260 climate and geography: Rome of Corcyra, modern Corfu, was especially prosperous Its active trade to the east and west, combined with its high rainfall, led it to have the densest population of any area in ancient Greece Corcyra was the site of a vicious civil war during the 430s b.c.e that was one of the sparks which ignited the confl ict between Athens and Sparta known as the Peloponnesian War The other islands of this area share similar characteristics They are rocky and good for grazing, with easy access to the mainland, close by to the east Ithaca was said to be home of Homer’s hero Odysseus, though a precise identification between the real island and its poetic counterpart is impossible Cephallenia was famous in antiquity for its pine forests, of which nothing remains today THE AEGEAN ISLANDS The islands of the Aegean were even more inviting to settlement, combining the most attractive elements of the Mediterranean climate, the diversity of mountains and coastal plains in close proximity, with easy access abroad by sea Aegina at the mouth of the Saronic Gulf, controlling access to the Argolid in the Peloponnese, Corinth on the Isthmus, and Megara and Attica on the mainland, was an early power until it came under Athenian control in the sixth century b.c.e The long island of Euboea, very close off the eastern coast of the mainland, was another early power in the Greek world During the eighth century b.c.e the cities of Lefkandi and Eretria sent out trade and settlements as far as Asia Minor and Sicily By the Classical Period, however, Euboea had receded in importance after the rise of cities like Athens and Thebes The group of islands known as the Cyclades, because they form an uneven circle at the south end of the Aegean, is actually a continuation of the mountain range that runs down Euboea and across Attica The islands of Naxos, Páros, Ándros, Delos, Syros, and Melos all possessed rich quarries of stone (which could be transported by sea much more easily than stone from landlocked quarries) as well as gold and silver The islands’ position in the path of trade between Greece, Asia, and Egypt ensured their prosperity The island of Thera (modern Santorini) was the site of prosperous settlement during the Bronze Age but was largely destroyed by a volcanic explosion during the 15th century b.c.e., an event, with the inevitable earthquakes and tsunamis radiating from it, to which many scholars point as the cause of the decline of Minoan civilization South of the Peloponnese the islands of Cythera and Anticythera form stepping stones from the Greek peninsula to the large island of Crete Ships sailing from Greece could reach Crete without ever leaving sight of land, and Crete’s coastline offers many safe harbors on the north side The same is not true south of Crete; the island’s southern shore is much less convoluted, and there are no islands for almost 200 miles southward toward the shores of Egypt and Libya Crete, then, was unified with the Greek world not only in climate but in culture and was the site of the earliest civili- zation of people speaking a language recognizable as Greek Crete was legendary in antiquity as the home of King Minos, who was said to have ruled over a maritime empire and extracted tribute from Athens It was for Minos that the Athenian inventor Daedalus built the labyrinth at Knossos THE ISLANDS OF THE ASIAN COAST East and north from Crete the islands of Kasos and Carpathus form two more stepping stones toward the large island of Rhodes, which is within sight of the mainland of Asia Minor, near what is now southwestern Turkey, and was the territory of Caria in antiquity Caria, and the city of Halicarnassus, was the birthplace of the historian Herodotus, who came to Athens to compose his ethnographic account of the peoples of the Greek world and the conflict between the Greeks and the Persians Along the coast of Asia Minor, in the eastern Aegean, were the large, prosperous, and often powerful islands of Lesbos and Chios These were prosperous in agricultural products and in culture, enjoying their ethnic relationship with the Greeks of the mainland and constant contact with the many peoples of Asia The deforestation noted in antiquity was not the only significant factor changing the ecology and environment of the Greek world since antiquity Under Byzantine and Turkish rule, cultivation of both grapes and olives increased, since these were valuable export crops during the period of Roman rule and afterward Both of these crops have deep taproots that little to hold soil in place The practice of polyculture, planting other crops amid the vines and olive trees, held erosion at bay for a time but increased grazing of goats among vineyards and orchards led to the loss of a vast amount of rich topsoil The dry, rocky landscape of exposed limestone evident in Greece today would have seemed very unfamiliar to a Greek of the sixth century b.c.e Erosion also caused the silting up of the mouths of rivers, and erosion from southern Russia, into the Black Sea and thence into the Aegean, has altered coastlines The city of Pella, Alexander the Great’s capital in Macedonia, used to be accessible by boat from the Mediterranean but today is shallow and choked with boulders A modern visitor to Thermopylae, to take another example, might wonder why this place was called a pass Today the sea is several miles from the old coastal road while in the fift h century b.c.e waves would have broken at the base of the roadbed ROME BY AMY HACKNEY BLACKWELL The location of Rome combined a pleasant climate with good soil and other important advantages The city was built on the Tiber River where it met with the smaller Anio (Aniene) River Situated near the center of the Italian peninsula and close to the Adriatic coast, Rome was well placed to control both the peninsula and, ultimately, the lands surrounding the Mediterranean