Κᾂν ὦσι τῶν Κοραξικῶν φέροντα δευτερεῖα [247].
[247] Jo. Tzetzes, Chiliad. x. 348-350, in Lectii Corp. Poetarum Græcorum.
“Anciently Miletus was famed for carpets: for of all fleeces the Milesian were the most beautiful, although the Coraxic bore the second prize.”
Περὶ τῶν Μιλησιῶν ἔφαν πολλοὶ ἐρίων·
Περὶ ἐρίων Κοράξων ἐν πρωτῷ δὲ Ἰαμβῷ
Ἱππῶναξ οὗτως εἴρηκε, μέτρῳ χωλῶν Ἰάμβων,
Κωραξικὸν μὲν ἠμφιεσμένη λῶπος.[248]
“Of the Milesian fleeces many have spoken: and to the Coraxic Hipponax has alluded in his Choliambic measure, where he mentions ‘a woman enveloped in a Coraxic shawl.’”
[248] Ib. 378-381.
Hipponax, who is here cited by Tzetzes, was a satirical poet of Ephesus, and flourished about 540 B. C. In confirmation of his testimony it may be proved, that his countrymen and contemporaries had constant intercourse with a port in the vicinity of the Coraxi. We learn from Pliny (l. vi. cap. 5.)[249], that the Coraxi were situated near Dioscurias, which, though deserted in his time, had been formerly so illustrious that 300 nations, speaking different languages, resorted to it. As we learn from other authorities, Dioscurias was a colony of Miletus and one of its chief settlements. Miletus also in the time of Hipponax had risen to the summit of its prosperity, and was the greatest commercial city in the world next to Tyre and Carthage[250]. Its chief trade was towards the north and as far as the extremity of the Euxine Sea. Among the numerous Asiatic tribes, which were accustomed to bring their productions to Dioscurias and exchange them for Grecian merchandise, the Coraxi were, as we may conclude from the evidence now produced, a nation of superior enterprize and intelligence, who sent to the shores of the Ægean in the vessels of Miletus their fine wool, as well as the carpets and shawls, which they made from it.