That this was no small advantage will be evident if we consider to what extent, and with how much cruelty, piracy was exercised in old times. It dogged incessantly the heels of commerce, appearing on every sea and penetrating to every land whither industry betook itself for the acquisition of wealth. It may be said, indeed, to have been a kind of bastard brother of trade, both proceeding from the desire of gain. Against the masters of this craft the first war-galleys appear to have been fitted out in the Mediterranean. For, among the principal exploits of the half-fabulous king of Crete is enumerated his clearing the sea of pirates, his object being to secure the transmission of his revenues from the smaller islands to the seat of empire. For, in old times, both the Greeks and barbarians of the continent, inhabiting the sea-coast, and all those who dwelt in the islands, no sooner addicted themselves to navigation, than they took to piracy, being led by their most powerful fellow-citizens, partly for their own advantage, and partly with a view of providing for the poor; and falling suddenly on unwalled cities, or people dispersed in villages, they plundered the whole country, and thus chiefly procured themselves subsistence. Nor, in fact, was this sort of life attended with disgrace, but with some degree of honour. Even in Thucydides’ own time, many tribes of the continent gloried in their piratical skill, and from the ancient poets, he says, it was clear the same feeling had always prevailed; for, the first question put to seamen, on their landing, was, whether they were pirates or not; and this without the persons interrogated considering it to be any offence, or those who asked intending any.[[1553]] No idea of caste seems to have existed. The reception of Pelops, who came with great wealth from Asia into Peloponnesos, shows that riches, however acquired, were valued before both; for he might have been, and, probably, was, a pirate.[[1554]]
In the interior, also, plundering expeditions were carried on by land, as on the borders of England or Scotland, and more anciently on the Welsh marshes. And up to the period of the Peloponnesian war, many Greek nations still continued to live after the ancient manner, as the Ozolian and Epicnemidian Locrians, the Ætolians, the Acarnanians, and other neighbouring tribes, of which their habit of wearing arms may be considered as a memento. To repress the ravages of these half-civilized races was often an object of great concern to the Athenians, who, to check the cruises of the Opuntians, long accustomed to enrich themselves by plundering the coast of Eubœa during the Peloponnesian war, took and fortified the uninhabited island of Atalantè.[[1555]] Some ages before, they had, under the conduct of Cimon, expelled from Scyros the piratical Dolopians, who not only scoured the neighbouring seas, but even plundered such vessels as put into their harbour.[[1556]] Nothing, however, could extirpate the evil, which has always continued to be the curse of those seas, sometimes denounced, sometimes encouraged, by the princes of the neighbouring countries, who, like Philip of Macedon, find it convenient, according to the exigencies of their affairs, to make war upon the buccaneers, or to unite with them in pursuit of plunder.
Of all the Doric states the most commercial was undoubtedly Corinth. That, situated on the isthmus by which the Peloponnesos is united with the rest of Greece, became very early an emporium, and rose to opulence[[1557]] and splendour; for whatever merchandise was transported from northern Greece into any of the states of the peninsula by land, necessarily passed through this city, and paying, as was customary, transit dues, tended greatly to enrich it. The same thing may be said of the productions of the Peloponnesos, which, by this road, found their way into Hellas. Afterwards addicting themselves to navigation, the Corinthians, from their two ports of Lechæum and Cenchreæ,[[1558]] carried on an extremely extensive commerce with Italy and the countries on the Adriatic on the one hand, and with Asia Minor[[1559]] and the islands on the other; so that whatever articles of commerce are reckoned among the imports of Athens were likewise in a measure to be found at Corinth. The aversion of the ancient mariners to double Cape Malea long secured its trade to Corinth. There was a proverb[[1560]] which said, that whoever sailed round that redoubtable promontory must be unmindful of his friends at home; and, in truth, the boisterous and contrary winds which still encounter the mariner who passes from the Myrtoan to the Ionian sea might well appear terrible to the small craft of remote antiquity. To avoid this dangerous navigation these barks themselves, together with the merchandise they carried, were drawn across the isthmus, and launched again on the opposite sea. The project of Nero, therefore, who designed to open a canal at this place, would, if completed, have proved of the greatest service to the Corinthians, whose city might have continued to be enriched by it to the present day.
With respect to the articles which Corinth herself supplied to commerce, they will be found enumerated among the exports and imports of Greece. Her manufactures were numerous and important,[[1561]] consisting, among others, of rich coverlets, fine woollen garments, costly pottery, and works in that rich metal known under the name of Corinthian bronze. This, it is said, consisted of a small mixture of gold and silver with brass; though, according to another account, it was produced by heating the metal red-hot, and in that state plunging it into the waters of Peirenè.[[1562]]
Much trade was carried on in the territories of Corinth during the celebration of the Isthmian games, which, bringing together a vast multitude of people from Ionia, Sicily, Italy, Libya, Thessaly, and the extremities of the Black Sea, necessarily attracted thither, among the rest, the retailers of all kinds of provisions. These finding a speedy market for their goods, other tradesmen followed their example, so that at length assemblies, originating in religion, resembled prodigious fairs,[[1563]] whither every description of merchandise was conveyed for the admiration and purchase of the pilgrims.[[1564]]
It is, however, with much difficulty that we obtain an insight into the manner[[1565]] in which the inland traffic of Greece was carried on in the earlier ages; but it is probable, that, as in India, Egypt, and Arabia, great fairs were held on some convenient spot, whither the sellers and buyers resorted from all the countries around. That this was the case in many places we know. There was, for example, a monthly fair held at Aleision,[[1566]] near Amphidolis in Eleia, on the mountain road from Elis to Olympia, to which all the peasants of the neighbourhood resorted. Among the Romans smaller fairs or markets were held every nine days, and were thence called nundinia.[[1567]] On these occasions the rustics intermitted their usual employment and repaired to the city, as well to furnish themselves with what they needed, as to learn what new laws or regulations might have been promulgated in the interim.
The Epidamnians, who, as Müller[[1568]] observes, “retained much of ancient custom, paid great attention to the intercourse with foreigners,” and held great annual fairs, which were frequented by the neighbouring Illyrians. By this is meant, strange as it would seem, that they sought to cut off all such intercourse. For, as Plutarch[[1569]] relates in his Greek Questions, the people of Epidamnia living in the vicinity of the Illyrians, and observing, that such of their citizens as associated with them grew corrupt, and fearing innovation, elected one of their chief citizens to conduct the necessary intercourse and the barter which took place annually at a great fair. This officer, called Poletes, acted as broker-general for his fellow-citizens.
[1465]. The reader will find in the work of Monsieur F. Thiersch, De l’Etat actuel de la Grèce, t. ii. p. 72, sqq., an interesting and instructive chapter on the trade carried on by the descendants of that people whose manners and customs I have undertaken to describe. He there enters at length into the advantageous position of the country, and the upright and honourable character of its inhabitants, of whose singular probity he produces many proofs. Other writers have taken a different view of the modern Greek character. But I am disposed to place more reliance on the statement of M. Thiersch than on that of those prejudiced travellers who desire to obtain a reputation for exactness by an ill-natured interpretation of a free people whose hospitality they have enjoyed, and in too many cases abused.
[1466]. See a picture of this beast and his baskets, Antich. di Ercol. t. v. p. 5. In the book of Genesis, chap. xxxvii. v. 25, we find a brief picture of the commerce carried on by means of this animal, and an enumeration of some of the principal commodities which he bore from country to country. “And they (the sons of Jacob) sat down to eat bread: and they lifted up their eyes, and looked, and, behold, a company of Ishmaelites came from Gilead, with their camels bearing spicery and balm and myrrh, going to carry it down to Egypt.”