Chapter VIII: Commerce of Doric States

On the commerce of Greece, which would supply materials for an interesting work, it is not my design to enter into very numerous details, though a brief view of the subject belongs to this undertaking. The blessings of commerce are well understood in our times, and the grand scale upon which it is now conducted may perhaps induce some to look back with something like contempt on its feeble beginnings in the Mediterranean.[1465] There, however, lay the centre of that circle which has gone on increasing until it at length embraces the whole world, and almost renders the most distant races necessary to each other. It must be interesting, therefore, to look

“O’er the dark backward and abysm of time,”

at the first movements of men towards forging the links of this chain which binds together the whole human race in one society, disturbed sometimes by evil passions, but cohering nevertheless, and apparently becoming more interfused daily.

-----

Footnote 1465:

The reader will find in the work of Monsieur F. Thiersch, De l’Etat
actuel de la Grèce, t. ii. p. 72, sqq., an interesting and instructive
chapter on the trade carried on by the descendants of that people
whose manners and customs I have undertaken to describe. He there
enters at length into the advantageous position of the country, and
the upright and honourable character of its inhabitants, of whose
singular probity he produces many proofs. Other writers have taken a
different view of the modern Greek character. But I am disposed to
place more reliance on the statement of M. Thiersch than on that of
those prejudiced travellers who desire to obtain a reputation for
exactness by an ill-natured interpretation of a free people whose
hospitality they have enjoyed, and in too many cases abused.

-----

In this movement there were, doubtless, several nations that preceded the Greeks. The civilisation of the East existing anterior to that of Greece, it was the Orientals who made the first step towards opening up that intercourse which afterwards became so intimate between the inhabitants of Hellas and the Arabs of Phœnicia, the Egyptians, the Persians, and other nations of the East. At first, indeed, the camel,[1466] that important instrument of human improvement, revealed to the rude tribes bordering on Arabia, the existence of wants within them, of which they before knew nothing. He came with sweets and luxuries on his back to the hamlet or the encampment, and by the sight of them created desires, to gratify which the aid of industry was to be called in. At a very early age strings of camels, laden with perfumes and spices, and gold, traversed the plains of western Asia, ascended and descended along the Nile, penetrated the northern coasts of Africa, and, by barter and traffic, diffused the productions of the East much further even than their own footsteps reached, as now the manufactures of England find their way into the countries never beheld by an Englishman.

-----

Footnote 1466:

See a picture of this beast and his baskets, Antich. di Ercol. t. v.
p. 5. In the book of Genesis, chap. xxxvii. v. 25, we find a brief
picture of the commerce carried on by means of this animal, and an
enumeration of some of the principal commodities which he bore from
country to country. “And they (the sons of Jacob) sat down to eat
bread: and they lifted up their eyes, and looked, and, behold, a
company of Ishmaelites came from Gilead, with their camels bearing
spicery and balm and myrrh, going to carry it down to Egypt.”

-----

Presently the blue and beautiful waters of the Mediterranean tempted the adventurous Arabs who had settled in Phœnicia, the country of the palm-tree, to launch their barks on it, and push from isle to isle till they found themselves in Hellas, where the beauty of the women occasionally, perhaps, when they were not to be enticed away, may have tempted an adventurer[1467] to remain as other Arabs have done in every land whither they have wandered.[1468] This, I am persuaded, is all that can be conceded to those who see so many proofs of Oriental colonies in Greece. But though the Orientals did not colonize Greece, they no doubt aided very powerfully in civilizing it. For when the rude natives saw that there were many desirable things to be obtained from the strangers if they could give them any thing valuable in return, it must have set their wits at work to invent new means of obtaining the things they coveted. At the outset it was a rough system of barter. The Phœnicians took the produce of the country in exchange for their merchandise, and secured their own success by awakening an appetite for pleasures which they alone could furnish.

-----

Footnote 1467:

This is, moreover, the common opinion. Thus Dionysios (Perieg. v. 907,
seq.)

—πρῶτοι νήεσσιν ἐπειρήσαντο θαλάσσης,
Πρῶτοι δ᾽ ἐμπορίης ἁλιδινέος ἐμνήσαντο.

They first in ships the billowy ocean tried,
And first sea-wandering commerce gave to man.

On this account Cicero observes: “Eos primos mercatores mercibus suis
avaritiam, magnificentiam et inexplebiles cupiditates primum in
Græciam intulisse.” De Rep. fr. l. 111. ap. Feith, Antiq. Hom. ii. 10.
1.

Footnote 1468:

Some such event as this is no doubt alluded to in the story of Cadmos.

-----

However, tradition has preserved evident traces of voyages of discovery and commercial adventure undertaken by the Greeks[1469] themselves, in imitation of the Phœnicians,—for, into this the Argonautic expedition, in what direction soever it proceeded, resolves itself, in fact. The Greeks possessed manufactures, ships, commerce, and, as a consequence, considerable wealth, long before the birth of history, a circumstance which goes far to overthrow the wild theories of certain modern scholars respecting the Iliad and Odyssey; for, if the Greeks had constant dealings with nations who were indisputably in possession of the art of writing, with abundant materials, they must have been the slowest and most stupid of mankind if they neglected to imitate those nations. Besides, the Phœnicians would be as ready to supply them with paper, parchment, and whatever else they wrote on, as with any other articles of commerce, and must have desired to awaken in them the wish to consume what they were deeply interested in supplying. Thus, if the Phœnicians and Egyptians understood the art of writing, as from the sacred Scriptures we know they did, it is all but impossible that the Greeks should have remained ignorant of it.

-----

Footnote 1469:

Apollodoros, recounting the exploits of the Argonauts, mentions
incidentally a curious particular respecting the women of Lemnos, who,
he says, were deserted by their husbands on account of the ill odour
they exhaled. Their places were supplied by female slaves from Thrace;
upon which, in revenge, they murdered all the men in the island, with
the exception of Thoas, who was saved by his daughter, Hypsipyle.
Biblioth. i. 9. 17. Cf. Pind. Pyth. iv. 159, sqq. ed. Dissen. whose
commentary may be consulted, t. ii. p. 235.

Homer, of course, supplies the best account we can possess of Grecian commerce in remote antiquity, though it had been carried on ages before his time. Mariners, in the Odyssey, obtain the name of πρηκτῆρες, or “merchants,” and are elsewhere said to plough the seas, ἐπὶ πρῆξιν καὶ χρήματα,—“for traffic and gain.”[1470] The most celebrated mariners known to Homer were the Phœnicians, whom he therefore terms,

Ναυσίκλυτοι ἄνδρες
Τρῶκται, μυρί᾽ ἄγοντες ἀθύρματα νηῒ μελαίνῃ.[1471]

Famous mariners,
Roguish, numerous trinkets bringing in black ships.

Footnote 1470:

Odys. θ. 162. Hymn. in Apoll. 397.

Footnote 1471:

Odyss. ο. 414, seq.

That from the beginning, moreover, they obtained celebrity for their piratical arts, the story of Eunæos, in the Odyssey, and the rape of Io, as related by Herodotus,[1472] clearly show. Nay, Thucydides himself, in a recapitulation of the ancient history of Greece, observes that the islanders, chiefly Carians and Phœnicians, were no less renowned than their neighbours for piracy.[1473] The Phœnicians, however, would appear to have led the way, and, probably, by their successes excited the emulation of the Carians, who drove them from the island, and adopted the business of piracy in their stead.[1474]

Footnote 1472:

L. i. c. 2. See, also, Philost. Vit. Apollon. iii. 24. p. 114.

Footnote 1473:

Thucyd. i. 8. Tournefort, Voyage, i. 154. The Phocians, also, about
the time when they founded Marseilles, distinguished themselves at
once by their mercantile and piratical habits. Namque Phocenses
exiguitate ac macie terræ coacti studiosius mare quam terras
exercuêre: piscando, mercando plerumque etiam latrocinio maris quod
illi temporibus gloriæ habebatur, vitam tolerabant. Justin. 43. 3.

Footnote 1474:

Conon. Dieg. 47. ap. Phot. Cod. 141. a. 20. Hudson, ad Thucyd. t. i.
p. 302. See in Scheffer, De Re Militiâ Navali, Addenda, Lib. Prim. p.
313, a list of the nations who anciently exercised the piratical art.

-----

Though the value of the precious metals was already well understood, they had not been adopted as the sole instruments of exchange; for, from the often-cited passage of the Iliad,[1475] it is clear that the practice of barter still prevailed. The poet describes certain ships arriving at the Grecian camp with a cargo of wine from Lemnos, on which the chiefs and soldiers flock to the shore, and provide themselves with what they needed, some giving in exchange for it a quantity of brass, iron, skins; and others, oxen or slaves. Among the rustic population of Greece, if the poets may be relied on, the system of barter prevailed down to a very late period, since we find the goatherd, in Theocritus,[1476] giving a she-goat and a cheesecake for a pastoral cup. The Spartans, too, after the death of Polydoros, purchased his palace from the widow for a certain number of oxen; whence it was afterwards called βοώνητα,[1477] or “bought with oxen,” unless the legend was invented to account for the name. Pausanias, however, states as a reason for the transaction, that neither gold nor silver money was yet in use, but that things were disposed of after the ancient fashion of exchanging goods for their value in some other article,—oxen, slaves, or gold or silver in ingots. He adds, in illustration, that the Indians, even in his age, were ignorant of the use of money, though abounding with the precious metals, and used to barter their own manufactures for the merchandise brought by the Greeks: besides, at Sparta, there was a law, attributed to Lycurgos, which prescribed barter in lieu of purchase and sale.[1478]

-----

Footnote 1475:

Il. η. 472, sqq. Cf. Plin. Hist. Nat. xxxiii. 1.

Footnote 1476:

Eidyll. i. 57, seq. where, for τυρόεντα, both Porson and Kiessling
propose τυρῶντα. Ἄρτον τυρῶντα occurs in a fragment of Sophron. ap.
Athen. iii. 75.

Footnote 1477:

Paus. iii. 12. 1-3.

Footnote 1478:

Justin, iii. 2.

-----

From a passage in the Iliad, which would seem to signify the direct contrary, it has been inferred, that the use of money in commerce was known among the Greeks in the Homeric age. Speaking of the exchange of armour, between Glaucos and Diomedes, the poet says:

Χρύσεα χαλκείων, ἑκατόμβοι ἐννεαβοίων.[1479]

Gold armour for brazen, a hundred-ox value for nine.

-----

Footnote 1479:

Il. ζ. 236.

An ancient scholiast on the passage understands by βοῦς a piece of money, stamped on one side with the figure of an ox, and on the other with that of a king.[1480] But one of the scholia published by Villoison, observes on the word ἑκατόμβοια, “worth a hundred oxen, for they did not as yet make use of money.” Another scholion,[1481] however, remarks, οἱ γὰρ Ἀθηναῖοι ἐν τοῖς ἐαυτῶν νομίσμασι βοῦν ἐνετύπουν. Pollux[1482] relates the same fact, observing that, in remote antiquity, the Athenians made use of a piece of money called βοῦς, because it had impressed upon it the figure of an ox, and that, by many, Homer was supposed to have alluded to this Attic coin in the verse above cited, “indocte,” however, as Heyne[1483] observes. Mention of a fine called δεκάβοιον occurred, according to Pollux, in the laws of Dracon; and in the procession (θεωρία) to Delos, the herald used to proclaim when a certain prize was given, that so many oxen were bestowed on such a one. The value of the coin was two didrachmæ, so that the Bous was simply a _didrachma_.[1484] The ox was stamped by the Athenians on their coins as the symbol of peace and abundance.[1485]

Footnote 1480:

Ap. Feith, Antiq. Hom. ii. 10. 3.

Footnote 1481:

Tom. i. p. 188. ed. Bekk.

Footnote 1482:

Onomast. ix. 60.

Footnote 1483:

Ad Il. t. iv. p. 238. He remarks, that Arist. Ethic. v. 11,
quotes this verse on showing that no man can be injured
voluntarily—ἀδικεῖσθαι ἑκούσιον. That it became a proverb may be
inferred from Cicero, ad Ath. vi. 1.

Footnote 1484:

Διδραχμον· τὸ δ`ε παλαιὸν τοῦτο ἦν Αθ᾿ηναῖοις νόμισμα καὶ ἐκαλεῖτο
βοῦς, ὅτι βοῦν εἶχεν ἐντετυπωμένον Pollux. ix. 60.

Footnote 1485:

Spanheim, de Præstantia et Usu Numismatum Antiquorum, p. 129, 267.

-----

Plutarch[1486] assigns, by conjecture, two reasons; first, that Theseus, whom he regards as its inventor, may have meant by the figure of the ox to recall the memory of Minos’s general Tauros; or, second, because he wished to turn the mind of the citizens to agriculture.

-----

Footnote 1486:

Thes. § 25. Cf. Goguet, t. iv. p. 228.

-----

The talent of gold is mentioned more than once by Homer;[1487] but we are not to imagine with Feith[1488] that there was a piece of money so called, though in the case of Homer he supposes it to signify a certain weight of gold, and not a coin. Modern critics get over all difficulties in the usual way by pronouncing the passage spurious.[1489] No doubt the people of those early times did not greatly abound in wealth, which, arising from the assiduous cultivation of the useful arts, could not be plentiful where these arts were scarcely at all known. Even tyrants, who always contrive to obtain their share of whatever riches exist in their country, were long after the Homeric age possessed of but little wealth, any more than their people.[1490] Money, however, does not constitute opulence. There was a rude plenty of all the necessaries of life, and as the secret representative of wealth had not been invented, men sought to possess the realities,—herds of oxen, flocks of sheep, lands, houses, and splendid apparel. Fine studs of horses, also, were naturally desired, being at once useful in war, and showy in peace.[1491]

-----

Footnote 1487:

Il. ι. 122. 264. σ. 507, sqq. Cf. Herod. i. 14. et Adnot. ad Ælian. i.
22. Goguet, iv. 229.

Footnote 1488:

Antiq. Homer. ii. 10. 3.

Footnote 1489:

Heyne, ad Il. σ. 507, who observes, justly no doubt, that we are
ignorant what the Homeric talent weighed. Cf. Serv. ad Æneid. v. 112.

Footnote 1490:

Herod. viii. 137.

Footnote 1491:

Hymn. in Herm. 400. Pausan. iv. 3. 6.

-----

We observe in these ages, however, as well as in all others, that men no sooner enjoyed the necessaries than they desired the luxuries and ornaments of life. In several countries bordering upon the Mediterranean, there was already great magnificence displayed. The kings of Midian, for example, wore purple garments, golden earrings, and jewelled collars; their camels, moreover, were covered with costly trimmings and ornaments of gold.[1492]

-----

Footnote 1492:

Judges, viii. 21, sqq.

-----

Of the internal commerce of Greece, in the earlier ages, little, comparatively, is known. Goguet[1493] appears to suppose, that hardly any traffic can be carried on without the aid of sumpter animals, such as camels, mules, or asses. But the natives of Canara[1494] drive a pretty thriving trade, though nearly every article of merchandise is transported on men’s heads. In Greece, however, the use of vehicles was very ancient, its origin being lost in fable.[1495] Boats, canoes, &c., came early into vogue also; and yet Thucydides relates, that the intercourse of the rural tribes of the Hellenes was for many ages so slight as scarcely to merit attention. Bad roads, the absence of inns, the want of a police, the great number of robbers, were great obstacles; but the very existence of robbers attests the fact, that attempts were constantly made to extend inland commerce, though it may have been long before it was established on a solid basis.

-----

Footnote 1493:

Origine de Loix, t. iv. p. 204.

Footnote 1494:

Buchanan, Journey through the Mysore, ii. p. 347. Hindoos, i. p. 44.

Footnote 1495:

Ælian. iii. 38.

-----

Descending towards the historical periods we find the Æginetans first distinguishing themselves as a commercial people. Their history, as far as ancient fragments supply it, has been composed by a modern scholar[1496] of eminence, whose researches must prove of the utmost utility to all succeeding inquirers. This people, living on a small and nearly barren island, early directed their attention to the arts, to the various processes of industry, and to commerce, the only employment suited to the nature of their soil. Too much stress has, perhaps, been laid on the situation of Ægina, which will not at all explain the commercial turn of its inhabitants, since Crete, with more abundant means, and possibly a better situation, was never very remarkable as a trading country. However, poverty and a good position combined with the genius of the people to render them commercial. They enjoyed still fewer advantages in the matter of soil even than Attica; their lands were of little value; they could neither become hunters nor shepherds; nor could even the most slender population subsist on the produce of the mines. Fishing they, probably, tried at the outset, as well as piracy, but, finding that neither led to opulence, they adopted the mercantile life; for which reason they have, with much ingenuity, been termed the Phœnicians of Greece,[1497] though no colonies from Phœnicia ever settled in their island. The Æginetæ were already famous, however, from remote antiquity, as mariners, and, in the course of time, converted their whole island into an emporium.[1498]

-----

Footnote 1496:

Müller, in his Æginetica. See on the subject of Commerce and Industry,
c. iii. 74, sqq. And compare the account of Coronelli, Mémoires, &c.,
p. 187, sqq.

Footnote 1497:

By Müller, Æginetica, iii. p. 74.

Footnote 1498:

See Michaelo d’ Jorio, Storia del Commercio, i. 225, seq. and
Caryophilus de Mercatura Veterum.

-----

On the antiquity of the Æginetan trade a very curious passage occurs in Pausanias. This writer relates, that, in the time of Pompos, king of Arcadia, who flourished during the second century before the first Olympiad, Æginetan ships landed at Cyllenè, the great harbour of Elis, whence they transported their merchandise, on strings of sumpter animals, to Arcadia. The king was so much pleased with them on this account, that he named his son Æginetes, in remembrance of their traffic.[1499] It was about this period that the Greeks first began to trade in their own bottoms, and to possess merchandise of their own. It has been observed, that in Homer the word ἔμπορος never signifies merchant, and that where mention of real merchants occurs they are always barbarians, or semi-barbarians,[1500] Phœnicians, Cretans, Tyrsenians, Lemnians, Taphians, or Phæacians.[1501] No Achaian or Argive is found who derived his subsistence from commerce, though there seem to be passages from which the contrary may be inferred. But in Hesiod, who lived later, and describes more homely scenes and manners, we find commerce already spoken of as a profitable employment.[1502]

-----

Footnote 1499:

Pausan. viii. 5. 5.

Footnote 1500:

Hom. Hymn. in Dionys. 8.

Footnote 1501:

Müller, Æginetica, p. 75.

Footnote 1502:

Opp. et Dies, 644.

-----

Originally, the Æginetans were led by their piratical propensities to apply themselves to maritime affairs; finding, no doubt, that robbery was an easier and more agreeable profession than any modification of industry, particularly as in those tolerant ages there was no disgrace, but the contrary, attached to it, when exercised against men of a different class. These worthy islanders, however, were impartial in their rapine. For, no sooner had they thrown off the yoke of the Epidaurians, than they made incursions[1503] into their mother country, which they soon extended to the coasts of Attica; and they were, probably, the buccaneers against whom the tyrant Hippias fitted out a fleet.[1504] Afterwards, forming an alliance with the Thebans, they plundered and devastated all the maritime towns of Attica, and even lay in ambush to intercept the sacred galley on its way to Delos.

-----

Footnote 1503:

It was owing to such piratical descents that the early inhabitants of
Greece, for the most part, erected their towns and villages at some
distance from the sea-coast, in situations difficult of access.
Thucyd. § 7. Similar reasons have elsewhere led in modern times to
similar results. Thus, in Alicuda, the remotest and most exposed of
the Lipari islands, the dwellings of their simple natives and their
priests are perched high in the hills among rocks and steep
acclivities, through fear of the Barbary corsairs, who, from time to
time, land there, and carry away into captivity whomsoever they are
able to seize and subdue. Further, to guard against these incursions,
a sentinel is stationed on the Monte della Guardia, in the principal
isle, where he keeps watch day and night. Spallanzani, Travels in the
Two Sicilies, iv. 140, sqq. We have here a picture which carries back
the imagination to the most barbarous ages of Grecian history.

Footnote 1504:

Æginetica, p. 76.

-----

Having been restored to their country, after the Peloponnesian war, they resumed their plundering habits, and obtained from the Spartan Ephori permission to infest the Attic coasts, which they frequently did in times of profound peace. Their taste for piracy was lasting. In the age of Demosthenes their island was a nest of pirates, and a fair for the sale of their plunder, which it continued for many centuries after.[1505]

-----

Footnote 1505:

Demosth. de Nicostrat. § 3.

-----

Reverting, however, to the trade of Ægina: its ancient traffic with Arcadia was marked by many curious circumstances. In the first place we must infer from it, as the historian of the island remarks, the existence of previous traffic elsewhere.[1506] For, if their merchandise consisted merely of raw materials, these must still have been procured from other lands; and, if of manufactured goods, then, in addition to the existence of a foreign trade to supply them with the raw articles, we must suppose in them the existence of considerable skill. Again, as Pompos, the Cypselid, probably reigned at Orchomenos, they must have been able to perform long voyages by sea, and long journeys by land; though we can account for their taking the dangerous route round capes Skylleion and Malea, and the mountainous roads from Eleia to Arcadia, in preference to the shorter way from Corinthia or Argolis, only by supposing them to have been driven to it by the rivalry of the Argives and Corinthians. It must be admitted to be honourable to their ingenuity thus to have opened up a road into Arcadia, which would seem to be shut out by nature from all commerce.

-----

Footnote 1506:

Æginetica, p. 77.

-----

With the Arcadians alone, however, could inland trade be carried on upon a large scale; among every other Hellenic people possessing sea-coasts and harbours, it degenerated into mere peddling. Hence, the Æginetans obtained the character, once possessed in this country by the Scotch, of being a nation of pedlars—sometimes travelling from village to village, with their packs; at other times settling, like the Maltese of the present day, in towns on the coast of Greece, they became corn-chandlers, vintners, toymen, or victuallers, in established shops or stalls in the agora. Hence, all kinds of humble wares, or pedlary, obtained the appellation of Æginetan wares. Like the Jews, too, both they and the Cretans (noted liars, as St. Paul[1507] assures us) were regarded as skin-flints, and, in many cases, betook themselves to the practice of usury.[1508]

-----

Footnote 1507:

Epist. to Titus, i. 12, where he cites the testimony of Euripides,
though without naming him.

Footnote 1508:

Eustath. ad Il. β. p. 604. Hesych. v. Ἀιγιναῖα. Cf. Interp. i. 137.
Schol. Pind. Ol. viii. 26. Erasm. Adag. 71, 72.

-----

Frequently, however, they soared above these petty arts, and became merchants on a large scale, trading with distant lands and acquiring very great wealth. The entire island, in Strabo’s time, was regarded as an emporium; and, even so far back as the age of Aristotle, their whole marine was employed in commerce. In some cities, he says, nearly all the shipping is engaged in one kind of service; those of Byzantium and Tarentum in the fisheries; those of Athens in war; those of Chios and Ægina as merchantmen; and those of Tenedos as transports.[1509] It has been conjectured, not without reason, that Sostratos, the son of Leodamos, celebrated by Herodotus for his riches, was a merchant. “The Samians,” says this historian, “induced by divine command to undertake the voyage of Tartessos, brought home with them greater wealth (sixty talents) than any other Greeks ever gained by trade, if we except Sostratos, with whom no one can contend in opulence.[1510]”

-----

Footnote 1509:

Polit. iv. 4. 1.

Footnote 1510:

Herod. iv. 152. Cf. Bœckh, Pub. Econ. of Athens, i. 9.

-----

But the Æginetans also engaged in foreign trade, sending ships to Tartessos towards the west, and to the Black Sea towards the east. It is related, for example, that when Xerxes was at Abydos, he saw merchantmen sailing down the Dardanelles with corn for Ægina and the Peloponnesos,[1511] which were stopped by his fleet with the design of taking both ships and men. But when Xerxes learned they were bound for Greece, he dismissed them, considering the corn as so much provision for his own army, which, he doubted not, would be able to subjugate the whole country. From which Müller conjectures, but without reason, that the great corn markets of the Black Sea were at that time exclusively in the hands of the Æginetans; though afterwards, during the Peloponnesian war, when Ægina fell, they passed over to the Athenians. The reason “that the Æginetans stood so much in need of the supply, that they would not have endured a rival,” could only hold good if they had the power to command a monopoly, which, for any length of time at least, is highly improbable, since although they are said to have been masters of the sea about the age of Darius Hystaspes,[1512] their domination was extremely short-lived.[1513] It would seem, however, that they were at that time in the habit of supplying the Peloponnesos with grain. Slaves they imported both from Pontos and from Crete, and it is doubtful whence they obtained the greater number. A large proportion of their exports found their way into Crete, where they had established a colony at Cydonia. Besides lying one day’s sail distant from the Peloponnesos, and that of a day and a night from Africa, this great island formed an excellent midway station between Ægina and the mouth of the Nile.

-----

Footnote 1511:

Herod. vii. 147. Polyæn. Stratag. vii. 15. 3.

Footnote 1512:

Perizon. ad Æl. xii. 10. Gog. v. 302.

Footnote 1513:

The jealousy excited in antiquity by the Æginetæ, was, in the
seventeenth century, inspired into all the maritime states of Europe
by the Dutch, who somewhat resembled those hardy and unscrupulous
islanders. Observe the ingenuous alarms of our countryman, Sir Josiah
Child, whose studies had evidently carried him beyond the
counting-house,—“I think no true Englishman will deny that the season
cries aloud to us to be up and doing, before our fields become
unoccupied, and before the Dutch get too much the whip-hand of us,
whom (in such a case, were they freed from their French fears which
they labour under at present) I fear we should find as severe
task-masters as ever the Athenians were to the lesser trading cities
of Greece.” Discourse of Trade, Preface, p. 39.

-----

The port at which all the Greeks resided during their stay in Egypt was Naucratis in the Delta, which the Pharaohs granted them in the same way as the Chinese emperors now do Canton to the Europeans, as their only abode. Here, by permission of Amasis, such Greeks as merely traded with Egypt built altars and erected sacred enclosures in the neighbourhood of the city, though I vainly sought, when on the spot, to discover the slightest trace of them. The nine cities of Ionians, Dorians, and Æolians erected at their common expense a sacred edifice, which they called Hellenion. The Ionian cities were Chios, Teos, Phocea and Clazomenæ; the Dorian, Rhodes, Cnidos, Halicarnassos, and Phaselis; of the Æolian, Mitylene only. The Æginetans raised for their own use a temple to Zeus,—the Samians to Hera,—the Milesians to Apollo.[1514] At this time, however, Naucratis was the only harbour in Egypt; and as this was pretty generally known, ships making land anywhere else were naturally suspected of being pirates; for which reason the captain was required to swear that he had come hither involuntarily. This done, he was to steer from the Canopic mouth of the Nile; or, if the weather were contrary, his cargo was conveyed round the Delta in barides to Naucratis, which the historian[1515] understood to be done for the benefit of the foreign settlers, for so greatly, says he, was Naucratis honoured. At this time, one of the principal articles exported into Egypt by the Greeks would appear to have been wine, since all then drunk in the country was foreign, the vine not having been as yet introduced.

-----

Footnote 1514:

Herod. ii. 178.

Footnote 1515:

Hist. ii. 179. Müll. Æginet. p. 82.

-----

Of the trade of Sparta extremely little is known. In fact, until a comparatively late period, it appears to have been inconsiderable, and to have been conducted in the rudest manner possible. Each citizen, on receiving the proceeds of his lands, laid up in his storehouses what he judged sufficient for the consumption of the ensuing year, and disposed of the remainder in the Agora, not, it has been conjectured, for money, but by the ancient manner of barter.[1516] It is said that the Lacedæmonians exhibited much ingenuity in their mode of preserving the fruits of the earth; but in what that ingenuity consisted we are not informed. They were likewise noted for the care and order with which the implements of domestic economy were kept, so that everything was ready at hand when wanted.[1517] The fact that they had granaries on their estates, which were locked up and sealed, argues much greater connexion with the country, than they are supposed to have maintained; for had they never lived on those estates, it is not probable they would have left their property there, subject, as Mr. Müller[1518] thinks, to the conscientious visits of every poor man who might choose to out-hunt his provisions.

-----

Footnote 1516:

Müll. Dor. ii. 218.

Footnote 1517:

Aristot. Œcon. vi. 6. 11. p. 278, seq. Cf. Xen. Rep. Lac. vi. 3. 4.
Aristot. Pol. ii. 2. 5. Plut. Laced. Instit.

Footnote 1518:

Dorians, ii. 218.

-----

Money, we are incessantly told, was prohibited at Sparta; but, nevertheless, it seems to have been in constant use. It is affirmed, indeed, by a writer somewhat too prone to panegyric, that “it was employed more often as a medium of comparison than of exchange; small coins were chiefly used, and no value was attributed to the possession of large quantities.”[1519] But I do not see what is meant by employing money “as a medium of comparison;” and with regard to the value set on money by the Spartans, history incapacitates us for accepting the generous gloss of Mr. Müller. It is perhaps true that Lycurgos aimed at eradicating avarice from the Spartan breast, but, in the means to be adopted for that end, only showed his ignorance of human nature; since, though he might bring his vinegar-cooled iron medium of comparison into contempt, he could not thereby diminish the value of the things exchanged, that is of real wealth, which accordingly was estimated as highly at Sparta as elsewhere. Thus we see that poor men, not able to contribute their quota of provisions, were excluded from the common tables, which therefore resembled the hospitality and common tables of an inn,[1520]

Where the Red Lion staring o’er the way,
Invites each passing stranger—_that can pay_.

-----

Footnote 1519:

Müll. Dor. ii. 219. Bœckh. Econ. of Athen. ii. 389.

Footnote 1520:

Ἀναγκαῖον ἐν τῇ τοιαύτῃ πολιτείᾳ τιμᾶσθαι τὸν πλούτον, ἄλλως τε κἂν
τύχωσι γυναικοκρατούμενοι, καθάπερ τὰ πολλὰ τῶν στρατιωτικῶν καὶ
πολεμικῶν γενῶν. Aristot. Polit. ii. 9.

-----

The learned, with all their leaning towards scepticism, sometimes interpret too literally the language of authors in whom license and exaggeration are a merit. Thus Bœckh[1521] conceives “that, even in the time of the Trojan war, the precious metals were well known in the Peloponnesos,” because Homer describes Menelaus as possessed of both gold and silver.[1522] But the Achæan prince had travelled in the East, whence, according to the poet, he brought his gold, and it does not appear historically that the precious metals were “well known,” which extensive use only could render them, till some ages after the Trojan war. The Dorians, however, whatever may have been the case with the Achæans, long continued to be scantily supplied with the precious metals, which may be accounted for from their isolated mountainous country, want of industry, and aversion for all intercourse with strangers, without adopting the unphilosophical fancy, that they were instigated by a kind of argyrophobia strictly to prohibit the use of gold and silver.[1523] Conceiving that, by cutting his people off from human intercourse, he might render them more warlike, as dogs are made savage by chaining, Lycurgos, or whoever was the author of the Spartan constitution, may have desired to keep them poor, and therefore have prohibited commerce. But even in their own domestic traffic, the necessity of some instrument of exchange was soon perceived, and iron[1524] being as plentiful as gold and silver were scarce, he adopted the expedient of employing iron money. At first the metal was used in bars or spits (ὀβελοὶ, ὀβελίσκοι) which were stamped with some mark in the furnaces of Laconia, just as in other countries bars of silver or copper were used; “whence the obolos or _spit_ and the drachma or _handful_ received their names.”[1525]

-----

Footnote 1521:

Econ. of Athen. ii. 385.

Footnote 1522:

Od. δ. 80, sqq. 351, sqq. Cf. Strab. i. 2. p. 62.

Footnote 1523:

Which is Bœckh’s fancy. ii. 386.

Footnote 1524:

The people of Byzantium are said by some writers to have imitated the
Spartans in their numismatic taste, and like them to have used iron
money. Πλάτων Πεισάνδρῳ “χαλεπῶς ἂν οἰκησαίμεν ἐν Βυζαντίοις, ὅπου
σιδαρέοισι νομίσμασι χρῶνται.” Schol. Aristoph. Nub. 250.

Footnote 1525:

Bœckh, ii. 386. Plut. Lysand. § 17. See too the authorities quoted by
Bœckh. l. i. § 15.

-----

When the Argives, in the reign of Pheidon, abandoned the use of metallic bars, and began to coin money, the Spartans followed in their train, but still adhered to the use of iron, so that the coins which first proceeded from a Laconian mint, probably resembled quoits more than crown-pieces. Mr. Müller observes, but I know not on what authority, that the chief coin was called from its _shape_, and perhaps also from its _size_, πέλανορ, the cake used in sacrifices. If this was the case it must have been a coin of extraordinary conformation, for the _pelanos_ resembled, in figure, a bull, horns and all,[1526] and was habitually offered to Apollo, Artemis, the Moon, and Hecatè. This odd-looking piece of money was in value about four chalci or hemioboloi, that is, about three farthings. But such an unwieldy coinage, which, as tokens, might serve very well for the home currency, would be of no service abroad; so that when Sparta began to aim at foreign conquest, it found it necessary to set aside the ancient laws, and create a currency for effecting its purpose. A tribute was therefore imposed on the islands, and a contribution of a tenth was demanded from all those Greeks who acknowledged its supremacy.[1527]

-----

Footnote 1526:

Pollux. vi. 76.

Footnote 1527:

Bœckh, ii. 387. Without such a currency, Sparta, says Mr. Müller,
would have been unable to send ambassadors to foreign states, or to
take foreign mercenaries into pay. ii. 220.

-----

It seems, however, to have been intended by the legislator, that individuals should not possess gold and silver money; but the severity of the punishment[1528] awarded transgressors, instead of proving how strong the hold of this ancient custom (of being without money) was upon the Spartan mind, shows the direct contrary, for there is no necessity to be severe with men who obey from habit, but with those who evince a disposition to break through all restraint. Besides, the law seems to have permitted the use of the precious metals when wrought into ornaments or articles of furniture. Offerings of gold, such as the stars of the Dioscuri, were dedicated by the state at Delphi, and statues of gold and ivory, the works of native artists, were set up within the city about the period of the Persian war.[1529] A hundred years earlier, when the state desired to gild the face of Apollo, at Thornax, they travelled as far as Lydia[1530] in search of the necessary gold, which wholly disproves the assumption of Bœckh mentioned above.

-----

Footnote 1528:

See the remarks of Monsieur Bitaubè, in his “Dissertation sur La
Richesse de Sparte.” Nouveaux Mémoires de l’Acad. Roy. des Sciences et
des Belles Lettres, de Berlin, t. xxxvii. 560.

Footnote 1529:

Müller. Dor. iii. 2. 3.

Footnote 1530:

Herod. i. 69.

-----

But after all the learned researches of modern writers, this Spartan ordinance respecting the possession of money is surrounded by insurmountable difficulties. For Sparta, unquestionably, carried on some commerce, which it could not have done without possessing a coinage of universal currency; though Mr. Müller is not authorized to state, as he does, that there was a constant export of corn from Laconia and Arcadia downwards to the coast of Corinth, since the passage in Thucydides,[1531] on which he relies, merely relates in the words of the Corinthians, that unless they joined in the war against Athens in aid of the maritime states, they would find no market for the produce of their lands, (including corn, no doubt,) nor would they be able to import what they might stand in need of from abroad.[1532] However, so far back as the Persian war, the Peloponnesos did not produce corn sufficient for home consumption, since we find it importing it from the countries of the Black Sea. It is, therefore, extremely improbable that it should have done so in the time of the Peloponnesian war, when it had grown far more populous, so that possibly among the things which ἡ θάλασση τῇ ἠπείρῳ δίδωσι corn may have been included.

-----

Footnote 1531:

Book i. ch. iv. § 7.

Footnote 1532:

Thucyd. i. 120.

-----

It appears, therefore, that Sparta both exported and imported; but who were the agents? The state, which alone it is supposed possessed an available instrument of exchange, could not, it is argued, have carried on the trade. But wherefore? “Because it would have required a proportionate number of public officers.”[1533] Those officers, however, might easily have been found, and, therefore, this is no reason; and that no such officers existed, our knowledge of the government is too scanty to enable us to affirm. Accordingly, it does not follow from this that the trade “was in the hands of the Periœci.” However, if such was the case, the possession of a gold and silver coinage must have been permitted to them, which at once places the great majority of the free inhabitants of Laconia in precisely the same condition as other nations in this respect. Admitting this, it will be difficult to believe that their neighbours and acquaintances, the military and ruling class, would abstain from what they enjoyed. In fact, we cannot consent to believe, that such a state of things “could not have had much influence on the Spartans, since they had not any personal connexion with the Periœci, the latter being only tributary to the state.” The reverse of all this is true, as any one might know without any other testimony than his own experience. Our countrymen in India occupy the same position as the Dorians in the Peloponnesos, and for a short time kept much aloof from the natives. But personal intercourse became inevitable, and it would now be absurd to say, that the wealth of the Hindûs would exercise little influence on the English, supposing the latter to be poor and proud as the Spartans. The fact of the Periœci being tributary, which seems to be offered as a reason, is no reason at all. It were far better to confess our ignorance at once, than by a series of groundless conjectures, put forward with confidence, to create a semblance of knowledge. There does not appear to be any foundation for the statement, that none but iron money was used in the Spartan market, where the landlords and their serfs disposed of the produce of their lands. On the contrary, it seems probable, that as, in many cases, it must have been sold to the Periœci for exportation, (foreigners being excluded,) the landlords would receive gold and silver unminted, perhaps, to evade the law in return. Again, the kings of Sparta, it is evident, could possess gold and silver. This, history proves so clearly that Mr. Müller is constrained to confess it. And if the kings and the Periœci, nay, even the very Helots could amass and enjoy the precious metals, and the luxuries they purchase, it is too much to suppose that the masters of the kings, of the Periœci and all, would have dwelt in ascetic forbearance in the midst of so many temptations. Besides, we constantly find the Spartans in situations in which their iron money could be of no service to them. What, for example, could it have availed them at Olympia? Yet there they were, the men in person, the women by proxy, with their horses and their chariots, and every mark and indication of wealth.

-----

Footnote 1533:

Müller, iii. ch. x. § 10.

-----

But to men travelling beyond the borders money was allowed. This sum they might expend, or they might not. If they did not, were they searched on their return, and the surplus taken from them? Otherwise men would make journeys and accumulate cash in that way. Again, we are told, that great obstacles were placed in the way of foreign travel by the necessity of obtaining a passport along with the travelling expenses (ἐφόδια) from the magistrates or the king, and reference is made to Herodotus. But that historian in the passage referred to is speaking of king Demaratos, who being driven from the country by his mother’s bad character, takes what money he needs for his journey, and departs without asking leave of any one.[1534]

-----

Footnote 1534:

Herod. vi. 70.

-----

However, when straitened in circumstances individuals had sometimes recourse to the kings or to the state as to a bank; and that the thing was customary appears from the fact, that princes, in order to start with a popular measure, always upon their accession remitted the debts of the citizens both to themselves and to the state.[1535] On this occasion they destroyed all the bonds or instruments of mortgage (κλάρια), bringing them into the agora, and there piling them up into a heap and setting them on fire.[1536]

-----

Footnote 1535:

Id. vi. 69.

Footnote 1536:

Plut. Agis, § 13. But this was at a late period, when rich men and
usurers had monopolised all the wealth of Sparta.

-----

It is certain, therefore, and admitted even by Mr. Müller, that whatever may have been the intention of the original Spartan institutions, their severity was soon relaxed, and wealth with all its concomitants, introduced into the state. Even so far back as the ages before the Persian war, as we learn from the speech of Leutychides,[1537] at Athens, foreigners found no obstacle to prevent their bringing gold and silver to Sparta, where one of the most distinguished citizens undertook the keeping of a rich Milesian’s money, whose children he afterwards endeavoured to defraud. Could he have made no use of this money he would scarcely have desired to retain it. The share of the plunder accruing to Sparta in the Persian war was evidently not confined to the public coffers, though we may possibly allow that the Persian subsidies went to the defraying of national expenses.[1538] At all events certain it is that Sparta, about the time of Socrates, was by many regarded as the wealthiest state in Greece, and that not as a community, but individually, reckoning their estates in Messenia, the number of their slaves, Helots and others, their splendid studs, and vast droves of cattle. Nay, their wealth in gold and silver is particularly specified, with the additional remark, that for many ages the precious metals had been flowing into that country, both from Grecian and barbarian sources,[1539] but that no one had ever seen any flow out, an observation which Montesquieu,[1540] and others have applied without reflection, to Hindústân.

-----

Footnote 1537:

Herod, vi. 86.

Footnote 1538:

Müller, l. iii. ch. x. § 11.

Footnote 1539:

Plat. Alcib. i. t. v. p. 342, seq. This inferior production, with its
admiration of courts and eunuchs, cannot be Plato’s, but contains,
nevertheless, several curious facts. On the subject of Spartan wealth,
however, it perfectly agrees with Plato’s own opinion in the Hippias,
t. v. p. 414. Cf. Bitaubè, Sur la Richesse de Sparte. Nouveaux
Mémoires de l’Académie Royale des Sciences et des Belles Lettres, de
Berlin, xxxvii. 559.

Footnote 1540:

Esprit des Loix, xxi. 12.

-----

It exceeds our faith in human nature to believe, with Mr. Müller, that, in spite of these untoward circumstances, “the citizens maintained the same proud indigence.” History, in fact, renders inexcusable the belief in such virtue, though men occasionally arose at Sparta, as well as at Athens and elsewhere, who, with a stoical firmness, resisted the allurements of riches and pleasure. The greater number fell, and yielded themselves up with so much enthusiasm to the pursuit of gain, adding acre to acre and gold to gold, that from the Ephoralty of Epitadeus downwards, the city was infested with usurers, great capitalists, and extensive landed proprietors, who, by degrees, got into their hands the whole property of the country. Much less ingenuity than the Spartans possessed would, in fact, have enabled them to evade the old law, which seems to have immediately grown obsolete when the arts of rendering it powerless had been invented. They deposited their surplus wealth at Delphi, in Arcadia, and several other countries, so that if driven into exile,[1541] of which there was always a probability, they might be able to subsist in splendour in their new country.[1542] But these speculations sometimes failed; in the case of the Arcadians, the possession of the gold converted bankers into enemies, as, by picking a quarrel with the owners, they hoped to be able to defraud them.[1543] Lysander, though he did not commence this practice, at least countenanced it by his example. Gylippos, inheriting from his family the thirst of gold, was condemned and starved to death, by the Ephori, for purloining public property. His father Cleandridas, in conjunction with king Pleistoanax, had accepted bribes from Pericles, and ended his days in exile.[1544] From this period, as seems to be undeniable, the possession of gold and silver by private individuals was permitted by law, or connived at; and the Spartans proceeded, after the manner of all other nations, to divide themselves into very rich and very poor, to house together, in the same city, misery and splendour, extreme luxury and extreme want, until the common fate, foreign conquest and slavery, overtook them.

-----

Footnote 1541:

This was thought necessary even by so great a man as Lysander. Plut.
Lysand. § 18.

Footnote 1542:

As in the case of Cleandridas, father of Gylippos.

Footnote 1543:

Athen. vi. 24.

Footnote 1544:

Thucyd. vi. 104. Plut. Pericl. § 22. Müller, ii. 225.

-----

The trade which, meanwhile, was carried on by Laconia must have been at times very considerable, though there were few points on the coast provided with roadsteads, or harbours, capable of receiving ships of burden. To facilitate intercourse with foreign nations, an artificial harbour was constructed at Trinasos, around which the inhabitants of Gythium, situated on an eminence some distance inland, gradually clustered, deserting their ancient residence for one more convenient and profitable. From hence the productions of Laconia, which will be enumerated elsewhere, were shipped for foreign countries, Libya for example, and Egypt, whence merchandise of various kinds were obtained in return. But, as this port appears to have been little commodious or secure, the merchantmen, on their return from Africa, usually put into the island of Cythera,[1545] where are several harbours, amongst which that of St. Nicholas, anciently Scandeia,[1546] on the eastern coast, is sheltered and spacious, and provided with so narrow an entrance that it may at pleasure be closed with a chain. The inhabitants of this island, like those of the Laconian territories on the main, were free Lacedæmonians, who appear to have directed their attention entirely to commerce and agriculture, and the management of the productive purple fishery, carried on among the shoals and rocks encircling their island.[1547] Besides its use in dyeing, this fish is said to have been employed as a bait in taking the pelamys, and there was, likewise, in this sea, a considerable whale fishery. The nerves of these leviathans, properly prepared, were used in stringing the psaltery, and other musical instruments, and also for bowstrings. It may, therefore, be presumed, that they formed an important article of commerce.[1548]

-----

Footnote 1545:

Thucyd. iv. 53.

Footnote 1546:

Pausan. iii. 23. 1. Steph. de Urb. p. 672.

Footnote 1547:

Strab. viii. 5. l. ii. p. 186. Plin. Nat. Hist. ix. 60. xi. 22. xxxv.
26. Horat. Carm. ii. 18. 8. The purple of Laconia was esteemed only
second to that of Phœnicia:—κόχλους δὲ ἐς βαφὴν πορφύρας παρέχεται τὰ
ἐπιθαλλάσσια τῆς Λακωνικῆς ἐπιτηδειοτάτας μετά γε τὴν Φοινίκων
θάλασσαν. Pausan. iii. 21. 6.

Footnote 1548:

Dapper, Description des Iles de l’Archipel. 554. Ælian. De Animal.
xvii. 6.

-----

Here, likewise, were quarries of porphyry,[1549] from which, in earlier ages, the island is said to have obtained the name of Porphyrussa. At the distance of a mile and a quarter from Scandia stood the city of Cythera, with an Acropolis situated on a very high rock. At this place was a temple of the celestial Aphroditè, esteemed one of the most ancient in Greece,[1550] the inhabitants having addicted themselves to the worship of this goddess, because, when she first sprang from the waves, she is said to have come floating thither on a shell of mother-of-pearl.[1551] How many of the productions of this island passed annually into commerce cannot be known. But, it is described as abounding, in modern times, with wild asses, and deer, and hares, and quails, and turtle-doves,[1552] which last were, of old, sacred to the goddess of the isle. Corn, also, and oil, and wine of excellent quality, were found in Cythera, though by no means in abundance. It likewise produces tragoriganon and bastard dittany. The island being thus productive, it is by no means surprising that the Spartans should have set a high value on it, and sent thither, annually, a magistrate, named Cytherodices, together with a garrison of heavy-armed men. Another advantage which Sparta derived from the possession of this island was, that it served it as a kind of defence against the incursions of pirates, commanding, in some sort, the narrow sea between Peloponnesos and Crete.

-----

Footnote 1549:

At least I find this notion in Dapper, Desc. de l’Arch. p. 375-378,
who observes “D’autres assurent qu’elle avoit été ainsi nommée à cause
du porphyre qu’on y trouve en abondance.” The name has with more
probability, however, been derived from the purple fish (Πορφύρα)
which abounds on the coast, ἐκαλεῖτο δὲ Πορφύρουσσα, διὰ τὸ κάλλος τὸ
παρὰ τῶν πορφυρῶν, ὡς Ἀριστοτέλης. Steph. de Urb. 487, a. To the same
purpose, Eustathius ad Dion. Perieg. 498: ἐκαλεῖτο δὲ, φασὶ, καὶ
Πορφυροῦσσα ποτὲ, διὰ τὸ καλλίστας ἔχειν πορφύρας. Cf. ad Il. ο. p.
1031. 13. Plin. Nat. Hist. iv. 19.

Footnote 1550:

Paus. iii. 23. 1.

Footnote 1551:

This mythological incident is beautifully engraved in the Museo Real
Borbonico, from an ancient painting found at Pompeia. Honest
Buondelmonte, who, instead of describing the island, amuses himself
with relating its mythology, delineates, elegantly enough, another
picture of the floating goddess: “Sculpebatur etenim puella
pulcherrima, nuda et in mari natans, tenens concham marinam in dextrâ,
ornata rosis et à columbis circumvolantibus comitata, &c.” Christ.
Buond. Lib. Insul. Archip. c. ix. p. 64.

Footnote 1552:

Dapper, Desc. de l’Archip. 375-379.

-----

That this was no small advantage will be evident if we consider to what extent, and with how much cruelty, piracy was exercised in old times. It dogged incessantly the heels of commerce, appearing on every sea and penetrating to every land whither industry betook itself for the acquisition of wealth. It may be said, indeed, to have been a kind of bastard brother of trade, both proceeding from the desire of gain. Against the masters of this craft the first war-galleys appear to have been fitted out in the Mediterranean. For, among the principal exploits of the half-fabulous king of Crete is enumerated his clearing the sea of pirates, his object being to secure the transmission of his revenues from the smaller islands to the seat of empire. For, in old times, both the Greeks and barbarians of the continent, inhabiting the sea-coast, and all those who dwelt in the islands, no sooner addicted themselves to navigation, than they took to piracy, being led by their most powerful fellow-citizens, partly for their own advantage, and partly with a view of providing for the poor; and falling suddenly on unwalled cities, or people dispersed in villages, they plundered the whole country, and thus chiefly procured themselves subsistence. Nor, in fact, was this sort of life attended with disgrace, but with some degree of honour. Even in Thucydides’ own time, many tribes of the continent gloried in their piratical skill, and from the ancient poets, he says, it was clear the same feeling had always prevailed; for, the first question put to seamen, on their landing, was, whether they were pirates or not; and this without the persons interrogated considering it to be any offence, or those who asked intending any.[1553] No idea of caste seems to have existed. The reception of Pelops, who came with great wealth from Asia into Peloponnesos, shows that riches, however acquired, were valued before both; for he might have been, and, probably, was, a pirate.[1554]

-----

Footnote 1553:

Hom. Odyss. γ. 312.

Footnote 1554:

Thucyd. i. 9.

-----

In the interior, also, plundering expeditions were carried on by land, as on the borders of England or Scotland, and more anciently on the Welsh marshes. And up to the period of the Peloponnesian war, many Greek nations still continued to live after the ancient manner, as the Ozolian and Epicnemidian Locrians, the Ætolians, the Acarnanians, and other neighbouring tribes, of which their habit of wearing arms may be considered as a memento. To repress the ravages of these half-civilized races was often an object of great concern to the Athenians, who, to check the cruises of the Opuntians, long accustomed to enrich themselves by plundering the coast of Eubœa during the Peloponnesian war, took and fortified the uninhabited island of Atalantè.[1555] Some ages before, they had, under the conduct of Cimon, expelled from Scyros the piratical Dolopians, who not only scoured the neighbouring seas, but even plundered such vessels as put into their harbour.[1556] Nothing, however, could extirpate the evil, which has always continued to be the curse of those seas, sometimes denounced, sometimes encouraged, by the princes of the neighbouring countries, who, like Philip of Macedon, find it convenient, according to the exigencies of their affairs, to make war upon the buccaneers, or to unite with them in pursuit of plunder.

-----

Footnote 1555:

Thucyd. i. 151.

Footnote 1556:

Plut. Cim. § 8.

-----

Of all the Doric states the most commercial was undoubtedly Corinth. That, situated on the isthmus by which the Peloponnesos is united with the rest of Greece, became very early an emporium, and rose to opulence[1557] and splendour; for whatever merchandise was transported from northern Greece into any of the states of the peninsula by land, necessarily passed through this city, and paying, as was customary, transit dues, tended greatly to enrich it. The same thing may be said of the productions of the Peloponnesos, which, by this road, found their way into Hellas. Afterwards addicting themselves to navigation, the Corinthians, from their two ports of Lechæum and Cenchreæ,[1558] carried on an extremely extensive commerce with Italy and the countries on the Adriatic on the one hand, and with Asia Minor[1559] and the islands on the other; so that whatever articles of commerce are reckoned among the imports of Athens were likewise in a measure to be found at Corinth. The aversion of the ancient mariners to double Cape Malea long secured its trade to Corinth. There was a proverb[1560] which said, that whoever sailed round that redoubtable promontory must be unmindful of his friends at home; and, in truth, the boisterous and contrary winds which still encounter the mariner who passes from the Myrtoan to the Ionian sea might well appear terrible to the small craft of remote antiquity. To avoid this dangerous navigation these barks themselves, together with the merchandise they carried, were drawn across the isthmus, and launched again on the opposite sea. The project of Nero, therefore, who designed to open a canal at this place, would, if completed, have proved of the greatest service to the Corinthians, whose city might have continued to be enriched by it to the present day.

-----

Footnote 1557:

Luc. Dial. Mort. 11.

Footnote 1558:

Steph. de Urb. p. 464. d.

Footnote 1559:

Strab. viii. 6. t. ii. 213. Pausan. ii. 2. 3.

-----

With respect to the articles which Corinth herself supplied to commerce, they will be found enumerated among the exports and imports of Greece. Her manufactures were numerous and important,[1561] consisting, among others, of rich coverlets, fine woollen garments, costly pottery, and works in that rich metal known under the name of Corinthian bronze. This, it is said, consisted of a small mixture of gold and silver with brass; though, according to another account, it was produced by heating the metal red-hot, and in that state plunging it into the waters of Peirenè.[1562]

-----

Footnote 1560:

Μαλεὰ δε κάμψας ἐπιλάθου τῶν οἴκαδε. See the long and interesting note
of Berkelius ad Steph. de Urb. p. 531, seq.

Footnote 1561:

And, doubtless, worked by their forty-six myriads of slaves. Athen.
vi. 103. The Pythian Oracle calls the Corinthians Chœnix Measurers,
probably because they allowed their slaves a chœnix of corn per day.

Footnote 1562:

Paus. ii. 3. 3. Florus, ii. 16.

-----

Much trade was carried on in the territories of Corinth during the celebration of the Isthmian games, which, bringing together a vast multitude of people from Ionia, Sicily, Italy, Libya, Thessaly, and the extremities of the Black Sea, necessarily attracted thither, among the rest, the retailers of all kinds of provisions. These finding a speedy market for their goods, other tradesmen followed their example, so that at length assemblies, originating in religion, resembled prodigious fairs,[1563] whither every description of merchandise was conveyed for the admiration and purchase of the pilgrims.[1564]

-----

Footnote 1563:

It is said, moreover, that Iphilos established a fair at Olympia,
together with the sacred games. Vel. Paterc. i. 8. Strab. viii. 3. t.
i. p. 178.

Footnote 1564:

Dion Chrysost. i. 289.

-----

It is, however, with much difficulty that we obtain an insight into the manner[1565] in which the inland traffic of Greece was carried on in the earlier ages; but it is probable, that, as in India, Egypt, and Arabia, great fairs were held on some convenient spot, whither the sellers and buyers resorted from all the countries around. That this was the case in many places we know. There was, for example, a monthly fair held at Aleision,[1566] near Amphidolis in Eleia, on the mountain road from Elis to Olympia, to which all the peasants of the neighbourhood resorted. Among the Romans smaller fairs or markets were held every nine days, and were thence called nundinia.[1567] On these occasions the rustics intermitted their usual employment and repaired to the city, as well to furnish themselves with what they needed, as to learn what new laws or regulations might have been promulgated in the interim.

-----

Footnote 1565:

Plat. De Rep. ii. t. vi. p. 79. 84. See in Mons. Thiersch Etat. Actuel
de la Grèce, t. ii. p. 74, a somewhat detailed description of the
internal trade of modern Greece.

Footnote 1566:

Strab. viii. 3. t. ii. p. 151.

Footnote 1567:

Columel. i. Præf. ii. 1. Dacier, in Fest. i. p. 501.

-----

The Epidamnians, who, as Müller[1568] observes, “retained much of ancient custom, paid great attention to the intercourse with foreigners,” and held great annual fairs, which were frequented by the neighbouring Illyrians. By this is meant, strange as it would seem, that they sought to cut off all such intercourse. For, as Plutarch[1569] relates in his Greek Questions, the people of Epidamnia living in the vicinity of the Illyrians, and observing, that such of their citizens as associated with them grew corrupt, and fearing innovation, elected one of their chief citizens to conduct the necessary intercourse and the barter which took place annually at a great fair. This officer, called Poletes, acted as broker-general for his fellow-citizens.

-----

Footnote 1568:

Dorians, ii. 223.

Footnote 1569:

Quæst. Græc. 29. Var. Script. t. ii. p. 317. Cf. Steph. de Urb. voce
Δυῤῥάχιον, p. 316, sqq. Palmer. Descrip. Græc. Antiq. p. 73, sqq. 118,
sqq. Pausan. vi. 10. 8.

-----