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

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

Ναυσίκλυτοι ἄνδρες

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

Famous mariners,

Roguish, numerous trinkets bringing in black ships.

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

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

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

Χρύσεα χαλκείων, ἑκατόμβοι[ἑκατόμβοι] ἐννεαβοίων.[[1479]]