey (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, Revised Edition, 1969), 567. 216. This revolt occurred in 1453 over a tax increase. Manuel Cantacuzenus, a great grandson of Emperor John VI, became their leader; see Fine, LMB, 564. 217. This occurred in 1454. Aeneas fails to mention that the...

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