The termOld Greece (Ancient Greek:Παλαιά Ἑλλάς,Greek:Παλαιά Ελλάδα) is a geographical, cultural, and political term used at different times for southern and predominantly mainlandGreece.
In Classical studies, "Old Greece" is the area of Greece defined as the core of theancient Greek world by the 2nd-century geographerPausanias in hisDescription of Greece. It comprises thePeloponnese and the eastern part ofCentral Greece, includingAttica, but excluding the islands, thus largely corresponding with the area controlled by the majorcity-states in the mainland ofClassical Greece, e.g.,Athens,Sparta,Thebes. It roughly corresponds to theRoman province ofAchaea.[1]
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Inmodern Greek history, the term "Old Greece" refers to theKingdom of Greece before theBalkan Wars of 1912–1913, including the Peloponnese, all of Central Greece, and theCyclades, whichformed the initial independent Greek state in 1832; theIonian Islands,annexed in 1864; andThessaly and the part ofEpirusannexed in 1881. The territories acquired during and after the Balkan Wars—in Epirus,Macedonia andThrace, as well asCrete and the eastern Aegean islands—are known as the "New Territories" or "New Lands" (Νέαι Χῶραι).[2] This division became entrenched in cultural and political affiliations during theNational Schism between KingConstantine I and the liberal politicianEleftherios Venizelos: in "Old Greece" a traditionalclientelist party system was entrenched and the population was largely pro-monarchist, whereas the "New Lands", annexed under Venizelos' tenure as prime minister and associated with hisirredentist foreign policy, were pro-Venizelist.[3]
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