XI. EXPORTS AND IMPORTS
Although we have above glanced slightly at the exports and imports of Athens and several other states, we ought here perhaps to enter into greater detail, for the purpose of rendering as complete as possible our idea of the vigorous and extensive commerce carried on by the Greeks. It will not of course be understood, that all the articles enumerated in the present chapters constituted at any one time the floating materials of Hellenic trade; the probability being, that some grew out of fashion and were succeeded by others, for which at a later period they may again have been substituted. But the mind must suppose itself to be dealing with the whole extent of authentic Grecian history, within the limits of which it will be found, that everything we here mention was trafficked in, though it seems to be now impossible to observe in these matters a strict chronology and fix the epoch at which each particular commodity came into vogue, or was abandoned for something else.
Attica itself exported comparatively few of its own natural productions;[1751] but having obtained the raw materials from other regions, it expended upon them so much skill, and taste, and industry, that they appeared to undergo a new creation, and were issued from the Peiræeus like the native growth of the soil. This was the case with various kinds of arms and armour, as sabres, and scimitars, greaves, cuirasses, and helmets.[1752] These were sometimes richly gilt or inlaid with gold, and adorned with embossed figures of rare workmanship.[1753]
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Footnote 1751:
Observing the plenty and prosperity always found in free states, Sir Josiah Child observes, that good laws are sufficient of themselves to render any region fertile. Discourse of Trade, p. 24. Among the best productions of Attica was its barley, though I nowhere remember to have seen it said that it was exported: Ἀθήνῃσι δ᾽οὖν αἱ κριθαὶ τὰ πλεῖστα ποιοῦσι τὰ ἄλφιτα· κριθοφόρος γὰρ ἀρίστη. Theoph. Hist. Plant. viii. 8. 2.
Footnote 1752:
Εὐδόκιμα δὲ, θώραξ Ἀττικουργὴς. Poll. i. 149.
Footnote 1753:
Ἕνιοι μέντοι τοὺς ποικίλους καὶ τοὺς ἐπιχρύσους θώρακας μᾶλλον ὠνοῦνται. Xenoph. Memor. iii. 10. 14.
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Perfumes,[1754] also, with unguents and essences,[1755] and odoriferous oils were among the exports of Athens, which, indeed, at one period retailed to the rest of Greece the manufactures of every country in the civilised world.
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Footnote 1754:
Μύρον ἐξ Ἀθηνῶν. ap. Athen. i. 49.
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Among the articles of merchandise,[1756] the peculiar produce of her own soil, were the fragrant gold-coloured honey of Hymettos, the best in the ancient world; olives, and olive oil,[1757] which likewise appear to have been unrivalled; fruits of various kinds, but more especially figs,[1758] which were transported to Persia and most of the other regions of the East.[1759]
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Footnote 1755:
Τὸ δὲ Παναθηναϊκὸν λεγόμενον ἐν Ἀθήναις. Athen. xv. 38.
Footnote 1756:
Μέλι πρωτέυει τὸ Ἀττικὸν, καὶ τούτου τὸ Ὑμήττιον καλούμενον. Dioscor. ii. 101. Strab. ix. 1. t. ii. p. 246. Geopon. vii. 17. viii. 25. 1. Ἄριστον μέλι τὸ Ἀττικὸν, καὶ τοῦ Ἀττικοῦ τὸ Ὑμήττιον. Diophan. ap. Geopon. xv. 7. 1. Plin. Nat. Hist. xi. 13. xxi. 10. Galen. de Antidot. i. 2. Virg. Georg. iv. 177. Tzetz. Chil. vii. 93. xi. 370. Synes. Epist. 147. Eustath. ad Dion. Perieg. 530.
Footnote 1757:
Petit, de Legg. Att. v. 5, p. 417. Æschin. Epist. 5. Orat. Att. xii. p. 305. Geopon. ix. 1. 1. Theoph. Hist. Plant. iv. 14.
Footnote 1758:
Schol. Aristoph. Acharn. 767.
Footnote 1759:
The importation of these delicacies, however, originally profited the subjects of Persia only, the king having been forbidden by a fundamental law of the monarchy the use of all foreign commodities. The ordinance of course was speedily dispensed with, since we find the eunuchs placing before their master, at his dessert, the figs of Attica, which on one occasion, drew from the Shah a right royal remark: Ἐρωτῆσαι ποταπαὶ εἶεν. ἐπεὶ δὲ ἐπύθετο ἐξ Ἀθηνῶν, τοῖς ἀγορασταῖς ἐκέλευεν ὠνεῖσθαι, ἕως, ἂν ἐξουσία γένηται αὐτῷ λαμβάνειν ὅταν ἐφέλῃ, καὶ μὴ ἁγοράζειν. Athen. xiv. 62. The best figs came from the Demos Ægilia. Id. ibid. Ἀπ’ Αἰγίλω ἰσχάδα τρώγοις. Theocrit. Eidyll. i. 147. These fruits we find reached Persia in a state of the greatest freshness and perfection. Plut. Alexand. § 50.
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A trade was carried on too in herbs and plants, which being more fragrant and possessing greater virtues here than in any other country, the citizens of the neighbouring states sought to obtain the like, by procuring slips and seeds from Athens. Thus strangers having observed that the knolls and uplands of Attica were covered with thyme,[1760] which, flowering about midsummer, filled the air with sweetness, and enabled the owners of bees to foretell with exactness whether honey would be scarce or plentiful, desired to transplant it to the neighbourhood of their own cities. It was found however by experience, that it flourished and attained its natural luxuriance only in such situations as were reached by the sea breezes.[1761] In Arcadia, for example, it refused to be naturalised, though the climate of that country was found to agree very well with the marjoram, and the summer savory. Among the simples employed by the ancients in their materia medica were the Attic valerian,[1762] hemlock,[1763] and melilot.[1764] Kermes also were produced in this country.[1765]
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Footnote 1760:
Ægialeus appears, for example, to have been no less celebrated for its thyme than Hymettos. Suid. V. μᾶσσον. t. ii. p. 104. a. Meurs. Rel. Attic. i. p. 2. Plin. Nat. Hist. iv. 11.
Footnote 1761:
Οὐ γάρ φασι δύνασθαι φύεσθαι καὶ λαμβάνειν, ὅπου μὴ ἀναπνοὴ διϊκνεῖται, ἡ ἀπὸ τῆς θαλάσσης· διὸ οὐδ᾽ ἐν Ἀρκαδίᾳ γίνεται· θύμβρα δὲ καὶ ὀρίγανον καὶ τὰ τοιαῦτα πολλὰ καὶ πολλαχοῦ. Theoph. Hist. Plant. vi. 2. 4.
Footnote 1762:
Sibthorp, Flora Græca. tab. 29. Dioscor. i. 10.
Footnote 1763:
Dioscor. iv. 79. According to Plutarch, however, it was not a common plant; for speaking of a prodigy which happened during the misfortunes of the republic, under the reign of Antigonos, he says: περὶ δὲ τοὺς βωμοὺς τοὺς ἐκείνων ἐξήνθησεν ἡ γῆ κύκλω πολὺ κώνειον, ἄλλως μηδὲ τῆς χώραι πολλαχοῦ φυόμενον. Vit. Demet. § 12.
Footnote 1764:
Dioscor. iii 48. Damogeron, ap. Geopon. vii. 13. 4. Pollux. vi. 106.
Footnote 1765:
Plin. Nat. Hist. xxiv. 4.
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The Athenian pottery,[1766] being the most tasteful and beautiful known to the ancient world, was consequently in great request and exported in immense quantities to all the countries on the shores of the Mediterranean.[1767] At one time, however, the people of Ægina and Argos, partly out of resentment,[1768] and partly to encourage some less costly manufacture of their own, prohibited its introduction; while the people of Aulis,[1769] Samos,[1770] and Rhodes,[1771] became, in this branch of industry, the rivals of the Athenians, whom they endeavoured to undersell by producing an inferior article.[1772]
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Footnote 1766:
Schol. Aristoph. Lysist. 2. Potters, notwithstanding the utility of their calling, appear to have been assailed by many a joke among the Athenians, who sometimes sarcastically denominated them Prometheuses. Καὶ αὐτοὶ δὲ Ἀθηναῖοι τοὺς χυτρέας, καὶ ἰπνοποιοὺς, καὶ πάντας, ὅσοι πυλουργοὶ, Προμηθέας ἀπεκάλουν, επισκώπτοντες ἐς τὸν πηλὸν, καὶ τὴν ἐν πυρὶ οἶμαι τῶν σκευῶν ὄπτησιν. Lucian. Prometh. 2. Cf. Chandler, ii. 166.
Footnote 1767:
Athen. i. 49.
Footnote 1768:
Herod. v. 88. Athen. xi. 107. Poll. vi. 100. Steph. Byzant. v. Αἰγιναι. p. 53. a.—v. Γάζα. p. 257. a.
Footnote 1769:
Pausan. ix. 19. 8.
Footnote 1770:
Theoph. De Lapid. § 63. “On faisoit autrefois d’excellente poterie à Samos, et c’êtoit peut-être avec la terre de Bavonda.” Tournefort, Voyage du Levant, t. ii. p. 112.
Footnote 1771:
Athen. xi. 11. 95. 101. 108.
Footnote 1772:
The inferiority of the Samian pottery may be inferred from the following passage of Cicero: “Ille, homo eruditissimus, ac Stoicus, stravit pelliculis hœdinis lectulos Punicanos, et exposuit vasa Samia: quasi verò esset Diogenes Cynicus mortuus, et non divini hominis Africani mors honestaretur.” Pro Muren. 36. Cf. Plin. xxxv. 46.
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Among the other exports of Athens we find enumerated soft fine wool,[1773] linen and woollen cloths,[1774] slippers,[1775] beds, chests, books,[1776] wine,[1777] Sphettian vinegar,[1778] sweetmeats,[1779] glaucisci,[1780] anchovies,[1781] sheep,[1782] live fowls,[1783] Hymettian[1784] and Pentelic[1785] marbles, quicksilver,[1786] ochre,[1787] and cinnabar.[1788]
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Footnote 1773:
Athen. v. 60.
Footnote 1774:
Thucyd. i. 6.
Footnote 1775:
Lucian. Rhet. Præcept. § 15.
Footnote 1776:
Xenoph. Anab. vii. 5. 14.
Footnote 1777:
Much of the wine, however, exported by the Athenians into foreign countries was the produce of the islands. Demosth. cont. Lacrit. § 8.
Footnote 1778:
Schol. Aristoph. Plut. 720. Athen. ii. 76.
Footnote 1779:
Plat. De Rep. iii. t. vi. p. 142. Sweetmeats seem in Greece to have been exported exactly as at present, in boxes of peculiar construction in which they were afterwards kept till eaten. This I think may be inferred from the following passage of the letter from Hippolochos to Lynceus: καὶ τελευταῖαι ἐπεισῆλθον ἐπιδορπίαι τράπεζαι· τραγήματα τ᾽ ἐν πλεκτοῖς ἐλεφαντίνοις ἐπεδόθη πᾶσι, καὶ πλακοῦντες ἕκαστα γένη, Κρητικῶν, καὶ τῶν σῶν, ἑταῖρε Λυγκεῦ, Σαμιακῶν, καὶ Ἀττικῶν, αὐταῖς ταῖς ιδίαις τῶν πεμμάτων θήκαις. Athen. iv. 5.
Footnote 1780:
Athen. vii. 24.
Footnote 1781:
Aristoph. Acharn. 901, sqq. Athen. vii. 22.
Footnote 1782:
Athen. xii. 57.
Footnote 1783:
Athen. vii. 23.
Footnote 1784:
Strab. ix. 1. t. ii. p. 246.
Footnote 1785:
Lucian. Jup. Tragœd. § 10. Chandler, ii. 280.
Footnote 1786:
Bœckh, Pub. Econ. of Athens, ii. 434.
Footnote 1787:
Dioscor. v. 108. Plin. xxxiii. 56.
Footnote 1788:
Theophrast. De Lapid. § 59. Plin. Nat. Hist. iii. 37.
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Another class of exports consisted of statues and works of arts of all kinds, in gold, marble, bronze, and ivory, jewellery, and engraved gems.
But the most valuable and commodious of all her merchandise was that silver[1789] of unrivalled purity and fineness which so long placed her foremost among the commercial states of antiquity, and was one of the great props of her empire both by sea and land.
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Footnote 1789:
Strab. ix. 1. t. ii. p. 246. Suid. v. ἀργυροῦν, t. i. p. 415. e. Thucyd. ii. 55. vi. 91. Schol. Aristoph. Eq. 361, 1091. Pausan. i. 1. 1.
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In the matter of imports we shall consider Athens in a double point of view; first as the purchaser of the surplus produce of the other Grecian states,[1790] and second as the representative of Greece in general, collecting together in her ports the commodities of the rest of the world, and afterwards distributing them among her neighbours. With the Megaris, which once formed part of her own territory, Athens, at particular periods of her history, carried on an active traffic in the common necessaries of life,—as groats,[1791] fish,[1792] salt,[1793] goats, vegetables,[1794] leverets, poultry, pigs, and cattle.[1795] Hemlock was likewise numbered among the exports of Megara,[1796] together with jars,[1797] and rough upper garments.[1798] It seems probable moreover that, as numerous sheep were reared in this territory, fine wool was likewise on occasions imported thence into Attica,[1799] together with the rich sweet wine made at Ægosthena.[1800]
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Footnote 1790:
Ἐπεισέρχεται δὲ διὰ μέγεθος τῆς πόλεως ἐκ πάσης γῆς τὰ πάντα· καὶ ξυμβαίνει ἡμῖν μηδὲν οἰκειότερα τῇ ἀπολαύσει τὰ αὐτοῦ ἀγαθὰ γιγνόμενα καρποῦσθαι, ἢ καὶ τὰ τῶν ἄλλων ἄνθρώπων. Thucyd. ii. 38.
Footnote 1791:
Athen. iii. 101.
Footnote 1792:
Id. vii. 45.
Footnote 1793:
Schol. Aristoph. Acharn. 760. Dioscor. v. 126.
Footnote 1794:
As for instance radishes, (Athen. vii. 23,) and cucumbers. (Schol. Aristoph. Pac. 966. Acharn. 494.) I know not whether the samphire (κρίθμον) now found growing among the Saronian rocks (Chandler, ii. 225) entered into the list of the exports of Megara, though it was used both as a medicine and as a vegetable. Dioscor. ii. 157.
Footnote 1795:
Aristoph. Acharn. 519, seq.
Footnote 1796:
Dioscor. iv. 79.
Footnote 1797:
Athen. i. 50.
Footnote 1798:
Xenoph. Memor. ii. 7. 6.
Footnote 1799:
Diog. Laert. vi. 2. 41.
Footnote 1800:
Athen. x. 56. Pausan. i. 44. 4. Steph. De Urb. p. 54. a.
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From the various divisions of the Peloponnesos, which we may here regard as one country, several useful commodities were exported. In the matter of corn these divisions of Greece were alternately exporters and importers according, probably, to the fluctuations of the season or peculiar exigencies created by the accidents of peace or war.[1801] They perpetually, however, supplied their neighbours with cheese and wine, and various other articles of use or luxury.
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Footnote 1801:
See above, Book vi. chap. 9.
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The poet Alcman celebrates a fragrant wine produced in the vicinity of Sparta,[1802] but it is nowhere stated whether it was exported or not. The little state of Phlius produced likewise a superior wine which was esteemed at Athens.[1803] Laconia exported cheese, which, being shipped at Gythium,[1804] was commonly supposed to be made at that place. The cheese of Tromileia in Achaia enjoyed as great a reputation throughout Greece, as the Parmasan in modern Europe. It was remarkable for the extreme delicacy of its flavour, and was made from goat’s milk with the juice of the fig-tree instead of rennet.[1805] Sicyon carried on a considerable trade in salted conger.[1806]
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Footnote 1802:
Athen. i. 57.
Footnote 1803:
Id. i. 49.
Footnote 1804:
Lucian. Dial. Meret. § 14.
Footnote 1805:
Athen. xiv. 76. Eurip. Cyclop. 136.
Footnote 1806:
Athen. vii. 31. i. 49.
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Several medicinal plants were obtained from this part of Greece, as liquorice vetch[1807] found on the tops of lofty mountains where the snows lay unmelted during a considerable portion of the year. The canton which most abounded in this plant seems to have been the country round Pheneon in Arcadia.
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Footnote 1807:
Ἀστράγαλος, Dioscor. iv. 62. “Peut-on rien voir de plus beau, en fait de plantes, qu’un Astragale de deux pieds de haut, chargé de fleurs depuis le bas jusques à l’extremité de ses tiges?” Tournefort, Voyage du Levant, t. iii. p. 101.
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In the neighbourhood of Psophis in the same state, the cultivation of the heraclean all-heal[1808] was carried on to a great extent, as Arcadia traded largely in this article of the materia medica. The juice was collected in two ways, and at two different seasons of the year; first from the root when the plant began to germinate in spring. A small trench having been excavated about it, an incision was made in the root and a number of broad leaves spread around to receive the liquor which flowed forth. This, at first white, assumed externally as it dried, a saffron hue. The second method was to make an incision in the stem about harvest-time, when the fluid appears tog have been collected in the same manner as before. Near Nonacris was obtained a poisonous water which distilled slowly like dew from a rock. It was of a sharp and icy coldness, and so bitter and acrid, that no vessel whatsoever could contain it save the hoof of an ass, in which accordingly it was preserved.[1809]
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Footnote 1808:
Plin. Nat. Hist. xii. 56. Πανάκες Ἡράκλειον. Dioscor. iii. 55. Theoph. Hist. Plant. ix. 11. 3. Cornel. Cels. v. 19. 3. Cf. Tournefort, Voyage du Levant, t. iii. p. 25.
Footnote 1809:
Plut. Alexand. § 76. Senec. Quæst. Nat. iii. 5. Plin. Nat. Hist. ii. 106. xxi. 19.
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Among the poisons of the Peloponnesos was the root of the meadow-saffron,[1810] found chiefly in Messenia, where likewise grew the æthiopis, a plant used by magicians as well as by the children of Æsculapius.[1811] The centaury,[1812] likewise, and the seseli,[1813] were among the exports of this part of Greece.
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Footnote 1810:
Κολχικὸν. Dioscor. iv. 84.
Footnote 1811:
Dioscor. iv. 105.
Footnote 1812:
Id. iii. 8.
Footnote 1813:
Id. iii. 92. Celsus, iv. 18. 29. This plant was employed in preparations to drive away serpents. Geopon. xiii. 8. 2. Nicand. Theriac. 76. Apul. de Herb. c. xcv.
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From Arcadia were obtained large carbuncles,[1814] which were cut and polished into mirrors, with timber of all kinds,—as deal, larch, and pine, together with the smilax,[1815] which was sawed into thin planks, and used for necessary articles of furniture. The neighbourhood of Mantinea produced an excellent species of radish which was exported.[1816] Arcadia likewise produced, in its rich pastures, fine herds of cattle, together with asses and horses, no way inferior to those of Thessaly.[1817]
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Footnote 1814:
Theoph. de Lapid. § 33. Cf. Anselm. Boet. Gem. et Lap. Hist. ii. 9, p. 141.
Footnote 1815:
Theoph. Hist. Plant. iii. 16. 3.
Footnote 1816:
Athen. i. 6.
Footnote 1817:
Plin. Nat. Hist. viii. 68. Strab. viii. 8. t. ii. p. 226.
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Argos exported also horses,[1818] with purple garments,[1819] wild boars,[1820] caldrons,[1821] shields,[1822] and richly varied carbuncles,[1823] found in the neighbourhood of Trœzen;[1824] Sicyon, pictures,[1825] wine,[1826] and a peculiar kind of shoe which looked well with white socks or stockings;[1827] Elis, magnificent horses,[1828] whips,[1829] flax,[1830] poisons, iris unguent,[1831] centaury from the skirts of Mount Pholoë,[1832] nenuphar,[1833] which was found growing on the river Anygros, and sea-coal, used chiefly by smiths;[1834] Achaia mistletoe, parsley,[1835] headnets, all kinds of fine linen, manufactured at Patræ,[1836] and the Pellenian cloaks,[1837] which were proposed as prizes in certain games. Epidauros was remarkable for its noble breed of horses;[1838] Corinth, which was frequently supplied with corn from Epeiros, itself exported[1839] carpets, ladies’ summer mantles, linen tunics,[1840] articles of virtu in bronze and gold,[1841] and carbuncles variegated like those of Trœzen, with purple and white, but of a paler hue.[1842] Quinces[1843] of the richest colour and finest flavour, were found in this part of the isthmus; and probably pears which were found every where else in Peloponnesos. Corinthia abounded also with large and excellent turnips, which were no doubt exported to the neighbouring countries.[1844]
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Footnote 1818:
Strab. viii. 8. t. ii. p. 227.
Footnote 1819:
Plut. Vit. Alexand. § 36.
Footnote 1820:
Athen. vii. 32.
Footnote 1821:
Athen. i. 49, seq. Poll. i. 149.
Footnote 1822:
Dissen, ad Pind. Nem. x. 41.
Footnote 1823:
Plin. Nat. Hist. xxxvii. 25. Theoph. de Lapid. § 33. Athen. v. 26.
Footnote 1824:
Anselm. Boet. Gem. et Lap. Hist. ii. 9, p. 142.
Footnote 1825:
Plin. Nat. Hist. xxv. 36. Winkelm. Hist. de l’Art, t. ii. p. 200, seq.
Footnote 1826:
Plin. Nat. Hist. xiv. 9.
Footnote 1827:
Lucian. Dial. Meret. § 14. Rhet. Præcept. § 15. Ammon. v. Σχισταὶ, p. 133.
Footnote 1828:
Plat. Hipp. Maj. t. v. p. 424.
Footnote 1829:
Schol. Aristoph. Acharn. 724.
Footnote 1830:
Pausan. viii. 21. 14.
Footnote 1831:
Dioscor. i. 66.
Footnote 1832:
Id. iii. 8.
Footnote 1833:
Id. iii. 148.
Footnote 1834:
Theoph. de Lapid. § 16.
Footnote 1835:
Plin. Nat. Hist. xix. 46.
Footnote 1836:
Pausan. vii. 21. 14.
Footnote 1837:
Strab. viii. 7. t. ii. p. 224.
Footnote 1838:
Strab. viii. 8. t. ii. p. 227.
Footnote 1839:
Athen. i. 49. xiii. 45.
Footnote 1840:
Athen. xii. 29.
Footnote 1841:
Athen. v. 30. Plin, Nat. Hist. xxxvi. 12. ix. 65. xxxiv. 6. Cf. Goguet, Orig. des Loix, v. 303. Iorio, Storia del Commercio, t. iv. l. ii. c. vi. p. 251.
Footnote 1842:
Plin. Nat. Hist. xxxvii. 25. Theoph. de Lapid. § 33.
Footnote 1843:
To this fruit Euphorion alludes in the following verses:
Ὥριον οἷά τε μῆλον, ὁ δ᾽ ἀργιλλώδεσιν ὄχθαις Πορφύρεον ἐλαχείῃ ἐνι τρέφεται Σιδόεντι.
Athen. iii. 22. Geopon. x. 3. 6.
Footnote 1844:
Εὐαυξεστάτην δὲ τὴν Κορινθίαν (ῥαφανίδα), ἣ καὶ τὴν ῥίζαν ἔχει γυμνήν· ὠθεῖται γὰρ εἰς τὸ ἄνω, καὶ οὐχ ὡς αἱ ἄλλαι κάτω. Theoph. Hist. Plant. vii. 4. 2. Plin. Nat. Hist. xix. 25.
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Among the productions which Laconia[1845] supplied to commerce were a bearded and somewhat light wheat,[1846] cheese, rathe figs,[1847] cabbage, lettuces, cucumbers,[1848] which required much watering, the euphorbia, hemlock, second in virtue to that of Susa,[1849] clouded canes,[1850] beautiful green marbles,[1851] hones and emeralds from Mount Taygetos.[1852] The dogs of Sparta were highly prized by the rest of Greece,[1853] and exported largely for the chace; according to Shakespeare, as early as the age of Theseus.
My hounds are bred out of the Spartan kind, So flew’d, so sanded; and their heads are hung With ears that sweep away the morning dew; Crook-kneed and dew-lap’d like Thessalian bulls, Slow in pursuit, but match’d in mouths like bell Each under each. A cry more tuneable Was never hollow’d to, nor cheer’d with horn In Crete, in Sparta, nor in Thessaly.
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Footnote 1845:
Cf. Huet, Hist. of Commerce, p. 47. Goguet, Orig. des Loix, v. 309.
Footnote 1846:
Plin. Nat. Hist. xviii. 20. Cf. Xenoph. iii. 4. 3.
Footnote 1847:
Id. xvi. 49.
Footnote 1848:
Id. xix. 23. 38. Theoph. Hist. Plant. vii. 4. 6.
Footnote 1849:
Plin. Nat. Hist. xxv. 95. Schol. Aristoph. Concion. 404.
Footnote 1850:
Casaub. ad Theoph. Char. p. 174. Plin. Nat. Hist. xvi. 66.
Footnote 1851:
Pausan. ii. 3. 5. iii. 21. 4. Plin. Nat. Hist. xxxvi. 11. Tibull. Eleg. l. iii. el. 3. v. 13, seq. The marble of Tænaros was of a yellow colour. Sext. Empir. Hypot. p. 26. Cf. Winkel. Hist. de l’Art, i. 40.
Footnote 1852:
Plin. Nat. Hist. xxxvi. 47. xxxvii. 18. Douglas, Essay on the Modern Greeks, p. 167.
Footnote 1853:
Athen. i. 49. Plin. Nat. Hist. x. 83. Pollux. v. 37. Aristot. Hist. Animal. viii. 28. Spanh. Observ. in Callim. in Dian. 94, t. ii. p. 196.
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In addition to the above, Sparta exported cothons,[1854] a species of fictile cups of a dusky brown, and so small as to have been conveniently carried in the long-necked wicker baskets which served the soldiers of Greece in lieu of a knapsack. It had one handle, and the rim projecting inwards, kept back the grosser particles of mud contained in the water, or rather, perhaps, deceived the eye by its hue. It was, moreover, the common drinking vessel of sailors on board ship.[1855] The manufacture of these cups formed a distinct branch of business, the individuals engaged in which were called cothon-makers,[1856] to distinguish them from ordinary potters.
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Footnote 1854:
Suid. v. κώθων et κώθωνες, t. i. p. 1510. a. b.
Footnote 1855:
Suid. v. κώθωνες, t. i. p. 1510. b. Hesych. in v. Athen. xi. 66. Plut. Lycurg. § 9. Poll. vi. 96, seq. Xenoph. Cyrop. i. 2. 8.
Footnote 1856:
Poll. vii. 160.
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In their festivals and marriage entertainments, as well as in war which they regarded much in the same light, the Spartans indulged in the luxury of fictile vessels, but at their common tables they drank out of wooden bowls,[1857] for the production of which, as well as of smaller goblets, Laconia was famous. It likewise, in later times at least, manufactured for exportation massive gold plate curiously chased, which, under the Macedonian kings, found its way to Egypt.[1858] Indeed these military utilitarians appear to have excelled in the making of all articles of ordinary convenience, as couches, easy-chairs, and tables, which accordingly were much sought after.[1859] Doors have likewise been enumerated among Laconian exports,[1860] but with little probability, especially when we recollect the directions given by the Spartan legislator for the construction of this part of domestic defence;[1861] nor is it a jot more likely that the carts and waggons which the Lacedæmonians constructed of smilax ever found their way beyond the borders of Laconia, unless employed in carrying provisions for its own armies.[1862]
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Footnote 1857:
Polem. ap. Athen. xi. 66.
Footnote 1858:
Athen. v. 28. 30.
Footnote 1859:
Plut. Lycurg. § 9.
Footnote 1860:
Müller, Dorians, ii. 25. Meurs. Lacon. ii. 17.
Footnote 1861:
Plut. Lycurg. § 13.
Footnote 1862:
Theoph. Hist. Plant. iii. 16.3.
-----
The steel and iron, however, of the Lacedæmonian forges were, as elsewhere stated, in great request for the making of carpenters’ and stonecutters’ tools, augers, files, chisels,[1863] &c.; as were likewise the Laconian locks and keys, which were divided into three wards, and far more intricate than those in common use.[1864] The manufactures which flourished in the city of Sparta itself, and were chiefly, perhaps, designed to supply the home-market were those of iron rings, daggers,[1865] short scimitars, swords, spits, axes, hatchets, and scythes, together with felt,[1866] walking-sticks,[1867] lute and bow-strings, which, as well as several of the above, we know to have been exported.[1868]
-----
Footnote 1863:
Steph. de Urb. v. Λακεδαίμων, p. 505. c. seq. Eustath. ad Il. β. 222. 27. Xenoph. Hellen. iii. 3. 7. Plin. Nat. Hist. vii. 56. Cf. Æn. Tactic. ii. 16.
Footnote 1864:
Suid. v. Λακωνικαὶ κλεῖδες, t. ii. p. 6. b.
Footnote 1865:
Poll. i. 149. 137. Plin. Nat. Hist. xxxiii. 4. Xenoph. Anab. iv. 8. 25. Suid. v. ξυήλήν, t. ii. p. 258. e. f.
Footnote 1866:
Poll. i. 149.
Footnote 1867:
Casaub. ad Theoph. Char. p. 174. The καλαυροψ, or shepherd’s crook, was most probably reckoned among the exports of Arcadia. Cf. Etym. Mag. 485. 36. Suid. t. i. p. 1356. c.
Footnote 1868:
Περὶ τὰ Κύθηρα δὲ ἔτι καὶ μείζω τὰ κήτη ὑμνοῦσι γίνεσθαι. Ἕοικε δ᾽ αὐτῶν καὶ τὰ νεῦρα λυσιτελῆ εἶναι εἰς τὰς τῶν ψαλτηρίων, καὶ τῶν ἄλλων ὀργάνων χερδοστροφίας· καὶ μέντοι καὶ ἐς τὰ πολεμικὰ ὀργάνα αἱ τούτων νευραὶ δοκοῦσι λυσιτελέσταται. Ælian. de Animal. xvii. 6.
-----
The citizens of Amyclæ excelled in the making of ladies’ slippers;[1869] and in the other parts of Laconia were produced an elegant kind of men’s shoes of red leather,[1870] like those at present worn by the Turks.[1871] In weaving and dyeing, also, the Lacedæmonians distinguished themselves, their mantles[1872] and their woollen garments, whether of purple or scarlet,[1873] having been in much esteem throughout Greece, as was likewise the purple by itself.[1874]
-----
Footnote 1869:
Theocrit. Eidyll. x. 35, cum Schol. Cf. Aristoph. Vesp. 1159.
Footnote 1870:
Steph. de Urb. v. Λακεδαίμων, p. 505. c. seq. Suid. v. Λακωνικαὶ, t. ii. p. 6. a. Lucian. Rhet. Præcept. § 15. Athen. v. 54. Ὑποδήματα ἄριστα Λακωνικὰ. Id. xi. 66.
Footnote 1871:
Poll. vii. 88. Müller, Dorians, ii. 25.
Footnote 1872:
Athen. v. 28. Suid. v. Λακωνικαὶ, t. ii. p. 6. a.
Footnote 1873:
Hesych. v. πυτά.
Footnote 1874:
Plin. Nat. Hist. ix. 60. xxi. 22. Horat. Od. ii. 18. Pausan. iii 21. 6. Iorio, Storia del Commercio, t. iv. l. ii. c. x. p. 267.
-----
If we proceed now to the states of northern Greece, commencing with Bœotia, we shall find, that their exports were little less rich or varied. For the daily consumption of life[1875] the Athenians obtained from this country a plentiful supply of poultry and wild-fowl,[1876] such as the francolin, the coot, ducks, divers, geese,[1877] jackdaws, and pyctides. Cats, too, were among the exports of Bœotia, (though whether, as in Spain, they were substituted for rabbits at table, seems hard to determine,) together with foxes, moles, otters, hares, and hedgehogs.[1878]
-----
Footnote 1875:
Aristoph. Acharn. 860, sqq. Schol. ad Pac. 968, ad Lysist. 703. Poll. vi. 63.
Footnote 1876:
Cf. Schol. Aristoph. Av. 1079.
Footnote 1877:
Cf. Geopon. xiv. 22.
Footnote 1878:
Aristot. Hist. Animal. viii. 28.
-----
This state, likewise, furnished the rest of Greece with reeds[1879] for the manufacture of pipes and flutes: they were produced on the banks of the Melas, a river which, according to the ancients, resembled in character and productions the Egyptian Nile. The wheat of Bœotia, where such is the fertility of the soil, that it returns fifty for one, was of old observed to be so heavy and full of nourishment, that the athletæ[1880] considered a chœnix and a half of it as equal to two chœnices of that produced in Attica. If any country, therefore, could, in the matter of bread, have been expected to be independent of its neighbours, it would doubtless have been Bœotia, which, nevertheless, we find importing, in times of scarcity, corn from Thessaly.[1881]
-----
Footnote 1879:
Theoph. Hist. Plant, iv. 11. 5, seq. Strab. ix. 2. t. i. p. 624. Casaub. On the river Melas and its plants see Plut. Sylla. § 20.
Footnote 1880:
Theoph. Hist. Plant. viii. 4. 5.
Footnote 1881:
Xenoph. Hellen. v. 4. 56.
-----
The remaining exports of this state may be thus enumerated: cucumbers,[1882] radishes, leeks from Ascra, turnips from Thebes,[1883] mustard, heraclean all-heal,[1884] pennyroyal, wild marjoram, nenuphar, or madonia, found in the river Haliartos,[1885] the best black hellebore from Mount Helicon,[1886] lampwicks, mats,[1887] locusts, cheese,[1888] wine and stock-fish from Anthedon,[1889] and eels from Lake Copais.[1890] Granite, likewise, and a valuable kind of marble, now called brocatello, was obtained from the quarries near Thebes.[1891]
-----
Footnote 1882:
Plin. Nat. Hist. xix. 23. Quintil. ap. Geopon. xii. 19.
Footnote 1883:
Athen. i. 6. ii. 48. Plin. Nat. Hist. xix. 25.
Footnote 1884:
Πανάκες Ἡράκλειον. Dioscor. iii. 55.
Footnote 1885:
Dioscor. iii. 148. Theoph. Hist. Plant. ix. 13. 1.
Footnote 1886:
Dioscor. iv. 151. Theoph. Hist. Plant. ix. 10. 3. Geopon. vii. 12. 21. Lomeier, de Lustrat. cap. xxiv. p. 304.
Footnote 1887:
Aristoph. Acharn. 860, sqq.
Footnote 1888:
Schol. Aristoph. Eq. 477.
Footnote 1889:
Dicæarch. ap. Geogr. Minor, ii. 18.
Footnote 1890:
Athen. i. 49. vii. 45. Aristoph. Lysist. 30. Acharn. 961. 1000. 1002. Schol. ad Pac. 970.
Footnote 1891:
Theoph. de Lapid. § 6. See Sir John Hill’s Notes, p. 35.
-----
The magnet[1892] also was found in this country, as well as a species of myrrh extracted from the root of a tree,[1893] and resembling in fragrance and medicinal qualities the celebrated Arabian gum. Of manufactured goods no great quantities seem to have been sent out of Bœotia,[1894] though its helmets and chariots, together with its apothecaries’ mortars[1895] and the pottery of Aulis enjoyed a great reputation.[1896]
-----
Footnote 1892:
Plin. Nat. Hist. xxxvi. 25.
Footnote 1893:
Dioscor. i. 78.
Footnote 1894:
Poll. i. 149. Athen. i. 50.
Footnote 1895:
Dioscorid. v. 102.
Footnote 1896:
Pausan. ix. 19. 8.
-----
Phocis exported a celebrated kind of cutlery,[1897] manufactured at Delphi, golden tripods,[1898] fans which found their way even to Cypros,[1899] together with excellent wheat and barley grown in the neighbourhood of Elatea,[1900] an inferior kind of deal,[1901] black[1902] and white hellebore from Anticyra,[1903] apples from the uplands around the shrine of Apollo,[1904] agrostis from Parnassos,[1905] purple fish caught at Bulis,[1906] and kermes from the plain between Ambryssos and Stiris:[1907] the colouring matter it was known proceeded from an insect which, however, was supposed to exist in the fruit of the tree.[1908]
-----
Footnote 1897:
Aristot. Polit. i. 1. Athen. iv. 74.
Footnote 1898:
Athen. v. 26.
Footnote 1899:
Id. vi. 70.
Footnote 1900:
Theoph. Hist. Plant. viii. 8. 2.
Footnote 1901:
Id. v. 2. 12.
Footnote 1902:
Plin. Nat. Hist. xxi. 76.
Footnote 1903:
Ruf. Frag. p. 22, ap. Schneid. ad Theoph. Hist. Plant. ix. 10. 2. Dioscor. iv. 150. Chandler, ii. 276. Polyænus, vi. 13.
Footnote 1904:
Athen. iii. 6.
Footnote 1905:
Dioscor. iv. 32. The reed-agrostis, which grew by the wayside in Babylonia, was said to be fatal to the cattle which fed on it. Id. iv. 31.
Footnote 1906:
Chandler, ii. 228. Steph. de Urb. p. 238. c. Οἱ δὲ ἄνθρωποι οἱ ἐνταῦθα πλέον ὑμίσεις κόχλων ἐς βαφὴν πορφύρας εἰσὶν ἁλιεῖς Pausan. x. 37. 3.
Footnote 1907:
Chandler, ii. 279.
Footnote 1908:
Pausan. x. 36. 1.
-----
The principal articles which Thessaly supplied to commerce were shoes,[1909] easy chairs, slaves, branded on the forehead, and usually shipped at Pagasæ,[1910] horses,[1911] cattle, wheat,[1912] chironean all-heal,[1913] the best black hellebore,[1914] the nymphæa nelumbo from the waters of the Peneios,[1915] gypsum,[1916] poisonous water, like that of Nonacris,[1917] found near Tempè, and medicinal chalk.[1918]
-----
Footnote 1909:
Steph. Byzant. de Urb. v. Θεσσαλία. p. 394. a. Poll. vii. 89.
Footnote 1910:
Athen. i. 49. 50.
Footnote 1911:
Oppian. Cyneg. i. 171. Strab. viii. 8. t. ii. p. 226.
Footnote 1912:
Xenoph. Hellen. vi. 14.
Footnote 1913:
Πανάκες Χειρώνιων. Dioscor. iii. 57.
Footnote 1914:
Theoph. Hist. Plant. ix. 10. 2, with the note of Schneider.
Footnote 1915:
Dioscor. iii. 149. The root of this plant, which as has above been seen was eaten in Greece, forms to this day an article of food among the Chinese. The poor even eat it raw, in which case it is said to be not very palateable. Osbeck, Voyage to China, i. 310.
Footnote 1916:
Theoph. de Lapid. § 64.
Footnote 1917:
Senec. Quæst. Nat. iii. 25, who gives as the reason, that the water springs from iron or copper mines.
Footnote 1918:
Theoph. de Lapid. § 64. Plin. Nat. Hist. xxxv. 57.
-----
From Epeiros were obtained wheat,[1919] gypsum, shepherds’ dogs,[1920] a large superior sort of round apple,[1921] excellent horses, a breed of oxen remarkable for their size,[1922] magnificent oak timber,[1923] and acorns in large quantities for the planting of forests in other parts of Greece;[1924] Ætolia, saffron,[1925] black hellebore,[1926] and guinea-fowls,[1927] or, perhaps, wild turkeys, of which it was the original country; Narycia, in the territories of the Epicnemidian Locrians, tar;[1928] Acarnania, slings,[1929] mother of pearl,[1930] and gold and silver-coloured pyrites.[1931]
-----
Footnote 1919:
Lycurg. cont. Leochar. § 8.
Footnote 1920:
Aristot. Hist. Animal. ix. 1. Poll. v. 39. Ælian. de Nat. Animal. iii. 2.
Footnote 1921:
Dioscor. i. 162. Plin. Nat. Hist. xv. 15.
Footnote 1922:
Plin. Nat. Hist. viii. 70.
Footnote 1923:
Theoph. Hist. Plant. ii. 2. 6.
Footnote 1924:
Palmer. Descrip. Græc. Antiq. p. 222.
Footnote 1925:
Dioscor. i. 25. In Venetian times the environs of Naupactos were thought to produce the best wines of all Greece. Coronelli, Mem. de la Morée, p. 231.
Footnote 1926:
Dioscor. iv. 151.
Footnote 1927:
Μελεαγρίδες. Athen. xiv. 70. Suid. t. ii. p. 122. a. Aristot. Hist. Animal. vi. 2.
Footnote 1928:
Virg. Georg. ii. 438. Plin. Nat. Hist. xiv. 25.
Footnote 1929:
Poll. i. 149.
Footnote 1930:
Plin. Nat. Hist. ix. 56. Rondelet. i. 48. Aristot. Hist. Animal. v. 15.
Footnote 1931:
Plin. Nat. Hist. xxxvi. 30.
-----
The productions which Macedonia and Thrace contributed to the commerce of the ancient world were numerous, and, in many cases, of the highest value; as, for example, gold and silver,[1932] of which there were mines[1933] both in Mount Pangæos,[1934] Scapte Hyle,[1935] and several other places along the coast. History makes particular mention of those which existed in the neighbourhood of Crenides,[1936] afterwards Philippi, contending for which the Athenian general, Sophanes, lost his life in a battle with the Edonians.[1937] In the country of the Pœonians the husbandmen, cultivating the fields, often turned up bits of virgin gold with the plough. To these we may add ship timber, pitch, and tar,[1938] upon which the Athenians in the later ages of the republic, chiefly depended for the construction of their navies, with rich and fragrant wines, such as those of Mendè and Maronea.[1939]
-----
Footnote 1932:
Lucian, de Sacrif. § 11. Id. Fugitiv. § 24. Id. Icaromenip. § 18. Plin. Nat. Hist., xxxiii. 21. vii. 57. Herod. vii. 112. ix. 75. Xenoph. Hellen. v. 2. 12. Athen. ii. 16. Strab. vii. frag. 17. t. ii. p. 133. Pausan. i. 29.
Footnote 1933:
The mines in the neighbourhood of lake Prasias, produced, in the time of Alexander, son of Amyntas, a talent of silver a day. Herodot. v. 17.
Footnote 1934:
Xenoph. Hellen. v. 2. 17. Plin. vii. 57.
Footnote 1935:
These mines of Scapte Hyle produced to the Thasians, when they possessed a power on the continent, a revenue of eighty talents a year. Herodot. vi. 46. Appian. Bell. Civil. iv. 106.
Footnote 1936:
Diodor. Sicul. xvi. 8.
Footnote 1937:
Herodot. ix. 75. Meurs. Lection. Att. vi. 31.
Footnote 1938:
Æschin. adv. Timarch. § 6. Xenoph. Hellen. vi. 1. 4. Thucyd. iv. 108. Theoph. Hist. Plant. v. 2. 1. The wood grown on the northern slopes of mountains was esteemed toughest, and, therefore, best suited for oars. Id. Hist. Plant. iv. 1. 4.
Footnote 1939:
Athen. i. 47. Iorio, Storia del Commercio, t. iv. l. ii. c. iii. p. 235. Hom. Odyss. ix. 197. Steph. de Urb. v. Μένδη, p. 550. b. In the vineyards of Mendè the husbandmen used to sprinkle the grape clusters with the juice of the wild cucumber, which communicated to the wine a medicinal quality. Athen. i. 53.
-----
From the gardens at the foot of Mount Pangæos the rose of a hundred leaves appears to have been propagated throughout Greece.[1940] Rue, the leaves and seeds of which were much used in ancient medicine,[1941] abounded in a certain district of Macedonia, but does not appear to have been introduced into commerce because it was esteemed a poison, and flourished in a district greatly infested with vipers. The rose-root,[1942] exported from Macedonia, resembled that of the costus in form, and diffused an odour analogous to the perfume of the rose. It was applied with oil of roses to remove the head-ache.
-----
Footnote 1940:
Theoph. Hist. Plant. vi. 6. 4. The Greek fable on the birth of the rose is familiar to every reader, but it may not, perhaps, be so well known, that the Mahommedans believe it to have sprung from the sweat of their prophet: “Ut veteres rosam ex sanguine Veneris, sic isti (Turcæ) ex sudore Mahumetis natam sibi persuaserint.” Busbeq. Epist. i. p. 51.
Footnote 1941:
Dioscor. iii. 52. From a passage in Polyænus it would appear, that Thrace carried on habitually a trade with the neighbouring countries in hay and straw. Stratagem. iii. 15.
Footnote 1942:
Dioscor. iv. 45.
-----
Among the other exports of Thrace and Macedonia were wine flavoured with wormwood,[1943] truffles,[1944] beans from about Philippi,[1945] heraclean all-heal,[1946] the juice of which was called opopanax, odoriferous roots some of which exhaled the perfume of spikenard,[1947] the meon,[1948] alum,[1949] corn,[1950] cheese,[1951] salt-fish,[1952] mullets from Abdera,[1953] delcani from the lake Delcon,[1954] eels from the Strymon,[1955] skates from Ænia,[1956] enormous horns of wild bulls,[1957] timber for ships[1958] and oars,[1959] chrysocolla,[1960] alum, reddle, jet from the neighbourhood of Bena,[1961] dark carbuncles,[1962] and earths for preserving corn found near Olynthos.[1963]
-----
Footnote 1943:
Dioscor. iii. 26.
Footnote 1944:
Athen. ii. 20. Theoph. Hist. Plant. i. 6. 13.
Footnote 1945:
Theoph. Hist. Plant. viii. 8. 6.
Footnote 1946:
Dioscor. iii. 55.
Footnote 1947:
Theoph. Hist. Plant. ix. 7. 3. Dioscor. i. 1.
Footnote 1948:
Dioscor. i. 3.
Footnote 1949:
Id. v. 123.
Footnote 1950:
Lys. in Diogit. § 5. Bœckh. Pub. Econ. of Athens, i. 107.
Footnote 1951:
Athen. ii. 68.
Footnote 1952:
Id. vii. 45.
Footnote 1953:
Id. vii. 77.
Footnote 1954:
Id. iii. 87.
Footnote 1955:
Id. vii. 53.
Footnote 1956:
Id. vii. 25.
Footnote 1957:
Herod. vii. 126. Spanh. ad Callim. in Dian. 157. Plin. Nat. Hist. viii. 16.
Footnote 1958:
Xenoph. Hellen. vi. 1. 4.
Footnote 1959:
Theoph. Hist. Plant. iv. 1. 4.
Footnote 1960:
Dioscor. v. 123. 104. Beckmann, Hist. of Inventions, i. 292.
Footnote 1961:
Theoph. de Lapid. § 15.
Footnote 1962:
Plin. Nat. Hist. xxxvii. 25.
Footnote 1963:
Theoph. Hist. Plant. viii. 10. 7.
-----
From the countries situated on the Bosporos and the Black Sea, Greece imported numerous valuable commodities, among which the principal were corn,[1964] salt-meat,[1965] and fish,[1966]—as thunnies, corduli, turbots, the kolias, a kind of mackerel, Tethæan oysters from Chalcedon, amiæ,[1967] mullets,[1968] sturgeons, oxyrunchi,[1969] coracini, skates, herrings,[1970] crabs,[1971] and the edible mussel.[1972] The way in which some of these fish were caught in the Euxine is perhaps worth describing:[1973] the natives pitching, in winter, their tents on the ice,[1974] cut therein large open spaces, towards which the fish thronging to enjoy the light, were taken in great numbers.
-----
Footnote 1964:
Demosth. adv. Polycl. § 2. Cont. Lept. § 9. This wheat, however, was considered lighter than that grown in Greece. Theoph. Hist. Plant. viii. 45. 5. Herod. vii. 147. Thucyd. iii. 2. Iorio, Storia del Commercio, t. iv. l. ii. c. iii. p. 219.
Footnote 1965:
Demosth. in Lacrit. § 8. Busbequius, Epist. i. p. 67.
Footnote 1966:
Athen. iii. 84, sqq. § i. 49. Strab. vii. 6. t. ii. p. 112. A species of rhombos, bret, or turbot, is still caught in considerable quantities in the sea of Azof and in the Black Sea. Pallas, Travels in Eastern Russia, iv. 243. Cf. Strab. ix. 2. t. ii. p. 401.
Footnote 1967:
Athen. vii. 6.
Footnote 1968:
Id. vii. 77.
Footnote 1969:
Athen. iii. 84.
Footnote 1970:
Lucian. Diall. Meret. § 14. Somn. seu Gall. § 22. Dioscor. ii. 7. Pallas informs us, that at the present day large quantities of fat and delicate herrings are caught with the trail-net in the Black Sea. Travels in Southern Russia, iv. 242.
Footnote 1971:
Athen. vii. 45.
Footnote 1972:
Id. iii. 64.
Footnote 1973:
The Borysthenes which produced in its pure waters numerous species of delicate fish, abounded likewise with a large kind, cured by the inhabitants with the salt found plentifully at its mouth. Herod. iv. 53. Eustath. ad Dion. Perieg. 311.
Footnote 1974:
Aristot. Meteorol. i. 12, p. 29. A similar mode of fishing is practised on Lake Ontario. “In the winter, when the bay (of Toronto) is frozen over solidly, huts are erected, and holes made in the ice, where the fish are caught by spearing.” Sir R. H. Bonnycastle, Canadas, &c. i. 166.
-----
To the above may be added[1975] nuts, chestnuts, walnuts,[1976] honey, wax,[1977] tar, wool, rigging, leather, goatskins, timber,[1978] horses[1979] and pheasants from the Phasis,[1980] and slaves, particularly archers.[1981] The honey of Heraclea, like that of Mazanderân, and certain poisons, is said to have produced a temporary madness.[1982] From the kingdom of Pontos was obtained that medicinal root denominated rha,[1983] which has sometimes been confounded with rhubarb,[1984] though the latter be laxative, the former astringent, together with isinglass,[1985] used in cosmetics, for smoothing the wrinkles of the face, liquorice-root, brought also from Cappadocia,[1986] wild spikenard found growing on shady mountains,[1987] wormwood which fattened sheep and diminished their gall,[1988] amomon,[1989] and germander.[1990]
-----
Footnote 1975:
Athen. ii. 13. Cf. Bœckh. Pub. Econ. of Athens, i. 66.
Footnote 1976:
Didym. ap. Geopon. x. 68. 1. Plin. Nat. Hist. xv. 22.
Footnote 1977:
Dioscor. ii. 105.
Footnote 1978:
Lucian. Navig. § 23. Theoph. Hist. Plant. v. 2. 12.
Footnote 1979:
There are in modern times few countries where horses are cheaper and more numerous than in Colchis:—“Il n’y a point d’homme si pauvre dans la Colchide qui n’ait un cheval, car il ne coute rien à entretenir; entre les gentilshommes il y eu a qui en nourrissent deux cens et le prince en a cinq mille.” Lamberti, Relation de la Mingrelie, Voyages au Nord, t. vii. p. 193.
Footnote 1980:
Aristoph. Nub. 109. The woods of Colchis abound still in pheasants and partridges. Busbequius, Epist. iii. p. 205. Lamberti, however, relates, that the race of partridges was almost extinct in Colchis, through the abundance of birds of prey. Voyages au Nord, t. vii. p. 192.
Footnote 1981:
Thucyd. iii. 2. Plut. Sympos. v. 7. 1. Eurip. in Alcest. 675.
Footnote 1982:
There was likewise in Pontos a honey of a bitter taste, (Dion. Chrysost. i. 289, seq.) collected, according to Dioscorides (ii. 103), and Pliny (Nat. Hist. xxi. 44), from the purple flowered dwarf rhododendron which abounds on the northern shores of the Black Sea, more particularly in the vicinity of Trebizond. (Tournefort, t. iii. p. 74, sqq.) This, apparently, was the honey that produced effects so extraordinary upon the Ten Thousand, (Xenoph. Anab. iv. 8. 20,) and had the reputation of causing temporary madness. The shrub above named must be carefully distinguished from the common rhododendron which yields no honey. Della Rocca, i. 352, seq. Another cause of the bitterness of the Colchian honey is assigned by Lamberti: “Ils mettent quelquefois leur miel dans des écorces de citrouilles amères, ce qui a peut-être donné sujet à Strabon, [l. xi. c. 2. t. ii. p. 409, Tauchnitz.] d’en parler comme il a fait, et il est vrai aussi que celui qu’on ramasse dans les montagnes, dans le tems que le laurier-rose est en fleur, fait vomir ceux qui en prennent: si bien que les païsans, faute d’autre remède, s’en servent pour se purger.” Voyages au Nord, t. vi. p. 197.
Footnote 1983:
Dioscor. iii. 2. It has been conjectured by Prosper Alpinus that the Rha was brought to Pontos from the banks of the Volga, as Ammianus Marcellinus in fact, relates: Rha vicinus est amnis, in cujus superciliis quædam vegetabilis ejusdem nominis gignitur radix, proficiens ad usus multiplices medelarum, l. xxii. c. 8, p. 340.
Footnote 1984:
See the whole question ably discussed by Prosper Alpinus, De Rhapontico, cap. ii. p. 9.
Footnote 1985:
Ἡ δὲ ἰχθυόκολλα λεγομένη κοιλία ἐστὶν ἰχθύος κητώοὺ Dioscor. iii. 102.
Footnote 1986:
Africanus, ap. Geopon. v. 24. 2. vii. 24. 4. Dioscor. iii. 7. Plin. Nat. Hist. xi. 119.
Footnote 1987:
Dioscor. i. 9.
Footnote 1988:
Theoph. Hist. Plant. ix. 17. 4. Dioscor. 26, seq.
Footnote 1989:
Dioscor. i. 14. Damogeron. ap. Geopon. vii. 13. 1. Plin. Nat. Hist. xii. 13.
Footnote 1990:
Σκορδίον. Dioscor. iii. 125.
-----
Melilot[1991] was exported from Chalcedon, and Cyzicos, where there was likewise an extensive manufactory of unguent of marjoram,[1992] a plant which appears to have grown abundantly amid the neighbouring hills, and was commonly wreathed in garlands. The making of this article of commerce was a complicated operation, and numerous ingredients entered into its composition,—as oil of green olives, and of acorns, balsam wood, odoriferous rushes and reeds perfumed with marjoram, spikenard, costus, amomon, cassia, carpobalsamon, and myrrh. To render the ointment still more precious cinnamon was sometimes intermingled with it, the vessel in which it was kept moistened with wine, while honey was made the basis of the paste.
-----
Footnote 1991:
Dioscor. iii. 48. Pollux, vi. 106.
Footnote 1992:
Dioscor. i. 68. Cf. iii. 47. Cyzicos, likewise exported beans. Theoph. Hist. Plant. viii. 10. 3.
-----
The shores of the Propontis furnished wine flavoured with wormwood,[1993] cardamums,[1994] and the substance called halcyonion, supposed by the ancients to have been that indurated froth of the sea,[1995] with which the halcyon built her nest. It was obtained as well on the continent as from the island of Besbicos, now Kalolimno.[1996] A very similar substance, called Adarces, was found in Cappadocia,[1997] about the rivers and marshes, where it hung suspended on the tops of reeds. Aconite[1998] and origany came from the country of the Maryandinians,[1999] and agaric from Sarmatia,[2000] doubtless by way of the Dnieper. The Sea of Marmora produced black coral, as also a sort of floating petroleum.[2001]
-----
Footnote 1993:
Id. iii. 26.
Footnote 1994:
Id. i. 5.
Footnote 1995:
Dioscor. v. 136. See a representation of the halcyonion in Forskal, Flora Ægyptiaca-Arabica, tab. 27, d. e.
Footnote 1996:
Dapper, Description des Isles de l’Archipel. p. 497.
Footnote 1997:
Dioscor. v. 137. Cardan, misunderstanding Serapion, has taken the adarces to be a stone, which error is corrected by Scaliger, de Subtilitate, Exercit. 130, p. 446.
Footnote 1998:
Cf. Strab. l. xii. t. ii. p. 818.
Footnote 1999:
Theoph. Hist. Plant. ix. 16. 4. Dioscor. v. 61.
Footnote 2000:
Γεννᾶται δὲ ἐν τῇ Ἀγαρίᾳ τῆς Σαρματικῆς. Dioscor. iii. 1. On its uses cf. Prosp. Alpin. de Medicin. Ægypt. iv. 15, p. 340. Brand, Journal of an Embassy to China, in Harris, vol. i. p. 230.
Footnote 2001:
Dapper, Description des Isles de l’Archipel. p. 497.
-----
The orpiment[2002] of Pontos and Cappadocia enjoyed but a secondary reputation; the first place being given to that of Mysia. The lapis lazuli[2003] of Scythia necessarily found its way into Greece by the Black Sea, as did, likewise, the cinnabar of Colchis, said to have been discovered amid inaccessible rocks and precipices,[2004] whence it was brought down by darts and arrows. Probably, also, brass was exported from Colchis.[2005] In the Homeric age great quantities of silver[2006] would seem to have been obtained from the country of the Halizones, as in later ages of steel and iron from that part of Asia Minor inhabited by the Chalybes,[2007] who are said to have worked their mines naked. The finest kind of minium was excavated from certain caverns in Cappadocia,[2008] and transported by land to the city of Sinope, whence it was sent into Greece.[2009] It was of three kinds,—the one deep, the other extremely pale, and the third sort a shade between the two. There were likewise in the same district mines of ochre, and both were so infected with damp and malaria, that the workmen, as in our own coalpits, were constantly in danger of their lives.[2010] Many of the commodities of this place were probably distributed through Greece and Asia by the travelling merchants, who resorted, at the annual festival of the goddess, to the great fair of Komana.[2011]
-----
Footnote 2002:
Dioscor. v. 121.
Footnote 2003:
Theoph. de Lapid. § 55. From the country of the Agathyrsi a species of diamond appears to have been obtained in great abundance. Ammianus Marcellinus, xxii. 8, p. 341. Dion. Perieg. 319. Priscian. Perieg. 311. Plin. Nat. Hist. iv. 20. Pompon. Mel. ii. 1.
Footnote 2004:
Theoph. de Lapid. § 58.
Footnote 2005:
Peyssonnel, Observations Historiques et Géographiques sur les Peuples barbares qui ont habité les bords du Danube et du Pont Euxin, p. 68, sqq.
Footnote 2006:
Hom. Il. β. 857. Heyne, ad loc. t. iv. p. 430.
Footnote 2007:
Aristot. Auscult. Mirab. t. xvi. p. 185. Eustath. ad Dion. Perieg. 767. Æschyl. Prometh. Vinct. 301. Xenoph. Anab. v. 5. 1. Steph. Byzant. de Urb. p. 753. a. Salmas. ad Solin. p. 1085. Suid. v. χάλυβες. t. ii. p. 1108. d. Apollon. Rhod. ii. 1005, sqq. v. 374, seq. Valer. Flacc. iv. 610. Ammian. Marcellin. xxii. 8, p. 338. Pollux. vii. 107. x. 186. Strab. xii. 3. t. iii. p. 27. Tauchn.
Footnote 2008:
Theoph. de Lapid. § 52.
Footnote 2009:
Συλλέγεται δὲ ἐν τῇ Καππαδοκίᾳ ἐν σπηλαίοις τισί. διυλίζεται δὲ καὶ φέρεται εἰς Σινώπην καὶ πιπράσκεται. ὅθεν καὶ τὴν ἐπωνυμίαν. Dioscor. v. 111. Strab. xii. t. ii. p. 814. Casaub.
Footnote 2010:
Theoph. de Lapid. § 52.
Footnote 2011:
Τὰ μὲν οὖν Κόμανα εὐανδρεῖ, καὶ ἔστιν ἐμπορεῖον τοῖς ἀπὸ τῆς Ἀρμενίας ἀξιόλογον· συνέρχονται δὲ κατὰ τὰς ἐξόδους τῆς θεοῦ πανταχόθεν, ἔκ τε τῶν πόλεων καὶ τῆς χώρας, ἄνδρες ὁμοῦ ταῖς γυναιξὶν ἐπὶ τὴν ἑορτήν· καὶ ἄλλοι δὲ κατ᾽ εὐχην ἀεί τινες ἐπιδημοῦσι, θυσίας τε ἐπιτελοῦντες τῇ θεῷ. Strab. xii. 3. t. iii. p. 43. Heeren, Researches on the Commerce and Politics of the Ancients, i. 121. Similar gatherings, partly religious, partly commercial, still take place among the Mahommedans at Mecca, and among the Hindoos at various places, particularly at Haridwârâ, where two millions and a-half of pilgrims have sometimes been known to assemble. Hindoos, i. 224. Asiatic Researches, vi. 311, sqq.
-----
In speaking of the Black Sea we have already entered upon that of Asia Minor, which, taken altogether, was perhaps the richest and most important anywhere carried on by the Greeks. Every province of this fertile and beautiful division of Asia abounded in costly or useful articles of merchandise, and its roads and rivers incessantly poured towards Greece not only the productions of its own soil, but those also of Central Asia, brought thither by the caravans from both shores of the Caspian. Gold dust[2012] was collected from the sands of the Pactolos;[2013] marbles of the most brilliant whiteness were exported from Ephesos, (whose inhabitants decreed divine honours to the shepherd Pyxodoros,[2014] by whom the quarries were discovered), and from Synnada in Phrygia;[2015] large veins of lapis specularis, a stone so transparent[2016] that it served the ancients instead of glass for windows, were found in Cappadocia; the precious gem called alabandine[2017] was procured from the district round Miletos, jet[2018] from Lycia, not far from the river Gagas, and the fortress Plagiopolis. The places whence this mineral is chiefly obtained at present are Inspruck, in the Tyrol,[2019] where it is rolled down by the waters of a certain stream, and Wirtemberg,[2020] where it is wrought into all kinds of ornaments.
-----
Footnote 2012:
Gold was likewise obtained from a place on the shores of the Propontis, lying between Lampsacos and Abydos. Xenoph. Hellen. iv. 8. 37. On the mines found here, Schneider has the following note: “Auri metalli Lampsacena memorat Plinius 37, sectione 74, et Polyænus ii. 1. 26. Abydena nusquam reperi dicta. Forte fuerint in agro medio inter Lampsacum et Abydum stadiis 170, distantem à Lampsaco, teste Strabone.” Cf. Theophrast. de Lapid. § 32.
Footnote 2013:
Peyssonnel, Observations Historiques, &c., p. 342. Ovid. Metam. xi. 3. 1, sqq. Winkel. Hist. de l’Art. ii. 67. Cf. Tibull. lib. iii. 3. 13.
Footnote 2014:
Vitruv. x. 7. Chandler Travels, i. 143, seq.
Footnote 2015:
Strab. xii. t. ii. p. 865. Casaub.—Chandler, i. 160. ii. 86. 108. Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, iii. 236.
Footnote 2016:
Strab. xii. t. ii. p. 814. Plin. Nat. Hist. xxxvi. 45.
Footnote 2017:
Plin. Nat. Hist, xxxvii. 25. Theoph. de Lapid. § 19. On which see the note of Sir John Hill, p. 76.
Footnote 2018:
Γαγάτης. Dioscor. v. 146. Plin. Nat. Hist. xxxvi. 34. Aldrovand. de Metall. iii. 19. Scalig. de Subtilitat. Exercit. civ. 3, p. 383. Florent. ap. Geopon. viii. 8. Orpheus, de Lapid. 468.
Footnote 2019:
Martin Mathée, Notes sur Dioscoride, p. 503.
Footnote 2020:
Valmont de Bomare, Dictionnaire d’Histoire Naturelle, t. iii. p. 414. Anselm. Boet. Gemm. et Lapid. Hist. ii. 164, p. 336, observes, that jet is sometimes found in Britain, and our antiquarian, Camden, speaks of its being sometimes dug up from pits near Okewood in Surrey. Britannia, col. 163.
-----
The touchstone was found in great quantities in the bed of the river Tmolos.[2021] It resembled in form a flat pebble, though considerably larger, and the side which had lain uppermost exposed to the sun was supposed to exercise a greater power over metals than the side opposite, which was more saturated with moisture. Basalt and the green marble called verdello are now often used instead of it in making experiments on the purity of gold.[2022] From this part of the world also was first obtained that extraordinary stone whose properties slightly observed by the ancients have since effected so wonderful a change in the science of navigation; I mean the magnet, found originally in Lydia, near the city of Heraclea.[2023]
-----
Footnote 2021:
Theoph. de Lapid. § 47. Dioscor. v. 111.
Footnote 2022:
Sir John Hill, Notes on Theophrast. p. 190, seq.
Footnote 2023:
Plat. Tim. t. vii. p. 118. Plin. Nat. Hist. xxxvi. 45.
-----
In the neighbourhood of Ephesos there was a manufacture of cinnabar,[2024] which was produced in the following manner: taking a quantity of sand of a bright scarlet colour, they triturated it to a very fine powder in stone mortars, after which it was washed in brazen vessels, and the remainder pounded and washed as before till the whole had been reduced to the fineness required.
-----
Footnote 2024:
Theoph. de Lapid. § 58.
-----
The fossil and mineral salt called alum,[2025] was dug out of the earth near Hierapolis in Phrygia, from which country also the best salt[2026] was procured. It was found, as at present, on the shores of Lake Tatta, on which account it obtained the name of the Tattæan salt.[2027] A causeway traverses the lake nearly through the centre, as in the case of the lake Tritonis in northern Africa.
-----
Footnote 2025:
Dioscor. v. 123. The alum also of Egypt appears to have been extensively exported, and held in high estimation by Physicians. Celsus, v. 38. 12.
Footnote 2026:
Dioscor. v. 126.
Footnote 2027:
Plin. Nat. Hist. xxxi. 41. Strabo, speaking of these salt-springs of Tatta, relates a somewhat extraordinary circumstance: ἡ μὲν οὖν Τάττα ἁλοπήγιον ἐστιν αὐτοφυές· οὔτω δὲ πειρπήττεται ῥᾳδίως τὸ ὕδωρ παντὶ τῷ βαπτισθέντι εἰς αὐτὸ, ὥστε στεφάνους ἁλῶν ἀνέλκουσιν, ἐπειδὰν καθῶσι κύκλον σχοίνινον· τά τε ὄρνεα ἁλίσκεται τὰ προσαψάμενα τῷ πτερώματι τοῦ ὕδατος παραχρῆμα πίπτοντα δὶα τὴν περίπηξιν τῶν ἁλῶν. xii. 6. t. iii. p. 58.
-----
The best nitre[2028] known to the ancients came from Philadelphia, near the source of the Cogamos in Lydia. That of Magnesia, in Caria, was esteemed inferior. From Colophon,[2029] in early times was obtained that liquid resin which distils from the pine and pitch trees, on which account it obtained the name of Colophonia.[2030]
-----
Footnote 2028:
Dioscor. v. 130. Celsus, ii. 33, p. 94.
Footnote 2029:
Dioscor. i. 92.
Footnote 2030:
Cf. Suid. v. Κολοφωνία, t. i. p. 1487, seq.
-----
Medicinal chalk[2031] and dry pitch, of which there were two kinds,[2032] were imported from Lycia and Mysia.[2033] From the same country likewise, as well as from Galatia, came the best wild cumin,[2034] a low plant found growing along the slopes and crests of hills. Herb mastic,[2035] resembling origany in fragrance, was produced in Magnesia and around the Lydian city of Tralles. Both Lydia and Cilicia exported saffron.[2036] That, however, which enjoyed among the ancients the greatest celebrity grew upon the heights of Mount Corycos,[2037] in the neighbourhood of the Corycian cave.[2038]
-----
Footnote 2031:
Plin. Nat. Hist. xxxv. 57.
Footnote 2032:
Dioscor. i. 97.
Footnote 2033:
Theoph. Hist. Plant. ix. 2. 5.
Footnote 2034:
Dioscor. iii. 69. Cf. Theoph. Hist. Plant. vii. 3. 2. Caus. Plant. iv. 15. 2. Sibth. Flor. Græc. tab. 243.
Footnote 2035:
Μάρον. Dioscor. iii. 49. Theophrast. de Odor. § 33, seq. Plin. Nat. Hist. xii. 53.
Footnote 2036:
Dioscor. i. 25. Schol. Aristoph. Av. 301.
Footnote 2037:
Vit. Sequest. p. 29. Virg. Georg. iv. 127. Martial. iii. 65.
Footnote 2038:
Galen. de Antidot. c. xiii. Spanh. Observ. in Callin. in Apoll. 83. t. ii. p. 102. Horat. Satir. ii. 4. 68. Plin. Nat. Hist. xxi. 17.
-----
The saffron of Lycia was likewise the produce of a mountain, being found chiefly on the Olympos of that country.[2039]
-----
Footnote 2039:
Dioscor. i. 25.
-----
The kermes,[2040] with which alone before the discovery of America and the introduction of cochineal, a bright scarlet dye could be produced, were obtained from various parts of Asia Minor, Galatia, Lycia, and Cilicia, where they were found feeding on the leaves of the scarlet oak.[2041] The gathering of these insects, then, however, supposed to be mere tubercular excrescences, formed an important branch of industry, carried on entirely by women, who separated them from the leaf with a crooked iron instrument, and not with the mouth as has been inferred from a wrong reading in Dioscorides.[2042] At present the nail only is used in this operation, which is performed before sunrise, while the dew is still on the tree.[2043]
-----
Footnote 2040:
Dioscor. iv. 48. Pollux, vii. 56. x. 42. iv. 154.
Footnote 2041:
Cf. Scalig. de Subtilitat. Exerc. cxciv. 7. p. 631, seq.
Footnote 2042:
Cf. Serapion. c. cccxi. ap. Beckmann, ii. 170.
Footnote 2043:
Garidel, Histoire des Plantes qui naissent aux environs d’Aix. p. 254.
-----
Chervil[2044] and oil[2045] were exported from Cilicia; wild spikenard came from Phrygia;[2046] madder from Caria, where it was cultivated in the interspaces between the olive-trees, and produced an immense return;[2047] wormwood[2048] and the blue flowers of a species of wild thyme from Cappadocia and Pamphylia;[2049] and centaury from the neighbourhood of Smyrna and from Lycia.[2050] In the gathering of this last plant the rizotomists observed certain rules. Going forth at peep of dawn into the fields, they were careful to cull it immediately before the rising of the sun, and during serene weather, when the virtues of plants are in great perfection.
-----
Footnote 2044:
Γιγγιδίον. Dioscor. ii. 167. Artedia squammata. Sibthorp, Flora Græca, tab. 268.
Footnote 2045:
Florent. ap. Geopon. ix. 3. 1.
Footnote 2046:
Dioscor. i. 9.
Footnote 2047:
Dioscor. iii. 160. Sibthorp, Flora Græca, tab. 141.
Footnote 2048:
Geopon. viii. 21. 1.
Footnote 2049:
Dioscor. iv. 179. iii. 126, 127.
Footnote 2050:
Id. iii. 8. Celsus, v. 27. 10.
-----
From this country as well as from Cappadocia was obtained the lycion,[2051] a syrup about the consistence of honey, regarded as a remedy against ophthalmia.
-----
Footnote 2051:
Id. i. 132. Celsus, v. 28. 16.
-----
The hyssop of Cilicia[2052] was in great esteem for flavouring wine, as were likewise its mountain spikenard,[2053] its pickled cactus,[2054] its agrostis,[2055] its œnanthe,[2056] its tragoriganon,[2057] its hemlock,[2058] its silybos, whose young shoots were eaten as food, while the juice of its root was employed as an emetic,[2059] its fossil verdigris,[2060] and its cyperus comosus,[2061] used in giving a body to perfumes.[2062]
-----
Footnote 2052:
“Est autem optimum (hyssopum) Cilicium e Tauro monte, dein Pamphyliam, ac Smyrnæum.” Plin. Nat. Hist. xxv. 87. Dioscor. v. 50. iii. 30. Columell. xii. 35.
Footnote 2053:
Dioscor. i. 8.
Footnote 2054:
Theoph. Hist. Plant. vi. 4. 10.
Footnote 2055:
Dioscor. iv. 32. Democrit. ap. Geopon. ii. 6. 23.
Footnote 2056:
Dioscor. v. 5.
Footnote 2057:
Plin. Nat. Hist. xx. 68. Dioscor. iii. 35. Etym. Mag. 763, 30. Clusii, Hist. Rar. Plant. iii. p. 358.
Footnote 2058:
Plin. Nat. Hist. xxv. 95. Dioscor. iv. 67. Scaliger, de Subtilitat. Exercit. 151, p. 505, sqq.
Footnote 2059:
Dioscor. iv. 159. Cf. Plin. Nat. Hist. xxii. 42.
Footnote 2060:
Μελαντηρια. Dioscor. v. 118.
Footnote 2061:
Κύπειρον, ἥν τινες ζέρναν καλοῦσι. Democritus, ap. Geopon. 11. vi. 32. Columell. xii. 20. Pallad. xii. 18. Theoph. Hist. Plant. i. 8. 1. De Caus. Plant. vi. 11. 10. Hom. Odyss. δ. 603.
Footnote 2062:
Dioscor. i. 4.
-----
From Galatia and Cappadocia came the white hellebore,[2063] southernwood,[2064] and wild rue;[2065] from Pisidia, the most fragrant lilies for perfumes;[2066] from Mount Ida, in the Troad, timber,[2067] pitch,[2068] and the æthiopis,[2069] a species of verbascum, used by enchanters to open locks and stay the course of rivers; from Sigeion and Lecton, now Cape Baba, on the confines of the same country, and from Æolia, purple fish;[2070] from Abydos oysters; from Parion sea urchins;[2071] from Colophon mustard;[2072] from Galatia and Cilicia agaric, where it grew among the cedars;[2073] from Ionia carobs;[2074] from Mount Amanos, on the confines of Syria, stone parsley,[2075] and cœrulescent wormwood.[2076]
-----
Footnote 2063:
Dioscor. iv. 150.
Footnote 2064:
(Ἀβροτόνον.) Id. iii. 29. Tarentinus, ap. Geopon. ii. 27. 6. Celsus, iii. 21.
Footnote 2065:
Dioscor. iii. 53.
Footnote 2066:
Id. iii. 116.
Footnote 2067:
Xenoph. Hellen. i. 1. 25.
Footnote 2068:
Didymus, ap. Geopon. vi. 5. 1. Theoph. Hist. Plant. ix. 2. 5. Virg. Georg. iii. 450. iv. 41. Plin. Nat. Hist. xiv. 25.
Footnote 2069:
Dioscor. iv. 105.
Footnote 2070:
Aristot. Hist. Animal. v. 15.
Footnote 2071:
Archestratus, ap. Athen. iii. 44.
Footnote 2072:
Athen. ix. 2.
Footnote 2073:
Dioscor. iii. 1.
Footnote 2074:
Theoph. Hist. Plant. iv. 2. 4.
Footnote 2075:
Σμυρνίον, ὅπερ ἐν Κιλικίᾳ, πετροσέλινον καλοῦσι. Dioscor. iii. 79. Sibth. Flor. Græc. 289. This plant was used as a bait for fish. Geopon. xx. 24. 1.
Footnote 2076:
Σμυρνίον, ὅπερ ἐν Κιλικίᾳ, πετροσέλινον καλοῦσι. Dioscor. iii. 27. From the name of this plant the island of Seriphos, according to some, derived its name: “Dicitur à Serfi Græcè, herba, Latinè, quæ ad dolorem renum salutifera hic invenitur.” Bondelmonti, Lib. Insul. Archipelag. § 25. p. 83. “È opinione che’l nome di Serfino li sia stato dato da un’ erba, che nasce quì, chiamata Serfi, ottima per guarire il mal di fianco.” Boschini, p. 32, ap. Ludov. de Sinner, Annot. in Bondelmont. p. 177.
-----
Among the exports of Pisidia and Cilicia was the gum styrax,[2077] which being usually burned on the altars of the theatre during the performance of Phrygian airs it was observed by one of the Greeks to be redolent of that wild music.[2078] The tree from which this gum was obtained resembled that of the quince. A kind of artificial styrax, in appearance like macaroni, was manufactured in the following manner, and preferred by the ignorant to the gum itself. Taking a quantity of wax and perfumed lard, and working it up into a paste with a certain proportion of styrax, they placed it in the sun during the hottest days of the year, when, having been thus rendered nearly liquid, it was passed through a coarse sieve into cold water.[2079]
-----
Footnote 2077:
Dioscor. i. 79. Florent. ap. Geopon. xiii. 88. Plin. Nat. Hist. x. 90. Sibthorp. Flora Græca, 375.
Footnote 2078:
Athen. xiv. 23.
Footnote 2079:
Dioscor. i. 79.
-----
Iris unguent[2080] was exported from Perga, a city of Pamphylia; a sarcophaginous stone used in making coffins,[2081] scammony,[2082] and beans from Mysia; from Smyrna[2083] a superior kind of lettuces.[2084] At present the bees make much honey in the neighbourhood of this city, from the flower of the hypecoum recumbens.[2085] Caria exported slaves,[2086] excellent oil and vinegar,[2087] gum sycamore,[2088] purple fish, figs,[2089] and carobs,[2090] which were grown in the neighbourhood of Caunos and Cnidos; Paphlagonia chestnuts and splendid almonds;[2091] Cappadocia the finest horses known to the ancients;[2092] Phrygia slaves,[2093] cheese made of mares’ and asses’ milk,[2094] hams of the finest qualities cured at Cibyra,[2095] carpets, oil,[2096] and fine black wool, which latter commodities were also among the merchandise of Miletos.[2097]
-----
Footnote 2080:
Id. i. 66.
Footnote 2081:
Plin. Nat. Hist. xxxvi. 27. Dioscor. v. 142. Theoph. de Ign. § 46. Albert. Mag. ii. 2. De Mineral. 17.
Footnote 2082:
Theoph. Hist. Plant. ix. 9. 1-20. 5. Dioscor. iv. 171.
Footnote 2083:
On the modern fruits of Smyrna see Chandler, i. 77. 247.
Footnote 2084:
Athen. ii. 53.
Footnote 2085:
Hazelquist, Travels, p. 242. Sibthorp. Flor. Græc. tab. 155.
Footnote 2086:
Eurip. in Alcest. 675. Philost. Vit. Apoll. Tyan. iii. 25. p. 115.
Footnote 2087:
Athen. ii. 74. 76. xiv. 67. Cf. Brunckh. ad Aristoph. Pac. 574.
Footnote 2088:
Dioscor. i. 181.
Footnote 2089:
Athen. iii. 9.
Footnote 2090:
Theoph. Hist. Plant. iv. 2. 4.
Footnote 2091:
Athen. i. 49.
Footnote 2092:
Oppian de Venat. i. 171. Gibbon, Decline and Fall, iii. 13.
Footnote 2093:
Euripid. in Alcest. 675. Athen. i. 49.
Footnote 2094:
Aristot. Hist. Animal. iii. 20.
Footnote 2095:
Athen. xiv. 75. Poll. vi. 48.
Footnote 2096:
Strab. xii. t. ii. p. 865.
Footnote 2097:
Athen. xii. 17.
-----
From this city were likewise obtained the sheep that produced the celebrated fleeces, together with water-cresses,[2098] roses,[2099] rich tapestry, soft beds,[2100] and cypress wood;[2101] chestnuts, eunuchs, and fine scarlet cloths, with richly-figured carpets of double pile, were also brought from Sardis.[2102] The wines of Asia Minor in most estimation were those of Ephesos, Miletos,[2103] Phygela, Armata, Clazomenè,[2104] and that denominated Catakekaumenitis.[2105] Physicians condemned those of Mount Tmolos as generative of headache. Ephesos exported tents and jewellery;[2106] Miletos sea wolves[2107] and cockles; Smyrna squills; and Patara, in Lycia, seems to have been famous for its gilded sandals.[2108] The same country, likewise, supplied hams of a superior quality.[2109]
-----
Footnote 2098:
Id. i. 49.
Footnote 2099:
Plin. Nat. Hist. xxi. 10.
Footnote 2100:
Athen i. 49.
Footnote 2101:
Id. v. 38.
Footnote 2102:
Schol. Aristoph. Acharn. 112. Athen. vi. 67. ii. 30. Bochart, Geog. Sac. i. 6. Aristoph. Vesp. 1132.
Footnote 2103:
Athen. i. 52.
Footnote 2104:
Dioscor. v. 10, 11. Athen. i. 52. Chandler, i. 163. 243. In Homeric times Phrygia was celebrated for its vines, See Il. γ. 184.
Footnote 2105:
Strab. xiii. 4. t. iii. p. 155. Chandler’s description is almost a translation of Strabo. “This region which is above, or to the east of Philadelphia, was called Catakekaumenè, or the Burned. By some it was reckoned in Mysia, by others in Mœonia, or Lydia. It was five hundred stadia, or sixty-two miles and a half long; and four hundred stadia, or fifty miles broad; and anciently bare of trees, but covered with vines, which produced the wine called by its name, and esteemed not inferior to any in goodness.” i. 284.
Footnote 2106:
Lucian. Dial. Meret. vii. Andocid. adv. Alcib. § 11.
Footnote 2107:
Athen. vii. 86. 87. Aristoph. Eq. 361.
Footnote 2108:
Lucian. Dial. Meret. xiv.
Footnote 2109:
Athen. xiv. 75.
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XII. EXPORTS OF THE ISLANDS, ITALY, GAUL, AND SPAIN
Before we describe the trade of Syria, Egypt, and the farther East, we shall endeavour to give some account of that carried on by the numerous islands of the Mediterranean, together with Italy, Gaul, and Spain, and the whole northern coast of Africa. The commodities furnished to commerce by the various groups and larger islands of the Ægæan and Ionian seas scarcely yielded in number to those of Asia Minor. Of these the most important were the wines, which fluctuated in value, strength, and flavour, according to the soil, temperature, and elevation above the sea, of the vineyards which produced them.
The island of Lesbos, during the flourishing ages of the Athenian republic, formed part, as it were, of the territory of that great maritime state which compelled it to carry its wines exclusively to Athens.[2110] Among these was the Pramnian,[2111] which, also produced in Achaia, was a strong, harsh wine, apparently resembling port. Most, however, of the islands,[2112] both large and small, supplied wine—as Tenedos,[2113] Chios,[2114] Cypros,[2115] which furnished, among others, a curious fig wine;[2116] Thasos,[2117] where one particular kind was somniferous,[2118] Peparethos, Lesbos, Eubœa,[2119] Crete, where among others was found the Malmsey;[2120] Leucadia, Cos,[2121] and Corcyra.
-----
Footnote 2110:
Athen. vii. 9.
Footnote 2111:
Athen. i. 55. Poll. vi. 16. Etym. Mag. 686. 30, seq. Schol. Aristoph. Eq. 107.
Footnote 2112:
Bœckh. Pub. Econ. of Athens, i. 134.
Footnote 2113:
Douglas, Essay on the Modern Greeks, p. 140.
Footnote 2114:
Plut. de Anim. Tranquil. § 10. Dioscor. v. 11. Vib. Sequest. p. 32, ed. Oberlin.
Footnote 2115:
Plin. Nat. Hist. xiv. 2. Synes. Epist. 147.
Footnote 2116:
Κατορχίτης or Συκίτης. Dioscor. v. 41.
Footnote 2117:
Athen. vii. 67. x. 37, 40. i. 52. Florent. ap. Geopon. viii. 23. 1. Theoph. de Odoribus, § 51. Plin. Nat. Hist. xiv. 9.
Footnote 2118:
Theoph. Hist. Plant. ix. 18. 11.
Footnote 2119:
Athen. vii. 13. Andocid. adv. Alcib. § 11.
Footnote 2120:
Athen. x. 56.
Footnote 2121:
Berytius, ap. Geopon. viii. 24. Cato, de Re Rustica, 112.
-----
Few of the islands grew more corn than they could consume, except Eubœa,[2122] which was for many years the granary of Athens. Lesbos,[2123] too, produced the most superb barley, which was grown upon the hills round Eresos, the birthplace of Theophrastus. The Thasians, likewise, cultivated an inferior kind of barley which, from the extreme productiveness of the island, seems occasionally to have been exported, though I remember no authority in proof of the fact. Samos furnished Greece with the best olive oil next to that of Attica.[2124]
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Footnote 2122:
Herod. v. 31.
Footnote 2123:
Athen. iii. 77.
Footnote 2124:
Id. ii. 74. A species of oil, called βομβοία the island of Cypros. Hesych. v. Βομβοία.
-----
But of all the minor islands none appear to have supplied so many articles to the coasting trade of Greece as Thasos, whose productions were singularly rich and varied. There, in the earlier ages, the Phœnicians discovered and worked gold mines which in after times became exhausted, but the fertility of the island and the industry of its inhabitants seem never to have failed. From hence were exported radishes,[2125] fish sauce, pickles,[2126] almonds, and walnuts,[2127] with the trees of which the island was thickly shaded.
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Footnote 2125:
Athen. ii. 48.
Footnote 2126:
Schol. Aristoph. Acharn. 192. 643. Plin. Nat. Hist. xxxiv. 27.
Footnote 2127:
Athen. xiv. 57. Plin. Nat. Hist. xv. 24.
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Crete, Cypros, and Naxos exported hones;[2128] Paros figs[2129] and the best white marble[2130] drawn from quarries, the vast extent of which is still the admiration of travellers.[2131] Cypros, sory, a substance resembling verdigris,[2132] sulphate of copper, emeralds, and jasper.[2133] Linen, white and dyed purple, was brought from Amorgos;[2134] thapsia from Thapsos;[2135] painters’ earth of the best quality, that is of loose texture, crumbling, dry, and without fatness,[2136] obtained from the neighbourhood of Pharis; sulphur,[2137] alum,[2138] and pumice stone from Nisyros and Melos,[2139] where this latter substance was extremely light, and sometimes found imbedded in other stones. The pumices of the island of Nisyros[2140] were of an inferior description, and crumbled to pieces in the hand. They were, however, extremely plentiful, occurring in heaps, and generally about the size of the fist.
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Footnote 2128:
Plin. Nat. Hist. xxxvi. 47.
Footnote 2129:
Athen. iii. 9.
Footnote 2130:
Plin. Nat. Hist. xxxvi. 28. 29. 43. Bondelmont. § 34. Strab. x. 5. t. ii. p. 390. Dapper, Description des Iles de l’Archipel. p. 260, seq. Steph. Byzant. de Urb. v. Μάρπησσα. p. 537. c. Chandler, i. 295.
Footnote 2131:
Tournefort, Voyages, i. 238, seq.
Footnote 2132:
Dioscor. v. 119. Plin. Nat. Hist. xxxiv. 30.
Footnote 2133:
Theoph. de Lapid. § 35.
Footnote 2134:
Schol. ad Æschin. Timarch. p. 381. Schol. Aristoph. Lysist. 150, 735. Poll. vii. 74.
Footnote 2135:
Dioscor. iv. 157. Sibthorp, Flora Græca, tab. 287. See a description of the plant in Tournefort, t. iii. p. 298, sqq. Theoph. Hist. Plant. ix. 8. 3.
Footnote 2136:
Dioscor. v. 129.
Footnote 2137:
Dioscor. v. 124. Plin. Nat. Hist. xxxv. “Le soufre de Milo est parfaitement beau, et a un petit œil verdâtre et luisant, qui le faisoit préférer par les anciens à celui d’Italie: on trouve ce soufre en cette isle par gros morceaux en creusant la terre, et par grosses veines dans les carrières d’où l’on tire les meules de moulin.” Tournefort, Voyage du Levant. i. 187. Buondelmonti gives the following account of the sulphur of Nisyros: “Circa medium (insulæ) mons erigitur altissimus, quo in summitate per subterraneos meatus sulphureus ignis die ac nocte eructat in altum, ut in insula Stronguli apud Liparum habetur. In descensu vero montis, ad jactum lapidis, fons calidissimus emanat in imum, et in plano circa lacum profundissimumque obscurum aquæ descendunt; ibique colentes quantitatem maximam sulphuris mercatoribus præparant.” § 17. p. 76, seq.
Footnote 2138:
Dioscor. v. 123.
Footnote 2139:
Theoph. de Lapid. § 21. Pumice stones are at present found in great numbers on the shores of the Troad, whither Chandler supposes them to have been floated by the waves from Mount Ætna or Vesuvius, though an abundant supply appears to be constantly furnished by the volcanic islands of the Archipelago. Travels, i. 26.
Footnote 2140:
Theoph. de Lapid. § 21. Plin. Nat. Hist. xxxvi. 42. This island likewise supplied the Greeks with excellent millstones Eustath. ad Dion. Perieg. 526, and purple fish. Steph. de Urb. p. 594. c. Suid. v. Νίσυρος t. ii. p. 234. d. Eustath. ad Il. β. t. i. p. 241.
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Carystos in Eubœa exported verde antico,[2141] and the amianthos, or stone from which towels and similar fabrics were manufactured, indestructible by fire;[2142] Eretria medicinal earth;[2143] Chalcis exported copper;[2144] Cimolos chalk and fullers’ earth;[2145] Samos jars[2146] and medicinal earths, ash-coloured and white,[2147] in which was found a stone used by jewellers in polishing gold.[2148]
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Footnote 2141:
Strab. ix. t. i. p. 667. Dion. Chrysost. Orat. lxxx. p. 664.
Footnote 2142:
Strab. x. ii. p. 684. Casaub. Coronelli, Mem. de la Morée, p. 208, seq.
Footnote 2143:
Celsus, v. 19. 7.
Footnote 2144:
Steph. Byzant. v. Χαλκὶς.
Footnote 2145:
Ovid. Metamorph. vii. 463. Plin. Nat. Hist. xxxv. 16. Tournefort, i. p. 172. Strab. x. 5. t. ii. p. 386. Poll. x. 135. vii. 39. Zoroaster, ap. Geopon. vii. 6. 11.
Footnote 2146:
“Morning Chronicle,” July 17, 1838, p. 3. Cicero, pro Muren. 36. Plin. Nat. Hist. xxxv. 48. 46.
Footnote 2147:
Plin. Nat. Hist. xxviii. 53. 77. xxxi. 46.
Footnote 2148:
Dioscor. v. 173. Plin. Nat. Hist. xxxvi. 40.
-----
From Lemnos three different kinds of earth were obtained,—the first known among the ancients by the name of terra sigillata, was sold in small round cakes mingled, according to Dioscorides,[2149] with the blood of a goat and stamped with his image in the sacred seal of Artemis; though Galen, who visited the island on purpose to examine this earth, denies that, in his time, any blood was intermixed with it. The second of the Lemnian earths[2150] was reddle, and the third fullers’ earth. The first of these earths, of a slight red colour, was sometimes denominated sacred, apparently because used in sacrifices. In modern times the substance known under this name is usually brown or pink-coloured.
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Footnote 2149:
Ἡ δὲ Λημνία γενωμένη γῆ, ἔστιν ἐκ τινος ὑπονόμου, ἀντρώδους, ἀναφερομένη ἀπὸ Λήμνου τῆς νήσου, ἐχούσης ἑλώδη τόπου, κᾀκεῖθεν ἐκλέγεται καὶ μίγνυται αἵματι αἰγείῳ· ἣν οἱ ἐκεὶ ἄνθρωποι ἀναπλάσσοντες καὶ σφραγίζοντες εἰκόνι αἰγὸς, σφραγίδα καλοῦσιν αἰγὸς. Dioscor. v. 113.
Footnote 2150:
Theoph. de Lapid. § 52. Florent. ap. Geopon. x. 90. 1. Plin. Nat. Hist. xxxvi. 14. Salmas. ad Solin. p. 1156.
-----
The mine[2151] whence the sealed earth is at present excavated lies on the summit of a precipitous mountain, on the eastern shore of the island, about four bowshots from the ancient city of Hephæstia. The road leading thither, after arriving at the chapel of Sotira, is divided, and branches off to the right and left. Both ways pass by a fountain; the one on the right bordered with elder, willow, and carob trees, by one which, though closely shaded from the sun’s rays, fails in summer; while that on the left conducts to a spring which, lying in a marshy spot, producing nothing but rushes, is perennial. Both these fountains are situated among the roots of the hill, now ascended by steps cut in the rock, but anciently by a road practicable all the way to the summit. The digging of the Lemnian earth appears to have been always under the protection of religion; for, during the operation, a priest anciently stood on the mountain near the mine, and, after having made a sort of libation of corn, which was cast as an offering upon the ground, and performed various other ceremonies, caused a waggon to be laden with the earth and conducted to the city, where it was prepared, sealed, and sold to merchants.
-----
Footnote 2151:
Dapper, Description des Iles de l’Archipel. p. 245. In the island of Cea there were regular pits whence the best reddle was obtained. That found in iron mines was esteemed inferior. Theoph. de Lapid. § 52.
-----
In modern times, ever since the period when the Venetians were in possession of the island, a different and more cumbrous set of ceremonies has been practised.[2152] The principal inhabitants of the island, both Turks and Christians, assembling on the sixth of August, march out in grand procession to the mountains of sealed earth, halting by the way at the chapel of Sotira, where the priests chant the liturgy of the Greek church, and repeat many prayers, after which they ascend the acclivity. Arrived at the summit, fifty or sixty stout men commence excavating in search of the stratum of precious clay, which being found, the priests fill therewith a number of skin sacks, which they deliver to the custody of the Subashi.
-----
Footnote 2152:
Cf. Busbeq. Epist. iii. p. 214, seq.
-----
When a sufficient quantity has been procured the mouth of the mine is closed, and never opened again until that day twelvemonths. A certain quantity is then despatched to the Sultan, who distributes it in presents to princes and monarchs. The remainder is sold as of old to the merchants. It is quite possible that this substance might be discovered in other parts of the island; but the Greeks would set no value upon it unless obtained from the spot in question, and excavated with the proper ceremonies. For any private individual to attempt digging it is a capital offence.
Copper dross or tutty[2153] was obtained from the muddy bottom of a copper mine in Cypros.[2154] Having been exposed to dry in the sun, a quantity of brushwood was cast around it and set on fire, by which means it underwent a second calcination, and thence obtained the name of diphryges, or twice-burned.
-----
Footnote 2153:
Διφρυγὲς, Dioscor. v. 120.
Footnote 2154:
Cf. Iorio, Storia del Commercio, t. iv. l. ii. c. vi. p. 249. Meurs. Cypr. ii. 2. p. 84.
-----
In the same island was found the recrement of brass called Cadmia[2155] by the ancients. It was generated in the following manner: the furnaces in which they smelted copper were constructed of iron arched above, and of very large dimensions. As the metal underwent the action of the fire, the lighter and mere aërial particles, detaching themselves from the molten mass, ascended like sparks, rolling upwards along the sides of the furnace and settling on the roof.
-----
Footnote 2155:
Plin. Nat. Hist. xxxiv. 22.
-----
Here, these particles forming into layers, one above another, coalesced into a hard substance which was called Cadmia.[2156] Of this there were several kinds, one of which was produced by the burning of Pyrites, obtained from precipices overhanging the city of Soli. In these extraordinary mountains were found veins of copper ore,[2157] sulphate of copper,[2158] sory,[2159] verdigris,[2160] lapis lazuli,[2161] chrysocolla,[2162] copperas, and tutty.[2163]
-----
Footnote 2156:
Dioscor. v. 84.
Footnote 2157:
Χαλκῖτις. Foës. Œconom. Hippocrat. p. 405. Aristot. Hist. Animal. v. 19.
Footnote 2158:
Μίσυ. Dioscor. v. 117. Plin. Nat. Hist, xxxiv. 31. Oribas. Collect. l. xiii.
Footnote 2159:
Dioscor. v. 119.
Footnote 2160:
Μελαντήρια. Dioscor. v. 118.
Footnote 2161:
Theoph. de Lapid. § 55.
Footnote 2162:
Dioscor. v. 104. Plin. Nat. Hist. xxxiii. 29.
Footnote 2163:
Dioscor. v. 84.
-----
The recrement of silver was produced in a similar manner during the smelting of the silver ore, but it was in colour paler, and of an inferior quality. In various parts of the island were found in abundance black and white alum,[2164] nitre, sulphur, rock and sea salt,[2165] the former near Citium, the latter in the neighbourhood of Salamis. It likewise exported burnt copper and copper flakes. Several kinds of precious stones were moreover discovered here, as the diamond,[2166] the emerald, the agate,[2167] found also at Lesbos, the opal, the jasper, the sapphire, the eagle stone,[2168] the amethyst,[2169] crystal, and talc,[2170] and hones from the environs of Arsinoë.
-----
Footnote 2164:
Meurs. Cyprus, ii. 4. p. 91.
Footnote 2165:
Dioscor. v. 124. Plin. Nat. Hist. xxxi. 39.
Footnote 2166:
Meurs. Cyprus, ii. 5. p. 93.
Footnote 2167:
Plin. Nat. Hist. xxxvii. 54.
Footnote 2168:
Id. xxxvi. 39.
Footnote 2169:
Meurs. Cyprus. ii. 5. p. 94.
Footnote 2170:
Plin. Nat. Hist. xxxvi. 39. 45.
-----
The Egyptians alloyed their silver money with a third part of gypsum, copper, and an equal portion of sulphur. Mines of gold have been in modern times worked in the islands near Nicosia.
The finely tempered steel of Cypros,[2171] known by the name of adamant among the ancients, was used in making the best cuirasses and deemed impenetrable.
-----
Footnote 2171:
Plin. Nat. Hist. xxxvii. 15. Marbod. Carm. de Gem. cap. i. Plut. Demet. § 21.
-----
From this island were obtained the finest spodium and flowers of zinc, which were produced in the following manner: In a building, two stories high, was constructed a furnace, open at top, and having directly over it a small aperture, communicating with the upper room. The bellows were worked in an adjoining apartment, the snout passing through a wall into the furnace, with which the workman was enabled to communicate by a small door. The fossil Cadmian-stone having been broken into small pieces was cast into the fire through an aperture from above, after which the flames having been blown up to greater fierceness, the mineral converted itself into a dense white vapour, and a cloud of fiery sparks ascended through the mouth of the furnace, the lighter particles attaching themselves like white bubbles or flocks of wool to the walls and vaulted roof of the building, while the heavier, after cooling, fell back into the flames or were scattered about the floor, where they indurated and formed a sort of incrustation. This coarser and weightier substance was usually found when scraped off to contain hairs, splinters, and particles of earth, and received the name of spodion, while that detached from the walls or roof was either milk-white or azure, and was what we now denominate flowers of zinc.
Another mode of manufacturing this article was to cast the fossil Cadmia, reduced to powder, on the surface of the liquid metal in bronze furnaces which caused a similar evaporation. Spodion was likewise procured from gold, silver, and lead, and next after the above this last was considered the best.
Near the village of Amianthos was a celebrated asbestos quarry whose produce, a greyish filamentous stone, was carded like wool and spun and woven into cloth[2172] which when soiled was cast into the fire instead of being washed, and came forth brilliant and pure as from the loom, though at each burning it lost something of its weight. In cerecloths of asbestos the bodies of kings and illustrious personages were burned, in antiquity, to preserve their remains from mingling with the ashes of the pyre.[2173] Matches likewise were made of this substance, more particularly for those durable lamps which were kindled by the Pagans in sepulchres,[2174] and supposed to burn on for ever. Other quarries of asbestos were found in Cypros, chiefly at the foot of the precipices bordering the road leading from Gerandium to Soli.
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Footnote 2172:
Dioscor. v. 156. Plin. Nat. Hist. xix. 4.
Footnote 2173:
Dapper, Description des Iles de l’Archipel. p. 52.
Footnote 2174:
Valmont de Bomare, v. Amiante. t. i. p. 144.
-----
There was found in the island of Siphnos a fossil substance, usually of a spherical form, which was scooped out, and turned into various articles, such as vases, plates, and even pots which would bear the fire. When rubbed with oil and exposed to the action of the air it became black and hard, and resembled the finest pottery:[2175] similar stones are in modern times brought from the island of Minorca.[2176]
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Footnote 2175:
Theoph. de Lapid. § 42. Plin. Nat. Hist. xxxvi. 44. Isidor. Orig. xvi. 4. Tournefort, i. 209.
Footnote 2176:
Sir John Hill, Notes on Theophrastus, p. 180.
-----
Two kinds of medicinal earths, the one white, the other ash-coloured, were obtained from Eretria, in Eubœa.[2177] Chios, likewise, exported a white earth used in cosmetics and at the baths.[2178] From time immemorial the Greeks appear to have obtained from the island of Zacynthos[2179] tar impregnated with a bituminous scent. It was found anciently in a pool, about seventy feet in circumference, and of very great depth, situated in a small valley on the sea-shore nearly encircled by mountains. The tar ascended from the bottom in bubbles as large as a cannon-ball, through the clear water, and on reaching the surface spread over the pond in a kind of film. It was drawn forth with myrtle branches attached to the end of a pole, and laid in pits to harden, after which it was barrelled and exported. It now sells for about two shillings per cask.
-----
Footnote 2177:
Dioscor. v. 171.
Footnote 2178:
Plin. xxxv. 56. Dioscor. v. 174.
Footnote 2179:
Herod. iv. 195. Dioscor. i. 99. Chandler, ii. 340. Leontinus, ap. Geopon. xv. 8. 1. Plin. Nat. Hist. xxxv. 51. Vitruv. viii. 3. Dr. Wordsworth’s Greece, p. 287.
-----
Among the medicinal plants and substances produced in the Grecian islands were the argol,[2180] anis,[2181] germander,[2182] hemlock,[2183] hellebore,[2184] and dittany, found chiefly in Crete;[2185] together with the misletoe, the seeds of which[2186] were bruised and beaten into a paste; hyssop,[2187] the cyperus comosus which abounded in the Cyclades,[2188] from which also an excellent kind of honey[2189] was exported; marjoram,[2190] scammony, green terebinth; resin from Cypros,[2191] aloes from Andros,[2192] aspalathos from Nisyros, Crete, and Rhodes;[2193] hartwort or seseli[2194] and onions[2195] from Samothrace, an island much vexed by winds; origany from Tenedos; from Chios hemlock[2196] and gum mastic,[2197] which the Turkish ladies chew constantly to keep their breath sweet and their teeth white;[2198] Chios, also, as well as Cos and Crete, furnished also tragoriganon.[2199] The last-mentioned island alone produced the Idæan bramble, whose flowers were used in remedies for ophthalmia.[2200] The inhabitants of Rhodes obtained from the Egyptian, or Pharaoh’s fig-tree, a medicinal gum esteemed a remedy against the bite of serpents.[2201] In early spring, before the appearance of the fruit, they gently bruised the bark with a stone, upon which, on all sides, there gushed forth a kind of liquor which, collected with flocks of wool or with sponge, was suffered to harden, formed into small round cakes, and preserved in earthen vases.[2202]
-----
Footnote 2180:
Φύκος Θαλλασσίον. Dioscor. iv. 100.
Footnote 2181:
Dioscor. iii. 65. Plin. Nat. Hist. xx. 73.
Footnote 2182:
Σκορδίον. Dioscor. iii. 125.
Footnote 2183:
Dioscor. iv. 79. Plin. Nat. Hist. xxv. 95.
Footnote 2184:
Demet. Constantinop. de Cur. Accipit. c. clxxviii.
Footnote 2185:
Dioscor. iii. 39. Plin. Nat. Hist. xxv. 53. Theoph. Hist. Plant. ix. 16. 3. Florent. ap. Geopon. xiii. 8. 8. Apuleius, de Virtut. Herb. cap. lxii.
Footnote 2186:
Theoph. Hist. Plant. ix. i. 3.
Footnote 2187:
Florent. ap. Geopon. vi. 8. 1.
Footnote 2188:
Τὸ δὲ χρίσμα τὸ Ἐρετρικὸν εκ τοῦ κυπείρου· κομίζεται δὲ ἀπὸ τῶν Κυκλάδων τὸ κύπειρον. Theophrast. de Odor. § 28. Dioscor. i. 4.
Footnote 2189:
Dioscor. ii. 101.
Footnote 2190:
Σαμψύκον. Dioscor. iii. 47. Geopon. xi. 27.
Footnote 2191:
Plin. Nat. Hist. xxiv. 22.
Footnote 2192:
Dioscor. iii. 25. Sibthorp, Flor. Græc. tab. 341.
Footnote 2193:
Prosper. Alpin. de Medicor. Ægypt. iv. 10. p. 296. Dioscor. i. 19.
Footnote 2194:
Πευκέδανος. Dioscor. iii. 92.
Footnote 2195:
Athen. i. 49. x. 18.
Footnote 2196:
Dioscor. iv. 79.
Footnote 2197:
Twenty-one villages were, last century, employed in the cultivation of the lentiscus, from which this gum is procured by boring the trunks during summer with a small sharp iron. Chandler, Travels, i. 60.
Footnote 2198:
Hazelquist, Travels, p. 297. Plin. Nat. Hist. xii. 36; xxiv. 74. Dioscor. i. 90.
Footnote 2199:
Theoph. Hist. Plant. ix. 1. Dioscor. iii. 35. Plin. xix. 68.
Footnote 2200:
Dioscor. iv. 38.
Footnote 2201:
Id. i. 181.
Footnote 2202:
Id. ibid.
-----
The modes of collecting the ladanum,[2203] of which the best sort appears to have been found in Cypros,[2204] was still more curious. It was found in spring exuding from the leaves of a species of costus on which the goats delighted to feed. As they pastured among the plants the gum attached itself to their beards and the long hair about their legs, from whence it was removed by the goatherds, who melted and strained it like honey, after which it was rolled up into balls and sold to the merchants. Sometimes, however, a number of cords were thrown over the shrubs, about which the gum collected.
-----
Footnote 2203:
Cf. Chandler, i. 284.
Footnote 2204:
Dioscor. i. 128. Plin. Nat. Hist. xii. 37. Tournefort, who gives a representation of the whip of numerous thongs used in collecting the ladanum, describes one of the localities in which it is produced, and the manner in which it is gathered. “Enfin tirant du côté de la mer, nous nous trouvâmes sur des collines sèches et sablonneuses, couvertes de ces petits arbrisseaux qui fournissent le ladanum. C’étoit dans la plus grande chaleur du jour, et il ne faisoit pas de vent: cette disposition du temps est nécessaire pour amasser le ladanum. Sept ou huit paysans en chemise et en caleçon, rouloient leurs fouets sur ces plantes: à force de les secouer et de les frotter sur les feuilles de cet arbuste, leurs courroyes se chargeoient d’une espèce de glu odoriférante, attachée sur les feuilles; c’est une partie du suc nourricier de la plante, lequel transude au travers de la tissure de ces feuilles comme une sueur grasse, dont les gouttes sont luisantes, et aussi claires que la térébenthine. Lorsque les fouets sont bien chargez de cette graisse on en ratisse les courroyes avec un couteau, et l’on met en pains ce que l’on eu détache: c’est ce que nous recevons sous le nom de ladanum.” Voyage du Levant, t. i. p. 88.
-----
In addition to the above, the islands furnished numerous other commodities, such as onions,[2205] of which the best came from Cypros and Corcyra;[2206] beans from Lemnos;[2207] from Rhodes ampelitis,[2208] pitch,[2209] the best white transparent glue,[2210] raisins,[2211] chalk,[2212] carobs,[2213] dried figs, which procured agreeable dreams,[2214] excellent aphyæ[2215] and cabbage-seed, which last was in great request at Alexandria,[2216] almonds from Naxos and Cypros,[2217] whence also came the best pomegranates,[2218] mustard,[2219] and excellent lettuces[2220] grown in the neighbourhood of Paphos.[2221]
-----
Footnote 2205:
Lucian. Dial. Meret. xiv. Sibthorp. Flor. Græc. tab. 326. Dioscor. ii. 181.
Footnote 2206:
Plin. Nat. Hist. xix. 32. Cypros was likewise celebrated for its garlic. Theoph. Hist. Plant. vii. 4. 11.
Footnote 2207:
Athen. ix. 2.
Footnote 2208:
Strab. vii. 5. t. ii. p. 106.
Footnote 2209:
Didymus, ap. Geopon. vi. 5. 1.
Footnote 2210:
Dioscor. iii. 101.
Footnote 2211:
Athen. i. 49.
Footnote 2212:
Plin. Nat. Hist. xxiv. 1.
Footnote 2213:
Theoph. Hist. Plant. iv. 2. 4. Dioscor. iii. 101.
Footnote 2214:
Athen. iii. 19.
Footnote 2215:
Athen. vii. 24.
Footnote 2216:
Id. ix. 9. Cf. Demosth. cont. Dionysod. § 1, for the trade between this island and Egypt.
Footnote 2217:
Athen. ii. 39. Ammon. v. ἀμυγδαλῆ, p. 12.
Footnote 2218:
Meurs. Cyprus, ii. 4. p. 89.
Footnote 2219:
Poll. vi. 67. Athen. i. 49.
Footnote 2220:
Columell. de Re Rust. xi. 3. p. 454.
Footnote 2221:
Meurs. Cyprus, ii. 4. p. 89.
-----
Lesbos[2222] produced myrtle-berries and figs; Cos and Cypros[2223] exported odoriferous unguents[2224] and honey;[2225] Scyros, variegated marbles;[2226] Ceos, pears and service-berries;[2227] Eubœa, sheep,[2228] pears,[2229] shining apples,[2230] olives,[2231] walnuts, walnut-wood,[2232] an inferior kind of deal,[2233] marble,[2234] iron, phagroi, anchovies, turbots, and soles;[2235] Thera, variegated garments;[2236] Chios, soft beds and large casks or jars;[2237] Crete, cypress-wood,[2238] Cyprian figs,[2239] hemlock,[2240] honey,[2241] and bees’ wax,[2242] which was blanched in the rays of the sun and moon. These articles of merchandise were likewise supplied by Cypros;[2243] which also exported rich flowered or variegated hangings,[2244] triclinia cushions,[2245] table-cloths,[2246] oakum,[2247] bronze vessels,[2248] nails,[2249] &c. Snails,[2250] which formed an important article in the materia medica of the ancients, were exported from Chios and Astypalæa,[2251] a small island among the Sporades,[2252] which likewise carried on a considerable fishery,[2253] and boasted an excellent breed of horses.[2254] Thasos furnished the sculptors of Greece with a fine white marble which constituted the material of two celebrated statues of the Emperor Adrian at Athens.[2255] The marble of Chios was dead black, like the obsidian stone, and slightly transparent.
-----
Footnote 2222:
Athen. xiv. 67.
Footnote 2223:
Athen. xv. 39. In Cypros a delicate perfume was manufactured from the œnanthe which in Greece was inodorous: αὕτη δ᾽ ἐν Κύπρῳ φύεται ὀρεινὴ καὶ πολύοδμος· ἀπὸ δὲ τῆς ἐν τῇ Ἑλλάδι οὐ γίνεται διὰ τὸ ἄοδμον. Theoph. de Odor. § 27. Plin. Nat. Hist. xiii. 2.
Footnote 2224:
Dioscor. i. 70.
Footnote 2225:
Diophan. ap. Geopon. xv. 7. 1. Synes. Epist. 147. Eustath. ad Il. β. 677. ad Dion. Perieg. 530.
Footnote 2226:
Eustath. ad Dion. Perieg. v. 521.
Footnote 2227:
Athen. xiv. 63.
Footnote 2228:
Id. v. 32.
Footnote 2229:
Id. i. 49.
Footnote 2230:
Id. i. 49.
Footnote 2231:
Dicæarch. Stat. Græc. ap. Geograph. Minor, t. ii. p. 19. Plin. iv. 12.
Footnote 2232:
Theoph. Hist. Plant. v. 7. 7.
Footnote 2233:
Poll. vii. 48. 77. iv. 118.
Footnote 2234:
Eustath. ad Dionys. Perieg. v. 521.
Footnote 2235:
Athen. vii. 30. 45.
Footnote 2236:
Tibull. Eleg. iii. 3. 13.
Footnote 2237:
Athen. i. 49.
Footnote 2238:
Id. i. 49. Lucian. Ver. Hist. c. ii. § 40. Plin. Nat. Hist. xxiv. 61.
Footnote 2239:
Theoph. Hist. Plant. iv. 2. 3.
Footnote 2240:
Dioscor. iv. 79. Plin. Nat. Hist. xxv. 95.
Footnote 2241:
Pashley, Travels, i. 228.
Footnote 2242:
Dioscor. ii. 105. Plin. Nat. Hist. xxi. 49.
Footnote 2243:
Plin. Nat. Hist. xx. 87. xv. 19. Synes. Epist. 147. Dioscor. i. 182.
Footnote 2244:
Τὸ παραπέτασμα Κύπριον τὸ ποικίλον. Aristoph. ap. Poll. x. 32.
Footnote 2245:
Trebell. Poll. Claud. § 13.
Footnote 2246:
Vopisc. Aurelian. § 12.
Footnote 2247:
Quint. Curt. ix.
Footnote 2248:
Dioscor. i. 134.
Footnote 2249:
Damogeron, ap. Geopon. x. 64. 4.
Footnote 2250:
Dioscor. ii. 11.
Footnote 2251:
Plin. Nat. Hist. viii. 59. xxx. 11.
Footnote 2252:
Strab. x. 5. t. ii. p. 392. Bentley, Dissert. on Phal. i. 169. 357, sqq. Steph. de Urb. p. 189, b. speaks of it as one of the Cyclades.
Footnote 2253:
Dapper, Description des Isles de l’Archipel. p. 185.
Footnote 2254:
Cf. Oppian. Cyneg. i. 170. where he celebrates the horses of Crete. In a former chapter I have spoken of a breed of wild asses said to be found in modern times in the island of Cythera or Cerigo. It is Cerigotto, however, that is celebrated by Buondelmonti, for its asses, § 10. p. 65. But Boschini, whom Dapper perhaps follows (Descript. des Isles de l’Archipel. p. 378), restores the animals to Cerigo: “ha gran quantita d’Asini’ salvatichi ch’ hanno una certa pietra in la testa, che vale contro il mal caduco; e facilita il parto alle donne.” L’Arcipelago, p. 6. Venezia, 1658. 4^{o.}
Footnote 2255:
Winkel. Hist. de l’Art. t. i. p. 41.
-----
Cerinthos in Eubœa, furnished a sort of light dry earth,[2256] used to preserve corn in granaries. Malta supplied the idle and luxurious ladies of Greece with a domestic kind of lap-dogs.[2257] Sciathos was famous for its mullets; Melos exported kids;[2258] Naxos and Scyros, milch goats and lobsters;[2259] Leros, guinea fowl; Samos, peacocks; and Cypros, hairy sheep[2260] and doves.[2261] Among the wild and almost inaccessible cliffs of modern Crete is found a species of blue nightingale,[2262] in size somewhat inferior to the thrush, which it resembled in the richness and variety of its notes. This bird is often caught and kept in cages, where it is sometimes taught to imitate the human voice. Occasionally it forms an article of traffic, and is exported into Italy; but if the ancients traded in these birds, the passage in which it may be mentioned has escaped me. In the same island is found an elegant sort of merops which darts in flocks along the sides of the thymy mountains in pursuit of the bees, which delight in those fragrant places. It is of rich and variegated plumage like the parrokeet. The children take it in a very ingenious manner; passing a crooked pin with a fine thread attached through the hard corslet of the cicada, they let go the insect which mounts, thus transfixed, into the air. The merops, bold and voracious, immediately pounces upon and gorges it, when the pin sticks in the throat, the bird becomes hooked like a fish, and is easily drawn down and taken.
-----
Footnote 2256:
Theoph. Hist. Plant. viii. 10. 7.
Footnote 2257:
Casaub. ad Theoph. Char. p. 331.
Footnote 2258:
Athen. 1. 6.
Footnote 2259:
Athen. i. 49. vii. 45.
Footnote 2260:
Saligniac. Itin. Hierosol. t. iv. c. vii.
Footnote 2261:
Athen. xiv. 70. Ἡ Κύπρος Δ’ ἔχει πελείας διαφόρους.
Footnote 2262:
Dapper, Description des Isles de l’Archipel. p. 460. Travellers make mention of a species of white nightingale in Abyssinia with a tail two palms in length. Jerome Lobo, Voyage d’Abissinie, i. 89.
-----
The next branch of Greek commerce which demands our notice was that carried on with the countries on the Adriatic, Italy, Sicily, Sardinia, Gaul, and Spain. This trade was in most instances of later origin than that maintained with regions lying more to the East, but nevertheless came at length to be of considerable importance, especially after the Hellenic colonies in Italy and Sicily had risen to eminence. The cities founded, moreover, on the coasts of Illyria exercised considerable influence over the commerce of Greece, by imparting to the rude natives a taste for her productions and manufactures, and exciting them to the exercise of greater industry to supply suitable commodities in their turn. Nevertheless, the information we possess on this subject is extremely scanty.
The barn-door fowls of these regions,[2263] though inferior to those of Greece, and of a smaller size, were yet exported thither, simply because they were foreign, while the natives on the contrary were eager to enrich their country with the breed of Attica. Wild turnips and parsnips,[2264] it has been remarked by the ancients, were found growing in Dalmatia;[2265] but as they abound in most other countries, it seems not unreasonable to infer, from this particular mentioned of them, that they were exported.[2266] The best iris, the odoriferous roots of which were much used in the making of perfume, came from the interior of Illyria,[2267] where, having been dug up and cleared of the leaves, they were strung on a linen cord and dried in the shade.
-----
Footnote 2263:
Athen. vii. 23.
Footnote 2264:
Id. ix. 8.
Footnote 2265:
Among the exports of this country gold, found in a virgin state, near the surface of the earth, was at one time included: aurum ... invenitur aliquando in summa tellure protinus, rara felicitate: ut nuper in Dalmatia principatu Neronis, singulis diebus etiam quinquagenas libras fundens. Plin. Nat. Hist. xxxiii. 21.
Footnote 2266:
Thus wild carrots have in modern times been exported from Crete for medicinal purposes. Prosper. Alpin. de Medicin. Ægypt. iv. 11. p. 306.
Footnote 2267:
Theoph. Hist. Plant. ix. 5. 3. Damogeron, ap. Geopon. vii. 13. 4. Florent. ap. id. vi. 8. 1. Leontin. ap. id. xi. 21. Plin. Nat. Hist. xxi. 7.
-----
From the same country also were obtained the aspalathos[2268] and the wild spikenard,[2269] whose leaf resembled that of the ivy, though somewhat smaller and rounder. The wines of the Adriatic shore were in no great request. That which was called Prætutian[2270] was light and aromatic, and therefore deceived those who drank of it, being powerfully intoxicating and somniferous. The wines of Istria partook of the same character.
-----
Footnote 2268:
Dioscor. i. 19.
Footnote 2269:
Id. i. 9.
Footnote 2270:
Dioscor. v. 11. Cf. Sarracen. ad loc. p. 105. Plin. Nat. Hist. xiv. 6.
-----
From the city of Apollonia[2271] was exported the substance called pissasphaltos,[2272] brought down by the river from the Ceraunian mountains, and found in large lumps upon the shore. It exhaled a mingled odour of pitch and bitumen. Great quantities of salt[2273] were made in another part of Illyria, where, during the spring, they took of the water of a stream flowing forth from a cleft in the rock and poured it into shallow pits exposed apparently to the sun and air, where it hardened in about five days into salt. The beans of Apollonia were famous for keeping long.[2274] Other Illyrian commodities were slaves, ampelitis,[2275] cattle, and skins, for which the natives received wine and oil, and other productions of civilised countries in return.[2276]
-----
Footnote 2271:
Leontinus, ap. Geopon. xv. 8. 1.
Footnote 2272:
Strab. vii. 5. t. ii. p. 106. Dioscor. i. 100.
Footnote 2273:
Strab. vii. 5. t. ii. p. 108.
Footnote 2274:
Theoph. Hist. Plant. viii. 10. 3. The same quality is attributed to the beans of Cyzicos, id. ib.
Footnote 2275:
Strab. vii. t. i. p. 487.
Footnote 2276:
Id. v. 1. t. i. p. 346.
-----
The wines of ancient Italy, which formed an important article in the commerce of that country,[2277] are so familiar to most persons that it will be sufficient barely to enumerate the principal of them,—as the Falernian, the Cæcuban,[2278] the Alban, the Surrentine, the Brundusian, and the Antheia, a Thurian wine.[2279] Of medicinal herbs and substances, Italy exported considerable quantities, and among them were the hyssop,[2280] the melilot,[2281] from the country round Nola, the wild spikenard,[2282] the madder,[2283] cultivated in the neighbourhood of Ravenna, and Celtic spikenard from the Ligurian Alps,[2284] which was kept tied up in handfuls, together with its roots. Of this article vast quantities, as much it is said as sixty tons per annum, were in the last century exported from hence into the inland parts of Africa, as Æthiopia and Abyssinia,[2285] where it was chiefly used in softening and rendering shining the skin. Another export of Italy was the Ligurian all-heal,[2286] from the lofty and umbrageous summits of the Apennines, where it flourished chiefly along the edge of the water-courses.
-----
Footnote 2277:
Lucian. Navig. seu Vot. § 23. Schol. Aristoph. Nub. 331. Didymus, ap. Geopon. viii. 22. 1.
Footnote 2278:
Plin. Nat. Hist. xiv. 6.
Footnote 2279:
Strab. v. t. i. p. 357. Casaub. Dioscor. v. 10, seq.
Footnote 2280:
Florent. ap. Geopon. vi. 8. 1.
Footnote 2281:
Dioscor. iii. 48.
Footnote 2282:
Id. i. 9.
Footnote 2283:
Ἐρυθρόδανον. Dioscor. iii. 60.
Footnote 2284:
Dioscor. i. 7. The leaves of this plant were used as a bait for fish at all seasons of the year. Geopon. xx. 24. 1. Damogeron. ap. id. vii. 13. 4; 24. 4. Florent. ap. id. vi. 8. 1. Columell. de Re Rust. xii. 20.
Footnote 2285:
Hazelquist, Travels, p. 302.
Footnote 2286:
Λιγυστικὸν. Dioscor. iii. 58.
There was in this same mountainous district a species of snail,[2287] furnished with a shell in winter, which appears to have been both eaten and used as a medicine.
Footnote 2287:
Dioscor. ii. 11.
-----
In many parts of Italy they still make use of snails for the same purpose, digging them up out of the earth with an iron instrument. The ancients kept tame snails for eating, which they fatted with a mixture of flour and sweet wine.[2288] In France they are still fed on vine leaves[2289] in cages, where they attain an immense size. Connoisseurs in snails find a great difference in their flesh, according to the plants and trees on which they pasture. Those which attach themselves to the wormword plant are bitter, while such as are found among calamint, pennyroyal, and origany, have an extremely agreeable flavour.
-----
Footnote 2288:
Martin Mathée, Notes sur Dioscoride, p. 118.
Footnote 2289:
The Greeks on the coast of the Black Sea still esteem the large vine-snail a delicacy, in which they chiefly indulge during Lent. Pallas, Travels in Southern Russia, iv. 247. These delicacies are probably not in season until they begin to fly the Pleiades and seek the shade of the leaves:
Ἀλλ᾽ ὁποτ᾽ ἂν φερέοικος ἀπὸ χθονὸς ἀμφυτὰ βαίνῃ, Πληϊάδας φεύγων, τότε δὴ σκάφος οὐκέτι οἰνέων. Hesiod. Opp. et Dies, 571, seq.
-----
Among the delicacies of Italy best known to the ancients, and doubtless exported, were mushrooms,[2290] of which several excellent sorts are still produced; those particularly which the Tuscans call Prignoli and Porcini, which, being boiled and afterwards dredged with flour and fried, are exceedingly savoury.[2291] The real Porcini are salted and preserved with peculiar care, to be eaten during Lent and other fasts.
There are found in the kingdom of Naples certain stones,[2292] which being sunk in the ground, covered with a thin layer of earth, and irrigated with warm water, produce mushrooms in four days. These stones are preserved both at Rome and at Naples in cellars, for the production of mushrooms. Occasionally, however, contrivances of this sort prove fatal. In a convent in France where the nuns cultivated mushrooms on a hot bed in a cellar, the noisome exhalations destroyed several persons sent down to collect them.[2293]
-----
Footnote 2290:
Dioscor. iv. 83.
Footnote 2291:
Martin Mathée, Notes sur Dioscoride, p. 385.
Footnote 2292:
Id. ib.
Footnote 2293:
Valmont de Bomare, Dict. d’Hist. Nat. t. ii. p. 594.
-----
It has been seen that the yew-tree of Arcadia was much used by cabinet-makers; but the Italian yew[2294] is mentioned by Greek botanists only for its singular and noxious properties, since the birds, they inform us, which ate of its berries turned black, while men were afflicted with troublesome diseases. Around that of Gaul the imagination had woven a tissue of terrors almost equal to that which modern times have cast about the upas; for, to sleep, or even to recline, beneath its shade, was supposed to cause dangerous maladies and occasionally even death.
-----
Footnote 2294:
Dioscor. iv. 80.
-----
The plant of most deadly qualities known to the ancients grew plentifully in the mountains of the Vestini, neighbours of the Sabines.[2295] It was identical in nature with that of Pontos, and many extraordinary circumstances are related of its effects. By the mere touch it was said to possess the power to benumb the scorpion, which again recovered its activity if brought in contact with the hellebore. It was used by hunters in the chace to destroy wild beasts, and by physicians for various purposes. At present it appears to be found chiefly among the recesses of the Rhætian Alps, from whence it passes to the Papal States and the kingdom of Naples, in both which countries there is a particular class of men whose sole occupation is the extirpation of wolves, and who formerly used to sell this poison openly on the bridge of St. Angelo, at Rome.[2296]
-----
Footnote 2295:
Dioscor. iv. 77, seq.
Footnote 2296:
Martin Mathée, Notes sur Dioscoride, p. 382.
-----
Among the other exports of Italy may be enumerated the squills of Minturnæ,[2297] which exceeded in size those of Smyrna, and the lobsters of Alexandria: amber, too, and coal, of which there are said to have been mines in Liguria,[2298] found their way into the channels of commerce. The amber of the Po existed only in the regions of mythology.[2299]
-----
Footnote 2297:
Athen. i. 12.
Footnote 2298:
Theoph. de Lapid. § 16.
Footnote 2299:
Lucian. de Electro seu Cygnis, § 1.
-----
Calabria supplied pitch,[2300] and bronze from Temessa;[2301] Etruria, resin,[2302] figured gold, plate and articles in bronze,[2303] Thurii, gypsum, and wine;[2304] Tarentum, fine gauze-like fabrics; Italy,[2305] generally, groats and salt-beef,[2306] whetstones, wax,[2307] and adarces, used as a dentifrice;[2308] Algidum, transparent radishes;[2309] Apulia, capparis;[2310] Campania, wheat, from which the best gruel was made, zea, and panic.[2311] Northern Italy, which abounded in forests, reared immense droves of pigs, which were fed on acorns, so that Rome was almost entirely supplied from thence with pork and bacon.[2312] It likewise exported millet, pitch,[2313] exceedingly fine wool from the neighbourhood of Mutina and the banks of the Scultenna,[2314] long coarse wool from Liguria and the country of the Symbri,[2315] with a middling sort from the neighbourhood of Padua, with which coats, carpets, with several varieties of shaggy cloth, were manufactured.[2316]
-----
Footnote 2300:
Dioscor. i. 97.
Footnote 2301:
Gog. Origine des Loix, iv. 223. Hom. Odyss. α. 182, seq. Steph. Byzant. p. 703. d. Ἐνθα ἄριστος γίνεται χαλκὸς, ἢν καὶ τέμψαν ἄχοι τοῦ νῦν οἱ Καλαβροὶ λέγουσι καὶ οἱ βάρβαροι, ὡσπερ αἰδούμενοι μεταποιῆσαι, καθ᾽ ὁλοκληρίαν τὴν τοῦ Ὁμήρου φωνήν. Tzetz. Schol. in Lycoph. 854. Strab. vi. t. i. p. 393. Casaub.
Footnote 2302:
Dioscor. i. 92.
Footnote 2303:
Athen. i. 49.
Footnote 2304:
Theoph. de Lapid. § 64.
Footnote 2305:
Lucian. Dial. Meret. vii. § 2. Calumn. non Tem. Cred. § 16.
Footnote 2306:
Athen. i. 49.
Footnote 2307:
Dioscor. ii. 194.
Footnote 2308:
Plin. Nat. Hist. xxxvi. 47. xvi. 66.
Footnote 2309:
Id. xix. 26.
Footnote 2310:
Dioscor. ii. 166.
Footnote 2311:
Strab. v. t. i. p. 372. Casaub. Plin. Nat. Hist. xviii. 11.
Footnote 2312:
Αἱ ὕλαι τοσαύτην ἔχουσι βάλανον, ὥστ᾽ ἐκ τῶν ἐντεῦθεν ὑοφορβίων ἡ Ῥώμη τρέφεται τὸ πλέον. Strab. v. 1. t. i. p. 352. From other parts of Italy a similar supply was obtained. “The forest of Lucania, whose acorns fattened large droves of wild hogs, afforded, as a species of tribute, a plentiful supply of cheap and wholesome meat. During five months of the year a regular allowance of bacon was distributed to the poorer citizens; and the annual consumption of the capital, at a time when it had much declined from its former lustre, was ascertained, by an edict of Valentinian the Third, at three millions six hundred and twenty-eight thousand pounds.” Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, v. 281.
Footnote 2313:
Dioscor. i. 97.
Footnote 2314:
Strab. v. 1. t. i. 352. Plin. Nat. Hist. viii. 7. Columell. de Re Rust. vii. 2. Martial. xiv. 155.
Footnote 2315:
Strab. v. 1. t. i. p. 352.
Footnote 2316:
Id. v. 1. t. i. p. 353.
-----
This part of Italy, likewise, produced immense quantities of wine, which the inhabitants laid up in tuns as large as dwelling-houses.[2317] Gold mines were anciently worked in the country of the Vercelli.[2318]
-----
Footnote 2317:
Id. v. 1. t. i. p. 352.
Footnote 2318:
Id. v. 1. t. i. p. 353.
-----
The chief exports of Sicily were wheat,[2319] of which the best and cleanest came from the neighbourhood of Agrigentum;[2320] cheese,[2321] which appears to have been made in all parts of the island, as far back at least as the days of Polyphemos; hogs,[2322] pigeons, and doves,[2323] whose chief haunt was about the temple of Aphroditè[2324] on Mount Eryx; variegated robes,[2325] costly furniture, more particularly plate and pillows,[2326] and superbly wrought chariots.[2327] The Sicilian saffron,[2328] grown in the neighbourhood of Centuripa was of an inferior quality, but seems nevertheless to have been imported into Italy,[2329] where it is supposed to have been applied to the dyeing of the cedar beams used in the construction of temples.
-----
Footnote 2319:
Herod. vii. 158. Thucyd. iii. 86. Iorio, Storia del Commercio, t. iv. 1. ii. c. iii. p. 229. Demosth. cont. Dionysod. § 3. Theoph. Hist. Plant. viii. 6. 6.
Footnote 2320:
Theoph. Hist. Plant. viii. 4. 6.
Footnote 2321:
Athen. xiv. 76. i. 49. Schol. Aristoph. Ran. 838. Pac. 249.
Footnote 2322:
Athen. i. 49.
Footnote 2323:
Casaub. ad Theoph. Char. p. 167.
Footnote 2324:
Larcher, Mem. sur Venus, p. 187.
Footnote 2325:
Athen. xiv. 76.
Footnote 2326:
Id. ii. 29, seq.
Footnote 2327:
Id. i. 49.
Footnote 2328:
Florent. ap. Geopon. vi. 8. 1.
Footnote 2329:
Dioscor. i. 25.
-----
The honey of Mount Hybla,[2330] celebrated through all antiquity, constituted another important article of commerce, as did likewise, more particularly, the Adrian and the Mamertinian.
-----
Footnote 2330:
Diophan. ap. Geopon. xv. 7. 1. Dioscor. ii. 101. Cluver. Sicil. Antiq. i. 11. Sil. Ital. xiv. 200. Varro, de Re Rust. iii. 16. 14.
-----
Among the better known plants of Sicily were the marjoram,[2331] and the cactus, the latter of which was eaten, whether fresh or pickled.[2332]
-----
Footnote 2331:
Dioscor. iii. 47.
Footnote 2332:
Theoph. Hist. Plant. vi. 4. 10. Athen. ii.
-----
From the neighbourhood of Tetras, was obtained a sort of stone which became light and porous in burning so as to resemble the pumice.[2333]
About the Erinæan promontory a species of jet was found in great plenty, which when burnt emitted a bituminous odour.[2334]
-----
Footnote 2333:
Theoph. de Lapid. § 15.
Footnote 2334:
Id. ib.
-----
Sicily likewise exported salt,[2335] emeralds,[2336] lapis specularis,[2337] and agates.[2338] An abundant supply of coral was obtained from the sea around Cape Pachynos, near Syracuse;[2339] and from Agrigentum, a liquid bitumen found floating on the clear surface of fountains and burnt instead of oil in lamps, and therefore called by some the oil of Sicily.[2340] Poisons of great force were also found in the island. Among the favourite dishes of the ancients were the lampreys and eels of the Pharo of Messina,[2341] the bellies of thunnies caught near Cape Pachynos,[2342] snails,[2343] and oysters from Cape Peloros.[2344]
-----
Footnote 2335:
Dioscor. v. 126.
Footnote 2336:
Plin. Nat. Hist. xxxvii. 18.
Footnote 2337:
Id. xxxvi. 45.
Footnote 2338:
This stone appears to have derived its name from a Sicilian river: Καλὸς δὲ λίθος καὶ ὁ ἀχάτης ὁ ἀπὸ τοῦ Ἀχάτου ποταμοῦ τοῦ ἐν Σικελίᾳ, καὶ πωλεῖται τίμιος. Theoph. de Lapid. § 31. Cf. Vib. Sequest. p. 3. Oberlin.
Cernitur egregius lapis hic, cui nomen achates: Hoc dederat fluvius cujus generatur ad undas: Hanc simulacra vides venis ostendere gemmam. Priscian. Perieg. 502, sqq.
Footnote 2339:
Dioscor. v. 139. On the Coral of modern Sicily see Spallanzani, Travels, Introduction, vol. i. p. 36. Cf. Theoph. Hist. Plant. iv. 7. 3.
Footnote 2340:
Dioscor. i. 99.
Footnote 2341:
Athen. i. 6. vii. 53.
Footnote 2342:
Id. iii. 85.
Footnote 2343:
Dioscor. ii. 18.
Footnote 2344:
Athen. i. 6. iii. 44.
-----
The Lipari islands exported sulphur,[2345] alum,[2346] reddle, pumice stone,[2347] crabs,[2348] and anchovies;[2349] Corsica, timber[2350] of a superior quality; Sardinia, carnelians,[2351] snails,[2352] salt provisions,[2353] wax,[2354] and honey, which though bitter, because the bee there fed on wormwood, was much used in cosmetics. In this island likewise was found the seseli,[2355] the juice of which, extracted from the root, was set to thicken in the shade, because, exposed to the sun, it evaporated altogether. It was esteemed a cure for the toothache. The persons employed in collecting it were careful to anoint their beard and nostrils with oil of roses, in order to escape those pains and vertigoes which would otherwise have been caused by its effluvia. The little island of Elba exported iron ore and a precious stone richly sprinkled with brilliant colours.[2356]
-----
Footnote 2345:
Dioscor. v. 124.
Footnote 2346:
Dioscor. v. 123. Strab. vi. 2. t. ii. p. 39. According to the conjecture of Spallanzani the alum obtained by the ancients from Lipari was the production of the neighbouring island of Vulcano. Otherwise the vein must be lost, since though he traversed every foot of the island he only found some traces or efflorescences of it. Travels in the two Sicilies, iv. 118. Dolomieu, Voyage aux Iles de Lipari. p. 78.
Footnote 2347:
Spallanzani, ii. 298.
Footnote 2348:
Athen. iii. 64.
Footnote 2349:
Id. i. 6.
Footnote 2350:
Theoph. Hist. Plant. v. 8. 2.
Footnote 2351:
Theoph. de Lapid. § 23.
Footnote 2352:
Dioscor. ii. 11.
Footnote 2353:
Poll. vi. 48.
Footnote 2354:
Dydim. ap. Geopon. vi. 5. 8.
Footnote 2355:
Dioscor. iii. 92.
Footnote 2356:
Strab. v. 2. t. i. p. 361. Plin. Nat. Hist. iii. 12. xxxiv. 41. Vict. Var. Lect. xix. 10.
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With Gaul Greece carried on no great trade. The few articles which it thence obtained were hams, reckoned among the best in the ancient world,[2357] pitch,[2358] larch, resin,[2359] wool; French lavender, from the island of Hieres; wormwood from Xaintonges;[2360] seseli,[2361] whetstones called passernices,[2362] and carbuncles from Marseilles, which were so highly esteemed, that a stone of very small size sold for fifty pieces of gold.[2363] In the environs of Ruscino[2364] a very fine sort of mullet was caught in certain sandy lagoons near the sea. Aquitania produced gold; Belgium a sort of white stone (pierre franche) which was sawed into tiles more easily than wood, and used for mosaics.[2365]
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Footnote 2357:
Athen. xiv. 75.
Footnote 2358:
Id. v. 40.
Footnote 2359:
Dioscor. i. 92.
Footnote 2360:
Id. iii. 28.
Footnote 2361:
Id. iii. 60.
Footnote 2362:
Plin. Nat. Hist. xxxvi. 47.
Footnote 2363:
Theoph. de Lapid. § 18.
Footnote 2364:
Strab. iv. 1. t. i. p. 292.
Footnote 2365:
Plin. Nat. Hist. xxxvi. 44.
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The produce of Spain and Portugal was richer and more varied: merino rams[2366] for breeding, valued at two hundred and forty pounds, were thence imported into Greece, together with wool of the very finest quality.[2367] At an earlier period superior cloth had been manufactured for exportation.[2368] The linen of Emporiæ and of the Saltiæti long continued to be famous.[2369] The kermes[2370] procured from Spain were of an inferior quality, but they always continued to be an article of commerce,[2371] as well as the alum,[2372] the slate used in medicine, the whetstone,[2373] lapis specularis,[2374] the sory,[2375] minium,[2376] and palmati, round pebbles having within the figure of a palm-tree, found near Munda.[2377]
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Footnote 2366:
Strab. iii. t. i. p. 213. Casaub. Plin. Nat. Hist. viii. 49. Diod. Sicul. v.
Footnote 2367:
Plin. Nat. Hist. viii. 48.
Footnote 2368:
Strab. iii. t. i. p. 213. Casaub.
Footnote 2369:
Strab. iii. t. i. p. 213. Casaub. Sil. Italic. iii. 373.
Footnote 2370:
Dioscor. iv. 48. Plin. Nat. Hist. ix. 65.
Footnote 2371:
D. Juan Pablo Canàls y Martì, sob. la Purp. de los Antig. c. v.
Footnote 2372:
Dioscor. v. 123. See Don Guil. Bowles, Introd. à la Hist. Nat. &c., de Espag. p. 39. Dillon, Trav. through Spain. 220. D. J. P. Canàls y Martì, c. viii.
Footnote 2373:
Plin. Nat. Hist. xxxvi. 47.
Footnote 2374:
Id. xxxvi. 45.
Footnote 2375:
Dioscor. v. 119.
Footnote 2376:
Id. v. 109.
Footnote 2377:
Plin. Nat. Hist. xxxvi. 29.
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The cinnabar[2378] of this country was artificial,[2379] and produced from the mixture of a certain ore and argentiferous sand, which being cast into furnaces assumed a most brilliant and flame-like colour. In the mines the above ore emitted so pestilential a vapour that, to protect themselves from it, the workmen covered their faces with a mask of transparent bladders, which at once guarded their eyes and prevented their inhaling it, until by their own breath it had been somewhat tempered. This pigment was used by artists in painting the most costly and gorgeous frescoes.
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Footnote 2378:
Sometimes, however, the mineral would appear to have been found in a natural state: κιννάβαρι ... εὑρίσκεσθαι ὑπὸ τῶν Ἰβήρων ὁμοῦ τῷ χρυσῷ λέγεται. Pausan. viii. 39. 6.
Footnote 2379:
Theoph. de Lapid. § 58. D. J. P. Canàls y Martì, cap. vi.
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It has often been remarked that Spain[2380] was to the ancient world what Peru and Mexico afterwards were to Spain. Gold and silver abounded almost throughout the land. The miners in constant working were numerous; the rivers and mountain-torrents rolled down golden sands; and frequently after floods morsels of this precious metal were discovered flashing and glittering among the rocks and stones.[2381] Silver was so plentiful, that the natives applied it to the most common uses, and the Phœnicians and Greeks who first touched upon the shore not only freighted their ships with it, but absolutely cast away their anchors and supplied their place with masses of silver.[2382]
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Footnote 2380:
Cf. Diodor. Sicul. v. 36, seq. t. i. p. 359. Wesseling. Iorio, Storia del Commercio, t. v. 1. ii. c. vii. seq. p. 254, sqq.
Footnote 2381:
Καταφέρουσι δὲ οἱ ποταμοὶ καὶ οἱ χείμαρῥοι τὴν χρυσίτην ἄμμον, πολλαχοῦ καὶ ἐν τοῖς ἄνυδροις τόποις οὖσαν, κ. τ. λ. Strab. iii. t. i. p. 216. Casaub. Plin. Nat. Hist. xxxiii. 4.
Footnote 2382:
Cf. Plin. Nat. Hist. xxxiii. 31.
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The large and opulent province of Bætica, now Andalusia, supplied the ancient world with numerous valuable commodities, among which were wheat,[2383] wine,[2384] oil,[2385] bees’ wax, honey, pitch,[2386] kermes,[2387] vermilion not inferior to that of Sinopè,[2388] rock-salt, and excellent salt-fish.[2389] The thunnies of this part of Spain were said to fatten, like droves of wild hogs,[2390] on the large acorns of the dwarf oak which grew plentifully along the coast, and dipped its fruit into the sea. Hence, too, were obtained numerous species of shellfish, among which were conchs of enormous size.[2391] The congers and murænas, likewise, attained extraordinary dimensions, some of them weighing no less than eighteen minæ, while polypi were found a full talent in weight, and cuttle-fish a yard in length.[2392]
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Footnote 2383:
Plin. Nat. Hist. xvii. 3.
Footnote 2384:
Id. xiv. 6.
Footnote 2385:
Lucian. Navig. § 23. Damogeron, ap. Geopon. ix. 26. Plin. Nat. Hist. xv. 2.
Footnote 2386:
Plin. Nat. Hist. xiv. 20.
Footnote 2387:
Strab. iii. t. i. p. 212, seq. Casaub. Plin. Nat. Hist. ix. 41. xvi. 8. Iorio, Storia del Commercio, t. iv. 1. ii. c. x. p. 269.
Footnote 2388:
Justin. xliv. 1. Plin. Nat. Hist. xxxiii. 7. Vitruv. vii. 8.
Footnote 2389:
Lucian. Navig. § 23. Athen. iii. 84. Poll. Onomast. vi. 48.
Footnote 2390:
Strab. iii. t. i. p. 215. Casaub. Athen. vii. 14.
Footnote 2391:
Strab. iii. t. i. p. 215. Casaub.
Footnote 2392:
Id. ib.
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The Spartium, or Spanish broom, principally used in the manufacture of ropes[2393] and cables, grew chiefly[2394] along the high and arid plains of Valentia and Catalonia, through which passed the great high road from Italy.[2395] Spain exported, besides, cumin, together with wild rocket,[2396] which grew chiefly on the shores of the Atlantic.[2397] The seeds were substituted by the natives for mustard. In fact, we find that it was a common practice among the ancients to use the seed of rocket in seasoning their dishes; and in order to preserve it for constant use they reduced it with milk or vinegar to a kind of paste, which they fashioned into round cakes, and laid up when dry.
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Footnote 2393:
Athen. v. 40.
Footnote 2394:
It is now found in gardens on the gulf of Cadiz. “The Spartium Junceum (Spanish broom) showed its admirable flowers over a garden-wall which was higher than a man’s head. This plant is discoverable at a great distance by its fine smell.” Osbeck, Voyage to China, i. 81.
Footnote 2395:
Strab. iii. 4. t. i. p. 275.
Footnote 2396:
Dioscor. ii. 69.
Footnote 2397:
Id. iii. 170.
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