Concerning the ancient Treasury near Vafió here mentioned, Mr. Mure states as follows: “The name Baphió was marked on my map, so that I had no great difficulty in finding the site of the ‘Treasury’ about a mile to the south of the tower. It is, like that of Mycenæ, a tumulus, with an interior vault entered by a door on one side, the access to which was pierced horizontally through the slope of the hill. Its situation on the summit of a knoll, itself of rather conical form, while it increases the apparent size of the tumulus, adds much to its general loftiness and grandeur of effect. The roof of the vault, with the greater part of its material, is now gone, its shape being represented by a round cavity or crater on the summit of the tumulus: Count Capo d'Istria enjoys the credit of its destruction. The doorway is still entire: it is six feet wide at its upper and narrower part. The stone lintel is 15 feet in length. The vault itself was probably between 30 and 40 feet in diameter.”

It is surprising that the French Surveyors have given no description or drawing of this singular monument. M. Boblaye says no more than, “On indique dans la plaine des mines aux villages de Vaphió et de Marmália; nous avons vu des tumulus très-remarquables bordant la rive droite de l'Eurotas au sud de ces deux villages, ils renferment, dit-on, des tombeaux tels que ceux de Mycènes.”

Bishop Thirlwall, in his History of Greece, disapproves of the assertion here made, that the site for the new city of Megalopolis was chosen by Epaminondas. Undoubtedly it rests upon the authority of Pausanias alone, who, in stating that Epaminondas was the οἰκιστὴς or founder both of Messene and Megalopolis, and that he selected the site for Messene, leads naturally to the inference that the site of Megalopolis was also chosen by him. There would at least be some difficulty in conceiving that it could have been determined without his approbation, which, under the circumstances, was nearly the same thing as selecting the situation. As the greatest master of the art of war then living, he was the first to be consulted on such a question. The Arcadian confederacy, with its accompaniment, the formation of a new city, if not a measure originating with him, was supported by his authority, which, at that moment, was supreme: the opposition of some of the Arcadians made only his immediate interference the more necessary; and he was so zealous in the prosecution of these designs, that he supplied 1000 Thebans to protect the Arcadians, while employed in building the walls, from interruption by the Lacedæmonians.

The following pages contain a series of questions of ancient history and geography, supplemental to “Travels in the Moréa,” which have arisen since the publication of that work, chiefly in consequence of the increased facilities given to the examination of the Peloponnesus by its liberation from the Turkish yoke.

The opportunity afforded by that event was eagerly embraced by the French Government,—under all its forms a liberal promoter of the advancement of science. In the year 1829, a numerous and select Commission of Geography, Natural History, and Archæology, was sent to the Peloponnesus, and there employed during two years, under the dangers and difficulties of an ungenial climate, and a country desolated by the effects of one of the most cruel wars recorded in history. The most important result of these labours has been a map, on a scale of the two hundred thousandth part of a degree of latitude, or twenty-one English inches and three-fifths. That which accompanies the present volume has been reduced from the French map on a scale of something more than a third, but not without some variations, a few of which will find their justification in the occasional strictures on the French map made by M. Bory de St. Vincent, Colonel d'Etat Major, and Head of the Commission of Physical Science.