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]
-----
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.
-----
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.
-----
Footnote 1754:
Μύρον ἐξ Ἀθηνῶν. ap. Athen. i. 49.
-----
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]
-----
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.
-----
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]
-----
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.
-----
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]
-----
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.
-----
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]
-----
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.
-----
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.
-----
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.
-----
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]
-----
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.
-----
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.
-----
Footnote 1801:
See above, Book vi. chap. 9.
-----
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]
-----
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.
-----
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.
-----
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.
-----
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]
-----
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.
-----
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.
-----
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.
-----
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]
-----
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.
-----
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]
-----
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.
-----
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.
-----
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.
-----
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.
-----
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.
-----
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]
-----
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.
-----