A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels - Volume 18 / Historical Sketch of the Progress of Discovery, Navigation, and / Commerce, from the Earliest Records to the Beginning of the Nineteenth / Century, By William Stevenson

by Robert Kerr; William Stevenson

The other maritime towns of consequence were Agrigentum, Lilibaeum, and Drepanum; though the first stood at a short distance from the sea, yet being situated between and near two rivers, it conveniently imported all sorts of provisions and merchandize. Lilibaeum was famous for its port, which was deemed a safe retreat for ships, either in case of a storm, or to escape from an enemy. During the wars between the Romans and Carthaginians, the former repeatedly attempted to render it inaccessible and useless by throwing large stones into it, but they were always washed away by the violence of the sea, and the rapidity of the current. Drepanum, which had an excellent harbour, was much resorted to by foreign ships, and possessed a very considerable commerce.

The Greeks were the first who colonized Sicily; and they founded Syracuse and other towns. About the same period the Phoenicians settled on the coast for the purposes of commerce; but they seem to have retired soon after the Greek colonies began to flourish and extend themselves. The Carthaginians, who generally pushed their commerce into all the countries with which their parent state had traded, seem to have visited Italy as merchants or conquerors at a very early period; but when their first visit took place in either character is not known. The treaty between them and the Romans, (to which we have had occasion to refer more than once,) which was formed in the year after the expulsion of the Tarquins, expressly stipulated that the Romans, who should touch at Sardinia, or that part of Sicily which belonged to the Carthaginians, should be received there in the same manner as the Carthaginians themselves. They must, however, soon afterwards have been driven out of the island; for at the time of the invasion of Greece by Xerxes, (which happened about thirty years after the expulsion of the Tarquins,) Gelon, the king of Syracuse, expressly states that they no longer possessed any territory there, in a speech which he made to the ambassadors of Athens and Sparta, the Cathaginians having united with Xerxes, and he having offered to ally himself with the Greeks. The circumstances and even the very nature of the victory which Gelon gained over the Carthaginians, which ended in their expulsion from Sicily, cannot accurately be ascertained: but from a comparison of the principal authorities on this point, it would, appear that it was a naval victory; or at least that the Carthaginian fleet was defeated as well as their army. Their loss by sea was enormous, amounting to nearly the whole of their ships of war and transports, the former consisting of 2000 and the latter of 3000.

Such is a short sketch of the island of Sicily, so far as its commercial facilities and its history are concerned previously to its conquest by the Romans. It was peculiarly valuable to them on account of its extreme fertility in corn; and by this circumstance it seems to have been distinguished in very early times; for there can be no doubt that by its being represented by the poets as the favourite residence of the goddess Ceres, the fertility of the island in corn, as well as its knowledge of agriculture, were intended to be represented. When Gelon offered to unite with the Greeks in their war with Xerxes, one of his proposals was that he would furnish the whole Greek army with corn, during all the time of hostilities, if they would appoint him commander of their forces. In the latter period of the Roman republic, it became their principal dependence for a regular supply of corn.

Sardinia seems to have been as little explored by and known to the ancients, as it is to the moderns. The treaty between the Carthaginians and Romans, the year after the expulsion of the Tarquins, proves that the former nation possessed it at that time. Calaris, the present Cagliari, was the principal town in it. From the epithet applied to it by Horace, in one of his odes, Opima, it must have been much more fertile in former times than it is at present; and Varro expressly calls it one of the granaries of Rome. Its air, then, as at present, was in most parts very unwholsome; and it is a remarkable circumstance that the character of the Sardi, who, after the complete reduction of the island by Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus, were brought to Rome in great numbers, and sold as slaves, and who were proverbial for their worthlessness, is still to be traced in the present inhabitants; for they are represented as extremely barbarous, and so treacherous, and inhospitable, that they have been called the Malays of the Mediterranean. The island of Corsica, which, indeed, generally followed the fate of Sardinia, was another of the fruits of the first Punic war which the Romans reaped, in some degree favourable to their commerce. It possessed a large and convenient harbour, called Syracusium. The Carthaginians must have reduced it at an early period, since, according to Herodotus, the Cyrnians (the ancient name for the inhabitants), were one of the nations that composed the vast army, with which they invaded Sicily in the time of Gelon.

During the interval between the first and second Punic wars, the Roman commerce seems to have been gradually, but slowly extending itself, particularly in the Adriatic: we do not possess, however, any details on the subject, except a decisive proof of the attention and protection which the republic bestowed upon it, in repressing and punishing the piracies of the Illyrians and Istrians. These people, who were very expert and undaunted seamen, enriched themselves and their country by seizing and plundering the merchant vessels which frequented the Adriatic and adjacent Mediterranean sea; and their piracies were encouraged, rather than restrained by their sovereigns. At the period to which we allude, they were governed by a queen, named Teuta, who was a woman of a bold and enterprising spirit: the Roman merchants, who traded, in the Adriatic, had frequently been plundered and cruelly treated by her subjects; upon this, the Roman senate sent two ambassadors to her, to insist that she should put a stop to these measures. The Romans had also other grounds of complaint against her and her subjects; for the latter extended their piracies to the allies of Rome, as well as to the Romans themselves, and the former was at that time besieging the island of Issa, in the Adriatic, which was under the protection of the republic. The inhabitants of this island seem to have been rather extensively engaged in commerce, and were celebrated for building a kind of light ships, thence called Issaei lembi.

Teuta received and treated the Roman ambassadors with great scorn and haughtiness; she promised, indeed, that she would no longer authorise the piracies of her subjects; but, with regard to restraining them, she would not do it, as they enjoyed a perfect and full right to benefit themselves as much as possible, and in every way they could, by their skill and superiority in maritime affairs. On the ambassadors' replying in rather threatening language, she ordered one of them to be put to death.

For a short time Teuta was alarmed at the probable consequences of her conduct, and endeavoured to avert them by submission; but, the Romans being otherwise engaged, and she having experienced some successes over the Acheans, her haughtiness and confidence revived, and she sent a fleet to assist in the reduction of Issa. Upon this, the Romans resolved to act with immediate vigour; and they had little difficulty in compelling Teuta to sue for peace. It was granted to her, on condition that not more than three ships of war should at any one time sail beyond Lyssus, on the frontier of Macedonia, and that the islands of Corcyra, Issa, and Pharos, together with Dyrrhachium should be given up to the Romans.

It was not, however, to be supposed that the Illyrians and Istrians, who had been so long accustomed to piracy, and who in fact derived nearly all their wealth from this source, would totally abstain from it. A few years after this treaty of peace, they resumed their depredations, which they carried on with so much audacity and disregard to the power of Rome, that they even seized the ships that were laden with corn for Rome. As this commerce was one of the greatest consequence to the Romans, in which the Roman government, as well as individuals, principally embarked, and on the regularity and safety of which the subsistence and tranquillity of the city itself depended, the senate resolved to punish them more effectually; and this resolution was strengthened by the Illyrians having broken the terms of the peace by sending no fewer than 50 vessels of war beyond the prescribed limits, as far as the Cyclades. The consequence of the new war which the Romans waged against them, was the reduction of Istria and of Illyricum Proper.

The destruction of Saguntum by the Carthaginians was the cause of the second Punic war. At what period the Carthaginians first established themselves in Spain, is not known. Their principal object in colonizing and retaining it, undoubtedly may be found in the richness of its mines, and the fertility of its soil. According to Diodorus Siculus, they were principally enabled to equip and support their numerous, and frequently renewed fleets, by the silver which they drew from these mines. And Strabo expressly informs us, that when the Carthaginians first colonized Spain, silver was in such abundance, and so easily obtained, that their most common utensils, and even the mangers for their horses, were made of it. One mine of extreme richness is particularly described by Pliny: according to him, it yielded 300 pounds of silver in a day. There are other circumstances which point out the extreme value of Spain to whoever possessed it, and lead us to the motives which induced the Romans to use all their efforts to wrest it from the Carthaginians. It cannot be doubted that the Carthaginians drew from it all the wealth, in various shapes, which it could possibly supply; and yet we know that in the short space of nine years, 111,542 pounds weight of silver, 4095 of gold, besides coin, were brought out of it by the Roman praetors, who governed it. Scipio, when he returned to Rome, brought from Spain 14,342 pounds weight of silver, besides coin, arms, and corn, &c. to an immense amount. And Lentulus returned from this country with 44,000 pounds of silver, and 2550 of gold, besides the coin, &c., which was divided among his soldiers. Manlius brought with him 1200 pounds of silver, and about 30 of gold. Cornelius Lentulus, who was praetor of Hither Spain for two years, brought with him 1515 pounds of gold, and 2000 of silver, besides a large amount of coin, while the praetor of Farther Spain returned with 50,000 pounds of silver. And these immense sums, as we have already stated, were brought away in the space of nine years.

Cornelius Scipio was sent into Spain at the commencement of the second Punic war. Of the events of this war, however, we shall confine ourselves exclusively to such as were maritime, and which trace the steps of the Roman superiority at sea, and, consequently, of the advancement and extension of their commerce. The exertions of the rival nations to contest the empire of the sea were very great: the Romans equipped 220 quinqueremes, and twenty other light vessels, beside 160 galleys, and twenty light vessels, which were employed to transport troops to Africa. Their allies, the Syracusans, also, were active and alert in the equipment of a fleet to assist their allies, the Romans; and Hiero, their king, had the good fortune to give an auspicious commencement to the war, by capturing some Carthaginian ships, part of a fleet, whose object was to plunder the coasts of Italy, but which had been dispersed by a storm. The Carthaginians were equally unfortunate in their second maritime enterprise against Lilibaeum, for the Syracusans and Romans, having learnt their intention, anchored before the mouth of the harbour. The Carthaginians, finding that they could not, as they expected, surprise the place, drew up their fleet in line of battle, a little way out at sea: the allies immediately got under weigh; a battle ensued, in which the Carthaginians were defeated, with the loss of seven ships. These successes, however, were dreadfully counterbalanced by the advance of Hannibal into Italy, and the decisive victories which he obtained in the very heart of the Roman territories. Under these circumstances, maritime affairs were naturally disregarded.