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]]
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]]
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]]
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]]
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]]
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]]
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]]
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]]
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]]
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.