The History of the Manners and Customs of Ancient Greece, Volume 3 (of 3), by James Augustus St. John

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	BOOK V.
CHAPTER		PAGE
VII.	Slaves	1
VIII.	Serfs of Sparta, Crete, Thessaly, &c.	36
	BOOK VI.
	COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY.
I.	Condition of the Poor	68
II.	Industry: Millers, Bakers, Vintners, Markets, &c.	96
III.	Industry: Perfumers, Barbers, Goldsmiths, Lapidaries, &c.	131
IV.	Industry: Smiths, Cutlers, Armourers, the Art of Mining, Charcoal-making, &c.	153
V.	Industry: House-builders, Carpenters, Cabinet-makers, Turners, Musical Instrument-makers, Potters, Glass-workers, &c.	176
VI.	Industry: Oil and Colourmen, Italian Warehouses, Druggists, Collectors of Simples	197
VII.	Industry: Weavers, Glovers, Sock-makers, Cordwainers, Tanners, Hatters, Dyers of Purple, &c., Fishermen	214
VIII.	Commerce of Doric States	245
IIIX.	Commerce of Attica	276
X.	Navigation	300
XI.	Exports and Imports	326
XII.	Exports of the Islands, Italy, Gaul, and Spain	355
XIII.	Exports from Africa and the East	381
XIV.	Funeral Ceremonies	414

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CHAPTER VII.
SLAVES.

It will have been remarked, that both in town and country, the mean and painful drudgery was chiefly performed by slaves,^[1] whose origin, condition, and numbers, in the principal Grecian states, it now becomes necessary to describe. The greatest writers of antiquity^[2] were on this subject perplexed and undecided. They appear to have comprehended the full extent of the evil,^[3] but to have been too much the slaves themselves of habit and prejudice to discover, that no form or modification of 2servitude is consistent with human happiness or with justice, without which no happiness can be. This is evident from the conversation in Crete between Plato and his Gnosian and Spartan companions. They do not trouble their minds with inquiries respecting the origin of slavery, which, while some tribes of men are stronger and more civilised than others, could never be difficult to be conjectured; but considering its existence easy to be accounted for, they are concerned to discover by what means may be avoided or mitigated the mischiefs they everywhere saw accompanying it.

Most perplexing of all,^[4] however, was the Laconian Heloteia; because in that case the comparatively great number of the servile caste rendered it necessary, in the opinion of some, to break their spirit and bring them down to their condition by a system of severity which constitutes the infamy of Sparta.

The discredit, however, of subsisting on slave labour was to a certain extent shared by all the states of Greece, even by Athens. They appear to have supposed that no slaves, no body politic.^[5] But in the treatment of those unfortunate men there was as much variation as from the differences of national character might have been inferred. The Athenians in this respect, as in most others, being the antipodes of the Spartans, and falling into the error, if such a thing can be conceived, of extreme humanity and indulgence.

It is no doubt possible by kindness to obliterate many of the ugly features of slavery, so that between the vassal and his lord strong mutual affection may spring up.^[6] We hear, accordingly, of 3slaves whose love for their masters exceeded the love of brothers, or of children;^[7] they have toiled, fought, died, for them; nay they have sometimes surpassed them in courage, and taught them, in situations of imminent danger, how to die, as in the case of that military attendant, who, when taken prisoner with his master, and seeing him resolved on death, yet hesitating about the means, dashed his brains out against the wall to show him how it might be done. Another example is recorded of a slave who put on the disguise of his lord, that he might be slain in his stead. But what then? Do these examples prove that in servitude there is anything ennobling? On the contrary, the only inference to be drawn from them is, that in these cases great and worthy souls had been dealt with unjustly by fortune. However, since none but the incorrigibly base can now be found to advocate this worst of all human vices, I may spare my arguments, and proceed at once to trace the history of slavery in Greece.

In very remote ages mankind, according to tradition, dispensed with the labours of domestic slaves,^[8] 4whose place was supplied by the women of the family,^[9] who rose before day to grind corn for the household; and as they usually sang while thus engaged, the whole village on such occasions would seem alive with music. As in the East, also, they were accustomed to draw water from the wells, or seek it at a distance at the fountains, as I have already, in speaking of the Hellenic women, observed. But as soon as men began to give quarter in war, and became possessed of prisoners, the idea of employing them, and rendering their labours subservient to their maintenance naturally suggested itself. At the outset, therefore, as a very distinguished historian^[10] has remarked, servitude sprung from feelings of humanity; for when it was found that advantages could be derived from captured enemies they were no longer butchered in the field. Hence, from the verb signifying “to be subdued,” they were denominated Dmöes;^[11] for “of whom a man is 5overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage.”^[12] Of these constant mention is made in Homer. Thus Telemachos speaks of the Dmöes whom his father had left in his charge; and Agamemnon detained in his tent a number of Lesbian women taken captive in war. In the same condition was Briseïs: and to this fate Hector fears Andromache may be reserved after his death.^[13]

Possibly the practice was borrowed from the East, where the mention of slaves occurs in the remotest ages. Thus too in later times, Atossa, queen of Persia, is represented to have urged Darius into the Grecian war, that she might possess Athenian, Spartan, Argive, and Corinthian slaves.^[14] And the Pythoness foretelling the destruction of Miletus, exclaims:

The practice was when a number of prisoners had been taken, to make a division of them among the chiefs, generally by lot, and then to sell them for slaves.^[16] This Achilles boasts he had frequently done, and old Priam fears will be the destiny of his own sons, as it had been of Lycaon whom the Thessalian hero had seized^[17] in his garden. To the same purpose is the lament of Hecuba,^[18] who accuses him of having reduced many of her sons to slavery. Examples occur in antiquity of whole cities and states being at once subjected to servitude: thus the inhabitants 6of Judea were a first and a second time carried away captive to Babylon, where their masters, not perhaps from mockery, required of them to sing for their entertainment some of their national songs, to which, as we learn from the prophet, they replied: “How can we sing the songs of Zion in a strange land?” The citizens likewise of Miletos, after the unsuccessful revolt of Aristagoras, were transported into Persia, as were those also of Eretria and Carystos in Eubœa.^[19] Like the Israelites, these Greeks long preserved in captivity their national manners and language, though surrounded by strangers and urged by every inducement to assimilate themselves to their conquerors. A similar fate overtook the inhabitants of Thebes, who were sold into slavery by Alexander, as were those of Mycene by the Argives, and the Corinthians by Mummius.^[20]

But the supply produced by war seldom equalled the demand; and in consequence a race of kidnappers sprung up, who, partly merchants and partly pirates, roamed about the shores of the Mediterranean, as similar miscreants do now about the slave-coasts, picking up solitary and unprotected individuals. Sometimes their boldness rose to the wives or daughters of the chiefs; as in the case of Paris, who robbed the house, and carried away the wife of Menelaus; and of those Phœnicians who having landed at Argos and held, during several days, a fair on the beach, ended by stealing the king’s daughter.^[21] Mitford’s supposition that both Io and her companions may have been allured on board,^[22] is founded on the apologetical narrative of the pirates themselves. The practice of kidnapping certainly prevailed widely. Thus Eumæos was, by the Phœnicians, sold to Laertes, and a similar fate awaited the woman whom the Taphian pirates stole away at the same 7time.^[23] Odysseus himself relates how a Phœnician rogue plotted against his liberty when he was sailing with him towards Libya, and that the Thesprotians had meditated a like design.^[24] To enumerate no other instances, Laomedon menaces Apollo and Poseidon with servitude, observing that he will have them bound and shipped to some distant island for sale.^[25]

Neither war, however, nor piracy sufficed at length to furnish that vast multitude of slaves, which the growing luxury of the times induced the Greeks to consider necessary. Commerce by degrees conducted them to Caria and other parts of Asia Minor, particularly the southern coasts of the Black Sea, those great nurseries of slaves from that time until now.^[26] The first Greeks who engaged in this traffic, which even by the Pagans was supposed to be attended by a curse, are said to have been the Chians, and we shall presently see how ill it prospered with them. They purchased their slaves from the barbarians, among whom the Lydians, the Phrygians, and the natives of Pontos, with many others were accustomed, like the modern Circassians, to carry on a trade in their own people.^[27] We find mention made 8in the Anabasis of a Macronian, who having been a slave at Athens and obtaining his liberty, afterwards became a soldier and served the Ten Thousand as an interpreter at a critical moment during their passage through his native country.^[28]

Before proceeding, however, with the history of the slave-trade, it may be proper to describe the power possessed by masters over their domestics during the heroic ages. Every man appears to have been then a king in his own house, and to have exercised his authority most regally. Thus we find the young Telemachos taking pleasure in the idea that he shall be king over his slaves;^[29] and Andromache, with a mother’s fondness, fears lest her son should become the drudge of an unfeeling lord.^[30] Power generally, when unchecked by law, is fierce and inhuman, and over their household, gentlemen, in those ages, exercised the greatest and most awful power, that of life and death, as they afterwards did at Rome.^[31] This is illustrated by an example in the Odyssey, where the hero being, while in disguise, insulted grossly by Melanthios, threatens the slave that he will incite Telemachos to cut him in pieces. Afterwards, when he has recovered his authority, the terrible menace is remembered and fulfilled. The culprit is seized and mutilated with savage barbarity, his members, torn from the body, are thrown to the dogs, and even the poet, upon the whole so humane, does not seem to consider the punishment too great for the offence.^[32] It has even been supposed that 9this kind of mutilation was a punishment peculiar to slaves; for Laomedon, while menacing the gods in the manner above described, adds, that he will cut off their ears.^[33] When supposed to deserve death they were executed ignominiously by hanging, as in the case of the domestics of Odysseus, whose offences, though grave, would scarcely in any free country be visited with capital punishment.^[34] This was regarded as an impure end. To die honourably was to perish by the sword.^[35]

The practice of manumission already in the heroic ages prevailed.^[36] Odysseus promises their freedom to his herdsman and swineherd if by their aid he should slaughter the suitors; and, according to Plutarch, Telemachos actually bestowed on Eumæos and his companions both their liberty and the rights of citizenship, and from them, he adds, the celebrated families of the Koliades and Bukoli were descended.^[37]

Nor does the illustrious race appear to be yet extinct, 10Professor Koliades^[38] claiming to be a lineal descendant from Eumæos, which may very well be since he must be descended from somebody; and there is no reason why a descendant of Eumæos should not be a professor.

In addition to the slaves there were likewise free labourers who worked for hire, and were called Thetes.^[39] These sometimes seem to have been placed on the extremities of estates, as the guardians of boundaries, a post which Eurymachos offers with good wages to Odysseus.^[40] And it is the condition of one of these hinds that Achilles prefers in Hades to the empire of the shades.^[41] The gods also in their sojourn upon earth sometimes submitted to the hardships of this condition. Thus Phœbos Apollo kept the flocks of Admetos, king of Thessaly,^[42] and the belief in this humble condition of the gods on earth is objected by Lucian and Dionysius of Halicarnassus,^[43] as blameworthy to the Greeks. Herodotus, too, relates that the three sons of Temenos—Gavanes, Aëropos, and Perdiccas—fled from Argos into Illyria and thence into Upper Macedonia to the city of Lebæa, where they served the king for hire, the first tending the royal stud, the second the cattle, and the third the sheep and goats.^[44]

From the history of Minos, which, whether true or fabulous, still illustrates the manners of the times, we learn, that the tribute exacted by a victorious enemy sometimes consisted of slaves. Thus the Cretan king, having made a successful descent on the Attic coast, was propitiated (as by our own ancestors were the Danes and other Northern savages) 11by an annual offering of fourteen youths and virgins, who, being conveyed to Crete, were there said to be destroyed by a monster born of Pasiphaë, daughter of the sun.^[45] Theseus, the great hero of the Ionic race, delivered his country from this obnoxious tax, and on his return to Athens was received by the people with unbounded gratitude; sacrifices and processions were instituted in his honour, and the memory of his noble achievement was religiously preserved as long as paganism endured.^[46]

And in some such ways as the above, slaves, in early times, must have been procured; for, as Timæos of Taormina^[47] remarks, the Greeks of those ages obtained none in the regular course of traffic. He further adds, that Aristotle was generally accused of having misunderstood the usages of the Locrians, among whom, as among the Phocians,^[48] it was not of old the custom to possess slaves, whether male or female. The practice, however, prevailed in later times; and the wife of that Philomelos who took Delphi is said to have been the first who was attended by two servile handmaids.^[49] But when men commence evil courses, they seldom know where to stop. Mnason, a Phocian, and friend of Aristotle,^[50] ambitious of rivalling Nicias, the son of Niceratos, purchased for his own service a thousand slaves, for which he was accused by his countrymen of lavishing upon them what would have supported an equal number of free persons.^[51] In that country, therefore, it is clear there existed a class of labourers like the Thetes described by Homer, who were ready to work for hire.^[52] In their domestic economy the simplicity of their manners enabled the Phocians and Locrians to dispense with the services of slaves, it being the custom among them, as among the rustics 12of Eubœa, whom we have described above, for the younger members of the family to wait on the elder.^[53]

The Chians, as I have already observed, are said to have been the first Grecian people who engaged in a regular slave-trade.^[54] For, although the Thessalians and Spartans possessed, at a period much anterior, their Penestæ and their Helots, they obtained them by different means: the latter, by reducing to subjection the ancient Achæan inhabitants of Peloponnesos;^[55] the former, by their conquests over the Magnesians, Perrhæbians, and Bœotians of Arnè. But the Chians possessed only such barbarian slaves as they had purchased with money, in which they more nearly resembled the slave-holding nations of modern times.^[56] Other circumstances, likewise, in the history of slavery among the Chians,^[57] strongly suggest the parallel, and deserve to be studied with more care than appears to have been bestowed upon them. We have here, perhaps, the first type of the Maroon wars, though on a smaller scale, and marked by fewer outbreaks of atrocity. It is not, indeed, stated that the females were flogged, though throughout Greece the males were so corrected; but, whatever the nature of the severities practised on them may have been,^[58] the yoke of bondage was found 13too galling to be borne,^[59] and whole gangs took refuge in the mountains. Fortunately for them, the interior of the island abounded in fastnesses, and was, in those days, covered with forest.

Here, therefore, the fugitives, erecting themselves dwellings, or taking possession of caverns among almost inaccessible cliffs, successfully defended themselves, subsisting on the plunder of their former owners. Shortly before the time of the writer, to whom we are indebted for these details, a bondsman, named Drimacos, made his escape from the city and reached the mountains, where, by valour and conduct, he soon placed himself at the head of the servile insurgents over whom he ruled like a king.^[60] The Chians led several expeditions against him in vain. He defeated them in the field with great slaughter; but, at length, to spare the useless effusion of human blood, invited them to a conference, 14wherein he observed, that the slaves, being encouraged in their revolt by an oracle, would never lay down their arms or submit to the drudgery of servitude. Nevertheless, the war might be terminated. “For, if my advice,” said he, “be followed, and we be suffered to enjoy tranquillity, numerous advantages will thence accrue to the state.”

There being little prospect of a satisfactory settlement of the matter by arms, the Chians consented to enter into a truce as with a public enemy. Humbled by their losses and defeats, Drimacos found them submissive to reason. He, therefore, provided himself with weights, measures, and a signet,^[61] and exhibiting them to his former masters, said, “When, in future, our necessities require that I should supply myself from your stores, it shall always be by these weights and measures, and having possessed myself of the necessary quantity of provisions, I shall be careful to leave your warehouses sealed with this signet. With respect to such of your slaves as may fly and offer themselves to me, I will institute a rigid examination into their story, and if, upon inquiry, they appear to have had just grounds for complaint, I will protect them—if not, they shall be sent back to their proprietors.”

To these conditions the magistrates readily acceded, upon which the slaves who still remained 15with their masters grew more obedient, and seldom took to flight, dreading the decision of Drimacos.^[62] Over his own followers he exercised a despotic authority. They, in fact, stood far more in fear of him than when in bondage of their lords, and performed his bidding without question or murmur, as soldiers obey their commander. For he was severe in the punishment of the unruly, and permitted no man to plunder or lay waste the country, or commit any act of injustice,—in short, to do anything without his order. The public festivals he was careful to observe, going round and collecting from the proprietors of the land, who bestowed upon him voluntarily both wine and the finest victims; but if, on these occasions, he discovered that a plot was hatching, or any ambush laid for him, he would take speedy vengeance.

So far the affairs of the Chians and their revolted bondsmen proceeded smoothly. But things continued not always on this footing. Observing old age to be creeping upon Drimacos, and rendered wanton apparently by prosperity, the government issued a proclamation, offering a great reward to any one who should capture him, or bring them his head.^[63] The old general, discerning, perhaps, signals 16of treachery, or convinced that, at last, it must come to that, took aside a young man whom he loved, and said, “I have ever regarded you with a stronger affection than any other man, and to me you have been, instead of a son, a brother, and every other tie. But now, the days of my life are at an end, nor would I have them prolonged. With you, however, it is not so. Youth and the bloom of youth are yours. What then is to be done? You must prove yourself to possess valour and greatness of soul; and since the state offers riches and freedom to whomsoever shall slay me and bear them my head, let the reward be yours. Strike it off, and be happy!”

At first the youth rejected the proposal, but ultimately Drimacos prevailed. The old man fell, and his friend on presenting his head received the sum which had been offered by the state, together with his freedom, and thereupon after burying his benefactor’s remains, he sailed away to his own country. Now, however, the Chians underwent the just punishment of their treachery. No longer guided by the wisdom and authority of Drimacos, the fugitive slaves returned to their original habits of plunder and devastation; whereupon, remembering the moderation of the dead, they erected an 17Heroön upon his grave, and denominated him the propitious hero. The insurgents, too, holding his memory in no less veneration, continued for ages to offer up the first-fruits of their spoil at his tomb. He was, in fact, honoured with a kind of apotheosis, and canonized among the gods of the island; for it was believed that his shade often appeared to men in dreams for the purpose of revealing some servile conspiracy while yet in the bud: and they to whom he vouchsafed these warning visits, more grateful than when he yet lived, never failed to proceed to his chapel, and offer sacrifice to his manes.^[64]

In another department of iniquity the Chians would appear to have been engaged about the period of Xerxes’ expedition into Greece; I mean the making of eunuchs for the Eastern market. Panionios, a miscreant engaged in this traffic, who had mutilated and sold into slavery a young man named Hermotimos, at length expiated his offence against human nature by being himself, together with his four sons, subjected to the same operation.^[65] His countrymen, also, in process of time, were, in like manner, compelled to drain the bitter cup of servitude. For, as we find recorded by Nicolaos the Peripatetic, and Posidonios the Stoic, having been subjugated by Mithridates of Cappadocia, they were delivered up to their own slaves to be carried away captive into Colchis, which Athenæus, a man not overburdened with religion, considers the just punishment of their wickedness in having been the first who introduced the slave-trade into Greece, when they might have been better served by freemen for hire. From this ancient villany of the Chians is supposed to have arisen the proverb—“the Chian has bought himself a master,” which Eupolis introduced into his drama called the “Friends.”^[66]

18The servile war which took place among the Samians, had a more fortunate issue, though but few particulars respecting it have come down to us. It was related, however, by Malacos, in his annals of the Siphnians, that Ephesos was first founded by a number of Samian slaves, who having retired to a mountain on the island to the number of a thousand, inflicted numerous evils on their former tyrants. These in the sixth year of the war, having consulted the oracle, came to an understanding with their slaves, who being permitted to depart in safety from the island, sailed away, and became the founders of the city and people of Ephesos.^[67]

In Attica, the institution of slavery,^[68] though attended, as it everywhere must be, by innumerable evils, nevertheless exhibited itself under the mildest form which it anywhere assumed in the ancient world.^[69] With their characteristic attention to the interests of humanity, the Athenians enacted a law, in virtue of which slaves could indict their masters for assault and battery. Hyperides, accordingly, observed in his oration against Mantitheos, “our laws making no distinction in this respect between freemen and slaves, grant to all alike the privilege of bringing an action against those who insult or injure them.”^[70] To the same effect spoke Lycurgus^[71] in his first oration against Lycophron; but Demosthenes has preserved the law which empowered any Athenian, not labouring under legal disability, to denounce 19to the Thesmothetæ the person who offered violence to man, woman, or boy, whether slave or free. The action was tried before the court of Heliæa, and numerous were the examples of men who had suffered death for crimes committed against bondsmen. Not, therefore, without reason did the orator eulogise the humane spirit of the law, or dwell upon the beneficial effects which a knowledge of its existence must produce among those barbarous nations who furnished Greece with servile labourers.^[72] Another privilege enjoyed by the slave class in Attica was that of purchasing their own freedom, as often as, by the careful management of the peculium secured them by law, they were enabled to offer to their owners an equivalent for their services.^[73]

Still, even in Attica, the yoke of bondage was a heavy yoke, the law itself, in other matters, drawing distinctions between freemen and slaves doubly galling because palpably unnecessary. Legally, for example, they were not allowed to wear long hair,^[74] or a garment with two sleeves,^[75] to drink wine, save at the festival of Pithœgia on the first day of the month Anthesterion; to anoint themselves as in the gymnasia, to be present at the procession in honour of the Eumenides, or in the case of females to enter the temple of Demeter during the celebration of the Thesmophoria.^[76] A similar spirit pervaded the servile code in other parts of Greece. Thus, in the island of Cos they were prohibited from joining in the sacrifices to Hera, and from tasting the victims. They were, likewise, forbidden to be present when offerings were presented to the Manes of Phorbas. 20But from the very words of the law which authorised the temple wardens to exclude them on these occasions, it is clear that on all others they might freely enter.^[77] At Athens, with the exceptions above mentioned, every temple in the city appears to have been open to them. Occasionally, moreover, certain of their number were selected to accompany their masters to consult the oracle at Delphi, when even they were permitted, like free citizens, to wear crowns upon their heads, which, for the time conferred upon them exemption from blows or stripes.^[78] Among their more serious grievances, was their liability to personal chastisement, which, besides being inflicted as our punishment of the treadmill, or whipping,^[79] at the carts’-tail, by an order of the magistrates,^[80] was too much left to the discretion of their owners, whose mercies in many cases would be none of the most tender. In time of war, however, this planter’s luxury could not be enjoyed,^[81] since the flogged slaves might go over to the enemy, as sometimes happened.^[82] They are said, besides, to have worked the mines in fetters; probably, however, only in consequence of the revolt described by Posidonios, in which they slew the overseers of the mines, and taking possession of the acropolis of Sunium,^[83] laid waste for a considerable time the whole 21of the adjacent districts. This took place simultaneously with the second insurrection of the slaves in Sicily (there was, perhaps, an understanding between them) in the quelling of which nearly a million of their number were destroyed.^[84] Other grievances they endured, which will be noticed as we proceed; but in addition to those that actually existed, a learned modern writer has imagined another, which, in his opinion, reduces their condition beneath that of the Helots. “Nearly all the ties of family were broken,” he says, “among the slaves of Athens;” and further explaining himself in a note remarks, that the marriage of slaves was there an uncommon event.^[85] We find, however, from contemporary writers, that except in cases of incorrigible perverseness, slaves were, on the contrary, encouraged to marry, it being supposed they would thus become more attached to their masters.^[86] The same bold and ingenious writer endeavours to give a reason for what has been quoted above, by saying, “it was cheaper to purchase than to bring up slaves.” This was not the opinion of the ancients, “we,” say they, “prefer and put more trust in slaves born and brought up in the house, than in such as are purchased.”^[87]

It has been observed that, from the most grievous 22insults and contumely, slaves were protected by the laws; but if, in spite of legal protection, their masters found means to render their lives a burden, the state provided them with an asylum in the temples of Theseus and the Eumenides.^[88] Having there taken sanctuary, their oppressors could not force them thence without incurring the guilt of sacrilege.^[89] Thus, in a fragment of Aristophanes’ Seasons we find a slave deliberating whether he should not take refuge in the Theseion, and there remain till he could procure his transfer to a new master;^[90] for any one who conducted himself too harshly towards his slaves was by law compelled to sell them.^[91] Nay and not only so, but the slave could institute an action against his lord called αἰκιάς δίκη, or against any other citizen who had behaved unjustly or injuriously towards him. But the right of sanctuary was no doubt limited, and only extended from the time of the slave’s flight 23to the next New Moon, when a periodical slave-auction appears to have been held.^[92]

On this occasion the slaves were stationed, as I have seen them in the bazaars of modern Egypt, in a circle in the market-place, and the one whose turn it was to be sold mounted a table, which seems to have been of stone, where he exhibited himself and was knocked down to the best bidder. Sometimes when the articles were lively they made great sport for the company, as in the case of Diogenes who bawled aloud “whoever among you wants a master, let him buy me.”^[93]

To the friskiness whether natural or assumed which the young barbarians often exhibited on this occasion, Menander alludes in the following fragment of his Ephesian:^[94]

Slaves of little or no value were contemptuously called “salt-bought,” from a custom prevalent among the inland Thracians, of bartering their captives for salt;^[95] whence it may be inferred, that domestics from that part of the world were considered inferior.

Respecting the price of slaves an important passage occurs in the Memorabilia, where Socrates, conversing with Antisthenes, on the subject of friendship, inquires whether friends were to be valued at so much per head, like slaves, some of whom he says were not worth a demimina, while others would fetch two, 24five, or even ten minæ,^[96] that is, the price varied from forty shillings to forty pounds. Nay it is even said that Nicias, son of Niceratos, bought an overseer for his silver mines at the price of a talent, or two hundred and forty-one pounds sterling.^[97] This passage is in substance quoted by Boeckh,^[98] who observes that, exclusively of the fluctuations caused by the variations in the supply and the demand, the market-price of slaves was affected by their age, health, strength, beauty, natural abilities, mechanical ingenuity, and moral qualities. The meanest and cheapest class were those who worked in the mills,^[99] where mere bodily strength was required, and therefore by setting Samson at this labour the Philistines intimated their extreme contempt for his blind energy. A very low value was set upon such slaves as worked in the mines, about 150 drachmas in the age of Demosthenes.^[100] Ordinary house-slaves, whether male or female, might be valued at about the same price. Demosthenes, in fact, considered two minæ and a half a large sum for a person of this class. Of the sword-cutlers possessed by the orator’s father some were valued at six minæ, others at five, while the lowest were worth above three. Chair-makers sold for about two minæ.

25In his discussion on this point, Boeckh^[101] charges Demosthenes with intentional falsehood, because, in his oration against Aphobos, he reckons fourteen sword-cutlers at forty minæ, something less than three minæ a-piece. But among those possessed by his father at his death some were reckoned at only three minæ. His guardians made use of them for ten years, that is, till they were grown old, by which time the best would have deteriorated, and the others become of no value.^[102] This being the case, I do not see upon what ground Boeckh bases his accusation. The wages of slaves, when let out by their masters on hire, varied greatly, as did also the profit derived from them. A miner was supposed to yield his master an obolos per day, a leather-worker two oboli, and a foreman or overseer three. Expert manufacturers of fine goods, such as head-nets, stuffs of Amorgos, and variegated fabrics like our flowered muslins, must have produced their owners much greater returns.^[103]

Slaves, at Athens, were divided into two classes, private and public. The latter, who were the property of the state, performed several kinds of service supposed to be unworthy of freemen: they were, for example, employed as vergers, messengers, apparitors, scribes, clerks of public works,^[104] and inferior servants of the gods. Most of the temples of Greece possessed, in fact, a great number of slaves or serfs, who cultivated the sacred domains, exercised various humbler offices of religion, and were, in short, ready on all occasions to execute the orders of the priests.^[105] At Corinth, where the worship of Aphrodite chiefly prevailed, these slaves consisted almost exclusively of women,^[106] who having, on certain 26occasions, burnt frankincense, and offered up public prayers to the goddess, were sumptuously feasted within the precincts of her fane.

Among the Athenians, the slaves of the republic, generally captives taken in war, received a careful education, and were sometimes entrusted with important duties. Out of their number were selected the secretaries,^[107] who, in time of war, accompanied the generals and treasurers of the army, and made exact minutes of their expenditure, in order that, when on their return these officers should come to render an account of their proceedings, their books might be compared with those of the secretaries. In cases of difficulty, moreover, these unfortunate individuals were subjected to torture, in order to obtain that kind of evidence which the ancients deemed most satisfactory.^[108]

The servile vocabulary was necessarily abundant: διάκονος,^[109] a servant in general; ὑπηρέτης,^[110] a personal attendant or valet; ἀργυρώ-νητης,^[111] a slave bought with money; ὤνιος, the same; οἰκότριψ,^[112] οἰκοτραφὴς, a male slave born in the house. The name given to the female slave in the same condition was σηκὶς, or οἰκογενὴς.^[113] 27The housekeeper, likewise a slave, received the appellation of ταμεία^[114] from her office. A lady’s maid they called παιδίσκη,^[115] though it be doubtful, according to Pollux, whether the orator Lysias, who uses the word, does so with reference to the girl’s youth or condition.^[116] A slave born of slaves in the house is called οἰκοτριβαίος.^[117] Chrysippos makes a distinction between οἰκέτης^[118] and δοῦλος,^[119] but without much foundation. Clitarchus enumerates various names by which slaves were known in Greece: ἄζοι, θεραπόντες,^[120] ἀκόλουθοι,^[121] πάλμονες, and λάτρεις. Rural slaves were called ἐρκίται. Hermon, in his Cretan Glossaries, observes, that slaves, born of free parents (εὐγένεις), were, in the island of Crete, called μνῶται. Seleucus informs us, that ἄζοι signifies servants male and female.^[122] The latter were also denominated ἀποφράσαι and βολίζαι. A male slave, born of a slave, was termed σινδρὼν; a female attendant on a lady, ἀμφίπολος; a slave-girl who walked before her mistress, πρόπολος. Female slaves were, at Lacedæmon, called χαλκίδες. The term οἰκέτης was applied to any person employed about a house, whether slave or free.

A very pleasant and significant custom prevailed when a slave newly purchased was first brought into the house. They placed him before the hearth, where his future master, mistress, and fellow-servants, poured baskets of ripe fruit, dates, figs, filberts, walnuts, and so on, upon his head, to intimate that 28he was come into the abode of plenty.^[123] The occasion was converted by his fellow-slaves into a holiday and a feast; for custom appropriated to them whatever was thus cast upon the new-comer, and as there were sweetmeats among the rest, they had wherewith to make merry.^[124]

Their food was commonly, as might be expected, inferior to that of their masters. Thus the dates grown in Greece, which ripened but imperfectly, were appropriated to their use; and for their drink they had a small thin wine called Lora,^[125] by the Romans made of the husks of grapes, laid, after they had been pressed, to soak in water,^[126] and then squeezed again, like our Bunnel, in the perry country.^[127] That they generally ate barley-bread in Attica was no peculiar hardship,^[128] since the citizens themselves frequently did the same. We find, moreover, that to give a relish to their coarse meal, plain broth, and salt fish,^[129] they were indulged with pickled gherkins. 29In the early ages of the commonwealth they imitated the frugal manner of their lords, so that no slave who valued his reputation would be seen to enter a tavern; but in later times they naturally shared largely in the general depravity of morals, and placed their summum bonum in eating and drinking. Their whole creed, on this point, has been summed up in a few words by the poet Sotion.^[130] “Wherefore,” exclaims a slave, “dole forth these absurdities, these ravings of sophists, prating up and down the Lyceum, the Academy, and the gates of the Odeion? In all these there is nothing of value. Let us drink, let us drink deeply, O Sicon, Sicon!^[131] Let us rejoice, whilst it is yet permitted us to delight our souls. Enjoy thyself, O Manes! Nothing is sweeter than the belly, which alone is to thee as thy father and thy mother. Virtues, embassies, generalships, are vain pomps, resembling the plaudits of a dream. Heaven, at the fated hour, will deliver thee to the cold grasp of death, and thou wilt bear with thee nothing but what thou hast drunk and eaten! All else is dust, like Pericles, Codros, and Cimon.”

The employment of household slaves necessarily varied according to the rank and condition of their lords. In the dwellings of the wealthy and luxurious 30they were accustomed to fan their masters and mistresses, and to drive away the flies with branches of myrtle, instead of which, in the East, they make use of flappers of palm-leaves. Among the Roman ladies it was customary to retain a female attendant for the sole purpose of looking after the Melitensian lap-dogs^[132] of their mistresses, in which they were less ambitious than that dame in Lucian, who kept a philosopher for this purpose.^[133] Female cup-bearers filled the place of our saucy footmen.^[134] Ladies’ maids were likewise slaves. They were initiated in all the arts of the toilette; and it is told of Julia, whose hair turned prematurely grey, that her ornatrix was sometimes surprised plucking out the white hairs by the entrance of her father.^[135] The offices of these ornamenters is thus described by Manilius:

In these arts they were regularly taught under masters, and there would likewise appear to have been a set of men who earned their subsistence by initiating slaves in household labours. An example is mentioned at Syracuse of a person^[137] who probably had an establishment of his own, where he instructed slaves in the whole round of their domestic duties, such as bread-making, cooking, washing, and so on. In the baker’s business Anaxarchos, an Eudaimonist philosopher, one of the fitting companions of Alexander the Great,^[138] introduced an improvement 31by which modern times may profit,—to preserve his bread pure from the touch, and even from the breath of the slaves who made it, he caused them to knead the dough with gloves on their hands, and to wear a respirator of some gauze-like substance over the mouth.^[139] Other individuals, who grudged their domestics a taste of their delicacies, obliged them, while employed at the kneading-trough, to wear a broad collar, like a wheel, which prevented them from bringing their hands to their mouths.^[140] This odious practice, however, could not have been general, as it is clear, from an expression 32in Aristophanes^[141] and his scholiast, that slaves employed in making bread used to amuse themselves by eating the dough. This seems to be one of the principal causes of disgust to the rogues in the piece employed in preparing the delicacies with which Trygæos feeds the beetle whereon he is about to mount to the court of Zeus.

In the city of Abdera, as we find from an anecdote of Stratonicos,^[142] every private citizen kept a slave who served him in the capacity of herald, and announced by sound of trumpet the appearance of the new moon, and the festival by which it was followed. A bon mot worth repeating is ascribed to this travelling wit. Being one day in the cemetery of Teicheios, a town of the Milesian territory,^[143] inhabited by a mixed population from all the neighbouring countries, and seeing on every tomb the name of some foreigner, “Come,” said he to his slave, “let us depart from this place. Nobody dies here but strangers.”

One of the most steady and faithful of the domestics was usually selected to be the porter.^[144] Occasionally, moreover, in the establishments of opulent and ostentatious persons, as Callias for example, eunuchs, imported from Asia, were employed as door-keepers.^[145]

33The directions, as Mitford justly observes, which Penelope’s housekeeper gives to the menial servants for the business of the day, might still serve in the East without variation: “Go quickly,” she said, “some of you sweep the house, and sprinkle it, and let the crimson carpets be spread upon the seats; let all the tables be well rubbed with sponges, and wash carefully the bowls and cups. Some of you go immediately to the fountain for water.”^[146]

Besides working at the mill, and fetching water, both somewhat laborious employments, we find that female slaves were sometimes engaged in offices still more unfeminine; that is, in woodcutting upon the mountains, where the impudent old fellow, in Aristophanes, takes advantage of Thratta.^[147] Events of this kind, however, could only happen among the peasant girls. In the city both mistresses and maids were too domestic to meet with adventures in forest or on mountains. Towards the decline of the commonwealth, it became a mark of wealth and consequence to be served by black domestics, both male and female, as was also the fashion among the Romans and the Egyptian Greeks. Thus Cleopatra^[148] had negro boys for torch-bearers; and the shallow exclusive, in Cicero,^[149] is anxious to make it known 34that he has an African valet. Juvenal, in his sarcastic style, alludes to this practice.^[150]

The Athenian ladies, like our Indian dames, affected as a foil, perhaps, to be attended by waiting-maids rendered “by Phœbus’ amorous pinches black.”^[151]

Travellers among the higher Alps are almost invariably attended by Swiss guides who, laden with their employer’s baggage, climb before them up the rocks, and are less fatigued at the close of the day’s journey than the rich pedestrians who carry nothing beyond their own weight. This is an exact image of the style of travelling in antiquity. It was then common even for opulent men, to “make their own legs their compasses,” as Scriblerus phrases it; but, not to load their own delicate shoulders with a knapsack, they were attended, like Bacchos in the Frogs, by a steady slave, who carried the baggage, mounted on a porter’s knot upon his shoulders. To employ more than one valet in this service was esteemed a mark of luxurious habits; and therefore Æschines reproaches Demosthenes that, during his embassy, he was attended by two domestics with each a carpet-bag.^[152] Both by Theophrastus and Xenophon this attendant is called an Acoluthos, or follower, because it was his duty to walk behind his master; but this name in general signified a youthful valet, kept in personal attendance on the great.^[153] The simplicity of republican manners at Athens condemned the habit of maintaining many of those elegant youths, which, moreover was prohibited by law.^[154]

35From the severity of manners, however, one evil arose—the single slave was sometimes condemned by vanity to carry the burden of two; and as their grumblings were proportioned to their hardship, their case was soon taken up by the comic poets, not, I fear, so much for the sake of humanity, as because it often furnished them with a good joke or two. By degrees, as no writers dwell so constantly on a fruitful topic or so frankly imitate each other, it became the fashion of the stage to introduce a miserable devil into every comedy, whose misfortunes, like those of the clown in our pantomimes, usually kept the theatre in a roar. The practice, however, had already grown stale in the time of Aristophanes, who both ridiculed and followed it; for while his sneers at the grumbling valet are repeated usque ad nauseam, much of the humour and interest of the Frogs arise out of the tricks and adventures of a melancholy wag of this description as Casaubon^[155] long ago observed.

When men have usurped an undue dominion over their fellows, they seldom know where to stop. The Syrians themselves, enslaved politically, and often sold into servitude abroad, affected when rich a peculiarly luxurious manner: female attendants waited on their ladies, who, when mounting their carriages, required them to crawl on all-fours that they might make a foot-stool of their backs.^[156]

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If we now pass from the consideration of slavery in the comparatively mild form which it assumed in Attica to an examination of the state of the Laconian Helots, we shall discover the spirit which actuated the two governments to present a still broader contrast in this, the lowest stage of its influence, than when operating upon the nobler citizens on the great arena of public life.

Among certain scholars on the continent it appears to be very much the fashion to oppose an invincible scepticism to the testimony of ancient writers, as often as that testimony makes against any theory they desire to establish; and on the subject of the Helots several of the ablest authors among them have adopted an opinion which cannot be supported without annihilating several Greek authors, who, in their opinion, prophesy as awkwardly as Calchas did for the peace of Agamemnon.

Among these the principal is Mr. Müller, from whom I have the misfortune to differ on many points, but without in the least disparaging his ability or his learning, for both of which I entertain the highest respect.^[157]

37As, however, he has adopted a very peculiar system in the interpretation of antiquity, which, though plausible and ingenious, seems ill-calculated to lead to truth, I have found it impossible to participate on many important points the views which he maintains, more especially on the subject of the Helots. In fact, with all his talents and sagacity he has chosen rather to become an advocate than an historian, and pushes so far his eagerness to defend his favourite people, as not unfrequently to provoke a smile. In his derivation of the term Helot, however, he is perhaps correct,^[158] it being more probable that it should have sprung from an ancient word signifying “The Prisoners” than from the name of the town. In the absence of all testimony we might likewise entertain the conjecture, “that they were an aboriginal race subdued at a very early period, and which immediately passed over as slaves to the Doric conquerors.” But we have 38the weighty authority of Theopompos to oppose to this inference, and the words of this historian^[159] attentively considered would lead to the etymology of the name given by Müller:—“having taken them prisoners,” he says, “they called them εἵλωτες.” They were, however, Greeks of the Achaian race, who fell, together with the land, into the power of the new-comers, so that the excuse of only tyrannising over a foreign and half-savage race is wanting to the Spartans, which was the object aimed at by Mr. Müller’s ingenious conjecture.

In considering the condition of the Helots, I shall not affect, with the historian of the Doric race,^[160] “to range their political rights and personal treatment,” under separate heads; in the first place because, strictly speaking, they had no political rights, and, secondly, because in the treatment they experienced consists whatever is peculiar in their position. Several of this learned historian’s notions on the Lacedæmonian serfs appear to be in direct contradiction with those of the writers from whom all we know concerning the Helots is obtained. Of this he seems to be conscious, and in the following way endeavours to bring discredit on them; assuming as a settled thing, that the Helots must have possessed political rights, he concludes that they “were doubtless exactly defined by law and custom, though the expressions made use of by ancient authors are frequently vague and ambiguous.”^[161] Whether this be the case or not we shall presently see. The remark of Ephoros is, that “they were in a certain point of view public slaves. Their possessor could neither liberate them nor sell them beyond the borders.” On this passage which he quotes,^[162] the historian raises a superstructure 39which it will by no means support. “From this,” he says, “it is evident, that they were considered as belonging properly to the state, which, to a certain degree, permitted them to be possessed, and apportioned them out to individuals, reserving to itself the power of enfranchising them.”^[163]

The contrary I think is the inference. They were the property of individuals, but the state reserved to itself the right of enfranchising them and preventing their emancipation, lest persons should be found who, like Marcus Porcius, Cato,^[164] and the Dutch at the Cape, would sell or give them their liberty when too old to labour. “But to sell them out of the country,” says Mr. Müller, “was not in the power even of the state.” It is true there was an ancient law prohibiting the exportation of 40the Helots,^[165] but the same authority which enacted that law could have abrogated it. Had Sparta then chosen to convert her Helots into an article of traffic, who or what was to prevent her? Since she arrogated to herself the right of beating, maiming, and putting them to death,^[166] though completely innocent, is it to be supposed that, had it suited her policy, she would have hesitated to sell them? And after all are we quite certain that these unhappy people were not frequently sold into foreign lands? On the contrary, we find, that a regular trade was carried on in female Helots, who were exported into all the neighbouring countries for nurses.^[167] Thus it appears that the state both had and exercised the power to convert its serfs into merchandise.

That the males also were not exported like cattle, than which they were far worse treated, was owing simply to the calculation, that it would be more profitable to retain them. For, as the Spartans possessed estates, which personally they never cultivated, the Helots, who equally belonged to them, were stationed throughout the country upon those estates, which it was their business to till for the owners. To live it was of course necessary that they should eat, and therefore a portion of the produce was abandoned to them, according to Tyrtæos,^[168] the half, a division which must have borne very hard upon 41them, since their numbers were five times greater than those of the Spartans.^[169] However, even in this arrangement, the learned historian discovers something to praise “as this quantity had been definitively settled at a very early period (to raise the amount being forbidden under very heavy imprecations) the Helots were the persons who profited by a good and lost by a bad harvest, which must have been to them an encouragement to industry and good husbandry; a motive which would have been wanting if the profit and loss had merely affected the landlords.”^[170] But on the res rusticæ the notions of this writer are somewhat confused. For in another place he remarks that, owing to the “usurpations of the successive conquerors of Peloponnesos, agriculture was kept in a constant state of dependence and obscurity, so that we seldom hear of the improvement of the country, which is a necessary part of the husbandman’s business.” It therefore did not flourish in Laconia. No, says the historian, that is not the conclusion we must come to, for, notwithstanding that we never hear of any improvements in it, “agriculture was always followed with great energy and success!”^[171]

There appear to have been instances of Helots becoming comparatively wealthy in spite of the oppressions they endured: but so we have known peasants growing rich in the worst despotisms of the East, and such too was in the middle ages the case with the Jews, notwithstanding the terrible persecutions and cruelties they endured. This fact, therefore, only proves that no pressure of hardship or ill-usage can entirely destroy the elasticity of the spirit; and no doubt, like all slaves, the Helots sought to soften their miseries by the gratification 42which a sense of property procures even in bondage to the sordid mind.^[172] “By means of the rich produce of the land, and in part by plunder obtained in war, they collected a considerable property, to the attainment of which almost every access was closed to the Spartans.”^[173] But of what value is property to a man who is himself the property of another? Besides, the expression of the historian in this place seems calculated to lead to erroneous conclusions respecting the Spartans, who, so far from being debarred the means of amassing wealth,^[174] rose frequently to extraordinary opulence, insomuch that this self-denying community came at length to be the richest in Greece.^[175] To assume that the Helots, like the Thessalian Penestæ,^[176] enjoyed means of augmenting their possessions superior to those permitted themselves by their masters, is to propagate an error which must vitiate our whole conception of the Lacedæmonian commonwealth.

It is confessed that very little intercourse between the Spartans and the Helots took place, at least in earlier times; for afterwards, when the masters themselves quitted the capital, resided on their estates,^[177] and took to husbandry, the link must necessarily 43have been more closely drawn. And this circumstance renders more probable the account transmitted to us of Spartan harshness towards them. Intercommunion would have begotten more humane feelings in the master, more attachment in the slave. For like other men the Spartans felt the influence of intimacy, as is proved by their practice of enfranchising the companions of their childhood. They paid, therefore, an involuntary compliment to their own hearts when they kept the Helots at a distance, that they might be able to tyrannise over them. They could not have resisted the power of close contact, and acted like Messallina, who fled in tears from the room where a man was pleading for his life, lest she should forgive him, whispering as she went to her instrument that the accused must not be suffered to escape nevertheless.^[178] However, a certain number of Helots were retained in the city as personal attendants on the Spartans, and there waited at the public tables, and were lent by one person to another,^[179] like so many dogs, or oxen; although it seems probable that all the drudgery of the capital was not performed by the Helots alone, but that along with them were associated other classes of domestic slaves,^[180] on whose history and condition antiquity 44affords us little or no light. But as the Spartans were constantly making prisoners in their wars with the neighbouring states, which were occasionally restored at the termination of hostilities, we appear to be authorized in concluding, that these captives were commonly reduced to servitude in Laconia, whether employed in household labours,^[181] or dispersed among the Helots in the field.

Another service the Helots performed for their masters, which necessarily produced some degree of intimacy, I mean the military service in which they fought and bled by their side.^[182] The state was, no doubt, reluctant to admit them among the Hoplitæ, or heavy-armed, where the discipline was rigorous, and their weapons would have placed them on a level with their oppressors. But even this was sometimes hazarded, as in the reinforcements forwarded to Gyleppus, at Syracuse,^[183] when six hundred Neodomades and picked Helots were complimented 45with this dangerous distinction. As light troops, however, they almost invariably formed the majority of the Lacedæmonian forces. In other countries, where the subject races were more humanely treated, no fear was entertained at entrusting them with arms. Among the Dardanians, for example, where it was not uncommon for a private individual to possess a thousand slaves, or more, they in time of peace cultivated the land, and in war filled the ranks of the army, their masters serving as officers.^[184]

From this circumstance one of two things must be inferred; either that the Dardanians considered them in the light of subjects, as we do the natives of India, where large armies are officered by Englishmen, or that that people understood better than any other in antiquity the art of ruling over men.

Plato, Isocrates, Aristotle, Plutarch, and a number of other writers agree in convicting the Spartans of great barbarity towards their bondsmen, differing, however, as to the degree of that barbarity. But their “philanthropic views”^[185] are discarded by the historian, who with the skill of an able pleader, overlooks these great writers, whom he could not treat with so much want of ceremony, to bring forward the picture of Myron of Priene, whose history he denominates a romance, and whose testimony he contumeliously rejects. In order the more completely, as he thinks, to demolish this humble writer he quotes the following passage of his work preserved by Athenæus: “The Helots perform for the Spartans every ignominious service. They are compelled to wear a cap of dog-skin,^[186] to bear a covering of sheep-skin, and are severely beaten every year without having committed any fault, in order that they may never forget they are slaves. In addition to this, those amongst them 46who, either by their stature or their beauty, raise themselves above the condition of a slave are condemned to death, and the masters who do not destroy the most manly of them are liable to punishment.”^[187] The accusation here made is a serious one, and the apologist naturally feels his indignation kindle against its author. In this state of mind he employs very harsh language, charges Myron with “ignorance and partiality,” and altogether speaks as if he were in possession of facts wherewith to demolish the Prenian’s statement. But has he any? Not a single one. He misunderstands entirely the gist of Myron’s words, in the matter of the dog-skin cap, and then, on the strength of his own error, presumes to accuse him of misrepresentation. It is at the first blush evident that Myron considered the hardship to consist, not in the wearing of the cap, but in being compelled to wear it. Mr. Müller’s examples, consequently, are nothing to the purpose; they simply prove that other people had endured similar hardships, (the mention of Laërtes is superfluous,) nevertheless, without having uttered one syllable to justify his triumph, he proceeds with much self-satisfaction to remark, that “since Myron manifestly misrepresents this circumstance, it is very probable that his other objections are founded in error.”^[188]

But the allegations of Myron, as the reader will perceive, remain not only untouched, but more confirmed and established than ever by such a defence. It happens, in fact, that they are true to the letter, and what is more, are by no means the gravest imputation which can be substantiated against the Dorian model-state. We shall proceed, however, step by step examining fairly, and in order, the charges and the defence. Plutarch,^[189] whose testimony, 47when favourable, is unhesitatingly accepted, “relates that the Helots were compelled to intoxicate themselves, and perform indecent dances as a warning to the Spartan youth.”^[190] Shall we credit Plutarch? No we must not; because “common sense is opposed to so absurd a method of education.” But if everything in history which we may determine to be opposed to common sense were on that account to be rejected, we should make sad inroads upon the domains of antiquity. That which increases the ridicule of the practice is, that from among those same Helots they selected tutors for their younger children,^[191] as well as companions, so that in the very article wherein Xenophon^[192] discovered the superiority of Lycurgus’s educational system, it was completely on a level with that of the other Greeks, habituating the youth to the intimacy and government of slaves.^[193]

48If, however, the relation of Plutarch stood alone, its force would be less, though with no face could we reject it while admitting in other respects his favourable testimony. But from many authors, besides him, it is clear, that to demoralise the Helots was the constant policy of Sparta. Thus when the Thasians brought a number of useless dainties to Agesilaos and his army: “Give them,” said he, “to those Helots, whom it is better to corrupt than ourselves.”^[194] Consistently with the same system, and the more completely to debase their minds, they were commanded to sing obscene songs and perform indecent jigs, while the Pyrrhic dance and every warlike lay was forbidden them. In proof of this, it is related, that when the Thebans, under Epaminondas, invaded Laconia, and made prisoners a number of the Helots, they commanded them to sing them some of the songs of Sparta, of Spendon, for example, or Alcman, or Terpander. But the Helots^[195] professed their inability, observing, that the acquisition of those lays was forbidden them. In short, to adopt the words of Theopompos, they were at all times cruelly and bitterly treated;^[196] deluded, sometimes, from the protection of sanctuary by perjury, and then coolly assassinated in contempt of religion and oaths, as in the case of those 49suppliants who took refuge in the temple of Poseidon at Tænaros.^[197]

But all this harsh usage was mild compared with other injuries which the laws of Sparta inflicted on them. The reader will perceive that I am about to speak of the Crypteia, not one feature of which, to my mind, has been softened or explained away, or rendered doubtful by the ingenious but very useless special pleading of some distinguished scholars among our contemporaries.^[198] Mr. Müller, with much intrepidity, leads the van of Sparta’s defenders, and, by an artifice not unfamiliar to rhetoricians, seeks to beat down the authorities on which belief in the Crypteia rests. He affects to think slightingly of their means of obtaining information, though certainly, in this respect, at least, the very meanest of them possessed incalculable advantages over himself. However, of Isocrates he thus unceremoniously disposes: “Isocrates speaks of this institution in a very confused manner and from mere report.”^[199] On the contrary, this “old man eloquent,” as Milton affectionately terms him, luminously, (would that Mr. Müller and I possessed equal art!) and upon the best authorities,^[200] sketches the history of the Lacedæmonian government, its injustice, its oppressions; 50and concludes by describing the annual massacre of the Helots. It is worthy of remark, that, with Aristotle,^[201] he attributes to the Ephori the direction of this servile war, in which the reins of slaughter were loosed or tightened by their authority.

The relation, however, of Isocrates, who probably descended to particulars, appears not to have come down to us entire. Plutarch, though he be the panegyrist, rather than the faithful historian, of Sparta, has supplied the deficiency. He does so, indeed, reluctantly; trumpets in the narration with epic flourishes, seeking, by all the art he is master of, to shield his beloved Lycurgus from the stern but deserved rebuke of Plato.^[202] Too honest, however, was the old Bœotian entirely to suppress the truth. So that, at length, after much preparation, the massacre is described hurriedly, briefly, with vehement unwillingness, but, for that very reason, with the more terrible effect.

Having enumerated the regulations affecting the free citizens, “In these,” he says, “there is no trace of that injustice and griping ambition which some object to the institutions of Lycurgus, considering them well adapted to beget bravery though not honest principles. It was probably the institution of the Crypteia (if as Aristotle contends, it proceeded from Lycurgus) that inspired Plato with such an opinion of the legislator and his laws. According to this ordinance the rulers, selecting from among the youths those most distinguished for ability, sent them forth armed with daggers and furnished with the necessary provisions, to 51scour the country, separating and concealing themselves in unfrequented places by day, but issuing out at night and slaughtering all such of the Helots as they found abroad. Sometimes, indeed, they fell upon them while engaged in their rural labours in the fields, and there cut off the best and bravest of the race.”^[203] Plutarch felt that connected with this system, as flowing from the same principle of policy and designed to effect the same purpose, were those extensive massacres recorded in history, by one of which more than two thousand of those unhappy men, having been insidiously deluded into the assertion of sentiments conformable to the gallant actions they had performed in the service of the state,^[204] were removed in a day. Lulled by the gift of freedom, crowned, smiled upon, they were conducted to the temples, as if to implicate the very gods in the treachery:—and then suddenly they disappeared; nor to this hour has the fate which overtook them been revealed.^[205] Compared with this the slaughter of the Janisaries appears less culpable.

But had Sparta no apology to offer, for these actions, to humanity? Her rulers discovered one which appears to have satisfied their own consciences. Every year, on taking office, the Ephori, formally, in their good city of Sparta, declared war against their unarmed and unhappy vassals, “that they might be massacred under pretence of law.”^[206] Mr. Müller 52overwhelmed with the weight of these testimonies, does not yet yield up the point: “Were not these Helots, who in many districts lived entirely alone, united by despair for the sake of common protection; and did they not every year kindle a most bloody and determined war throughout the whole of Laconia?” The historian is pleasant upon the Helots. Kindle a war! How happens it that the Chinese, who, at many periods of their history, have rivalled the Helots in suffering, and like them, too, have rebelled occasionally, yet make annually no “bloody and determined war” against the Mantchoo Tartars? The answer is written on every page of the history of the world, and was put in form by Alexander when he inquired whether one butcher were afraid of many sheep? Nevertheless, even the spirit of slavery itself did sometimes revolt against oppression and cruelty, and kindled such “bloody and determined wars” as Sparta, without foreign aid, was unable to terminate. They were, in fact, during many years, prevented from disputing with the Athenians the supremacy in Greece, by contests with their own vassals.^[207] And on the occasion of the great earthquake when nearly every house in Sparta was shaken to the ground,^[208] did not the Helots rejoice at the calamity, and come flocking to the environs of the city from the whole country round, in order to put an end to their tyrants as they were escaping in terror from their tottering habitations? Revolt, then, was not unfamiliar to the Helots—again and again was the standard of freedom unfurled^[209]—and the day, though late, at length came, when the Spartan saw his slave placed on a level with himself.^[210]

To render credible this sketch of cruelty, the character and education of the Spartans must be kept in view:

was not their maxim.^[211] They loved to trample on the fallen. Even in boyhood and among themselves, they practised gouging as an accomplishment, and as an Athenian did music—as a necessary consequence, even the writers most favourable to their state, confess them to have been brutal, inhuman, perfidious.^[212] Nor among a people so ignorant, so prejudiced, so narrow-minded, whose understandings were possibly incapable of comprehending the idea of justice or liberality, can we altogether wonder at such an outbreak of barbarism. Men have been known in modern times to shoot slaves for their amusement; a king of France has been known from the same motive to shoot his subjects, and a learned professor,^[213] not very remarkable for cruelty, 54has pronounced the panegyric of that king. There is nothing, therefore, at all incredible in the Spartan Crypteia, which exactly harmonizes with all we know of the nation.

An attempt, however, has been made to explain the whole away, by the unauthorized inference, that in the casual glance which Megillos, in the laws of Plato, makes at this institution, we have a complete description of it in all its features. But very far is this from being the case. The Spartan interlocutor is there making out a defence of his own country, and consequently alludes only to such points as appear capable of a favourable interpretation. Of course he is careful to keep the massacre of the Helots in the back-ground; and merely says, “There is also amongst us what is called the Crypteia, the pain of undergoing which is scarcely credible. It consists in going barefoot in storms, in enduring the privations of the camp, performing menial offices without a servant, and wandering night and day through the whole country.”^[214] This is the picture of a Spartan, dwelling on his own hardships; which, however, must have been endured for some purpose, and what was that? If exercise and military seasoning were alone aimed at, where was the necessity for that concealment, that lying in ambush, which the word itself signifies? It is well known that the Helots were a constant terror to their masters—that whenever occasion offered, they revolted—whenever any enemy to the state presented himself, they joined him—that they fled whenever flight was possible—and were, it is confessed, so numerous and so bold, that Sparta was compelled, in treaties with foreign states, to stipulate “for aid against her own subjects.”^[215] What more probable, therefore, under the circumstances, 55than the institution of the Crypteia? What more in harmony with the genius of the people?

There can be no doubt that on certain extraordinary occasions these chief of slaves obtained their freedom from the state; but that any “legal way to liberty and citizenship stood open to them,”^[216] does not appear.^[217] The chain of “probabilities” by which this conclusion is attempted to be arrived at is perfectly unique, and would lead with equal force to any other whatever. “The many intermediate steps, it is said, seem to prove the existence of a regular mode of transition from the one rank to the other.” It has not, however, been proved that there were any intermediate steps; and the very attempt is based almost wholly on a fragment of that Myron of Priene, whose Messenian History Mr. Müller denominates a romance, and whose “partiality and ignorance” he considers so self-evident but a few passages back.

1. The Helots who were esteemed worthy of an “especial confidence were called ἀργεῖοι.”^[218] This however, is no intermediate step, as it is not said that their being thus called was necessarily followed by any result.

2. The ἐρυκτῆρες enjoyed the same “(especial confidence) in war.”^[219] On points of this kind it is necessary to rely on some authority, and the historian adduces none.^[220] It has, indeed, been conjectured, 56from the derivation of their name, that this class of freedmen served as a body-guard to their former masters. Positively, however, nothing whatever is known of their condition.

3. The ἀφέται were, probably, released from “all service.” The expression of Eustathius^[221] is, “being made free, they were called aphetæ.”

4. “The δεσποσιοναύται,^[222] who served in the fleet, resembled, probably, the freedmen of Attica, who were called the out-dwellers.”^[223] This phrase is calculated to convey an erroneous impression, as though these freedmen necessarily took up their quarters in the country, whereas οἱ χωρὶς οἰκούντες merely signifies persons who have establishments of their own. With respect to the Desposionautæ, they would appear to have been slaves brought up in their masters’ houses, and afterwards enfranchised, and ordered to be employed about the fleet.

5. “When they (the Helots) received their liberty, they also obtained permission to dwell where they wished, and, probably, at the same time, a portion of land was granted to them without the lot of their former masters.” This is drawing a general inference from a particular case. Thucydides,^[224] the authority relied on, speaks only of those Helots who having served in Thrace under Brasidas, obtained enfranchisement on their return, together with a portion of the lands recently taken from the Lepreatæ. On other occasions, as the whole of Laconia and Messenia had been divided among the citizens, it is difficult to understand whence the state could have obtained lands to bestow. The probability, therefore, is, that they bestowed none.

Of the Neodamodes or “new citizens,” our knowledge is little less scanty than of the other classes of freedmen. That they were enfranchised Helots 57is confidently maintained by several learned writers, though others suppose them to have been the sons of enfranchised Helots.^[225] This latter supposition, however, is inconsistent with the testimony of Myron, who observes, that “the Lacedæmonians often emancipated their slaves, some of whom were then called aphetæ, others adespotæ, others eructeres, others desposionautæ; there were others whom they denominated neodamodes, different from the Helots.”^[226] Of those modern writers who have treated of the Spartan institutions, some elude the discussion altogether, while others acquiescing in the commonly received opinion contend, that the Neodamodes were those Helots who, having conducted themselves gallantly in war, had for some time enjoyed their freedom. But this decision, however plausible it may seem, is by no means satisfactory. For, wherever Thucydides, or any other historian of authority, has occasion to mention this class of freedmen, they appear to be carefully distinguished from the enfranchised Helots. Thus, when the companions of Brasidas, before spoken of, had received their freedom, and were sent as settlers into the Lepreatis, it is added, that they were accompanied by a number of Neodamodes.^[227] But if this term signified nothing 58more than Helots who had been rewarded with liberty, in what did they differ from the other Helots who had likewise been made free? One learned commentator,^[228] not without ingenuity, infers that they were a class of tributary subjects inhabiting the neighbourhood of the capital, on whom the right of citizenship had been conferred, though they did not enjoy perfect equality with the elder citizens. But, as it is distinctly stated, that they were enfranchised slaves, we are compelled to abandon even this hypothesis, and seek to discover some other clue to the truth.

It has already been observed, that the Spartans appear to have possessed numbers of slaves properly so called, besides their oppressed and miserable bondsmen, with whom they seem often to have been confounded. These, by being more constantly about their masters, were, doubtless, able to gain more upon their affections, and could not possibly be viewed with equal dread, since they were necessarily brought together from various countries, and connected consequently by no bond of union. As often, therefore, as the state required a fresh supply of citizens, it is from among these that they appear to have been selected; and that, too, in numbers so considerable, that Agesilaos, on one occasion, was enabled to select two thousand to attend him on an expedition wherein he was accompanied by only thirty Spartans.^[229]

Another class of persons^[230] commonly ranked among the Laconian slaves were the Mothaces,^[231] to determine 59whose origin, rank, and condition, appears to be a matter of no small difficulty. That they never, during the flourishing ages of the commonwealth, formed any part of the servile caste may be regarded as certain, whatever may be found to the contrary in the grammarians of later times. For the Mothaces, observes Athenæus, though not Lacedæmonians, were free. And to the same purpose speaks Philarchos, whose words are: “The Mothaces were the brotherlike companions of the Lacedæmonians. For every youthful citizen, according to his means, chose one, two, or more of these to be brought up along with him; and, notwithstanding that they enjoyed not the rank of citizens, they were free, and participated in all the advantages of the national education. It is even said that Lysander, who defeated the Athenians at sea, was one of this class of men, but raised to the rank of citizen for his valour.”^[232] To the same section of the Laconian population belonged also Callicratidas and Gylippos,^[233] a circumstance which of itself appears completely to overthrow the hypothesis of those who derive the Mothaces directly from the Helots; for Cleandridas, the father of Gylippos,^[234] was chosen to accompany King Pleistoanax, as chief of his councillors, during an expedition into Attica, an honour which would not, I imagine, have been conferred upon a Helot. Again, Lysander, whom by one authority we are taught to regard as a Mothax, is by another spoken of not barely as a Spartan, but as descended from the Heracleidæ.^[235]

60How then are we to reconcile these seeming contradictions? Probably by supposing, that the Mothaces consisted, first of the sons of such Spartans as were too poor to defray the expenses of their maintenance and education,^[236] which seems to have been the case with Aristocritos, the father of Lysander, whose early indigence is celebrated; secondly of bastard Spartans, who it is well known shared the education of their legitimate brethren; and thirdly, of the sons of persons of rank and distinction among the Periœci. To these perhaps, in very late times, the sons of favourite slaves born in the house may have been added, though there is no ground for believing that this was habitually the case in the earlier ages. Be this, however, as it may, it seems to be quite evident, that Lycurgus laid much less stress on “birth and blood” than on that steadiness and patience of toil which are the first qualities of a soldier. Whoever from childhood upward gave proof of these, by submitting unmurmuringly to the rigorous trial he enjoined the youth of Sparta, was elevated in the end to the rank of a citizen, while they who shrunk from the severity of his discipline, according to some even though they had descended from the blood royal, sunk into a state of degradation or were even confounded with the Helots.^[237] Foreigners who enjoyed the privileges of this system of instruction 61received among the Lacedæmonians the name of Trophimoi.

Of the Epeunactæ, a peculiar class of freedmen, we have the following curious account: Having in the Messenian war lost a number of Spartans, the government began to apprehend that the enemy might discover its weakness; to conceal which a Helot was substituted in the place of every fallen warrior. Shortly afterwards these men were raised to the rank of citizens and denominated Epeunactæ, because they occupied the beds (εὐναι) of other men.^[238]

But wherever men are base-minded there will be slaves; and accordingly we find that, in all other parts of Greece, no less than at Sparta, this miserable class existed for the performance of servile drudgery. Posidonios, the Stoic,^[239] observes, that persons lacking sense to provide for themselves, voluntarily became the slaves of any who would take care of them. Thus the Maryandinians submitted to the citizens of Heraclea,^[240] to be their perpetual serfs, stipulating only that they should always be furnished with the necessaries of life, and on no account be sold out of the country. They were in fact simply tributaries, as is implied in the verse of Euphorion, the epic poet,

This appellation of Gift-bearers—though their gifts, like the royal benevolences of our ancestors, were extorted from them—was no doubt however invented, as Callicratos^[242] observes, to disguise the true nature 62of their condition. Besides engaging in agricultural labours, they likewise served on board ship, and consequently contributed greatly to increase the commerce and naval power of Heraclea.^[243]

The Thessalians denominated Penestæ,^[244] not those who were born in servitude, but persons who were made captive in war. They were sometimes also known by the name of Thettaloiketes. Archemachos, in his History of Eubœa, affords illustration of a very curious point of ancient history mentioned briefly but with some variation, by Thucydides.^[245] According to him, certain Bœotians migrating northward, founded Arnæa in Thessaly; after which some returned to Bœotia, while, delighted with the land, others remained, and became the voluntary villains of the Thessalians. Here, however, as elsewhere in like cases, it was stipulated that they should neither be put to death nor sold beyond the borders; while on their part they agreed to cultivate the land and pay the requisite tribute.^[246] On this account they were called Menestæ,^[247] that is “those who remain,” which appellation was by degrees corrupted into Penestæ. Of these serfs many were richer than their masters. Euripides,^[248] in his “Phryxas,” observes, 63moreover, that they were sometimes of very ancient families. Thucydides, on the other hand, represents them to have been the original inhabitants of Arnè, driven thence by the Thessalians sixty years after the Trojan war, though a portion of the nation had long before settled in Bœotia and joined in the expedition against Troy.^[249]

A state of things not greatly dissimilar^[250] prevailed in Crete, where the servile caste was divided into several classes: first, those of the cities, called Chrysonetæ, or “bought with gold,” who were doubtless barbarians; second, those of the country, who received the name of Aphamiotæ,^[251] from their being bound to the Aphamiæ, or estates of the landed gentry. These were the aboriginal tribes of the island reduced to servitude by a nation of foreign conquerors. They were sometimes likewise denominated Clarotæ,^[252] from their having been divided among the conquerors by κλᾶρος, or lot; or, according to others, from their being located on the lots of the citizens which were called κλᾶροι.^[253] In condition, the Aphamiotæ resembled the Helots,^[254] and differed from the peasantry, or Hypekooi,^[255] in much the same degree as the purchased private slaves of the Turks differ from their rayahs, or subjects. These are habitually protected from being sold out of the country; though in cases of revolt the captives are reduced to the level of the common slaves, and sold like cattle. Thus the markets of Egypt were crowded with Cretans after the late revolt against Mohammed Ali. 64Third, there existed in every state in Crete a class of public bondsmen denominated Mnoia or Mnoa, because reduced to that condition by Minos.^[256] These serfs cultivated the public lands, upon what conditions is not exactly known: it merely appears that they were compelled to furnish the body of the citizens a certain sum of money, together with a part of their flocks and herds and agricultural produce.^[257] That they were sufficiently numerous and powerful to inspire their masters with dread, is evident from the regulation by which they were excluded from the gymnasia, and prohibited the use of arms.

Besides these, there was another class of the Cretan population which must by no means be confounded with the slaves or serfs,—I mean, the Hypekooi.^[258] These were the inhabitants of the smaller towns who had lost their political independence, but were permitted the use of arms, and allowed to frequent the public places of exercise, like the nobler citizens.^[259]

In the city of Cydonia, during certain festivals of Hermes, the slaves were left masters of the place, into which no free citizen had permission to enter; and if he infringed this regulation it was in their power to chastise him with whips.^[260] In other parts of Crete customs similar to those of the Roman Saturnalia prevailed; for, while the slaves in the Hermæan festival were carousing and taking their ease, their lords, travestied into domestics, waited upon them at table, and performed, in their stead, all other menial offices. Something of the same kind took place during the month Gerœstion, at Trœzen, where the citizens feasted their slaves on one day of the great annual festival, and played at dice with them.^[261] Among the Babylonians, moreover, we 65find a similar custom; for, during the Sacæan festival, which lasted five days, and was celebrated in the month of August,^[262] the owners waited on their slaves, one of whom, habited in a royal robe, enacted the part of king.

Upon the whole it may be inferred, that the treatment and condition of the Cretan serfs were milder than in any other Doric state, though it would be incorrect to decide,^[263] that they were less oppressed than in any other state in all Greece, since we discover in the song of Hybrias traces not to be mistaken of their abject state:

The Periœci of Crete are said never to have revolted against their masters; but this arose, as Aristotle observes, from the circumstance that every state having serfs of the same kind, it was not for the interest of any one in their wars to set their bondsmen a bad example by enticing any to join in those struggles.^[265]. The Penestæ of Thessaly, and the Helots, often joined the enemy, because the neighbouring states possessed no similar serfs. But, in the case of the Cretan Periœci, the circumstance already noticed of their not being allowed to frequent the gymnasia,^[266] or possess arms, will account satisfactorily for their perseverance in the ancient manners, without supposing in them any preference for those manners, which, as they were deprived of 66all the privileges of citizens, they could scarcely have felt.^[267]

Respecting the servile classes in other Grecian states our information is very scanty: we simply know that the serfs of the Syracusans were denominated Killicyrii,^[268] and exceedingly numerous, so that “more in number than the Killicyrii,” became a proverb. They would seem to have dwelt chiefly in the country like the Cretan Mnotæ. In process of time, however, their multitude inspired them with courage; they assaulted and drove out their masters, and, fortune favouring their enterprise, retained possession of Syracuse. Among several of the Italian states, the subject classes were known by the name of Pelasgi. The people of Rhodes reduced and kept in bondage the inhabitants of Caunos, and the celebrated painter Protogenes^[269] was the son of one of these bondsmen.

In the same relation stood the Bithynians to the people of Byzantium; the Leleges to the Carians, and the Katanocophori to the people of Sicyon.^[270] These last would seem to have been originally^[271] merely the rustic population deprived of their freedom by the tyrants, who compelled them to affect a mean and squalid appearance, and to wear sheepskin cloaks,^[272] that they might be ashamed to frequent the city, where they would have been exposed to the laughter and insults of the rabble.

The corresponding class among the Arcadians, denominated 67Prospelatæ^[273] were said to have amounted to three hundred thousand in number. Their treatment was probably more lenient than in many other parts of Greece, as we find them on public festivals sitting down at table with their masters, like our old farm-servants, eating of the same food, and drinking from the same cup.^[274]

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CHAPTER I.
CONDITION OF THE POOR.

Respecting the condition of the poor, in ancient nations, very little is commonly known, the great historians, the tragic poets, and the other classic writers who enjoy what may be termed popularity, not having bestowed their attention on the subject; and to mine, for this species of knowledge, amid the speculations of philosophers, or the dusky rubbish of scholiasts and lexicographers, being a task for which few have patience. Even those writers who might have been expected to enter fully into this matter, supply but slight and unsatisfactory information, either because they attached little importance to the question, or because it did not enter into their design to examine in all their details the poor-laws of Athens, or the numerous sources of private and public charity which circumscribed the operation of those laws. To the best of my ability I shall endeavour to supply the deficiency.

In the earlier ages of the commonwealth there existed no class of citizens so necessitous as to require the aid of charity.^[275] The democracy was not 69disgraced by the beggary of one of its members; for, though many, compared with their neighbours, might be poor, none were reduced to sordid indigence, or so lacked credit as to be unable to command the means of engaging in some profitable branch of industry. Afterwards, however, through the calamitous events of war, and that deterioration seemingly inherent in all forms of government, the number of the indigent exceeded that of the wealthy,^[276] (as in every modern country it does,) and distress and destitution occupying entirely the thoughts of the sufferers, corroded to the core that spirit of patriotism which had distinguished their ancestors. But the institutions of Athens, having been truly designed to promote the happiness and provide for the wants of the people, the attention of the legislature was immediately directed to the evil.

As this was the first developement of the spirit of charity, it naturally appeared feeble at the outset, and only acquired strength and volume by degrees. A beginning was made in the case of those who had been disabled in war,^[277] and of the children left behind by citizens who fell in defence of their country.

To the former a pension, in early times of one obolos a-day, was allowed: the latter^[278] may be said to have been adopted by the state which maintained 70and educated them till the age of eighteen, when, having been taught some trade or business, they were considered able to provide for themselves.^[279]

With whom this humane institution originated is not agreed. In the case of disabled soldiers the honour has, by some, been attributed to Peisistratos, by others to Solon. Bœckh, though he acknowledges that the latter “certainly gave the example to Peisistratos,” considers it not improbable that, for the benefit of this important lesson, humanity is indebted to the tyrant, who, he observes, “was of a mild disposition; and usurpers are generally glad to seize every opportunity of conferring a benefit, with a view to make themselves popular; nor would the Athenians, with their hatred to tyranny, have attributed this honour to him if he had not deserved it.”^[280]

Of this I am not sure. Peisistratos, a consummate politician, having unjustly rendered himself master of the state, was, no doubt, careful to appropriate to himself as many as possible of the honours due to Solon, the mildest of all legislators; and, if he abstained from abrogating such a law, might contrive to pass for its author. Certain, at all events, it is, that a tradition long existed among the ancients which attributed the institution to Solon;^[281] and however mild and popular in manners the tyrant may have been, it will still, perhaps, be acknowledged that in those qualities he was excelled by the great legislator.

By what steps the law, originally instituted with reference solely to citizens disabled in war, came afterwards to embrace the aged, the sick, the blind, 71and infirm of every description, is not known. It did not, however, require them to be absolutely destitute before they could receive relief. Any citizen whose property did not exceed three minæ, or twelve pounds sterling,^[282] was entitled to the allowance; to eke out which he might keep a small shop, or apply himself to any other branch of industry within his competence. The laws, in fact, were on this point exceedingly liberal, justly considering it to be the duty of society to make up as far as possible for the injuries of fortune. There was little danger of the state’s humanity being abused. The people themselves examined into every case, which in a community so limited they could easily do, and afterwards it was still in the power of any citizen, who suspected imposition, to bring an action against the offender before the Senate of Five Hundred.

The speech of a defendant in a cause of this kind has come down to us. It was written for the unfortunate citizen by Lysias; and I own I can discover in it nothing of that “jesting tone,” which, in the opinion of some writers, proves it to be a mere rhetorical exercise.^[283] On the contrary, it breathes 72of that manly confidence, which it became the citizen, however poor, of a republican state, to feel. We must not conceive of him as a miserable pauper whining to a board of guardians. He understood the intent and meaning of the law, and certain that his case entitled him to the relief it was designed to afford, he spoke before the Senate like a man claiming no more than was equitably due to him; and too well assured of the humanity and justice of his countrymen to be under much apprehension. He kept a small shop, it appears, in the vicinity of the agora, and one of the principal points dwelt on by the prosecutor was, that he there drew together a number of saunterers and newsmongers, such as usually at Athens frequented the shops of barbers, perfumers, &c., in that fashionable part of the town.^[284] Another point was, that he sometimes rode on horseback, which, in the opinion of the accusers, a man receiving aid from the state should not have done. But, to this part of the accusation, he replies, that, being so lame as to be compelled to make use of crutches, he was wholly unable to answer the more distant calls of business without hiring a horse, the expense of which only augmented his difficulties.

From these circumstances we may learn, that the Athenian government was by no means penurious in its appropriation of those funds which the contributions of the wealthier citizens placed at its disposal.

On the amount of the daily allowance writers are not agreed, some pretending it was three oboli, others two, and others an obolos. The truth, probably, is, that, originally, it exceeded not a single obolos, but that, as prices augmented, or, rather, as the coin deteriorated in value, it was found necessary to double the amount.^[285] Whether it was ever raised to three 73oboli seems doubtful; the affirmation of the Scholiast on Æschines^[286] may be a mistake; but the mere fact that this was the pay of the dicasts is no reason at all for calling the testimony of the grammarian in question.^[287] Be this, however, as it may, in the time of Lysias,^[288] one obolos only was bestowed, and Bœckh has attempted, with much ingenuity, to determine the date of the increased allowance. It had not taken place, according to Harpocration, in the time of Aristotle; but Philochoros, the next writer who touches on the subject, observes, that it was nine drachmæ a month, or fifty-four oboli,^[289] which, omitting the fractions, is equal to two oboli a day. The year in which Aristotle composed his treatise on the Athenian government is not exactly known; it was probably, however, after his return from Macedon, 334 B.C. Philochoros was Hieroscopos at Athens in the year of Corœbos, 306 B.C. He did not, however, publish his Atthis till about the year 260 B.C., at which time the poor allowance had been raised to two oboli. The date of the increase, therefore, falls somewhere within the preceding seventy years.^[290]

74With respect to the number of persons blind, old, sick, maimed, or otherwise disabled, who received maintenance from the state, no exact computation can be made. Bœckh,^[291] imagining that Meursius had reckoned them at five hundred, after remarking that the assumption is founded on a false reading in Suidas, accepts the number as the least that can be adopted. But Meursius,^[292] in the passage referred to, assumes nothing; he does not even allude to the number at all. And, in fact, it will be evident, at the first glance, that no conjecture can hope to approach the truth where circumstances were constantly varying, adding to, or taking from, the number of those who required relief. This was chiefly affected by the general poverty of the state, which augmented rapidly towards its decline, when the number of the aged and infirm, not possessing three minæ, or twelve pounds sterling, per annum, must, no doubt, have been considerable. On the other hand, having no longer to defend its freedom, which was gone for ever, the children of citizens falling in battle were comparatively few, and, accordingly, the gain on this item went to balance the loss on the other.

The offspring of citizens thus bequeathed to the care of the state were at one time exceedingly numerous, and highly exemplary and honourable was the attention they received.^[293] To the females a maintenance, education, and a portion, were given; and the males having also been supported and educated until manhood, received in the public theatre a complete suit of armour, as a memento of their fathers’ valour, to incite them to follow their example. The whole audience being assembled, the herald introduced the orphan youths clothed in panoply of “complete steel,” and then, with a loud voice, proclaimed 75what Æschines rightly regarded as a most glorious and valour-inspiring proclamation, viz., that the fathers of those youths, like brave and good men, had fallen in their country’s battles, on which account the state had undertaken the charge of their bringing up, and now, on the verge of manhood, having adorned them with an entire suit of armour, dismissed them under happy auspices to watch over their own affairs, granting them, likewise, for the day, the most honourable seats in the theatre.^[294]

Petit^[295] supposes this to have taken place on their attaining the age of twenty, before which they could not legally assume the management of their inheritance, or encounter the fatigue and peril of regular warfare; but, others, perhaps, with more probability, fix upon the age of eighteen.

The above legal provision, however, does not appear to have sufficed, and there sometimes occurred cases of distress which it could not reach. Many, too, would submit to great privation rather than have recourse to public aid. Such persons, where numbers were in similar circumstances, usually united and formed, what may very properly be denominated a Benefit Club (ἔρανος^[296]), to which they contributed when in their power, that, should misfortune overtake them, they might still be sure of support. This description, however, of Eranos constituted only one branch of the numerous Clubs, Companies, Associations, Trades-unions, &c., which, like the Clubs of the Civil Wars^[297] and Associations of a 76still later date, occasionally assumed a political character and impeded the movements of the machinery of the state.^[298] These societies were instituted with various objects. In the first place they were established to defray by subscription the expense of certain sacrifices, offered up in behalf of their members who were called Eranistæ and Thiasotæ. But under cover of this pretext combinations of an evil tendency were sometimes formed,—among the aristocracy, for example, who established the tyranny of the Four Hundred,—and these obnoxious clubs, varying in character with the period, espoused the cause of freedom in Roman times, and were of course watched jealously by the conquerors.^[299]

With respect to those associations which bore a legal character, they were by the laws of Solon permitted to enact whatever rules and regulations they judged proper for their own government and advantage, provided no public ordinance prevented.^[300] Sometimes the citizens of a whole Demos, or borough, formed themselves into a club, or a ship’s crew,^[301] or an eating society, or persons having a right to the same burial-ground, or the partners in a mercantile expedition. Thus we find three several motives,—religion, gain, and pleasure,—impelling men into unions of this kind, all recognised by law. The curious and intricate internal structure of Athenian society lent itself readily to the formation of such clubs; the whole population having originally been divided into four tribes, each tribe into three phratriæ,^[302] each phratria into thirty 77clans (γενη), each clan containing thirty houses, among whom the honours of the priesthood were distributed by lot.^[303]

In these Attic associations we discover the germs of those companies of merchants, guilds, &c.,^[304] so familiar to the modern world; or rather similar wants in both cases gave rise to similar institutions. But with the trading companies we have, in this place, nothing to do; and if incidentally the other associations are noticed, it is simply for the purpose of more fully developing a system of which the Benefit Clubs formed a part. These evidently rose out of the Eranæ established originally for purposes of pleasure: that is, a number of individuals desirous of enjoying a more splendid entertainment than they could generally afford at home,^[305] together with the society of their intimate friends, entered into a subscription^[306] for the purpose of getting up a public dinner during the celebration of the great national festivals. In some cases the associations thus formed, pro tempore, did not outlast the occasion, while in others the taste for social pleasures, or the accidental meeting of congenial tempers, led 78to the establishment of a permanent club, the members of which grew naturally among a warm-hearted people to take an interest in each other’s welfare. The expenses of the sacrifices during these festivals were in part defrayed from the revenues of the sacred lands, but these not sufficing, it was generally necessary to raise a common fund by subscription.^[307]

Of all these clubs, whether temporary or permanent, whose object was the providing of funds for sacrifice, or to enjoy the pleasures of society, the generic name was Erani, though such as partook of a religious character received besides the appellation of Thiasi.^[308] Their members were called Eranistæ and Thiasotæ. It was common among the Greeks to indulge in feasting immediately at the close of harvest, both on account of the plenty which then prevailed, and, because the great business of the year being finished, they had more leisure to devote to enjoyment.^[309] That these associations tended to generate and promote friendship and affection among their members was well understood; wherefore in the ancient tyrannies they were rigidly prohibited, together with all common tables, educational establishments, and whatever else, to adopt the expression of Aristotle, promotes reflection and mutual confidence.^[310] It was supposed to be their interest to keep men as far as possible in ignorance and distrust of each other. Hence all religions with a tendency to beget mutual love were proscribed (as among the Romans Christianity) as of an antimonarchical character. Thus Mæcenas, as ardent a patron of tyranny as of literature, urged Augustus to 79persecute and proscribe all attempts at introducing new creeds, as favourable to innovation or, at least, to change; to sworn brotherhoods, associations, clubs, things in their nature hostile to monarchy.^[311]

The conjecture is probable, that the conversion of the Erani into charitable institutions was matter of accident. At first it seems clear, as I have observed already, that their object was sacrifice, feasting, and pleasure. But it sometimes happened that, of the funds subscribed, some portion would, after their objects had been fulfilled, remain; and if, when this was the case, any member of the club happened to fall into distress, it was perfectly natural to think of applying this surplus to his benefit.^[312] From this the step was easy to subscribing expressly for the purpose of relieving indigent members, which, at length, was the practice, though the gradations by which they arrived at it have not been accurately marked.^[313] Arrian has left a curious account of a Celtic eranos established by a Hunting Club in honour of Artemis,^[314] to whom solemn sacrifice was annually offered up. A fund was created by the members of the club in the following manner: every one who caught a hare paid into the treasury two oboli: the capturer or destroyer of a fox a drachma, the fox being a mischievous animal and fatal to the hare; they therefore considered his destruction in the light of a triumph over an enemy. The sportsman who took a roebuck (δορκὰς), which among them was the noblest 80game, and the largest animal hunted, paid four drachmæ. On the birth-day of the goddess the treasury was opened, and a victim, whether a sheep, a she-goat, or a calf, according to their means, was purchased. Sacrifice was then offered, after which both men and dogs regaled themselves with a banquet. Bitches were on this day crowned with flowers, to show that the feast was celebrated in their behalf.^[315]

In all these clubs the chest was the soul of everything; for this being removed the whole society fell to pieces.^[316] Accordingly, to become a member it was necessary to subscribe a certain amount to the fund, and all payments were made monthly.^[317] As these clubs, moreover, were legal, the person who neglected such payments could be prosecuted at law, as for any other debt; and what shows the importance of these institutions at Athens, the ordinances referring to them formed a separate branch of jurisprudence,^[318] to enter into which, however, does not belong to my present inquiry. The president or chairman of the club was likewise treasurer, whether chosen by lot or elected by the members of the club, whose expenses and behaviour, while assembled, he appears to have regulated.^[319] It has been seen that the meetings of these societies took place during religious festivals; but whenever they were called 81together, whether by business or piety, it was customary, as in all similar cases among ourselves, for the members to dine together. They do not appear, however, to have possessed club-houses; but, like our literary men of the last century, to have dined at taverns or alternately at each others’ dwellings.^[320] On these occasions it was customary to restrain their expenses within moderate limits, the object being rather the enjoyment of each others’ society than the indulgence of a passion for luxury.^[321]

On those occasions, when a member received the club at his house, he himself, it has been conjectured, took the chair,^[322] not, however, necessarily and by rule; for it has been seen that the president was sometimes chosen by lot, sometimes by vote. But this supposition is, probably, ill-founded; for, as the same individual was at once eranarch and treasurer, it appears exceedingly improbable that he should be changed every time the club dined together. It seems to me more likely,—and we are left to conjecture,—that an annual chairman was chosen to transact the general business of the society, while another individual might be selected to fill the office of chairman for any particular evening. Towards the close of the republic, when the worship of Serapis had been introduced, women would seem to have been received as members of Erani established in honour of that foreign divinity.^[323]

But as these clubs were only accidentally connected with charity and the condition of the poor, I proceed to consider another species of Eranæ, conceived almost in the spirit of Christianity. Van Holst,^[324] whose researches on the subject of the Hellenic clubs, though pedantic and confused, are not without value, denies that any permanent charitable associations existed among the Greeks, though among 82the Romans, he conceives, they did. At the same time, he confesses what it were difficult to deny, that the friendly subscription called Eranos derived its name and being from the clubs above-described. He contends that no club existed with permanent funds for the relief of distressed friends, and that the relief actually afforded was the spontaneous effort of beneficence and humanity. On this point he is at issue with Casaubon,^[325] whom he appears, in some respects, to misunderstand. Salmasius, he conceives, comes nearer the mark where he says, that when any person was overwhelmed with debt or poverty, he found a ready refuge in his friends, who subscribed what they could, both to satisfy his creditors and provide for his future subsistence. It was in the discharge of debts, however, that men found most aid from their friends;^[326] though such subscriptions were set on foot on many other occasions, to redeem a man from captivity, for example, or to portion a friendless girl, as was the practice also at Thebes.^[327]

The mode in which this subscription was collected, and the principle on which the transaction was based, had something characteristic about them. In the first place, the money resembled a loan (which, strictly speaking, it was not), because, if the receiver afterwards became fortunate, he was bound to make repayment,^[328] though while in unfavourable circumstances his mind was not oppressed by the consciousness of being in debt, since no one regarded himself as a creditor, or could ask him for an obolos. Salmasius observes very justly, that the greatest proof of generosity is to give without any desire of a return, which the Greeks called eleëmosynè, or eranos of 83strict charity. The second grade is, where money is lent to be repaid without interest, which our Saviour calls τὰ ἶσα ἀπολαβεῖν.^[329] The lowest, where you lend, but on condition of receiving interest.^[330]

For the repayment of money collected by eranistic subscription, no exact time, it has been observed, was fixed. It appears to have depended entirely on the recipient’s sense of honour or feelings of gratitude. But Petit,^[331] whose researches on this part of his subject were not sufficiently exact, confounds the monthly subscription paid by members of a trading company or ordinary club, with the money which a man, aided by his friends, might be supposed to owe them, and says, that such-a-one was required to pay it back by monthly instalments, or all at once within a month. The former would be the case were we to understand Harpocration to speak of this kind of eranos at all; the latter, if we accept his interpretation. But Van Holst^[332] is right in remarking that Petit here apprehends the sense of the grammarian “minus recte”; that is, he mistakes it altogether. However, that the money was at some time to be repaid appears from a variety of passages. Theophrastus, for example, in his Chapter on Grumbling, observes, that the querulous man, to whom a collection made for him by his friends is brought, will reply to the person who bids him to be of good cheer,—“Wherefore? when I must return as much to each of them, and be grateful, moreover, for the favour?”^[333]

Among the other peculiarities in the construction of Athenian society which tended to better the condition of the poor, were the entertainments given by rich citizens to their tribes, on certain festivals or days of public rejoicing.^[334] And this was a matter 84by no means left to the caprice of individuals, for if some one came not forward voluntarily to undergo the expense, the members of the tribe proceeded to cast lots,^[335] and the citizen to whose chance it fell could not escape the performance of this duty, unless he pleaded, as his excuse, some cause deemed satisfactory by the public. Of course, the character of the entertainment depended on the wealth or munificence of the Hestiator.^[336] Necessary, it was not, that he should regale his fellow-tribesmen sumptuously, as frugality was one of the characteristics of the nation; but, at the same time, it is quite evident that on many occasions^[337] the Feast of the Tribe was a magnificent banquet.^[338]

Of the state of the poor at Sparta,^[339] our information is exceedingly scanty. We only know that, when they were unable to contribute their share to the maintenance of the public tables, they lost the privilege of being present, and had to provide for themselves at home in the best manner they were able.^[340] It would thus appear that their Phiditia differred very little, except in being more general, from the Erani of the Athenians. As Laconia abounded with game, it may be conjectured that the more indigent citizens frequently relied greatly for support on the chase,^[341] to which may be added the 85charity of their wealthier neighbours, in whatever way bestowed. In Crete, the citizens being placed more upon an equality, there was little room for extreme poverty.^[342] The population, moreover, by artificial restraints, was kept within due bounds; consequently, most persons lived plentifully, and possessed wherewith to exercise the most generous hospitality. But even here they multiplied in later times more rapidly than the means of subsistence, so that numbers of Cretans were fain to serve as mercenary archers in the intestine wars of Greece. The same remark will apply to the Arcadians, and several other people whose poorer members earned a subsistence by their hereditary valour.^[343]

At Athens, when persons in easy circumstances made a feast, as on all occasions of sacrificing they did, the custom was to send some small presents, as parts of the victim, to their friends, more especially when poor.^[344] But most joyful for the indigent was the period of the Athenian jubilee, the Panathenaia,^[345] on which occasion the state received presents of oxen from all the colonies founded by Athenians, so that the whole city overflowed with meat and soup, of which every person might take his share. Sometimes, however, if not generally, the meat fell into the hands of those who least needed it, while the poor got nothing but a little soup with a scanty slice of bread.^[346] In times of great scarcity corn was distributed to the indigent in the Odeion, where, on ordinary occasions, it was sold.^[347] A similar distribution took place at the Peiræeus in the arsenal, where loaves were given out at an obolos each. On extraordinary occasions, as when a famine raged in the country, the state applied for corn to its foreign allies, and, on receiving any, distributed 86it equally among the citizens. This was the case when Psammitichos made the Athenians a present of a vast quantity of wheat, of which every citizen received five medimni.^[348] A peculiar kind of windfall is commemorated by Athenæus, who relates, that when Ion, the dramatic poet of Chios, won the prize of tragedy, he was so overjoyed at his success, that he presented every Athenian with a jar of the best Chian. No doubt, foreign tragedians were not every day winning prizes, or, when they won, so rich and generous as Ion; but advantages of various kinds were enjoyed by the Athenian people not anywhere else known.^[349]

Sometimes, when generals obtained any remarkable quantity of plunder, instead of laying it up to meet the serious exigencies of the state they lavished it in feasting the people. Thus, Chares is said to have expended more than sixty talents, or near 15,000l. sterling in entertaining his fellow-citizens,^[350] when the public tables were laid out in the agora; and Conon,^[351] having obtained a great naval victory over the Lacedæmonians at Cnidos, and surrounded the Peiræeus with fortifications, offered a real hecatomb in sacrifice, and feasted the whole body of people. Of these thoughtless donations the poor, of course, obtained their share. Cimon acted more judiciously and more nobly towards the unfortunate among his countrymen. Looking upon wealth only as a means of recommending himself and obtaining friends, he set no guard upon his lands or gardens, from which every Athenian who chose might freely take what he needed. His house, likewise, in the city was open to all; a plain table being constantly laid for a number of men, so that whosoever was at a loss for a dinner might dine there. He willingly obliged those who came daily to demand some favour of him; and is said always to have gone 87abroad accompanied by two or three domestics bearing money, who were instructed to give to any citizen who approached him with a request. He contributed also to the interment of many; and, often, if he observed a poor Athenian meanly clad, ordered one of his attendants to change raiment with him. By these means, as may be supposed, he acquired marvellous popularity, and stood first among his rivals in public estimation.^[352]

But persons thus subsisting on the bounty of the opulent soon lost of necessity the dignity of sentiment which should belong to the citizens of a free state. Many, therefore, when reduced by misfortune, to a choice of evils, preferred the bread obtained by honest labour,^[353] however mean or ill paid, to so humiliating a dependance on charity; and, unable to obtain more favourable conditions, actually worked for their food.^[354] To labour for hire they scarcely accounted 88a hardship. A large class of citizens, including women,^[355] appear by this means to have gained their livelihood, some as cooks, others as reapers, mowers, or any other description of labour which happened to offer itself.^[356] Poverty sometimes drove the unprincipled poor to keep houses of ill fame. Others became itinerant flower-sellers, and cried “roses so many bunches the obolos;” or hawked radishes, lupines, or olive-dregs about the streets.^[357] And, after their death, the daughters of poor men sometimes joined the Hetairæ, not having been able to earn their livelihood by needlework, weaving, and spinning.^[358]

In many respects the poor of southern climates have the advantage of those of the north.^[359] The atmosphere itself forms their clothing, and during a great part of the year it is immaterial to them where they sleep. But at Athens, however temperate 89the climate, a shelter from the cold in winter is desirable, and here, therefore, as in every other part of Greece, the practice was to erect houses where, as in the Caravanserais of the East, any man, native or stranger, might enter and obtain shelter for the night. These buildings were called Leschæ, erected without doors, to intimate that all were welcome; and in them, accordingly, beggars and wanderers of every description congregated round great fires in winter and bad weather, both to sleep and converse.^[360] Even the citizens, particularly at Sparta, met in the Leschæ, to enjoy the delights of gossiping; whence any idle assemblage was called a Leschè.^[361] In a fragment of the lost oration of Antiphon against Nicoles, mention is made of these edifices, which served as a refuge for the destitute. They were erected by the state; and, to cast over them an air of sanctity, dedicated to Apollo, who thence obtained the surname of Leschenorios.^[362] Nowhere were these humane institutions so numerous as at Athens, where, according to Proclus,^[363] there existed no fewer than three hundred and sixty, in which the indigent, who had no home, might congregate together and keep themselves warm at the nation’s expense.

In addition to these the public baths served as an asylum to such of the poor as had no home, or were unable to provide themselves with fuel in their own dwellings. Here they would seem to have pressed so eagerly about the furnaces as to be sometimes scorched and blistered;^[364] and the crowd of poor 90wretches in this necessitous condition would appear to have been occasionally so great as to deteriorate the state of the atmosphere by their breath,^[365] on which account they were exposed to be driven forth by the bath-keepers.

In Homeric times, beggars and all other sorts of vagrants took refuge from the nightly cold in smiths’ forges,^[366] just as in former ages they did in the glass-houses of London. These fathers of sacrilege, as Plato^[367] calls them, when properly equipped for the road, presented a tolerably picturesque aspect with their close Mysian bonnet,^[368] ragged cloak, and bottle strapped to the thigh,^[369] and supporting themselves as they walked on a huge staff. To this worshipful society Dionysios, once tyrant of Syracuse, belonged in his old age.^[370]

91There was at Athens, in later times, a class of men who resembled the bone-grubbers and dung-hill scrapers of London and Paris. These were the grain-pickers of the Deigma and Agora, who hovering about where the farmers and corn-chandlers meted their grain, and collecting what dropped from the sacks,^[371] or was spilled in measuring, thus earned a miserable subsistence. Persons of this description might eke out their livelihood by appropriating to themselves the coarse brown bread which pious and charitable persons placed in the propylæa of temples for their use.^[372] Here Diogenes, the Cynic, who, carrying about provisions in his wallet, was independent of these offerings, sometimes dined; and, for the sake of uttering a bon mot, threw out the loaves that might have been useful to others; observing, that nothing coarse^[373] should be allowed to enter the temples of the gods.

Religion has everywhere been favourable to the poor. On the festival of the new moon, when the great and opulent offered up costly sacrifices to the gods, as to Hecatè, for example, on cross-roads,^[374] their more indigent brethren seized the occasion 92when their hearts were thus softened, to ask them for something. Thus Homer, according to the legend attributed to Herodotus, went in Samos to the houses of the wealthy, chanting his Eiresione, for which he received a consideration.^[375]

There was a class of beggars who went about the country begging for the crow,^[376] holding, apparently, a tame bird of that species like a falcon on their wrist, and chanting the following ditty:—

In Rhodes another kind of begging, which usually took place in the month of March, was denominated Chelidonizein;^[377] or, to sing the

It was seldom, however, that the indigent in Greece could enjoy the luxuries here enumerated. Antiphanes^[378] describes a poor man’s meal as consisting of a cake (μαζα),^[379] bristling with bran for the sake of economy, with an onion, and, for a relish, a dish of sow-thistle, or of mushrooms, or some such wretched produce of the soil, a diet producing neither fever nor phlegm. However, where meat is to be got, no man, he thought, would be contented with thyme, though he might pretend to rival the Pythagoreans.^[380] Mention, nevertheless, is made of two philosophers who voluntarily subsisted all their lives on water and figs, and grew very healthy and robust upon this fare, though their perspiration had so ill 95an odour, that every one avoided them when they entered the public baths. Pythagoras forbade his abstemious followers the use of the mallows, upon which the humbler classes in Greece were accustomed to feed, together with the roots of the day-lily, the nymphea nelumbo, the nettle,^[381] and various other wild plants. The Kapparis,^[382] plentiful in Athens, was very commonly eaten by the indigent, and hence “to gather kapparis” was at length considered synonymous with “to be in want.”^[383] Alexis furnishes us with a curious account of a poor Athenian family’s provisions.^[384]

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We have examined the condition of the poor at Athens, and shall now consider how far the laws of the state interfered to better their circumstances by promoting industry, and rendering it honourable. Among the Spartans, idleness, the vice of soldiers,^[389] was regarded as a proof of rank; whence the remark of that disciple of Lycurgus, who, being present at Athens during a trial for this offence, fatal to a democracy, observed, that they punished the man for being a gentleman.^[390] Solon, however, entertained little respect for this mark of gentility. According to his laws, of which the whole design was to create and preserve that feeling of manliness bestowed by the consciousness of independence, the individual, who, possessing no property, refused to labour, was a bad citizen, against whom any one might bring an action of idleness.^[391] Draco, the most Utopian and savage of legislators, punished vagabondage with death, or, according to some, with infamy only. But Solon, 97who would not require too much of human nature, reserved this latter penalty for those who should be thrice convicted.^[392]

It has been conjectured, that Peisistratos was author of the law against idleness; by which he sought to compel as many of the citizens as had no visible means of support, to take refuge in the country. Be this, however, as it may, it was not alone by severity, that the laws of Athens sought to recommend the pursuits of industry.^[393] Superior excellence in any useful art entitled a man to very high honours, to maintenance at the public expense, in the Prytaneion, in company with the chief magistrates and generals of the commonwealth, and one of the first seats at all spectacles and popular assemblies. But to preserve this post, it was not enough to have once done well. The ambitious citizen could maintain it only by persevering in the career of invention and improvement, for if another man in the same line were judged to excel him, he relinquished to the new comer both his dinners and his seat.^[394]

98From this, and other circumstances, it would appear, that there were annual exhibitions of works of art and industry, in principle like our cattle-shows, when a careful scrutiny of every improvement and invention took place, and the premium above described was awarded to the most ingenious. It is very certain that an assembly of the trades, more particularly of the bright-smiths, took place, on the thirtieth of Pyanepsion, in honour of Hephæstos, or Athena, when the festival of Pandemon, or Chalkeia, was celebrated; and the conjecture of Petit^[395] is not improbable, that δεῖξις, or exhibition, then took place. It was, perhaps, on the same occasion, that the Athenian potters exhibited their most beautiful works and models.^[396] At Sybaris, the author of any invention in the art of cookery enjoyed by patent, during the whole year, a monopoly of the article; and in the same city, the dyers and importers of purple, as well as those who caught and sold eels, were exempted from all taxes and imposts.^[397]

A further incitement to industry, and the apprenticing out of children, was the law which freed any one who had not been instructed in some trade, from the necessity of supporting his parents,^[398] to which otherwise all persons were strictly bound. Another law of Solon, which, at the same time shows the erroneousness of the common opinion respecting the condition of women at Athens, proves that to bring industry into good repute was a work of some difficulty. By this it was enacted, that any individual who reproached a citizen, whether male or female, with carrying on any business in the Agora, should be liable to a penalty.^[399]

There were, however, certain callings which the laws considered disreputable, or, at least, unsuitable 99to a man. Thus, an Athenian citizen could not legally be a perfumer, that effeminate vocation being left to the women.^[400] Fishmongers, too, with butchers, cooks, sausage-sellers, fishermen, were held in low estimation both at Rome and Athens. Of all these Attic pariahs, however, the poor wretch who hawked fish,^[401] and was contemptuously said to wipe his nose in his sleeve, or with his elbow, engrossed the largest share of public scorn. To these we may add bird-catchers, and fruit-sellers, and those low black-legs who subsisted on gambling.^[402]

As an encouragement to the citizens to addict themselves to industrious pursuits, foreigners, and all persons not free of the city, were legally incapacitated from carrying on business in the agora;^[403] but this came in later times to be disregarded, since we find Egyptians, Phœnicians, and other aliens, possessing shops, and growing rich there. It was conceived, moreover, that, if men confined themselves to one calling, they would arrive therein at greater excellence; and the law, accordingly, forbade them to be of two trades.^[404] Plato, whose ideal republic was modelled in so many particulars on that of Athens, adopted this law; and for the reason I have stated; comprehending thoroughly what advantages arise from the division of labour. He would not, he says, have the cordwainer meddle with husbandry, weaving, or architecture, that he might carry shoemaking to as great perfection as 100possible; and, in other branches of industry, men were in like manner to cultivate that only for which nature had fitted them, and wherein they might thus excel.^[405] The same philosopher, while on the subject of industry, makes a remark worthy of consideration: It is not, he says, for the interest of the community, that men engaged in any branch of the arts should be so rich as to be independent of their business or profession, which, in such case, they will be apt to neglect; or so poor as to be harassed in mind, or cramped in the means of carrying on their occupations satisfactorily. In these things, as in every other, a comfortable competence is to be preferred to the extremes both of wealth and poverty.^[406]

Another means of carrying the various arts towards perfection, which in India and Egypt prevailed from time immemorial, is supposed to have been a practice, whether founded on law or custom, resembling the system of castes.^[407] Theories, not destitute of ingenuity, have been constructed on this view of Athenian society.^[408] Thus, the Dædali are supposed to have formed the sculptor caste; the Eupyridæ a caste of husbandmen; the Boutadæ of 101herdsmen; the Ceryces of heralds; the Hephœstiadæ of blacksmiths; the Poimenidæ of shepherds, and so on. Vestiges of this curious state of things are supposed to be discernible in the history of Attica, even so late as the age of Pericles, when we find Socrates a member of the Dædalian clan, by profession a sculptor. There were certainly in religious matters hereditary offices, which none could with propriety fill but the members of a certain family or clan. Thus, from among the Eteobutadæ was chosen the priestess of Athena Polias, who resided in the temple on the Acropolis; and the priest of Poseidon was drawn by lot from the same house.^[409] To the Praxiergidæ were entrusted certain duties about the statue of Athena during the Plynterian festival.^[410] The descendants of Buzyges performed those sacred ceremonies which thrice a year attended the ploughing of the soil;^[411] to mention for the present no more.

But we are not on this account to infer the existence in Attica of anything like the Hindù system of castes, which has itself never been rigidly observed.^[412] What happens everywhere took place at Athens: fathers generally found it more convenient to bring up their sons to their own calling,^[413] while the latter, observing constantly certain mechanical operations take place under their eye, were led first to admire and then to imitate. Thus the Potter’s boy, as Plato^[414] remarks, long ministers to his father before he takes the clay into his own hands and begins to model a vase or tureen.

102At Sparta, the heralds, cooks, and flute-players, constituted so many small castes, in which the profession passed down regularly from father to son. Of the absurdity of this practice Herodotus was fully sensible, for he observes, that a man was chosen to be a herald not for the loudness of his voice, but because he was a herald’s son.^[415] Upon the whole, however, the practice was no more general among the Greeks than it is in England. When it became fashionable to ape gentility, rustic hinds, like Strepsiades in the “Clouds,” found their sons ashamed of the humble callings by which their childhood had been supported; a passion for aristocratic distinction infested the bosom of the vulgar; all desired to appear what they were not; and, despite the wise institutions of Solon, handicraftsmen and artificers sunk into hopeless contempt.^[416] For this reason most trades by degrees were exercised by foreigners, who frequently acquired wealth and independence.

Notwithstanding this result, however, at which they arrived but slowly, both manufactures and every other branch of industry were in Greece, and at Athens more particularly, carried to a very high pitch of perfection. Even in the very lowest trades the love of gain, or the necessity of somehow earning a subsistence, led men to persevere. For example, in the occupation of a common fisherman, from which little beyond penury could be hoped for, and which impressed upon the countenance that 103sordid aspect so successfully represented by Hellenic art,^[417] there were always numbers ready to engage. And yet consider in Theocritus^[418] their wretched life, sleeping in their weather-beaten hut on the bleak shore, amid heaps of nets, piscatory baskets, lines, &c., and there dreaming, as indigence often does, of discovered treasures and ingots of gold. The patient endurance of the hungry fishers, seated far above the water on steep rocks, watching the entrance of the huge prey into their nets, appears to have been proverbial.^[419]

In the superior trades and manufactures there was among several cities an emulation, the result of which was to produce constant improvement. Athens, for example, which excelled in pottery, had rivals in Aulis, Rhodes, Megara, Corinth, Cnidos, 104and several other cities; Sicily and Bœotia were famous for their chariots; Argos for the manufacture of arms; Thessaly for its easy chairs; Chios and Miletos for their beds; Etruria for its gold-plate and works in bronze.^[420]

It is to be regretted that into the practice of the several trades and useful arts we can see but a very little way. In order, however, to render our idea of Hellenic civilisation as complete as possible, I shall here bring together as many particulars as I have been able to discover on this subject, commencing with those trades which were of primary necessity.^[421] Of these, that of the miller may doubtless be regarded as of the first importance. In very early ages men understood not the art of reducing corn into meal; but either roasted the unripe ears upon the fire, or parched the separated grains in small fryingpans.^[422] In process of time, however, the pestle and mortar were invented, by means of which,^[423] though at a great expense of labour, flour of the finest possible quality could be obtained. To these succeeded the handmill, an invention of very remote ages,^[424] which, notwithstanding, 105continued in use down to the days of Cicero. This machine, both in Greece and Italy, was at first commonly worked by women,^[425] more especially by female slaves. But afterward the rudest and worst conducted of the male domestics were condemned to this severe toil, which at length grew to be regarded in the light of a punishment,^[426] as working at the treadmill with us. Among the wealthy, each master of a family possessed his own mill; but as civilisation advanced, the grinding of corn constituted a separate occupation, and the trade of the miller was established. Public mills^[427] were common at Athens in the time of Socrates, and it does not appear to have been unusual for strong and sturdy men of free condition to labour for hire in these establishments.

Thus we find that the philosophers Menedemos and Asclepiades, when young and poor, earned their subsistence, and were enabled to pursue the study of philosophy, by working at night in a mill.^[428] As few persons knew this circumstance, and they were observed all day among the learned in the schools, some one brought against them an accusation of idleness, for which they were cited before the senate of Areopagos. In order to prove that they gained their livelihood in an honest way, the miller for whom they worked was brought forward. His testimony 106confirmed their statement; and he added, moreover, that he paid to each of them two drachmas per night. The Areopagites were so pleased with this proof of their industry and passion for philosophy, that, on pronouncing their acquittal, they at the same time made them a present of two hundred drachmas.^[429] But these mills were not always put in motion by the hand of man. Yoked to beams projecting from the upper millstone, oxen and asses, moving about in a circle, blindfold, as at present, when similarly employed, sometimes turned the mill instead of slaves.^[430] Upon the construction of these machines little exact information was possessed before the laying open of the ruins of Pompeii, where, in a baker’s shop, four mills, still almost perfect, have been discovered. They consist of a round stone basement with a rim, from the centre of which springs a blunt cone: this is the nether millstone. The upper one consists of an imperfect cylinder, hollowed out within, like an hour-glass, one part of which fits like a cap upon the cone below, while the other expands its bell-mouth above. Into this the corn was poured, and, descending through four small apertures upon the nether stone, was, by the turning round of the upper one thereon, reduced to meal, which passed gradually down, fining as it went, and fell out upon the stone basement below. The corn having been ground, the next operation was, to sever the flour from the bran, though sometimes bread was made from it in the rough,^[431] and regarded, moreover, as extremely wholesome. First, and most simple of these contrivances, was the sieve,^[432] made with slender rushes, which separated the coarse bran and produced a meal sufficiently cleansed for household bread. A much superior sieve was manufactured with linen threads, by which the flour was 107bolted to a great degree of fineness. When it was required of still superior purity and whiteness, the bolter would seem to have been bottomed with threads of woollen, which, being woven close, allowed nothing but particles of the utmost tenuity to pass.^[433] All the above operations were supposed to be placed under the superintendence of a particular deity named Eunostos,^[434] of whom no mention, I believe, is made in modern systems of mythology.

The ancients employed in the making of bread a great many kinds of grain besides wheat^[435] and barley;^[436] as rye, millet, which was little nourishing, panic, which was still less so,^[437] sesame, olyra, spelt, rice, tiphe, and a sort of grain from Ethiopia, called orindion. Several other substances were likewise used for the same purpose, not for the sake of adulteration, but either to improve the taste, or from reasons of economy; such as the root of the lotos,^[438] and, perhaps, of the day-lily^[439] dried, and reduced, like wheat itself, to flour; and the root of the corn-flag,^[440] 108which was previously boiled, and, for the sake of communicating a sweet taste to the bread, would appear to have been mixed with the dough as the meal of the potato is in modern times. This plant grew most plentifully in grounds frequented by the mole, which loved to feed upon it. Another ingredient often mixed with bread was, the pulpy seed of the Star of Bethlehem,^[441] of which the root likewise was eaten, both raw and cooked.

The seed of the pepper-wort,^[442] also, was sprinkled over cakes. Among the Thracians, about the river Strymon, they made bread from the flour of the water-caltron,^[443] a prickly root of a triangular form, which abounds in the lagoons about Venice, where it is sold commonly in the market-places, and roasted for the table in hot embers.^[444] The root of the dragon-wort,^[445] eaten both raw and cooked in Greece, was, in the Balearic isles, served up fried with honey at banquets instead of cakes. They gathered it in harvest time, and, having roasted, cut it in slices, which were then strung on a cord and dried in the shade for keeping. The seeds of the garden poppy were used in bread-making, perhaps like carraway-seeds with us, as were those of the wild poppy for medicinal purposes in honeycakes, and certain kinds of sweetmeats.^[446] They had in Syria a kind of bread made of mulberries, which caused the hair of those who habitually fed on it to fall off.^[447]

Although in the establishments of the wealthy bread was usually made by the women of the family, whether servile or free, the art of the baker seems early to have been practised as a separate business,^[448] frequently at Athens by foreigners. The Lydian bakers, for example,^[449] like those of France 109and Germany among us, enjoyed considerable celebrity, as did likewise the Cappadocians and Phœnicians, the art of the last having been able, it is said, to vary the qualities of the loaf every day in the year.^[450]

Of the form and structure of a baker’s establishment we may acquire some conception from the ruins of Pompeii, where the mills, the ovens, the kneading-troughs,^[451] small and great, would appear to have been sometimes of stone, though generally, perhaps, of wood. When the dough had been properly kneaded and leavened,^[452] it was removed to a table with a rim, and fashioned into a variety of forms by the hand or with moulds. The larger loaves were placed in rows in a capacious oven, in which wood had been burnt and raked out carefully. Sometimes, also, a fire would appear to have been kept up in an open space round the oven, having at the top a smoke vent. One kind of loaf was baked in a small fictile or iron oven, called cribanos,^[453] which was either placed on the fire, or surrounded by hot coals. There was another which they toasted before the fire on a spit;^[454] and a great variety of cakes were baked on the live coals, or in the ashes.^[455]

These it would require a separate treatise to enumerate 110and describe, since fashion appears to have been constantly varying the materials, the forms, and the appellations, of loaves. Upon the whole, however, the bread sold in the market-place of Athens was esteemed the whitest and most delicious in Greece; for the Rhodians, speaking partially of the produce of their own ovens, supposed they were bestowing on it the highest compliment when they said it was not inferior to that of Athens.^[456] The dimensions of loaves depended, of course, on the object of the baker, and varied from those of the smallest roll, prepared for people of delicate appetites, to those of the enormous obeliæ, sometimes containing upwards of three bushels of flour, borne in procession at the festival of Dionysos.^[457]

The business of the confectioner was in scarcely less request, or less profitable, than that of the baker himself. In most cases, perhaps, the finer kinds of pastry were made by women,^[458] whose taste and skill enabled them to gratify the lovers of delicacies with an infinite variety of sweetmeats. The vocabulary connected with this division of the art culinary is singularly rich, but, in many cases, conveys to our minds very little precise information. It may be inferred, however, with something like certainty, that the stock of an Athenian confectioner contained most of those delicious trifles now to be found in the establishments of their successors in London or Paris. It will, consequently, be impossible to enumerate them, or to specify the several ingredients which entered into their composition. It has already, I believe, been observed, in speaking of wine, that the ancients were exceedingly partial to sweets, which, in the making of their confectionary, led them to the constant employment of honey. Most of their favourite cakes contained some portion of this ingredient,^[459] sometimes, indeed, 111found in company with other articles apparently little calculated to combine with it. Wine, too, and cheese, and milk, and seeds, and the juices of vegetables, entered into the composition of various sweetmeats, which were occasionally made to keep long, as when intended for exportation; occasionally to be consumed at the moment, as they issued hot from the oven or the fryingpan. To this latter class belonged those delicate pancakes, the paste of which was poured liquid into the fryingpan, then flooded atop with fresh honey, and sprinkled with sesame and grated cheese.^[460] The taste for the catillus ornatus the Greeks appear to have borrowed from the Romans. This was a rich cake, composed of fine flour, kneaded with lard and the juice of lettuces, pounded in a mortar with wine, seasoned with pepper, and fried in boiling oil.^[461] Among their pastry was a sort of pie made of vine-birds^[462] and beccaficoes,^[463] the undercrust of which, kneaded with honey, was sometimes moistened at table in chicken-broth.^[464]

These cakes and sweetmeats were sometimes fashioned into very extraordinary forms; one sort, for example, representing the female breast,^[465] another a perfect sphere,^[466] a third the head and horns of an ox,^[467] while others were wrought into mystical figures, and appropriated to certain festivals of the Pagan calendar. The cake called Chærinè, made with the flour of parched wheat and honey, was bestowed as a prize on those who, during the Pannuchia, remained awake all night.^[468]

The trade of the butcher^[469] was carried on at Athens by citizens,^[470] whose shops in the Agora 112would seem to have been extremely well furnished, containing every variety of meat, from the chine of a prize ox,^[471] to the hind quarter of an ass.^[472] Sheep’s and kids’ heads were commonly sought to be rendered more attractive by having a branch of myrtle stuck between the teeth, whence one of the hetairæ was compared to a goat’s head, because she often walked the street with a sprig of myrtle in her mouth.^[473] The information which antiquity has left us respecting butchers’ shops and implements is extremely imperfect. We are told simply, that they had chopping-blocks and cleavers, large axes with which animals were felled in the slaughter-houses, flaying knives, hooks whereon to suspend and display their stock, with scales for weighing meat.^[474] A very curious anecdote is related of a Milesian butcher: there was a man named Killicon, who betrayed his native city Miletos, to the Prienians. Among his countrymen, who on this occasion became fugitives, was a butcher. This man fled to Samos, where he carried on his old business.^[475] Some time after Killicon himself came to that island, and going into the market to buy provisions, by chance addressed himself to the Milesian butcher, whose name was Theagenes. The man remembered the traitor, and when he would have bought of him a 113piece of meat, desired Killicon to lay hold of the part he wanted, while he severed it from the carcase; then taking up an axe he smote off his hand, saying, “With that hand, at least, you shall never again betray your country.”^[476]

The vintners and tavern-keepers, who were tolerably numerous in Greece,^[477] appear to have acquired much the same reputation as they enjoy in modern times. It was regarded as a matter of some difficulty to discover a jar of pure wine beneath their roofs; and, indeed, the honest vine-growers of the country are accused of having understood the art of making Bacchos acquainted with the nymphs on his way to the city. In other words they sold from their waggons in the Agora^[478] a certain quantity of the Ilissos, mingled with the juice of the grape. The tavern-keepers, however, stood in very little need of their assistance, since they were not merely adepts in watering and doctoring their wines, but were skilful at giving short measure;^[479] and yet understood various contrivances for alluring people to their houses. Thus one of them, for example, used to present a club that dined at his tavern with a kid,^[480] reckoning upon paying himself by the profits of the wine.^[481] However, when an opulent and delicate company honoured them with their presence, they could, doubtless, supply wines of the finest flavour; and to render them still more delicious, they were accustomed in summer to plunge the flagons into snow,^[482] or, occasionally, to mingle it with the wine, as is still the 114fashion at Naples and in Sicily. Taverns, therefore, were furnished with ice-cellars, where snow could be kept during the hottest weather. Alexander^[483] found means of carrying along with him a quantity of this article of luxury into India, where he probably treated Taxilos and Poros with iced wines. This achievement was imitated many ages after by the Khalif Mahadi, who on his pilgrimage to Mecca traversed the desert accompanied by a numerous train of camels laden with ice and snow, the first, according to Oriental historians, ever beheld in the Holy Cities. In the island of Cimolos, people made use, as coolers, of deep pits, in which jars of soft and tepid water,^[484] and, doubtless, wine also, were refrigerated.^[485]

The wine was laid up in jars, skins, and flasks, which, like the oil-flasks of Florence and Lucca, were cased with fine basket-work.^[486] The measures in use were numerous, and somewhat difficult to be reduced with exactness to those of modern times: the metretes (ten gallons two pints) contained twelve choes; the chous (about six pints) six xestæ; the xestes (one pint) two cotylæ; the cotyla (half-pint) two tetarti; the tetarton (one quartern) two oxybapha; the oxybaphon, one cyathus and a-half; 115the cyathus, two conchæ; the concha, two mystra; the mystron, one chema and a-half; the chema, two cochlearia.^[487]

Respecting the price of wines^[488] our information is exceedingly imperfect; for although it be frequently stated how much a certain measure cost, the quality of the wine not being mentioned at the same time, we are very little nearer any real knowledge of the value. In Lusitania, ten gallons of pure wine were at one period sold for three-pence; at Athens the price of the metretes,^[489] appears to have varied from about one and eight-pence, to three and four-pence, though occasionally it rose as high as about ten shillings. Even of the Mendæan, a wine of very superior quality, the wholesale price did not, at one period, exceed two drachmas, the metretes; but as the innkeepers were accused of having made enormous profits, it is at the same time quite credible, that they should occasionally have charged an obolos for the hemicotyla, especially to tipling women. Elsewhere, however, we find the chous, or twelve cotylæ, sold for an obolos,^[490] the price, doubtless, depending partly on the quality of the wine, partly on the conscience of the innkeeper. For, notwithstanding that there were at Athens three magistrates charged with the inspection of wines,^[491] part of whose business it probably was to prevent adulteration and exorbitant prices, the vintners, male and female, in all likelihood were an overmatch for them.

Most of the means by which the ancients adulterated their wines appear to be unknown to us, though we find that they endeavoured to restore the taste of such as were spoiled, by mingling with them a certain quantity of boiled wine^[492] and preparations 116of lime and gypsum. To check the progress of the second fermentation, they were sometimes in the habit of casting a pumice-stone into the jar;^[493] but where wine was so cheap, there was little temptation to have recourse to any other art than that of watering a little, which, according to the comic poet, might proceed from a benevolent desire to keep men sober and preserve their health.^[494]

The stock of a respectable wine-merchant must have been peculiarly rich and varied,^[495] consisting of the Anthosmias, a wine of delicious fragrance; the Lesbian,^[496] a favourite wine of Alcibiades;^[497] the Pramnian,^[498] a strong rough wine, celebrated by Homer;^[499] the Lemnian, quaffed by the heroes before Troy;^[500] the Chian, light and delicate;^[501] the Kapnian, from Beneventum in Italy,^[502] a sharp red wine which made the eyes water like smoke;^[503] the Mesogeites, from Mount Tmolos,^[504] which, however delicious might be its taste, gave those who drank it the head-ache; the Phygelites, from Ephesos, equal to that of Lesbos; those of Cos and Clazomenè, pleasant when new, but which would not keep because mixed with sea-water; the Cydonian;^[505] the Maronæan,^[506] 117of great strength; the Mendæan;^[507] the Mareotic;^[508] the Port; and the Thasian, which may be regarded as the flower of the whole for excellence and celebrity.^[509]

There were several wines among the ancients which acquired peculiar qualities and flavour from the way in which they were made or preserved. Thus, in Galatia,^[510] where, as the grapes ripened but imperfectly, the wine had a tendency to grow sour, a hemicotyla of resin was poured into the metretes of wine, which gave it at first a harsh taste, though in time it acquired a better flavour. In this process the resin was pounded in a mortar, with a quantity of the pine-bark. Some persons allowed it to remain in the vessel, while others strained it off immediately after fermentation. The wine which was preserved by an infusion of pitch,^[511] was manufactured in the following manner: the pitch was washed with brine and sea-water^[512] until it whitened, then cleansed perfectly with fresh-water, after which an ounce or two was mingled with eight choes of wine. The saline wines were made^[513] either by dipping the bunches as gathered into sea-water, or sprinkling them therewith, or pouring it along with them into the press after they had been dried in the sun. But in whatever manner prepared, wines of this description were regarded with an evil eye by physicians.

Among the other riches of an Hellenic cellar were 118mead or metheglin,^[514] and hydromel^[515] and omphacomel,^[516] with perry and cider,^[517] and palm-wine^[518] and fig-wine^[519] and quince-wine^[520] and lotos^[521] and pomegranate-wine.^[522]

Numerous odoriferous plants were likewise employed in communicating a variety of flavours and fragrance to wine, as the rose,^[523] thyme,^[524] germander,^[525] anis,^[526] œnanthe,^[527] wormwood,^[528] betony,^[529] southern-wood,^[530] squills,^[531] myrtle,^[532] mastic,^[533] terebinth,^[534] sycamore,^[535] fir-cones,^[536] cedar-cones,^[537] cypress-cones,^[538] juniper-berries,^[539] pitch, and larchtree-cones.^[540] Almost every other aromatic plant, shrub, and tree, was in like manner, employed to communicate a flavour, or an odour, to wine, chiefly, however, for medicinal purposes; and among these was the hyssop, whose leaves were used in the following manner: a pound of them, having been well bruised, were tied up in a sort of gauze, and by the weight of a few intermingled pebbles sunk 119to the bottom of the amphora. Here they were permitted to remain forty days, after which the wine was racked.^[541] Of these wines that which was tinctured with rose-leaves was commonly drunk after dinner to promote digestion.^[542] That which, about the Propontis and Thrace, was flavoured with wormwood, people destined for their summer drink, considering it favourable to health.^[543]

The greatest enemies of the vintners^[544] were the physicians who, by dwelling on the pernicious qualities of wine, deterred the reasonable part of the world from a too frequent use of it. Old wine, they maintained, shatters the nerves and produces headache; new wine is the parent of horrible dreams. That which is middling, however, for example, about seven years old, is liable to fewer objections, and may upon the whole be drunk with some degree of safety. White wine, too, according to their opinion, is better than red, since it corroborates the stomach, and is, probably, that kind which, when of a proper age, produces pleasant dreams.^[545] Pure wine, in general, moreover, was admitted to improve the health and beautify the complexion; and Pindar, whom most persons will allow to have been a good judge, though he could not, like Anacreon, dispose of a cask at a sitting,^[546] declares in favour of old wine and new songs.

Of beer, though, as we have elsewhere remarked, it was familiarly known to the Egyptians,^[547] as well as to the inhabitants of Gaul, Spain, and Britain, who manufactured it from barley and service-berries, as the people of Dantzic now do from the hips of the wild roses,^[548] we need say nothing, as the Greeks were 120so ignorant of its nature, that when the Ten Thousand met with a quantity in Armenia they diluted it with water as they were accustomed to do their wine, that is to say, entirely spoiled it.^[549] The establishments of these vintners were almost of necessity most frequent in the neighbourhood of the agora,^[550] where the rustics from the country congregated in crowds on market-days; where were held also, on many occasions, the public assemblies; and where newsmongers and loungers of every description most generally passed their leisure hours.

Making due allowance for difference of dimensions, and their greater or less magnificence, the same description will apply to the agoræ of all Grecian cities. But, as we are best acquainted with the features of that of Athens, if we can succeed in delineating a tolerably correct picture of it, some idea may, therefrom, be easily formed of all the others. We must imagine, therefore, a large circular open space,^[551] about the centre of the city, surrounded on all sides by ranges of shops, temples, porticoes, and other public buildings.^[552] It was traversed in various directions by avenues of plane-trees, planted shortly after the Persian war, which in summer constituted so many shady walks. About the middle stood the altars of Pity and the Twelve Gods, in a circle,^[553] and near them were the statues of Harmodios and Aristogeiton,^[554] the tyrannicides, whose memory was cherished by the republic with 121the most religious veneration. By far the greater part of the space, however, was covered by rows of sheds, booths, and tents, furnished with seats^[555] (the construction of which formed a separate branch of industry),^[556] where every article of use or luxury known to the ancient world was exhibited with the utmost attention to display. Here were the embroidered veils, and shawls, and mantles, and sandals, of the mercer’s quarter;^[557] there the chains of gold, the armlets, the anklets, the jewelled circlets for the head, the golden grasshoppers, the seals, the rings, the agraffes, the brooches, the cameos, and every description of engraved gems which constituted the attractions of the jewellers’ quarter. Here were waggons piled with jars, and skins filled with wine; there huge pyramids of apples and pears, and quinces and pomegranates, and dates and plums, and cherries and mulberries, black and white, and grape-clusters of every hue, and oranges and citrons, and rich purple figs, and melons and water-melons.^[558]

Touching upon these booths were the stalls of the green-grocers, of Eucharides^[559] for example, where every vegetable produced in the kitchen-garden and the fields met the eye in profusion; among which were truffles of all kinds,^[560] with the roots of the caraway^[561] and jagged lettuce, which were eaten like those of the Egyptian bean^[562] and the papyrus,^[563] radishes,^[564] long and round, bunches of turnips,^[565] asparagus, broccoli,^[566] heads of garlic, and summer savory, 122for the poor, all kinds of beans and pease, the vervain^[567] for purification and amulets, wild myrtle sprigs instead of asparagus,^[568] shoots of the black briony,^[569] chokeweed to be boiled with vegetables for rendering them tender, tufts of the wild fig-tree, which performed the same service for beef,^[570] goats-beard, clematis for seasoning,^[571] with bunches of elm-leaves commonly used as a vegetable.^[572] Next to these, were, perhaps, the stands of the flower-sellers,^[573] where garlands of the richest colours and fragrance were ready wreathed for the brow,^[574] some produced by careful culture in gardens, and others gathered where they grew wild by the women, who in time of peace 123spread themselves in troops over the whole country for this purpose.^[575] In one corner were droves of horses, asses, and mules,^[576] ready to have their teeth inspected by the buyers,^[577] or groups of youthful slaves from all quarters of the world. In another, near a lofty poplar,^[578] stood the auction-mart where goods of every description,^[579] including even libraries,^[580] were knocked down by the hammer. Close at hand, perhaps, stood the tempting booths of the chapmen who purveyed for the kitchen of the Athenians with hams, and sausages, and black-puddings,^[581] and pickles, and cheese, and preserved fruits, and spices, from the farthest east. Here were the sellers^[582] of salt-meat and fish from the Black Sea,^[583] there the toy-shops and upholsterers, while ever and anon the crowds that thronged the passages were compelled to make way for a string of asses^[584] laden with vegetables or wood from Parnes or Cithæron, with the ends sticking out on both sides and threatening the eyes of the buyers. Sometimes a porter,^[585] with a wooden knot on his shoulders, bore along, like Protagoras, a load of faggots, the size of which astonished the beholders. At times, near the corner of the street leading from the Eleusinian Gate, you 124saw a half-starved Megarean^[586] sneaking through the crowd and bringing along with him sucking pigs, and leverets, and cucumbers, and salt-fish, and garlic,^[587] which if observed by the agoranomoi were, during wartime, seized as contraband. On the other hand the broad-faced jolly Bœotian^[588] came smirking and grinning, like a Neapolitan, with mule-loads of wild marjoram, pennyroyal, eaten by sheep, mats, lampwicks, fowls,^[589] ducks, locusts, jackdaws, francolins,^[590] coots, divers, geese, hares, foxes, moles, hedgehogs, cats, pyctides, otters, and eels, from Lake Copaïs. Here in rows stood, black as chimney-sweeps, the charcoal-sellers from Acharnæ, with their mallequins and rush-baskets full piled before them.^[591] Yonder were the cornchandlers,^[592] surrounded by piles of sacks, measuring their grain, while a horde of ragged spermologoi^[593] hovered round to collect what fell. Close at hand stood the flour-merchants, each beside his huge covered wooden trough,^[594] from which he measured 125forth flour or barley-meal to the buyers. Beyond these were the stalls of the fishmongers,^[595] the flambeau-sellers^[596] and the shining jars of the oil-merchants, piled in heaps to the roof of the booths. In other rows were the shops of the potters,^[597] where every variety of jugs, vases, and tureens, was exhibited with vessels of glass, and bronze, and ivory. Here and there, threading their way through the multitude, you beheld the pedlar^[598] with his pack of small-wares, the hawker crying his fish or fruit,^[599] or vegetables, or sausages, or wild-fowl, laid out on a board on his head; the female bread-seller, with a variety of delicate loaves and cakes piled up before her on a tray; the pastry-girl with sweetmeats; the flower-girl with nosegays of fresh violets from the meadows of Colonos and the banks of the Eridanos and Cephissos. Sheltered from the warm rays of the sun, beneath some magnificent marble colonnade, or the portico of some temple or chapel, sat whole bevies of female flute-players, citharists, or dancing-girls,^[600] calling forth, from time to time, whilst waiting to be hired for a party, bursts of music from their instruments, or humming a war-song, or a Palladian hymn, or a merry scholion, the favourite ditties of the Athenian people. Near these, as being folks of the same kidney, the jugglers, cooks, and parasites,^[601] took up their position; the former two ready to be hired for the day by the giver of some magnificent entertainment, the latter that they might discover in what direction they were to ply their 126craft and ferret out a dinner scotfree. Near the Eurysaceum in this neighbourhood stood that eminence called the Hill of the Agora,^[602] or Misthios, because servants, in lack of a master, collected there to be hired, as they still do at fairs in most parts of England. Somewhere close at hand were the shops of those brokers who let out pots and pans, and lamps and plate, and the more delicate kind of crockery, to such persons as were too economical to keep such articles of their own.^[603] In the midst of this profusion of wares might be seen, at all hours of the day, crowds of well-dressed persons^[604] sauntering to and fro, chatting with each other, cheapening the goods of the shopkeepers, or laughing and jesting with the flower-girls or fluteplayers. At other times individuals, by no means deserving the name of loiterers, came thither, either to post up a bill^[605] of some article which they had found, or in quest of some information respecting one they had lost, either from such bills or from the public criers who were there accustomed to make proclamation of treasure trove, or to cry that such or such an article of property had strayed from its lawful owner. Occasionally also people made known by criers what goods they had for sale.^[606] The young men of rank, when fatigued by these promenades, used to retire into a perfumer’s or barber’s or armourer’s or bridle-maker’s shop,^[607] overlooking the bustling scene, where they discussed nonsense or politics, according to their humour. Hither, too, the philosophers came with a view to inspire patriotic and manly sentiments into the minds of these future rulers of the democracy; so that at one period you might have beheld Socrates and Alcibiades and Critias, and Chæriphon and Crito, with Charmides 127and the divine Plato, engaged in those animated dialogues, the echo of which still rings sweetly in the ears of posterity. In some shops opposite these, as if with a view to rival or eclipse them, or round one of the umbrellas,^[608] beneath which, on an elevated platform, the perfumers dispensed their wares in the agora, stood a group of sophists with their followers, such as Hippias of Elis, Prodicos of Cos, or the Agrigentine Polos, or Gorgias of Leontium, habited in purple robes, embroidered vests, flowered sandals, and with glittering crowns of gold upon their heads. Even their florid discourses, however, would fail to command the attention of their auditors when the youth of equestrian rank,^[609] mounted on their chargers and drawn up in military array, swept round the outer circle of the agora, paying devout homage to each divinity whose fane they passed. Here also in a future age might be seen, strutting to and fro, the orator Æschines with his arms akimbo and a fashionable little hat^[610] stuck knowingly on one side of his head, railing at Demosthenes, and pleading the cause of Philip. And here, too, the night after the fall of Elatea, a very different scene was witnessed when the citizens from every side of the Cecropian rock rushed tumultuously hither in the wildest alarm, and either not reflecting on what they did, or through ill-judged haste, set fire to the sheds and booths in order that they might find a clear space to deliberate on the public safety.

As there was a certain class of gods who presided over the market-place, so likewise were there particular laws enacted to regulate its transactions, with magistrates especially appointed to carry those laws into execution. These servants of the commonwealth, five in the city and five in the Peiræeus, were denominated Agoranomoi, and paraded all day to and fro, 128armed with whips of many thongs,^[611] amid the crowds of buyers and sellers, both to preserve tranquillity in the market, and prevent or punish those petty acts of fraud and injustice to which persons who subsist by humble traffic are too often in all countries addicted. Thus we find that, not the vintners only, but even the cornchandlers kept small measures;^[612] though, as there was a public meter appointed by the state, it could only be when purchasers neglected to employ him, that they lay open to this sort of imposition. Chapmen detected in cheating, or otherwise behaving with impropriety, were scourged by the Agoranomoi on the spot; and it is to be presumed, that, as often as necessary, these officers were attended by a detachment of that powerful and vigilant Scythian police, at one period a thousand strong, which Athens constantly maintained, and which formerly pitched its tents in the agora.^[613] Another duty of the Agoranomoi^[614] was to collect the tolls paid by Bœotians, Æginetæ, or Megareans, upon whatever articles they brought to the Athenian market. It should here be observed, however, that neither corn nor bread was in later times, at least, placed under the inspection of these magistrates, since there were others called Sitophylaces,^[615] whose business it was to see that the public were not defrauded in such articles. The number of these officers, at first three, was afterwards increased to fifteen, of which ten presided over the city corn-market, and five over that of the harbour, where a portico was built by Pericles^[616] for the special use of the cornchandlers and flour-merchants.

129On the prices of articles,^[617] our information is extremely incomplete: it is said, however, that an ox in Solon’s time, was sold for five drachmas,^[618] a sheep for one; while about the same period, the former animal sold at Rome for a hundred oboloi, and the latter for ten. In the later, and what are called the more flourishing, ages of the commonwealth, a sheep, according to its age, size, and breed, fetched from ten to twenty drachmas, an ox from fifty to a hundred. The price of a fine saddle-horse, in the age of Pericles, was twelve minæ, or about fifty pounds sterling,^[619] but a common animal for draught might be obtained for three minæ. The price of thirteen talents paid by Alexander for Bucephalos was a mere arbitrary piece of extravagance. A yoke of mules sold from five to eight minas; asses sometimes for thirty drachmas;^[620] a sucking-pig for three drachmas;^[621] a dove or a crow fetched three oboloi; a jackdaw or a partridge one obolos, though the philosopher Aristippos chose to give fifty drachmas for a single bird of this kind; seven chaffinches for an obolos. A chœnix of olives cost two chalci, and a cotyla of the best Attic honey five drachmas.

The weights and measures^[622] in common use at Athens were the talent (65 lbs. 12 dwt. 5 grs.) equal to sixty minæ; the mina (1 lb. 1 oz. 4 grs.) equal to a hundred drachmas; the drachma (6 dwt. 2 grs.) equal to six oboloi; the obolos (9 grs.) equal to three 130keratia; the keration^[623] three grains. The Athenian dry measures were the medimnos, equal to six hecteis;^[624] the hecteus, equal to two hemihecteis; the hemihecton, equal to four chœnices; the chœnix, equal to two xestæ; the xestes, equal to two cotylæ; the cotyla, equal to four oxybapha; the oxybaphon, equal to one cyathos and a half;^[625] the cyathos, equal to ten cochlearia.

Of the other measures that occur in ancient authors, it may be worth while to mention the Persian artabe,^[626] (hodie ardeb,) which exceeded the Attic medimnos by about three chœnices; the akanè,^[627] likewise a Persian measure, equal to forty-five Attic medimnoi or a Bœotian measure equal to two bushels; the addix^[628] equal to four chœnices; the dadix^[629] to six; the capithe to two; the maris to six cotylæ,^[630] the cophinos, a Bœotian measure, to three choes.^[631]

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It has been already observed that the shops of the perfumers^[632] were, for the most part, situated in the Agora or its neighbourhood, and much frequented by newsmongers and young men of distinction. From this it follows, that they must have been of spacious dimensions; and it is extremely probable that they were fitted up with every attention to show and elegance. They necessarily contained a number of seats and chairs for the accommodation of customers, and there can scarcely be a doubt, that the various unguents, perfumes, oils, and essences, were ranged on shelves, along the walls, in fine jars, vases of Cyprian marble, and boxes of alabaster,^[633] sometimes of one piece, with vessels of glass and silver,^[634] or fine earthenware, or porcelain, or beautiful sea-shells.^[635] The counters were probably of marble or polished stone, as at Pompeii; and the shopman was supplied with the usual paraphernalia of scales and weights,^[636] and measures, and ladles, and spoons, and spatulæ, as in modern times. Peron, an Egyptian, the owner of one of these shops, has been 132thought of sufficient consequence to have his name transmitted to posterity.^[637]

From the richness and variety of odours made use of by the ancients we may infer, that the fragrance of such an establishment at Athens, exceeded that of Araby the Blest. For every land and every sweet flower that grew supplied some ingredient to the endless stock of the perfumer.^[638] There was incense, and frankincense, and spikenard,^[639] and myrrh, and oils of saffron and cinnamon,^[640] and sweet marjoram,^[641] and fenugreek,^[642] and roses,^[643] and hyoscyamos,^[644] and maiden’s hair,^[645] and iris,^[646] and lilies,^[647] and watermint, and rosemary, and eastern privet,^[648] and baccharis,^[649] and thyme. In truth the Athenians, who were esteemed the inventors of all good and useful things,^[650] delighted exceedingly in the luxury of sweet smells, and therefore culled from Sicily, and Egypt, and Phœnicia, and Lydia, and Babylonia, and India, and Arabia, whatever could communicate a pleasing scent to their garments,^[651] their apartments, 133or their beards. Even the doves and swallows that flew tame about the house had their feathers drenched with odoriferous essences, which they scattered with their waving wings through the air.^[652] This excessive passion for perfumes rendered the favourite articles of it dear, so that of some kinds a cotyla sold for two or five minæ;^[653] of others, for ten; while the balm of Gilead, even in the country where it was collected, was valued at double its weight in silver.^[654] There were, however, inferior kinds of perfume, some of which were cheap enough, since we find that an alabaster boxful, brought from the East, sometimes sold for two drachmas.^[655]

Great use was made of saffron as a perfume.^[656] Halls, courts, and theatres were saturated with its odour,^[657] and statues^[658] were made to flow, like common fountains, with saffron-water. From a great number of other flowers, essences and unguents were likewise prepared; such as our lady’s rose, southernwood,^[659] vine-flowers,^[660] the narcissus,^[661] anis-flower,^[662] high taper, betel-leaf, and the jasmine, which, in Persia, was used at banquets and in the baths.^[663]

In the preparation of unguents, numerous articles were made use of, either to give them consistency or to modify the scent: among these were the root of the anchusa,^[664] palm spatha,^[665] butter,^[666] sweet-scented moss,^[667] and the odoriferous reed.^[668]

134Several unguents received their names from the persons who invented them, or from the places whence they were imported, though others were distinguished by appellations which are no longer intelligible: thus, the Megalion or Megalesian derived its name from Megallos, a Sicilian perfumer;^[669] the Plangonian from Plango, a female perfumer of Elis.^[670] The black ointment, doubtless, received its name from its colour; but wherefore the Sagdas is so called is not known:^[671] both these were of Egyptian manufacture. From Lydia was imported the Brenthion,^[672] and from Babylonia the Nardon, which disputed the prize with the royal unguent. There was among the Egyptians a perfume called Cyphi,^[673] entirely appropriated to the use of the gods, into the composition of which entered the following ingredients; the cyperus, a quantity of juniper-berries, raisins, odoriferous reeds and rushes, the aspalathos, myrrh, wine, resin, and honey, mixed in certain proportions, and reduced to a fine paste. Unguent of roses was preserved by an admixture of salt.^[674]

But the perfumers dealt not in odours and essences only, their stock containing every variety of cosmetic for the use of the ladies, who made a complete business of beautifying their faces,^[675] which at 135length became wholly artificial, rather a mask than a countenance.^[676] They whitened their foreheads, dyed their eyebrows, and fashioned them like arches, painted black the edges of their eyelids,^[677] rendered their eyes humid and bright by powder-of-lead ore, spread over their faces the hues of the lily intermingled with the bloom of the rose, adorned themselves with false ringlets, changed the yellow into black, the black into auburn,^[678] gave a ruby tinge to their lips, and blanched their teeth into ivory. But the psimmythion,^[679] (ceruse or white lead,) which rendered them fair, undermined their constitution, and poisoned their breath. On the subject of rouge, the Greeks had a very poetical and beautiful saying:—“She plants roses in her cheeks,” said they, “which, like those of Locris, will bloom in an hour and fade in less.”^[680]

One sort of rouge^[681] appears to have been obtained 136from a species of sea-moss or wrake,^[682] which some have confounded with the anchusa,^[683] though the grammarians enumerate them as things entirely different. One of the commentators supposes the purpurissa to be meant, by which the Romans understood a sort of cheek-varnish, vermilion, or Spanish paint. There was in use a pigment for the eyebrows, called Hypogramma,^[684] and the edges of the eyelids were tinged black with Stimmis,^[685] an oxyde of antimony, which still constitutes one of the articles of the female toilette in the East. Sometimes the eyebrows were blackened with resin soot,^[686] and the eyelashes caused to lie regularly by naphtha,^[687] and a sort of paste composed of glue and pounded marble.^[688] Another curious cosmetic was, the Adarces,^[689] a substance resembling congealed froth, found on reeds and the dry stalks of plants about the ponds and marshes of Cappadocia. It was said to remove freckles, and enjoyed, likewise, great credit in medicine. A preparation composed of the flour of turnip-seed, lupines, wheat, darnel, and chick-peas, was used for clearing the skin; so, likewise, were the Chian and Selinusian earths,^[690] which removed wrinkles, and rendered the skin smooth and shining. They were in constant use in the baths. Cassia,^[691] honey,^[692] pepper,^[693] and myrrh,^[694] cured pimples and effaced spots; fenugreek^[695] whitened the hands and removed sunburns; briony,^[696] isinglass,^[697] costos,^[698] galbanum,^[699] lupines, rainwater,^[700] 137radishes,^[701] and hare’s blood,^[702] the biscutella didyma,^[703] truffles,^[704] cinnamon,^[705] linseed,^[706] ladanum,^[707] iris-roots,^[708] white hellebore,^[709] Sardinian honey,^[710] onion-juice,^[711] and spring-wheat, moistened with oxymel,^[712] were among the principal preparations for removing moles and freckles, and beautifying the skin. In some parts of Greece elm-juice,^[713] expressed at the first putting forth of the leaves in spring, was employed to give clearness and resplendency to the complexion. Almond-paste,^[714] also, with the roots of the bitter almond-tree, effaced spots from the skin. Others, for the same purpose, made use of the berries of the wild-vine,^[715] and a paste was prepared from lilies which induced fairness, and rendered the face smooth and shining.^[716] To protect the complexion from the sun, the whole countenance was varnished, as it were, with white of egg;^[717] and some women, possibly rustics, used goose and hen’s grease as a cosmetic.^[718] The roots of the spikenard, when imported from the East, usually retained about them a little of the soil in which the plant had grown:^[719] this was carefully rubbed off, and having been passed through a fine sieve, was used for washing the hands, as it probably retained something of the fragrance of the plant. Rose leaves, reduced to powder, were sprinkled over persons as they issued from the bath, particularly about the eyes, to heighten the freshness of the face.^[720] To communicate additional sweetness to their persons, Greek ladies sometimes wore about their necks carcanets of rose pastilles^[721] instead of jewelled necklaces, into the composition 138of which, however, several other ingredients entered, as nard, myrrh, costos, Illyrian iris, honey, and Chian wine.

The dentifrices^[722] of the Greeks consisted chiefly of the purple fish, burnt with salt, and reduced to powder;^[723] the Arabic stone,^[724] calcined in like manner; and pumice-stone.^[725] Asses’ milk was used as a gargle to preserve the teeth.^[726] The toothpicks^[727] most commonly used were small slips of cane, or green branches of the lentiscus,^[728] the ashes of which were likewise mingled with all kinds of tooth-powder. The citron,^[729] eaten as a remedy for longing, was thought to render the breath sweet. There was a kind of ointment prepared of saffron, which, mingled with water, they employed to restore brilliance to eyes which had lost their colour.^[730] A pomatum, composed of oil and the husks of filbert-nuts burnt and reduced to powder, was used in infancy to change blue eyes into black.^[731]

The barbers, who, both in locality and repute, were next-door neighbours to the perfumers, enjoyed much the same sort of reputation as they do in modern times. In their shops scandal was fabricated, and news, good and bad, put into circulation. It was at a barber’s in the Peiræeus that some stranger first disclosed the intelligence of the defeat in Sicily, thereby bringing the longue-tongued shaver into the greatest trouble; for as he straightway ran up to the 139city and gave vent to the evil tidings, he was apprehended and put to the torture, in order to discover the real author of what was supposed to be an atrocious fabrication.^[732] But that which sometimes thus brought them into straits, proved most commonly a source of profit, since to hear their laughable stories and anecdotes many more persons congregated under their roofs than stood in need of new wigs or curling-irons,^[733] and probably got shaved by way of compliment to the master of the house. Such of them as were remarkably unskilful sought to make up for their awkwardness^[734] by the number and elegance of their razors, and the large size of their mirrors.^[735] But it was not, we are told, unfrequent for men to get shaved by some humble practitioner,^[736] with one razor and a cunning hand, and afterwards to lounge into the more dashing shops, to put their curls in order before the large mirrors which adorned the walls.^[737]

If we may judge by the works of art that have come down to us, however, the barbers of Hellas generally understood their business in great perfection, since nowhere do we find more shapely heads or finer curls than on the statues of antiquity.^[738] Even here, however, we discover few traces of that 140variety in the manner of cutting and dressing the hair,^[739] for which they were chiefly distinguished. While the beard^[740] was worn, their principal occupation must have been the clipping, curling, and perfuming of it; but afterwards when persons shaved in order to appear young,^[741] and had learned to cover their bald pates with wigs,^[742] their business grew to be much the same as it is at present. Their arts were necessarily in great request among the ladies, for whom they contrived false eyebrows,^[743] and innumerable dyes for giving whatever colour they desired to the hair, rendering it luxuriant and preventing it from turning grey. Hog’s lard and even bear’s grease mixed with powder of burnt filberts^[744] were then in great request for strengthening and restoring the hair, together with onion-juice,^[745] olives steeped in wine,^[746] myrrh,^[747] wild-olive oil^[748] mingled with water, according to Aristotle,^[749] the glutinous humour of snails obtained by passing a needle through them, and immediately 141applied to the roots of the hair,^[750] a bruized cabbage-leaf,^[751] a hare’s head reduced to ashes,^[752] the ashes of the asphodel-root,^[753] burnt frogs,^[754] and goat’s hoof,^[755] Naxian stone,^[756] halcyonion,^[757] burnt walnuts,^[758] and oil of pitch.^[759] The soot of pitch restored fallen eyelashes.^[760] Among the depilatory preparations^[761] used by ancient barbers may be enumerated the fumitory,^[762] the scolopendra thalassia,^[763] oak-fern,^[764] juice of vine-leaves,^[765] orpiment,^[766] flour of salt,^[767] sea-froth,^[768] and the blood of the chamelion.^[769]

To dye tresses auburn,^[770] a colour much admired by the Greeks, they pounded a quantity of the leaves of eastern privet^[771] in a mortar, and then steeping it in the juice of fuller’s-herb, applied the preparation to the hair. The same effect was produced by a decoction of lotus stems,^[772] or of the herb lycion.^[773] As black hair, however, obtained the preference of the majority, partly^[774] perhaps because it better suited their complexions, the number of recipes for giving it that hue is very great. Among the most remarkable substances employed for this purpose we may mention the ampelitis,^[775] a black earth imported from Seleucia, in Syria, and the sory,^[776] a mineral found chiefly in Egypt. To these may be added decoctions of wood-blade,^[777] myrtle, and myrtle-berries,^[778] ivy,^[779] and dwarf-elder berries,^[780] sage,^[781] mulberries,^[782] and palm-spathæ,^[783] as also cypress cones, boiled in 142vinegar.^[784] There prevailed an opinion in Italy^[785] that the birds which fed on the berries of the smilax or yew-tree became black, though we do not find, that the barbers had thought of introducing them among the hair dyes.

Another class of tradesmen who selected the Agora^[786] or its neighbourhood, for their residence, was the goldsmiths, silversmiths, jewellers, and lapidaries, who were possibly of more importance in the ancient than the modern world,^[787] since a much greater quantity of the precious metals was then wrought up into plate, whether for the temples, chapels and sanctuaries of the gods,^[788] or for private individuals.^[789] How much or how little of the articles they produced could be seen at one time in their shops, it is now impossible to determine; but if their practice resembled that of the moderns, it would be difficult to imagine a greater blaze of magnificence^[790] than must have met the eye upon entering their establishments,—where piles of gold and silver vessels^[791] of all forms and dimensions, some burnished^[792] and plain, others embossed 143with every variety of figure in high or low relief, others crusted with seed pearls,^[793] or brilliants, or set with gems^[794] of every shade and hue, from the ruby, the emerald, and the hyacinth, to the turquoise, the chrysoprase, the amethyst, the beryl, and the jasper, might be beheld rising to the ceiling.

Occasionally articles of plate of enormous size were manufactured,^[795] such as cisterns,^[796] or vases, or tripods, or salvers, or goblets of gold or silver, presented as offerings by whole cities or communities to some divinity. In these cases the workmanship was very frequently so elaborate and exquisite as to be still more costly than the materials. Entire landscapes, including innumerable figures and objects were sometimes represented on the swell of a vase or goblet: Bacchanalian processions, for example, with whole troops of satyrs and mænades moving along some wooded valley, or desert mountain, or rocky shore, at the heels of the Seileni and Dionysos, groups of nereids, nymphs, and tritons, sporting in the warm sunshine, on the unruffled expanse of ocean; and sacrifices, marriages, chariot-races, and chorusses of youths and virgins, moving through the mazes of the dance, around the altar of Apollo or Artemis. It is also to Hellenic goldsmiths that we are evidently to attribute those marvellous productions of art reckoned among the most boasted possessions of the Persian kings, such as that vine of gold,^[797] with its vast grape clusters, imitated both in size and colour by the most precious gems, which formed a canopy over the royal couch, or that golden platane-tree^[798] and other vine, 144which, rising from behind the throne, stretched its branches, tendrils, and leaves of gold aloft over the monarch as he sat in state to give audience to his people. Here the bunches of grapes in various stages of ripeness were represented by emeralds, Indian carbuncles, and other precious stones of the richest and most dazzling hues. These things we know were not the works of Persians, having been presented to Darius by Pythios, the Lydian, who, doubtless, caused them to be fashioned by Grecian artists. What may have been the exact dimensions of this platane-tree we know not; but, no doubt, Antiochos took an orator’s licence, when, in an assembly of the Arcadians, he described it as too diminutive to afford shelter to a grasshopper.^[799]

We may here perhaps with propriety make mention of that multitude of golden statues^[800] which thronged the temples of Greece. For it is not true, as Lucian pretends, that the Hellenic gods and goddesses were contented to shroud their beauty in marble, bronze, or ivory, while Mithras exhibited his rude visage, and Anubis his dog’s snout, in gold.^[801] Even private individuals had statues erected to them of this precious metal; and there were not wanting 145those who, like Gorgias, at their own expense did the same honour to themselves.^[802]

But the variety of articles thus composed of the precious metals was so great as almost to defy description.^[803] There were candelabra,^[804] thrones,^[805] and chairs, shields,^[806] basins and ewers,^[807] flagons, censers, goblets in form of walnut-shells, ladles,^[808] spoons, vinegar-saucers,^[809] with almost every other article of the table. Crowns, likewise, for the heads of statues of princes, and successful generals, and other individuals whom the public desired to honour; with bread^[810] and work baskets probably in filigree, clasps,^[811] and spindles^[812] for ladies, with armlets, anklets, bracelets, rings, necklaces of carbuncles,^[813] earrings,^[814] and circlets for the head. That these articles were usually formed with much taste and elegance we may infer from the fact, that artists of the greatest respectability were employed to make designs for them, while 146even the engravers of cups and goblets, as Mys, for example, sometimes acquired great celebrity.^[815]

The ancients understood well the art of washing and plating articles formed of the inferior metals with gold and silver, as well as many ingenious devices for soldering, mixing, varying the colours, frosting the surface, and inlaying and flowering one metal with another. Statues in Attica were commonly lacquered with gold;^[816] and, from the remotest antiquity, the art of gilding appears to have flourished in Greece, since we find mention of it in Homer, who speaks of gilding^[817] the horns of victims offered up to the gods. The ancients, unquestionably, employed much thicker gold leaf in this process than the moderns; from which it has been inferred, that they were incapable of reducing it to greater tenuity. But, besides that, when the leaves were too thin, the quicksilver which they employed as a glue appeared through, and dimmed the splendour of the gold, they seem to have aimed at that very duration which causes us to admire the fragments of their gilding that still exist:—in the subterraneous chambers, for example, of the Villa Borghese on the Palatine hill, where the figures in gold scattered over a ground of celestial blue, look as fresh as if just laid on.^[818] Metals of all kinds were likewise gilt—as copper, and silver, and bronze. In gilding marble the leaf was attached to the stone with white of egg, which was likewise employed, instead of quicksilver, 147by dishonest workmen, who could thus make use of a much thinner leaf.^[819] The moderns in gilding marble substitute the juice of garlic and figs. The practice of gilding wood and leather was also common in antiquity, as we find mention of gilt wooden statues and beads,^[820] and harness, and sandal-thongs. The walls and roofs of chambers were covered, moreover, with gilding, and this ornament was laid as well on wainscot as stucco.^[821] The conjecture of a modern writer,^[822] that the ancients were acquainted with the art of gilding in ormolu seems to be unfounded.

One of the minor, but most flourishing, branches of the goldsmiths’ trade seems to have been the making and setting of rings,^[823] for which the Greeks indulged an extraordinary fondness. They accordingly had them of every form and material. Some persons, for example, wore a plain gold, or silver, or even iron, hoop; others a silver ring encircled by a narrow band of gold, or a gold ring with a band of silver, or an iron ring inlaid with gold.^[824] Some persons were satisfied with a bronze ring, or one of gilt iron,^[825] which they wore apparently in memory of Prometheus, who, to preserve Zeus’ word unbroken, was fabled to bear on his finger an iron ring set with a piece of Caucasian stone as a signet, so that, by a divine sort of quibble, he might for ever be said to be chained to Caucasus.^[826] Others, again, delighted in rings of amber,^[827] white or yellow, or ivory, or porcelain, 148at least these were fashionable in Egypt. Sometimes, they wore silver rings with signets of gold, or the contrary. Mention, too, is made of a ring formed entirely of carnelian, which, to preserve it, was encircled by a narrow hoop of silver, and set with a golden signet.^[828]

Jugglers sold to persons of large faith rings^[829] that would cure the colic;^[830] and articles of this description with magic and talismanic virtues appear to have been at all times abundant and in great request.

Of signets^[831] the most ancient would appear to have been small bits of wood, which, having been worm-eaten in a grotesque or fanciful manner,^[832] were cut and polished, and used by some rough Thane for a crest, in memory of which practice precious stones were in after ages engraved so as to imitate exactly these rude materials.^[833] In process of time nearly every variety of precious stone^[834] came to be engraved for rings and seals.^[835] Of these the most remarkable was the carbuncle, in colour like a ripe mulberry, which when held up in the sun glows 149like a flame or burning coal,^[836] probably the reason why it was supposed to shine in the dark like a lamp.^[837] Under this name many gems known at present by different appellations seem to have been included, as the ruby,^[838] whose proper colour is a cochineal red of surpassing richness, admitting, however, occasionally, various intermixtures of blue, producing the rose-red ruby, the former of a full carmine, or rose colour, the latter tinged with a mixture of blue; the rubacelle whose glowing red is dashed with a cast of yellow; the true and the sorane garnet; the rock ruby of a violet red; the almandine and the hyacinth, now confounded with the amethyst. Next to the above was the carnelian^[839] of a deep ensanguined hue, chiefly obtained from the island of Sardinia: the jasper of a dark green, with spots of many colours, the sapphire blue bespangled with gold.

Another gem held in high estimation by the ancients was the emerald,^[840] the exquisite colour of which, generally the most intense green, was supposed to be more grateful to the eye than the sight of vernal woods or meadows. For this reason many persons selected it for seals in preference to all other stones.^[841] Even the lapidaries employed in cutting it were believed to have their vision improved by its refreshing virtues. All emeralds, however, are not of one hue, but exhibit every possible shade of green, from the dusky tint of the 150olive leaf to the pale verdure of the acacia.^[842] The Greek jewellers appear to have judged of the genuineness of this stone by plunging it into clear water: for if it were a true emerald it would, they thought, impart its colour to the whole of the surrounding element; if not, a small part only of it would be tinged.^[843]

The ancients possessed a species of bastard emerald, found in vast blocks, so that we read of an emerald obelisk in Egypt, which, though consisting of but four pieces, rose to the height of sixty feet.^[844] Of this stone, probably, was the famous pillar which adorned the entrance of the temple of Heracles at Tyre.^[845] Of real emeralds the largest known does not exceed six inches in length, and two in diameter. It may be observed, that much pains and labour were expended in bringing the emerald to its lustre.^[846]

The lyncurios or modern hyacinth is enumerated among the seal gems.^[847] Its colour is that of flame with an intermixture of deep red, though it is sometimes found of a full saffron hue, or even resembling amber. It has by several writers been supposed to be the tourmaline. The lyncurios was exceedingly hard and difficult to work. They likewise cut and engraved for seals the amber, which Theophrastus describes as a native mineral; the hyaloides, the omphax, the crystal,^[848] the sardonyx, the agate, the onyx, and the amethyst.^[849] A gem of extraordinary beauty was once found in the gold mines of Lampsacos, which, having been engraved by a Tyrian lapidary, was presented to the Persian King.^[850]

151Respecting the various processes by which precious stones were engraved, the ancients have left us but a few scattered hints. It appears certain, however, that they polished precious stones with emery,^[851] and possessed the lapidary’s wheel, with all the finer tools at present in use, including the diamond point,^[852] which there is reason to believe they likewise fixed on the wheel.^[853] At any rate, they contrived with the instruments they possessed to engrave figures, as of lions, heroes, bacchantes, caryatides, trophies,^[854] both in relief and intaglio, which for beauty and delicacy have never yet been equalled. It was at one time a question whether or not they were acquainted with the microscope,^[855]—though how they could engrave without it figures which we require its assistance distinctly to perceive, seems somewhat difficult to comprehend. The gem, for example, called the seal of Michael Angelo, in the French king’s cabinet, though it does not exceed half an inch in diameter, contains fifteen figures most elaborately wrought.^[856] A private gentleman at Rome possessed a wolf’s tooth on which was a representation of the twelve gods.^[857] Cicero commemorates an individual who had written the whole Iliad in characters so minute and in so small a compass, that it could be contained in a walnut-shell.^[858] Myrmecides, the Milesian, and Callicrates, the Lacedæmonian, manufactured ivory chariots so small, that they could be covered with the wing of a fly; and wrote two verses in gold letters on a grain of sesame.^[859]

We find mention, however, of burning-glasses as 152early as the age of Socrates;^[860] and a number of lenses, more powerful than those employed by our own engravers, have been found among the ruins of Herculaneum.^[861] We may here, also, remark by the way, that the Greek astronomers appear to have been acquainted with the telescope.^[862]

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The earliest smiths^[863] in Greece wrought not in iron but in brass, of which, at first, both arms and domestic implements were fashioned. In Mexico and Peru, where, likewise, copper^[864] was known before iron, they possessed the art of hardening it to so great a degree, that it would even cut stones and the closest-grained wood. The same or a similar process was known to the ancients, and might still, perhaps, be easily recovered were it any longer an object to be desired. The Greeks always retained a strong partiality for articles of brass, copper, and bronze, and besides statues,^[865] pillars,^[866] and trees, where the fruit was sometimes of gold,^[867] employed them in cups, urns, vases, and caldrons, with covers of the 154same metal.^[868] We also find mention made of brazen mangers, and even maps.^[869]

With tin, also, the Greeks, even in the Homeric age, were acquainted;^[870] and, among other uses which they, in later ages, made of it, was that of lining the inside of their cooking utensils.^[871]

At a period beyond the reach of history they obtained a knowledge of the use of both iron^[872] and steel, the invention of which they attributed to Hephaistos.^[873] Homer, who speaks of axes and other implements of steel, or, rather, of iron steeled at the edge, describes the process of forming it by immersion in cold water.^[874] In the manufacture of the Homeric swords steel only would appear to have been, in most cases, employed, since they were extremely brittle, and often shivered to pieces by a mere blow upon shield or helmet. To guard against this effect the superior and more delicate articles were, in later times, cooled not in water but in oil.^[875] The Spartans, we are told, quenched their iron money in vinegar which rendered it, they supposed, brittle and unmalleable, consequently of no value but as a token.^[876]

Among the earliest nations who excelled in the smelting of iron and the manufacture of steel were 155the Chalybes,^[877] who are said to have collected the ore from the beds of their rivers, and to have mingled therewith a certain quantity of the mineral pyrimachos. Aristotle, in describing the process of smelting, observes, that steel, in passing through the furnace, not only diminishes in quantity but in specific gravity also, that is to say, becomes less valuable. It was one merit of the Chalybean steel that it was not liable to rust. The method of preparing this metal which prevailed among the Celtiberians was this:^[878] they buried a number of iron plates in the earth, where they suffered them to remain until the greater portion was converted into rust.^[879] They then drew them forth and wrought them into various kinds of weapons, particularly swordblades, which were so keen that neither shields, nor helmets, nor sculls, were able to resist their edge. To this the complimentary Plutarch likens the language of the Spartans.^[880]

It was thought of much importance by the ancients to select for the quenching of steel water possessing certain occult qualities, whose existence was only to be detected by experiment. By these the river of the Chalybeans was thought to be distinguished,^[881] as well as the waters near Como, at Calatayud and Tarragona in Spain. Water has, likewise, been prepared, by a variety of infusions, for communicating a finer temper and greater hardness to steel, an example of which is mentioned in the history of the Duke Cosmo, who invented, according to Vasari,^[882] a liquid wherein were hardened the tools 156with which Francesco del Tadda was enabled to cut a fountain-basin, and several other articles, from a block of the hardest porphyry. Nothing, however, was more common than this operation among the ancients, both Greeks and Egyptians, by whom porphyry was cut into every variety of form, and invested with the highest polish.^[883]

The best steel appears to have been obtained from the Seres, from Parthia, and from India,^[884] where, when polished, it assumed the bright appearance of silver, and probably like that of Damascus contained a small proportion of this metal. That which came from Sinope and the Chalybes served for the manufacture of ordinary tools; the Laconian^[885] was wrought into files, augers, chisels, and the other implements of stone-cutters; the Lydian stood in high estimation with the sword-cutlers, and the manufacturers of razors and surgical instruments.^[886] The locks and keys^[887] of the ancients, if we may judge from the specimens found at Pompeii, were of a somewhat rude construction, though probably manufactured of the best iron.

The workshop and tools of the smith bore the closest possible resemblance to those of the present day; the bellows^[888] consisting of thin boards connected by flaps of cow-hide, and having a snout of iron, the anvil mounted on a high block, the hammer, the tongs, the vice, which require no particular description.

Respecting the quality of Grecian cutlery it must be acknowledged that our information is exceedingly scanty, though we may reasonably infer, that it 157often possessed the greatest excellence and beauty from the perfection to which they had undoubtedly brought the manufacture of arms. In this branch of industry the Delphians would seem to have obtained celebrity, though the form and uses of their knives, alluded to in a comparison by Aristotle,^[889] can be looked upon only as matter of conjecture. It seems to me, that, like Hudibras’ dagger, they would serve for a variety of purposes, as a poignard for example, as a sacrificial instrument, and as a common knife:

There was a very elegant sort of knives among the Athenians, adorned with ivory handles, delicately carved with the figures of animals, among which was that of a crouching lioness.^[890] For this purpose the ivory was frequently stained of different colours, as pink, or crimson, or purple, according to the fancy of the workman. Knife-handles were sometimes also made of the roots of the lotos,^[891] which, no doubt, took a fine polish and were beautifully clouded. Their scissors, bodkins, sailmakers’ needles, common needles, pins,^[892] and other articles of this description, would seem to have been manufactured with much neatness.

But the most flourishing trade in Greece was probably that of the armourer,^[893] which, at almost every period of her history, was in constant request. Many, probably, of the useful arts owed much of the progress they made to the passion of the Greeks for arms, which led them industriously to study and 158invent whatever could add to their splendour or efficiency. We need not now go back to the times when sticks and stones and pointed reeds formed the national weapons.^[894] Among the very first steps in civilisation were improvements in the art of self-defence; for, wherever men have found it necessary to create property, they have felt it to be equally so to invent weapons for protecting themselves in the enjoyment of it. Accordingly the Greeks, long before the birth of history, had surrounded themselves by numerous instruments of destruction, and learned to cover their bodies with armour infinitely varied in materials and workmanship.

Upon none of their weapons, however, did they bestow greater attention than on the sword, which if it did not, as among certain barbarians, constitute one of the objects of their worship,^[895] was in most cases their inseparable companion through life, and descended with them even to the grave. Thus we find, that, when Cimon opened, at Scyros, the grave of Theseus, the national hero of Attica, he found beside the skeleton a spearhead and sword of brass.^[896] Their blades were of many different shapes 159and dimensions: they had the long, sharp, double-edged rapier; the short cut and thrust; the crooked scimitar, the sabre, and the broad-sword.^[897] These were generally of the finest steel, highly polished, and sometimes damaskened exactly like those blades afterwards manufactured at Damascus. The sheath was sometimes of ivory, sometimes of gold or silver or tin or other inferior metal.^[898] To the first-mentioned substance we have an allusion in a saying of Diogenes, who on hearing a handsome young man make use of low language, exclaimed: “How shameless! to draw forth a sword of lead from a sheath of ivory.”^[899] The hilts were often extremely superb, of costly materials, and wrought in the most fanciful shapes. We read, for example, of sword-handles studded or inlaid with gold, or even composed entirely of that metal, or of silver.^[900] Ivory too, and amber,^[901] and terebinth,^[902] polished and black as ebony, and a variety of other woods and substances, stained black with nut-gall,^[903] were employed for this purpose. The father of Demosthenes, who kept a large manufactory of arms, left behind him a considerable quantity of ivory and gall-nuts^[904] which he had purchased as well for his own use as to supply other armourers in a smaller way. Of daggers there were various kinds, some of a larger size, worn suspended on the thigh with the sword, as the hunting knife was by the Persian youth; others much smaller, which seem to have been carried about concealed under the armpit, as is still the fashion in the East. To this practice Socrates alludes in his conversation with Polos of Agrigentum,^[905] on the power possessed in states by tyrants, whom he compares 160to one who should go forth into the marketplace with an enchiridion concealed about him, and for that reason fancy it in his power to take away every man’s life, because he could undoubtedly kill any one he pleased.

Next in importance perhaps was the manufacture of javelins and spears.^[906] Of the former, the heads,^[907] light though sometimes broad, were mounted on slender ashen shafts shod with iron, or on the long Cretan reed^[908] which abounded in the marshes about Haliartos in Bœotia. These javelins, in more modern times, were furnished with a looped thong, by which when the darter had missed his aim, they could be drawn back.^[909] The best kind were supposed to be manufactured in Bœotia. Spear-shafts were likewise sometimes of ash,^[910] but more frequently of cornel wood,^[911] and occasionally, as in the case of the Macedonian sarissa, eighteen feet long. Like the javelin, the spear also was shod sharp with iron, in order the more easily to be fixed upright in the earth, when soldiers slept abroad in the fields.^[912] This part of the iron-work, which was hollow and received the shaft into it, is said to have been shaped like a lizard, doubtless represented as holding the point of the handle in its mouth. Projections resembling legs extended on both sides, designed to prevent the spear from sinking too deep into the ground. In the lances of the cavalry there was, as some suppose, a small notch to receive the point of the horseman’s foot when mounting his steed. The spear-head, generally of iron or steel, was among the Arab allies of Xerxes formed of goat’s horn, fashioned like the iron of a lance.^[913]

161The bows^[914] of the ancients were most commonly composed of horn, tipped with gold or other metal at either end. Among the barbarous nations there were those who manufactured them of cane or palm-branches, or even of the long stem of the date.^[915] The bowstring was of thong or horse-hair. Reeds generally constituted the shafts of their arrows,^[916] which were headed with iron or copper, or hard pointed stones, as those of the Arabs in the army of Xerxes, who employed for this purpose the same stones wherewith they engraved their seals.^[917] Arrows were frequently winged with eagles’ feathers, and tinged at the point with poison.^[918] In sieges they were often armed with fire.^[919]

Besides the above, there were several other implements of destruction. The Greeks made use of the club, the battle-axe, and the sling.^[920] And a tribe of barbarians, once mentioned in history, depended entirely on their daggers, and a noosed rope of twisted thongs,^[921] which they used for entangling and overthrowing man or horse, much in the same 162manner as the lasso is now employed in the Pampas of South America.

If we turn now to their armour, we shall find that they displayed in its manufacture the greatest possible skill, taste, and ingenuity. Their helmets, cuirasses, shields, cuisses, and greaves, were made of polished steel, or brass, or tin, sometimes curiously figured, and inlaid with metals of many different colours, and polished to an exceeding brightness,^[922] sometimes adorned with representations in relief. Frequently they went cased in shirts of mail, composed of innumerable small metallic plates, lapping over each other so as to resemble the scales of fishes. Occasionally the opulent appeared on the field of battle in golden armour,^[923] though this piece of ostentation was chiefly confined to the barbarians.^[924] The armourers’ craft, however, seems to have gone on improving in proportion as the courage of the nation deteriorated, until at length, in Macedonian times, armour of enormous weight, and, literally, impenetrable, came into use. Thus Zoilos manufactured for Demetrios Poliorcetes two coats-of-mail,^[925] of a steel so hard, that the surface could scarcely be grazed by an arrow discharged from a catapult. The whole suit weighed no less than one hundred and thirty pounds, exactly twice as much as an ordinary suit of armour.

Helmets^[926] were manufactured of numerous materials. First, in the ruder ages, they were in reality nothing more than so many close skull-caps made of the skins^[927] of otters or water-dogs, with the hair on,^[928] 163or foxes, or weasels, or goats, or bulls, or lions. But as the arts of civilisation improved, metal casques were soon substituted for these primitive defences, some of which, of wrought steel, were highly polished, and shone like burnished silver. That of Alexander was manufactured by Theophilos.^[929] The helmet consisted of a variety of parts: as, first, the casque itself, inlaid with brass and iron,^[930] which enclosed and defended the head, the front brim projecting over the forehead; the vizor, which dropped over the whole face; the strap, often richly embroidered or studded with jewels,^[931] passing under the chin; and the ridge, or cone, on the summit, from which rose the plumes, or crest.^[932] This crest, double, treble, or even quadruple, according to the taste or fancy of the wearer, sometimes consisted of long drooping ostrich feathers,^[933] sometimes of horse-hair, either black or dyed of different colours, which, trembling and floating over the warrior’s head, appeared to augment his stature while it added to the terror of his aspect. King Pyrrhos, we are told, wore upon his helmet the horns of a goat, symbolical of the power of Macedon;^[934] and the Asiatic Thracians flanked their crests with the horns and ears of an ox in brass.^[935] To break the force of blows from clubs or heavy battle-axes, the crown of the helmet was thickly lined with sponge or soft wool.^[936] Mention is likewise made of helmets of plaited cord of wood and leather,^[937] and the skins of horses’ heads, retaining the ears and the mane.^[938]

In the manufacture of corslets and cuirasses^[939] much industry and ability was exhibited. The former were 164generally composed of linen or hempen twine curiously wrought, and doubled or trebled according to the desire of the purchaser,^[940] and worn chiefly in the chase;^[941] others consisted of thick leathern jerkins, covered with metallic scales,^[942] single, double, or treble, and fastened to each other by a series of hooks. In lieu of these plates was sometimes substituted a coating of intertwisted rings, resembling in some respects the chain armour of a later age. Wooden cuirasses were also sometimes worn.^[943] The Sarmatians^[944] possessing no iron, headed their darts and javelins with bone, and employed very extraordinary materials in the manufacture of their cuirasses. Collecting carefully all the hoofs of such horses as died, they cut them into laminæ, resembling in form the scales of a fish. These they sewed together with the nerves of horses or oxen, and thus produced a species of breastplate which for elegance and utility was scarcely inferior to those of the Greeks. In the manufacture of linen corslets^[945] the Egyptians displayed peculiar excellence, at least the description of one of them which history has preserved is calculated to create a very high idea of their ingenuity. It was curiously wrought, we are told, with fine bobbins, each composed of three hundred and sixty threads, distinctly visible, adorned with numerous figures of animals interwoven with cotton and gold.^[946] Among the Greeks this piece of armour was often richly embroidered by the ladies of the warrior’s family, whom, on more than one occasion, we find busy at this task on the eve of battle. The cuirasses of brass or steel were finely polished and buttoned under the arm. Even the horses were furnished with breastplates and frontlets,^[947] and occasionally their flanks also were protected by armour. The 165warrior’s greaves^[948] were manufactured of copper, brass, tin, or other metal, and fastened about the legs with silver buttons. Archers seem commonly to have worn a species of gloves or fingerlings.^[949]

The manufacture of shields^[950] underwent great fluctuations at different periods of Grecian history, and even in the same age there existed numerous and extraordinary differences in their materials, form, and structure. In early times they consisted simply of a piece of circular basket-work, plaited for the sake of lightness with vine-branches^[951] or willows; or were made of a solid piece of wood scooped into the proper form, and covered with one or more coats of leather. The wood usually preferred for this use was that of the elder, the beach, the poplar, and the fig; and the leather was generally tough bull-hide,^[952] with or without the hair, though we read of nations, as the Ethiopians, who made use for this purpose of the skins of cranes.^[953] The same people at the present day have discovered that the hide of the crocodile, dressed with the scales on, forms a better integument for their bucklers. Among the Homeric heroes the wooden framework was protected by many folds of leather, amounting sometimes to seven, to which were added plates of brass, silver, gold, or tin. Even when the face of the shield was composed of some inferior metal, the rim seems frequently to have been of gold.

In later times shields were usually manufactured of brass or steel, wrought and fashioned with the greatest care, and polished like a mirror. Occasionally, likewise, they were inlaid with purple, ivory, and gold,^[954] or painted white, or crusted with gold and silver, as among the Samnites.^[955] From the remotest 166antiquity, moreover, it was customary to paint upon shields a number of devices, each warrior selecting one for himself,^[956] which, like the armorial bearings of the knights of chivalry, distinguished him from his comrades in battle. Thus Perseus chose the head of the Gorgon Medusa;^[957] Tydeus the aspect of the face of the mighty heavens, including the full moon, surrounded by flaming stars;^[958] Eteocles bore before him the figure of a warrior scaling a lofty tower, while Hippomedon selected, as the emblem of his character, the figure of Typhœos breathing forth fire and smoke. Every reader will remember the varied imagery that crowded the shield of the Homeric Achilles, together with the scenes which Hesiod, in imitation, depicts on the buckler of Heracles. In the historical period^[959] the people of Sicyon had a sigma, the initial letter in the name of their capital, painted on their shields.^[960] These ornaments, as well as the handles, it is said, owed their origin to the invention of the Carians. The form of the shield exhibited much variety. One kind, for example, was small and circular,^[961] another oblong or parallelogrammatic, and of dimensions so large as to cover the whole body, and allow the fallen warrior to be borne home on it as upon a bier; others were rhomboidal,^[962] or semilunar, or shaped like an ivy-leaf. But whatever may have been their figure, there always projected from the centre of the external face a large boss, with a smaller one, generally pointed, on the middle of it. This the soldiers dashed in the countenances of the enemy. Within, 167two bars, stretching from rim to rim, and crossing each other like the letter X, gave the warrior, who passed his left arm behind them, greater power over his defence, while a smaller handle, on the fore part of the shield, received his grasp.^[963] Occasionally, the place of these bars was supplied by metallic or wooden handles, exactly of a size to receive the arm; and, by means of a leathern strap, the buckler, when marching, was usually suspended on the shoulder.^[964] In time of peace both the shield and the helmet were laid up, each in its appropriate case.^[965] Besides the manufacturers of arms, who supplied states with large orders, there were numerous armourers on a smaller scale,^[966] whose shops exhibited a rich and varied assortment of shields, helmets, and every kind of weapon.

The metals employed in the fabrication of arms were obtained partly from mines found in Greece itself, partly by commerce from the surrounding countries.^[967] On the methods of mining which prevailed among the Greeks our information is peculiarly scanty. We know, however, that, at Laurion,^[968] the Athenians made use of both shafts and adits, and that in chambering they employed much timber.^[969] To prevent the falling in of the superincumbent mountain there were left at intervals vast pillars,^[970] the cutting away of which was by law prohibited on pain of death. In the potter’s-clay mines 168of Samos, where the veins, running generally between beds of rock, were exceedingly shallow, seldom exceeding two feet in depth, the miners, as in the thin veins of our own coal mines, were compelled while at work to lie on their back or sides, which, it may be presumed, was the practice in other mines under similar circumstances. Whether they possessed any means of protecting themselves against the fire-damps or malaria,^[971] which, we know, prevailed greatly at Laurion,^[972] is a matter of much uncertainty. In Spain, the mines ran deep into the earth, and were of prodigious extent, having transverse passages and caverns of great dimensions and elevation.

In an old shaft discovered in the mountains of Santo Spirito,^[973] the sides were supported by masonry; large pools of water were found in some of the chambers, while the explorers could hear afar off the incessant roar of waterfalls. Here and there the passages were nearly blocked up by masses of gold and silver ore.^[974]

How the water was drained off, or the ore brought to the surface of the earth, no ancient author has explained. When extracted, however, it was pounded in a stone mortar with an iron pestle, then passed through a sieve, and transferred to the smelting furnace.^[975]

The account transmitted to us of the gold mines of Egypt may probably throw some light on the practice which prevailed among the Greeks. In them we find an almost exact type of the degrading toil and disregard of danger and decency recently brought to light among our own subterranean 169population. There, indeed, the workmen were forced to their task by the direct compulsion of a tyrannical government; while in Great Britain the constraint is enveloped by a cloud of circumstances which conceal, though they scarcely soften, the stern laws of necessity.

The Egyptian gold mines were situated in the great eastern desert, on the shores of the Red Sea. They had been worked from the remotest antiquity; in proof of which it is related, that copper pickaxes were frequently found in the deserted shafts and galleries, beside incredible heaps of human bones, relics of the multitudes who had perished there by malaria, or fire-damps, or the falling of rocks, or more probably from the incessant oppression to which they were subjected.^[976] In fact the benevolent historian,^[977] to whom we are indebted for nearly all we know on this curious subject, felt so strongly for the sufferings of these wretched artificers of Egyptian grandeur, that he pronounced death in their case to be more desirable than life.^[978] But the most miserable possess resources and springs of gratification unknown to philosophers and the professors of literature; and, we may be sure, that even those outcasts who brought up gold from the bowels of the earth to adorn the thrones and palaces of the Pharaohs, knew how to extract from their bitter employment some few sweets of sufficient efficacy to render life endurable.

No doubt the processes of those early times were sufficiently rude. When about to open a new shaft 170or adit the Inspectors of the mines appear carefully to have examined the different faces of the mountain, sombre, scarped, and barren to the last degree; and having fixed upon a spot in the face of some cliff, the first operation was to render the rock friable by the application of powerful fires, which were kindled with wood at its base. The more robust of the workmen then proceeded with their pickaxes to the excavation of the galleries, which seldom or never proceeded in a right line; but following the direction of the metallic veins, mounted, descended, branched off obliquely to the left or to the right; and progressing in this manner, sometimes perforated the whole bulk of the mountain, and striking downwards, like the roots of trees, extended even to the sea.^[979] The men employed in getting the ore, followed incessantly by task-masters with instruments of chastisement in their hands, were seldom permitted to proportion their exertions to their strength; but often toiled on apparently till they dropped, when their bones joined the heaps of those who had fallen before them. While thus engaged, more especially when united in great numbers they had clambered the rocks to a considerable height, they presented an extraordinary spectacle; for each miner^[980] carried a lamp bound to his forehead, though how, when they bent or kneeled, or worked sideways, it 171escaped being extinguished seems difficult of explanation.

The laborious operation of collecting and hurrying the ore was performed by boys of tender age, who deposited it beyond the mouth of the shaft. Another class of workmen, consisting chiefly of the aged and the infirm, now bore the metalliferous stones to that part of the works where the founders were stationed. These were powerful and robust men in the flower of their age, who, with large stone mortars and iron pestles, reduced, under the eye of rigid Inspectors, the ore to small fragments not exceeding a vetch in size.^[981] This done, it was transferred to the mills which were turned by women, the wives and daughters of the miners, who, with the exception of a slender covering about the waist, were entirely naked, misery in all times and places rendering people contemptuous of appearances and indifferent to morality.^[982] These mills, heavy no doubt and difficult to work, were turned by six women, three on either side. They would appear, however, to have answered well the purpose for which they were designed, since the ore, we are told, was reduced by them to the fineness of flour; after which it was handed over to the Selangeus, the last link in that long chain of operators which connected the mine with the smelting furnace. The business of the Selangeus consisted in separating the metal from the matrix in which it had been produced. For this purpose, the auriferous dust was cast in a heap upon a broad polished board slightly inclined,^[983] and there washed and triturated until the greater part of the terrene particles had been, by soft sponges 172and water, separated from the gold, which was next put into earthen vessels with small quantities of lead, tin, salt, and barley-bran, and placed in the smelting furnace, where it was subjected, for five days and nights, to the flames. This done, the virgin gold came forth glittering and pure as if it had not been wrung from human agony or sullied by human tears.

In the smelting furnaces of Greece, notwithstanding the doubts of Reitemeier, which Bœckh is contented to combat with mere inferences,^[984] it is quite certain that charcoal was used,^[985]—in the first smelting, that of the aria, the arbutus, and the oak, of which the last was least esteemed; and in the second, that of the pitch-pine. In the iron mines the charcoal of the Eubœan walnut-tree was preferred for second smelting.

This leads us to speak of the preparation of charcoal, which was effected in the following manner:—having excavated a circular cavity in the earth, they pitched or paved it at bottom, and piling up to a great height the billets of wood, which were selected for their straightness in order that they might lie as close as possible, covered over the whole with earth and turf, so as to form a circular mound, like a barrow. The heap was then set on fire, and the covering pierced on all sides with spits, to provide a vent for the smoke. The fire having been kept burning for the proper time, which is not stated, the charcoal was removed and laid by for use.^[986] Extensive works of this kind were established at the borough of Acharnè, in Attica, which was supplied 173with wood, chiefly the scarlet oak, from the forests on Mount Parnes.^[987]

Much stress was laid by Hellenic artificers on the materials from which the charcoal was manufactured: thus smiths, braziers, and other handicraftsmen preferred that of the pitch-pine to what was made from the oak, because it exhibited a greater tractability to the bellows, keeping up a more enduring flame, and being less liable to sudden extinction, though inferior in force. Generally, in fact, all dry woods furnish a brisker and a brighter flame. Twigs and small branches, as the Greek philosophers had observed, yield, while burning, the fiercest heat; but it was supposed that they were too deficient in body to be profitably converted into charcoal. In France, however, and other parts of the Continent, we find twigs no bigger than goose-quills used for this purpose. Some kinds of wood, it was observed, produce in burning a far greater quantity of smoke than others.^[988] Of these are all such as delight in humid situations, as the platane and the willow, with the black and white poplar. The vine,^[989] too, while moist, stands in the same category, though it yield the palm to the date-palm, which enjoyed among the ancients the reputation of being the smokiest tree that grows.^[990] In sharpness, however, the smoke of the fig-tree was supposed to excel, together with that of the wild fig-tree,^[991] and generally all such natives of the forest as abound in a milky juice. Nevertheless, having been barked, steeped in running-water, and dried again,^[992] these same kinds of wood were freer than all others from 174smoke, and yielded the softest and purest flame.^[993] The same thing is remarked of wood which had been washed with the lees of oil.^[994]

In Egypt, where charcoal is at present procured chiefly from the wood of the acacia, and supplied in most cases from the Desert, it was anciently prepared, especially for the use of smiths, from the long, tough, triangular roots of the sari,^[995] (Cyperus fastigiatus,) which resembled those of the papyrus, likewise burnt for fuel.^[996] The smiths of Hellas,^[997] however, were not reduced to depend entirely upon charcoal, since both in Liguria and Elis, on the road, it has been conjectured, leading over Mount Pholoë to Olympia,^[998] pits had been opened whence the forges were supplied with fossil coal.

We may here observe, by the way, that the ancients, instead of flint and steel, or lucifer matches, made use, in kindling a fire, of a curious apparatus 175still employed in the East:^[999] it consisted of two parts, the one hollowed out like a diminutive mortar, the other resembling a pestle, which was inserted into it, and turned round with extreme velocity until sparks were produced. This necessary piece of furniture^[1000] was most commonly manufactured of ivy, or laurel, or clematis, and was something of the rhamnus ilex, or linden-tree; in short, of nearly all trees, except the olive. Generally, however, it was thought best to make the two parts of the instrument of different kinds of wood. It was observed that, with these contrivances, fire kindled more readily during the prevalence of the north than the south wind, and on high places than in hollows. At Rome the vestal virgins originated the sacred fire by means of a kind of mirror, and the power of burning-glasses was not unknown.^[1001] Nay, things resembling our lucifer matches were possessed by certain jugglers, though they do not appear to have passed into general use, either because the inventors refused to divulge their secret, or from the natural slowness of mankind to profit by useful discoveries.^[1002]

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Another flourishing branch of industry was that of quarrying stones for building, carried on wherever marble, or freestone, or tufa, or granite, was found.^[1003] The stones were usually fashioned by the axe, or saw,^[1004] in the quarry, and drawn thence by ropes. In many cases, however, as where cheapness or despatch was aimed at, bricks were substituted,^[1005] made, in addition to the materials at present employed, from powdered tufa.^[1006]

In the preparation of mortar and cement the Greeks exhibited extraordinary ingenuity.^[1007] They made use, in the first place, of lime procured by burning coarse marble in the ordinary way, or, secondly, 177obtained from sea-shells, or stones picked up on the banks of rivers. A superior kind of cement was made from those stones used in the manufacture of gypsum, which was so firm and durable, that it was frequently found to outlast the materials which it had been employed to unite. It was prepared by being reduced to powder, and mixed with water, and afterwards well stirred with a piece of wood, since it was too hot to admit of the hands being used. When removed from old walls it might be burnt and prepared a second and a third time, as originally from the stone.^[1008] This, in Syria and Phœnicia, was used in facing the walls of houses, and in Italy for whitening them, as well as in the making of various mouldings and ornaments within.^[1009]

Frequently, also, it appears to have been employed like plaster of Paris in the casting of statues, as was that composed of powdered marble, in repairing such as by accident had been broken. An example of this was observed in the cheek of a sphynx dug up in the island of Capri.^[1010] Instead of water, however, a tough glue, composed of the hides and horns of bulls, was employed in mixing it.^[1011]

In the roofing of houses pantiles were commonly made use of;^[1012] instead of which, as they were fragile and easily broken by hailstones, tiles of Pentelic marble, invented by Byzes of Naxos,^[1013] were 178often substituted in the case of temples, as that for example of Zeus at Olympia. It is mentioned incidentally by Dioscorides, that physicians used to reduce acacia-wood to powder by burning it in the tile-kilns.^[1014]

Respecting the business of house-painters our information is exceedingly scanty; we may infer, however, that they excelled in the imitation of woods and marbles, since they were employed in imitating on the polished surface of one stone the veins and colours characteristic of another.^[1015] Some persons covered the walls of their apartments with historical subjects,^[1016] or landscapes, or the figures of animals in fresco.^[1017] In later ages ceilings were painted, or inlaid with coloured stones,^[1018] or abaculi, so as to imitate the feathers and hues of a peacock’s tail.^[1019]

Timber for house-building,^[1020] the choice of which was regulated by law,^[1021] abounded in most parts of Greece, though the best and straightest was obtained 179from Macedonia and Arcadia,^[1022] particularly from a hollow valley near a place called Cranè, never visited by the sun, and fenced round by rocks on all sides from the winds.^[1023] Very particular rules were laid down respecting the time and manner of felling trees;^[1024] first, wood cut in spring was most easily barked; second, if this operation was neglected it bred worms, which furrowed its whole surface like written characters; third, such as was cut when the moon was below the horizon was thought harder and less liable to decay.^[1025] It may here, perhaps, be worth observing, that stones and other substances were often found grown into the trunks of wild olive-trees. This was particularly the case with that which grew in the market-place of Megara. The oracle had foretold, that when this tree should be cut down the city would be sacked and destroyed, which was brought to pass by Demetrius. On this occasion the tree being felled and sawed into planks, greaves and other articles of Athenian workmanship were found in the heart of it.^[1026] Fragments of the timber remained in the time of Theophrastus.

In cutting hard wood carpenters made use of a blunt axe,^[1027] which thus became sharper, while soft wood produced the contrary effect.^[1028] It was customary before timber was committed to the saw to soak it for some time in water;^[1029] and it is said to 180have been rendered incombustible by a solution of alum and certain kinds of vinegar.^[1030] The tools of the Greek carpenter as near as possible resembled our own; they had the saws small and great, the plane, the axe, the chisel, the square, the gimlet, the augur,^[1031] the compass,^[1032] and, in short, whatever else could be useful in their trade. Among the paintings of Herculaneum^[1033] we find the representation of a carpenter’s workshop, where two winged genii are busily employed with the mallet and the saw. In making lines, &c., they used the ruddle now employed.^[1034]

Among the kinds of timber in most general use was the silver fir, thought to be extremely durable, in illustration of which Theophrastus relates the following circumstance: it happened at Pheneos, in Arcadia,^[1035] that, owing to the obstruction of the torrent-beds, the plain was converted into a lake. To traverse this they constructed bridges of fir, and when the flood rose still higher, bridge upon bridge was erected in succession. Afterwards when the waters had worked themselves a passage and ebbed off, the whole of the wood of these bridges was found in the completest preservation.^[1036] The other kinds of timber were the elm, used for doors, hinges, and weasel traps;^[1037] the cypress,^[1038] cedar, and juniper for wainscoting, beams, and paneled ceilings; the Arcadian, and the Idæan yew,^[1039] which latter was sometimes fraudulently substituted for cedar; the Eubœan walnut, and the beech, which, not being 181subject to the rot, were resorted to for piles and substructions.^[1040] The former of these trees, which grew to an extraordinary size, was likewise applied to the roofing of houses, chiefly because, by a loud crackling noise, it gave notice when it was about to break, and thus afforded the inmates leisure to effect their escape. This happened at the public baths of Antandros, where the company foreseeing from this warning sound the catastrophe that was approaching, rushed forth into the streets, and thus avoided being overwhelmed beneath the ruins.^[1041]

The box, the ilex, and the lotos, they employed for door-pivots, which were seasoned by being immersed in cow-dung.^[1042]

Cart and wheel wrights,^[1043] necessarily pretty numerous, made use in their trade of the following kinds of wood,—the scarlet oak,^[1044] in countries not abounding with ilex, as Laconia and Elis, for carts, ploughs, and other rustic implements; the oxya, the fir, and the elm, for chariot-bodies;^[1045] the ilex, the box, the ash, and the mast-bearing beech, for axletrees. The wood of all glutinous trees is naturally flexible, but more especially that of the mulberry and the wild fig, for which reason these, together with the platane, and the poplar, were used for making the bended rims of chariot-seats, and the circles of wheels.^[1046] For spokes, the wood of the cornel tree was preferred, and that of the box, the yew, the maple, and the carpinus—hedge-beech, or hornbeam—for the yokes of oxen. In old times the bodies of carts were often formed of basket-work. It may be remarked by the way, that the Greeks understood the use of the drag-wheel.^[1047]

182It has long been made a question among the learned^[1048] whether the ancients were or were not acquainted with the saddle, properly so called. It may now be determined in the affirmative, since, besides the several testimonies of classical writers, which are much too clear to be set aside, we find in several Herculanean pictures exact representations of saddles, both on horses and asses, with girths and cruppers exactly as in modern times.^[1049] It is evident, too, that they are constructed upon wooden frames, to which Herodotus may possibly allude where he speaks of saddles made of tanned human skins.^[1050] Packsaddles for sumpter-asses are of constant occurrence in history; and that they were tolerably thick may be inferred from the fact, that numbers of daggers were concealed in them by Aratos in his attempt upon Argos.^[1051] I shall here mention, also, by the way, and without entering into any discussion, that horses and asses were occasionally shod by the ancients,^[1052] though the practice was doubtless not universal.

The trade of the cooper^[1053] was in less general request than in modern times; his principal employment being the making of tubs, with flour and water-casks; their wine having been chiefly preserved in jars.^[1054] Latterly, however, small kegs got into use, as well probably as larger casks even for wine. Pump-makers, together with the pump itself,^[1055] came in late, and of fire-engines they possessed barely the first rudiments.^[1056]

In speaking elsewhere of the household furniture of the Greeks we necessarily anticipated much of what was to be said respecting cabinet-makers and 183upholsterers. Some few particulars, however, omitted in that place, shall be here introduced. With respect to the price of furniture at Athens,^[1057] it seems much better to be silent than by a few imperfect conjectures to confine the mind of the reader. We know absolutely nothing of the matter.

Among the Egyptians, the roots of the Persea,^[1058] a beautiful fruit-tree, said to have been poisonous in Persia,^[1059] furnished the materials not only of statues but of bedsteads and tables, which were of a rich dark colour and received a fine polish.^[1060] There was likewise, in Syria, a species of wood the blackness of which was interveined with ruddy streaks, so that it looked like variegated ebony. From this were manufactured bedsteads, chairs, and other expensive articles of furniture.^[1061] The maple-tree grows both on plains and mountains. In the latter situation its wood is of a pleasant reddish colour, finely veined and solid,^[1062] on which account it was much used in superior cabinet-work. The zygian maple, in general beautifully clouded, was so hard, that it required to be steeped in water before it could be wrought.^[1063] Of all woods the ancients considered that of the 184cypress^[1064] the most durable, and it is related in confirmation of this opinion, that the doors of the temple of Artemis at Ephesos, which were made of it, had already lasted four centuries in the time of Theophrastus.^[1065] It took the finest polish, and was therefore employed in costly cabinet-work. The wood of the tree called thuia (a species perhaps of wild cypress), abounding in Cyrenè, and the Oasis of Jupiter Ammon,^[1066] was thought to be incorruptible; and from its roots, which were beautifully clouded, the most delicate articles of furniture were manufactured. Next to these the wood of the mulberry-tree was preferred, which exhibited a dusky grain like that of the lotos.^[1067] Expensive bedsteads were sometimes made of oxya and citron-wood, the feet of which, among the Persians, were often turned from the wood of the doom-palm,^[1068] as they were formed among the Greeks from amber.^[1069] Statues,^[1070] which ought in truth to be regarded as articles of furniture, were carved from cedar, cypress,^[1071] lotos, box, and of a smaller size from the roots of olive-trees, because they did not crack.^[1072] Besides these which were perhaps the more common, we find mention in ancient writers of images of ebony, oak, yew, maple, beech, palm,^[1073] myrtle, pear, linden, and vine, to which may be added the fig-tree which was frequently preferred on account of its soft texture, 185lightness, shining whiteness, and close-grain. Occasionally statues of horses were carved of ebony and ivory. As during the prevalence of certain winds several of these kinds of woods were liable to sweat,^[1074] the vulgar, who understood nothing of the cause, regarded the circumstance as a prodigy.^[1075]

From the knotted wood of the fir-tree, tablets for painting or writing on were made, the inferior kinds of which were very common; but there was a superior and very beautiful sort used only by the opulent.^[1076]

Another piece of furniture in all Greek houses was the chest or coffer^[1077] in which money and plate, or costly garments, were deposited. Articles of this description were frequently manufactured of the finest and most aromatic woods, as cedar for example, and adorned on all sides, as well as on the cover, with numerous figures in relief, sometimes in gold or ivory, as in the case of the celebrated coffer of Cypselos preserved in the treasury at Olympia.^[1078] Generally, however, they were made of humbler materials; sometimes veneered with thin planks of yew, which took a high polish. Persons of inferior means substituted for these, mallequins of fine basket-work, or plaited from the bark of cherry or linden-tree.^[1079] We may here remark by the way, that bread-baskets were manufactured from willows and the twigs of chestnut-trees,^[1080] cleanly peeled, 186and that in Egypt articles of this description were generally woven or plaited from the leaves of the date and doom-palm, and probably variegated in colour as they are at present. At the court, however, bread-baskets were at one period of gold, but fashioned so as to resemble the rush-baskets in use among the earlier Greeks.^[1081]

Lanterns, too, in the first instance, were of basketwork,^[1082] though afterwards manufactured, as in modern times, with thin plates of horn or ivory.^[1083]

In some parts of Greece when individuals, not possessing costly furniture, desired to give a grand entertainment, they hired whatever articles they stood in need of, as seats, beds, vases, &c., of a broker, whose business, in the island of Samos, was once carried on by the tyrant Polycrates.^[1084]

As ivory entered largely into the making of furniture among the ancients,^[1085] the reader will not regret to find here an explanation of the means by which it was rendered soft and tractable. This secret appears hitherto to have escaped the modern writers on Art. Monsieur Dutens^[1086] and the Milanese editors of Winkelmann^[1087] observe, that the ancients possessed the art of softening ivory without, however, giving any intimation that they understood in what the secret consisted. But the whole matter was extremely simple, since they merely steeped the piece of ivory about to be worked in a fermented liquor, called zythos,^[1088] prepared from barley, and drank commonly, 187with or without a mixture of honey, by all persons in Gaul. Many of these ivory ornaments were produced by the turning-lathe. They turned also from the knots of the Arcadian fir large bowls of a shining black colour.^[1089] There was even a kind of stone which, being soft when drawn from the quarry, was turned and cut into bowls, plates, and other articles for the table, which were susceptible of a high polish, and became hard by constant exposure to the air.^[1090]

It was, probably, to the turner’s art that the Greeks owed many of those straight and elegant kinds of walkingsticks,^[1091] particularly affected by the opulent, and called Persian, doubtless because the use of them came originally from Asia. Others preferred the Laconian scytale,^[1092] fashioned usually from a piece of whitethorn, and philosophers, sticks of olive-wood.^[1093] Rustics then, as now, were in the habit of carrying twisted and uncouth walkingstaves, bent sometimes atop, and of heavy materials. The straight light stem of the malachè,^[1094] and birch, and elder,^[1095] were likewise in use; while some carried sticks made from the agnus castus or the laurel, which were believed to possess the virtue of preserving those who bore them from accident or injury.^[1096] The making of umbrellas or parasols, which opened and closed like 188our own,^[1097] no doubt constituted a separate branch of industry. These articles, it may be observed, were manufactured with great elegance, with handles gracefully ornamented, and furnished at the periphery^[1098] with numerous elongated drops. It was, probably, the same tradesmen in whose shops were found those folding-seats, or camp-stools, invented by Dædalos, the use of which seems to have been very common at Athens.^[1099]

Respecting the manufacture of musical instruments, we have but a few particulars to communicate, though it formed a profitable branch of industry in every part of Greece. Musical instruments were divided by the ancients into three kinds:^[1100] those which were played by means of the breath,—the pipe, the trumpet, and the flute; those whose harmony resided in their strings, as the lyre and the cithara; and those which produced sound by beating or clashing against each other, as cymbals and the drum. The best trumpets, supposed to have been an invention of the Tyrrhenians,^[1101] were obtained from Italy, though on many occasions great sea-shells were substituted for those larger instruments. In the East, trumpets were 189sometimes manufactured of cow-hide, though the usual materials were brass and iron, with a little bone for the mouth-piece.^[1102] There were two kinds,—the straight and the crooked.

Of the pipe of barley-straw,^[1103] invented by Osiris, nothing need be said except, that its use and manufacture formed the amusement of shepherds. The fashioning of the common pipe constituted an important branch of industry, particularly in Bœotia, where the reed^[1104] from which it was made abounded in the Orchomenian marshes,^[1105] between the Cephisos and the Melas, in the place called Pelecania.^[1106] The season for cutting, which prevailed up to the age of Antigones, was the month Boedromion; but, for the improvement of the instrument, that musician altered the time, which thenceforward was in the months Scirophorion and Hecatombion.^[1107] The reeds were prepared in the following manner: being cut, they were piled in a heap with their leaves on, and left in the open air during the whole winter. Having in spring been cleared of their outer integuments, well rubbed and exposed to the sun, they were, during the summer, cut into lengths at the knots, and left a little longer in the open air.^[1108] The 190internodial spaces did not fall short of two palms in length, and the best portions of the reed used for making the double pipe^[1109] was about the middle.^[1110] Pipes and flutes^[1111] were likewise manufactured of the leg-bones of stags, at least in Bœotia. The lotos-wood^[1112] transverse flute was an invention of the Africans. The elymœan flute made of boxwood owed its origin to the Phrygians, and was played during the worship of Cybelè. That called hippophorbos was invented by the last dwellers of Libya, who habitually played on it while pasturing their great droves of horses in the desert.^[1113] It appears to have been a very simple instrument, fashioned of a piece of laurel-wood, by removing the bark and scooping out the pith. Its sharp shrill sound which could be heard far and near, delighted the ears of the horses, who probably, like the Turks, estimate the merit of music by its loudness. The monaulos, a favourite invention of the Egyptians, spoken of by Sophocles in his Thamyris, was usually played in marriage concerts.^[1114] The lugubrious funeral-pipe of the Carians was a Phrygian invention. There existed among the Thebans a curious instrument of this kind, probably used in hunting, made from the bones of fawns, with a coating of bronze.^[1115] The Tyrrhenians, like the rude sportsmen of Europe, drew music from the horn. Among the Phœnicians was a small flute made of goose-bones, not exceeding a span in length, called gingras^[1116] in honour of Adonis, so named in their language, which emitting a plaintive and melancholy note, was doubtless 191much used in the wailing orgies of that divinity. Its character being exceedingly simple, it was habitually put into the hands of beginners,^[1117] and seems to have been very common at Athens. The most extraordinary pipes, however, enumerated by ancient writers, were the ones in which those Scythian tribes denominated by the Greeks, Cannibals, Black Cloaks, and Arimaspians, delighted; and manufactured from the leg-bones of eagles and vultures.^[1118] The Celts and the islanders of the ocean, our own forefathers, doubtless eschewed the music of vultures’ legs, and contented themselves with the notes of the syrinx.^[1119]

In earlier times there was a flute appropriated to each mode, or grand division of the national music, but afterwards Pronomos of Thebes,^[1120] invented one equally well suited to every mode. Even the manufacture of mouth-pieces, and flute-cases formed a considerable branch of industry. The materials from which the above instruments were chiefly made, were, in addition to those already mentioned, branches of the elder tree and dwarf laurel, bones of asses and kids, ivory and silver.^[1121] Organs, and hydraulic organs, the latter invented by the Alexandrian barber Ctesibios, to whom antiquity was likewise indebted for the knowledge of the pump, were reckoned by the ancients among wind-instruments.^[1122]

Of stringed-instruments the most common was the lyre,^[1123] manufactured from many kinds of fine wood, and sometimes of ivory.^[1124] The bridge was usually of ilex.^[1125] The cithara,^[1126] introduced at Athens by Phrynis,^[1127] was made sometimes of horn with wooden 192pegs,^[1128] though mention occurs of one formed entirely of solid gold, adorned with figures in relief of the Muses, Orpheus, and Apollo, and thickly studded with emeralds and other precious stones.^[1129] The magadis,^[1130] sometimes reckoned among wind-instruments, was unquestionably stringed, since we find Timotheus, accused at Sparta of innovating in the number of its chords, pointing out to his accuser an ancient statue of Apollo, in which the god was represented playing on a magadis with an equal number.^[1131] In proof of its antiquity it may be remarked, that Lesbothemis, a sculptor, who flourished in a remote age at Mytilene, where this instrument was always in high favour,^[1132] represented one of the Muses with the magadis in her hand. The pectis, said to have been an invention of Sappho, and by some confounded with the magadis, ought rather perhaps to be regarded as a modification of that instrument.^[1133] The epigoneion, so called from its inventor Epigonos, by birth an Ambraciot, though afterwards made a citizen of Sicyon, was a kind of harp with forty strings, resembling, probably, those many-chorded instruments represented on the monuments of Egypt and Ethiopia. This Epigonos, is said to have been the first person who in playing dispensed with the use of the plectron.^[1134] The ancient Arabs forestalled Signor Paganini, and drew a world of sweet sounds from an instrument of one chord:^[1135] the Assyrians had their pandoura, with three strings.^[1136] Among the Scythians was found the pentachordon, stringed with thongs of raw bull-hide, and played on by a plectron of goat’s hoof. The Libyans, more especially the Troglodytes, filled their caverns with the 193music of the psithura, otherwise called the ascaron, an instrument a cubit square, which produced sounds resembling the tinkling of castanets. Cantharos attributes its invention to the Thracians. To these we may add the drum, the tambourine,^[1137] with cymbals, and castanets, sometimes of brass, and sometimes of shells, played on by women in honour of Artemis.

The business of the potter^[1138] was held in considerable estimation among the Greeks, so that several celebrated cities rivalled each other in their productions. Among these, Athens,^[1139] Samos, and Rhodes held the first rank.^[1140] Even the Bœotian Aulis obtained some degree of reputation for its earthenware.^[1141] But that made at Kolias,^[1142] in Attica, from the clay there found, and richly painted with figures in minium, appears to have been the most beautiful known to antiquity.

The number of rough articles produced was prodigious, seeing that oil, and wine, and salt-fish, and pickles, and a variety of other commodities were exported in jars; while almost all culinary operations were carried on in earthern vessels. Such of these as found their way to Egypt, after the conquest of that country by the Persians, were filled with Nile water, and transported into the desert, on camels, to slake the thirst of the wayfarers on that arid waste.^[1143] Perhaps, the largest articles of 194earthenware, however, were the corn-jars, some of which are said to have contained nearly a quarter of grain, in lieu of which plaited corbels were sometimes used.^[1144] Much art and elegance was displayed in the forms, varnishing, and painting of fictile vases, some of which, of light and graceful contour, were made without bottoms, wholly for ornament.^[1145] The colours employed in the painting of vases, more particularly those intended to hold the ashes of the dead, were generally light and durable; and the ease and beauty of the figures prove that the ancient potters paid great attention to the arts of design. The ornaments were extremely various, sometimes consisting of representations of the gods, as Heracles, Pan, or the genii, sometimes of oakleaves, garlands, or festoons, arranged with taste and elegance.^[1146] Athenæus speaks of a kind of porcelain called Rhossican,^[1147] covered with the forms of flowers, upon which Cleopatra expended five minæ per day. Another branch of the potter’s business consisted in the manufacturing of lamps,^[1148] which were so generally in use, that, throughout the Greek and the Roman world, the sites of cities, the ruins of temples, and the sepulchral chambers excavated beneath the earth, lavishly abound with them, entire or in fragments.^[1149] Hyperbolos is said to have amassed a considerable fortune by selling lamps of an inferior quality.^[1150] Wax-candles, however, were likewise in use, at least in 195later ages,^[1151] and with the same materials they fashioned artificial pomegranates and other ornaments, together with small portable images of animals, men, and gods, which, like our figures of plaster of Paris, were sold, as well as those of clay, about the streets. Some notion, too, may be formed of the price, since we find that a figure of Eros fetched a drachma.^[1152]

The manufacture of glass^[1153] was carried to a very high degree of perfection among the ancients.^[1154] They understood the methods of blowing, cutting, and engraving on it; could stain it of every rich and brilliant colour so as to imitate the most precious gems,^[1155] from the ruby and the amethyst to the turquoise and the beryl; they could fashion it into jars, and bowls, and vases, exhibiting all the various hues of the peacock’s train, which, like shot-silks and the breast of the dove, exhibited fresh tints in every different light,—fading, quivering, and melting into each other as the eye changed its point of view.^[1156] 196Squares of glass were produced, perfectly polished and transparent without, but containing figures of various colours in their interior.^[1157] Glass, likewise, was wrought into bassi and alti rilievi, and cast, as gems were cut, into cameos.^[1158] The manufacturers of Alexandria excelled in the working of glass,^[1159] with which they skilfully imitated all kinds of earthenware, fabricating cups of every known form.

It is added, moreover, that a certain kind of earth was found in Egypt, without which the best kind of coloured glass^[1160] could not be produced. Petronius informs us, that, in the reign of Tiberius, a skilful experimentalist discovered the art of rendering this substance malleable, but that the emperor, from some freak of tyranny, put the man to death, and thus his secret was lost to the world.^[1161] A similar act of cruelty was perpetrated by the public authorities at Dantzic, who, in the seventeenth century, caused an able mechanician, who had invented a superior kind of ribbon-loom, to be strangled.^[1162]

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There was, moreover, produced in Greece, a number of articles, whether of use or luxury, to the venders of which it appears difficult to appropriate a name. It must necessarily be inferred, however, that there existed a class of shopkeepers analogous to our oil and colour men, at whose establishments were found most or all of the following commodities: every kind of vegetable oil, for cookery, painting, or to be burned as lamp-oil, of sea salt, probably for medicinal purposes,^[1163] oil of horseradish,^[1164] used instead of the root itself, as a condiment. Among the lamp-oils it is worthy of observation that the Greeks included castor oil^[1165] which was commonly, from its nauseous effects, eschewed as a medicine. Bitumen^[1166] also was occasionally burnt in lamps. Their lampwicks were ordinarily of rushes,^[1167] which they sometimes anointed with the oil expressed from the seeds of the myagrum perenne;^[1168] and from certain nuts found on the oak they obtained a sort of woolly substance^[1169] which, being twisted into wicks, burnt freely without oil. The dried stem of the torch-weed^[1170] was likewise employed for this purpose. Their flambeaux consisted originally of slips of the pine or pitch tree,^[1171] or even 198as at Rhodes of the bark of the vine,^[1172] but afterwards certain combustible compositions were burned in painted and ornamented handles.^[1173]

The making of pitch, generally found in these shops, was carried on in the following manner,^[1174] particularly among the Macedonians: Having cleared a large level space in the forests, as when constructing a threshing-floor, they carefully paved it, and gave the whole a slope towards the centre. The billets of wood were then piled up endways as close to each other as possible, and so as that the height of the heap should always be in proportion to its magnitude. These piles were frequently of enormous dimensions, falling little short of a hundred yards in circumference and rising to the height of eighty or ninety feet. The whole mound was then covered with turf and earth; and the wood having been set on fire by means of an open passage below, which immediately afterwards was closed, numerous ladders were thrown up along its sides in order that, should the least smoke anywhere appear, fresh layers of turf and earth might be cast upon it: for if the flame found a vent the hopes of the manufacturer were destroyed. The pitch flowed off by an underground channel leading from the centre of the area to a spacious cistern sunk in the earth about twenty feet beyond the circumference of the mound, where it was suffered to cool. During two days and two nights the fire in these heaps continued generally to burn, requiring the incessant care and vigilance of the workmen, though it frequently happened that before sunset on the second day, the earthy crust flattened and fell in, the wood being reduced to ashes. This was generally preceded by the pitch ceasing to flow. The whole of this period was converted into a holiday by the labourers, 199who offered sacrifice to the gods, and preferred many prayers, that their pitch might be plentiful and good.

Nitre was procured from wood-ashes,^[1175] as it is at this day in Circassia, from the ashes of a plant cultivated for the purpose. It has been supposed that the ancients were acquainted with gunpowder;^[1176] and there appears to have been a dim tradition of artificial thunder and lightning among the Brachmanes in the remotest antiquity.^[1177]

The demand for the various earths and colours was considerable; such as the Melian, a fine white marl, used by artists frequently for communicating to green paint a pale hue;^[1178] the Cimolian, by fullers;^[1179] and the gypsum, employed occasionally by both. The Samian, being fat and unctuous,^[1180] was eschewed by painters, though it found its place among the materia medica. Another article in much request was the argol, a beautiful moss,^[1181] used both by painters and dyers; to which we may add the cinnabar^[1182] and the kermes, used for dying scarlet; the Indian black,^[1183] indigo, ultramarine, lamp and ivory black, painter’s soot, collected from glass furnaces,^[1184] verdigris, ceruse, and minium, used in painting vases and clay statues.^[1185] Other substances which sometimes entered into the materials of painters were, the sandarach^[1186] and the orpiment, found in gold, silver, and 200copper mines, ochre, ruddle, and chrysocolla. Ruddle was successfully imitated by burnt ochre, the manufacturing of which was the invention of Cydias,^[1187] who having observed that a quantity of ochre found in a house which was burnt down had assumed a red colour, profited by the hint, though the article thus produced was inferior to the natural. The Lemnian earth,^[1188] having been mixed with goats’ blood, kneaded into small round pastilles, and stamped with the figure of a goat, was vended, partly as a medicine, partly to be used in sacrifice. In the same shops, doubtless, sealing-wax and ink were sold.^[1189] The receipt for preparing the latter was as follows:^[1190] to an ounce of gum they added three ounces of pine-torch or resin soot, or even that which was obtained from the glass furnaces, and used, as above observed, by painters. In this latter case, a mina of soot was mingled with a pound and a half of gum, and an ounce and a half of bull’s glue and copperas-water. An infusion of wormwood^[1191] was sometimes used in the manufacture of ink, which preserved the manuscripts written with it from being gnawed by rats or other vermin. Another method was, to smear the parchment with saffron and cedar oil.^[1192]

201Next to these, perhaps, should be ranged those shops which resembled our Italian warehouses, where the gourmands of antiquity procured their best vinegar, pickles, and sauces.^[1193] To enumerate all the articles found in such an establishment would be somewhat difficult; but we may observe that they sold, among other things, the best Colophonian mustard,^[1194] pepper,^[1195] together with all the substitutes occasionally used for it, such as the Syrian nard,^[1196] water-pepper,^[1197] and, among the ancient Italians, lovage of Lombardy,^[1198] garlic heads,^[1199] a mixture of salt and thyme,^[1200] pickled olives, and cornel-berries, to be eaten at table, pickled dittander,^[1201] mountain rue,^[1202] snakeweed or wake-robin, fennel or chervil, tendrils of the wild vine,^[1203] eringo root, sea-heath, cammock, lettuces and parsley.^[1204] To these may be added silphion, sesame, citron-peel, cumin, wild marjoram, capers, cresses, and fig-leaves.^[1205] Among the Syrians, the root and seeds of the sison-amomum were used as spices, and pickled with sliced gourds.^[1206] The Arabs, we are told, seasoned their dishes with the leaf of the ginger plant.^[1207] Ginger-root was likewise known and used as a condiment in Greece.

Although, properly speaking, there may, in early times, have been no such trades as those of the druggist and the apothecary, there very soon arose a class of men who nearly resembled them, though professing to practise medicine.^[1208] Into the shops of those persons we shall now beg leave to enter, and 202observe some few of the materials with which the children of Æsculapius preserved or destroyed the health of the Greeks. The art of medicine itself, as it existed among them, I shall not venture to examine, abandoning that part of the subject to the investigation of professional men.^[1209]

The interior of an ancient surgery, though it may have been less lavishly furnished than one of our own day, made, nevertheless, some pretensions to show. There were, for example, ranged in order on shelves, numerous medicine chests of ivory; brass and silver cupping instruments,^[1210] lancet-cases, and cases inlaid with gold.^[1211] Flowers and aromatic plants were laid up in boxes of the wood of the linden tree, while seeds were preserved in paper or leaves. Liquid medicines were kept in vessels of silver, glass, or horn, or even in earthenware jars, provided they were well glazed. For these they sometimes substituted vases of boxwood, though those of metal were generally preferred, at least for all such as were intended for the eyes, or contained vinegar, pitch, or cedar juice. Lard, marrow, and all similar substances, were put into vessels of pewter.^[1212] The instruments^[1213] in most common use besides the bistoury, were the forceps, the scissors, the hypographs, the ear-pick, the probe,^[1214] the needle, the scalpel, the tooth-file, the tooth-wrench, the eueidion, and the podostrabe, an instrument for reducing luxations. We ought, likewise, perhaps, to mention the bandages, ligatures, swathes, plaisters, lint, amulets, and bleeding-bowls.^[1215]

203Their knowledge of the materia medica was acquired for the most part by experience, though there existed, previously to the time of Hippocrates, works on the virtues of plants, among which we may mention that of Cratevas. By degrees these treatises were greatly multiplied, and included, at length, a species of encyclopedia, arranged in alphabetical order;^[1216] though not one single fragment of it has been spared by time. At first, and for many ages, the art relied chiefly upon simples, the qualities of which were consequently studied with great ardour, and, no doubt, with much success. Numerous individuals devoted themselves to the gathering, drying, and preserving, of medicinal roots and herbs, an occupation requiring considerable time and labour,—for which reasons the physicians, by whom it was originally performed, soon abandoned it to the rizotomists.

But the business of collecting simples, by whomsoever performed, required great knowledge and perseverance. The individuals who carried it on spread themselves, at the proper seasons of the year, through all Greece, more especially over Mount Pelion in Thessaly, Telethra in Eubœa, Parnassos in Phocis, and the uplands of Laconia and Arcadia,^[1217] making inquiries, as they went along, of the inhabitants of every district and canton respecting the medicaments in use among them, and collecting from the mouths of peasants and shepherds the fruits of their limited but close observation. They passed, as a matter of course, the greater part of their lives in the fields, studying the topography and distribution of plants, and investigating all the phenomena of vegetation. They believed, that herbs vary in virtues and powers 204according as they are found in mountains or in valleys, in places overrun with moisture, and where the air is rank and heavy, or on spots swelling and exposed, where they are fanned and invigorated by every breeze that blows. They laid much stress, too, on the season of the year, on the weather, and on the hour of the day; some simples requiring, it was supposed, to be gathered when the sun has exhaled from them all extraneous moisture, others before its rising, others amid the darkness of night when their leaves and flowers were suffused with dew. They were guided, likewise, in their operations by other rules, some founded on experience, others originating in fancy and superstition. In culling, for example, the thapsia^[1218] and several other herbs, they were careful, having first anointed themselves with oil, to stand with their backs to the wind, persuaded that they otherwise should inhale certain noxious effluvia which would cause their whole bodies to swell, or, in the case of the dog-rose,^[1219] that their sight would be impaired.

Those who gathered the mountain rue,^[1220] anointed their faces and hands with oil, to guard themselves against cutaneous inflammation. Again, of other herbs the juices are so pungent as to burn like fire: these were collected in the greatest haste. In digging the hellebore,^[1221] too, the odour of which was supposed rapidly to affect the brain, they proceeded with great celerity, and were careful to eat a clove or two of garlic beforehand, and to drink a little pure wine after. But all these precautions were trifling compared with those which the good 205rizotomists had persuaded themselves were indispensable in collecting the peony flower.^[1222] About this operation they interwove a sort of netting of romance: it was to be undertaken they affirmed by night, lest the woodpeckers, who regarded it with as much jealousy as the Indian ants do their gold, should fall upon the unfortunate herbalists, and with their sharp beaks pluck out their eyes. So, likewise, in gathering the centaury they were to stand on their guard lest they should be assaulted and maltreated by the hawks. Considering all these numerous evils which rizotomist flesh was heir to, Theophrastus thinks it by no means absurd, that when issuing forth on an enterprise so perilous, they should have fortified their nerves with many prayers. Some few, however, of their practices the philosopher condemns as a trifle beyond the mark, as for example when in digging the root of the Asclepian all-heal, they judged it necessary to propitiate mother earth by burying in its stead a cake composed of many various sweets. And again in unearthing the root of the iris fœtidissima, they interred a cake of spring wheat mixed with honey, not, however, before they had drawn round the spot a treble circle with a two-edged sword. When they had obtained possession of one of the roots, they held it up for some time in the air, and then proceeded to procure a second, and so on. Strangest of all, however, were the ceremonies observed in digging the mandrake.^[1223] First, the triple magic circle was inscribed on the earth with a sword, then the pious rizotomist turned his face toward the west, and began to use his knife, while a second operator went dancing round, uttering all kinds of amorous incantations. Still more perilous was the gathering of the black hellebore, which they performed with the face towards the east, and many 206prayers to Apollo and Asclepios.^[1224] The strictest watch was meanwhile to be kept, that no eagle appeared above the horizon; for if the eye of this king of birds happened to fall upon the herbalist while engaged in digging, he would infallibly die within the year.^[1225]

After all these toilsome and dangerous enterprises it was natural that the rizotomists should desire to enjoy some advantages,^[1226] which, accordingly, they procured themselves by selling dear their hard-won prizes to their equally superstitious countrymen. Making no pretension as I have said to describe the regular medical practice among the Greeks, I shall here, nevertheless, introduce some few particulars more or less connected with it, which may be regarded as characteristic of the age and people.^[1227] Great were the virtues which they ascribed to the herb alysson, (biscutella didyma,) which, being pounded and eaten with meat, cured hydrophobia. Nay, more, being suspended in a house, it promoted the health of its inhabitants;^[1228] it protected likewise both man and cattle from enchantment; and, bound in a piece of scarlet flannel round the necks of the latter, it preserved them from all diseases.

Coriander-seed,^[1229] eaten in too great quantity, produced, they thought, a derangement of the intellect. Ointment of saffron had an opposite effect, for the nostrils and heads of lunatics being rubbed therewith 207they were supposed to receive considerable relief.^[1230] Melampos the goatherd was reported to have cured the daughters of Prætos^[1231] of their madness by large doses of black hellebore, which thereafter received from him the name of Melampodion. Sea-onions^[1232] suspended over the doors preserved from enchantment, as did likewise a branch of rhamnus over doors or windows.^[1233] A decoction of rosemary^[1234] and of the leaves and stem of the anemone^[1235] was administered to nurses to promote the secretion of milk, and a like potion prepared from the leaves of the Cretan dittany^[1236] was given to women in labour. This herb, in order to preserve its virtues unimpaired, and that it might be the more easily transported to all parts of the country, was preserved in a joint of a ferula or reed. A plaster of incense,^[1237] Cimolian earth, and oil of roses, was applied to reduce the swelling of the breasts. A medicine prepared from mule’s fern,^[1238] was believed to produce sterility, as were likewise the waters of a certain fountain near Pyrrha, while to those about Thespiæ a contrary effect was attributed, as well as to the wine of Heraclea in Arcadia.^[1239] The inhabitants of this primitive region 208drank milk as an aperient^[1240] in the spring, because of the medicinal herbs on which the cattle were then supposed to feed. Medicines of laxative properties were prepared from the juice of the wild cucumber, which were said to retain their virtues for two hundred years,^[1241] though simples in general were thought to lose their medicinal qualities in less than four.^[1242] The oriental gum called kankamon was administered in water or honeyed vinegar to fat persons to diminish their obesity, and also as a remedy for the toothache.^[1243] For this latter purpose the gum of the Ethiopian olive^[1244] was put into the hollow tooth, though more efficacy perhaps was attributed to the root of dittander^[1245] which they suspended as a charm about the neck. A plaster of the root of the white thorn^[1246] or iris^[1247] roots prepared with flour of copper, honey, and great centaury, drew out thorns and arrowheads without pain. An unguent procured from fern^[1248] was sold to rustics for curing the necks of their cattle galled by the yoke. A decoction of marsh-mallow leaves^[1249] and wine or honeyed vinegar was administered to persons who had been stung by bees or wasps or other insects;^[1250] bites and burns were healed by an external application of the leaf smeared with oil, and the powdered roots cast into water caused it to freeze if placed out during the night in the open air; an 209unguent was prepared with oil from reeds, green or dry, which protected those who anointed themselves with it, from the stings of venomous reptiles. Cinnamon unguent,^[1251] or terebinth and myrtle-berries,^[1252] boiled in wine, were supposed to be a preservative against the bite of the tarantula or scorpion, as was the pistachio nut against that of serpents.^[1253] Some persons ate a roasted scorpion to cure its own bite;^[1254] a powder, moreover, was prepared from sea-crabs supposed to be fatal to this reptile.^[1255] Vipers^[1256] were made to contribute their part to the materia medica; for, being caught alive, they were enclosed with salt and dried figs in a vase which was then put into a furnace till its contents were reduced to charcoal, which they esteemed a valuable medicine. A considerable quantity of viper’s flesh was in the last century imported from Egypt into Venice, to be used in the composition of medicinal treacle.^[1257] From the flowers of the sneezewort,^[1258] a sort of snuff appears to have been manufactured, though probably used only in medicines. The ashes of old leather^[1259] cured burns, galls, and blistered feet.

The common remedy when persons had eaten poisonous mushrooms was a dose of nitre exhibited in vinegar and water;^[1260] with water it was esteemed a cure for the sting of the burncow, and with benzoin it operated as an antidote against the poison of bulls’ blood. The seeds of mountain-rue, in small quantities, were regarded as an antidote, but, administered too copiously, were themselves lethal.^[1261] White hellebore was employed with honey and other medicines 210to poison rats;^[1262] bastard saffron,^[1263] mice, pigs, and dogs; which last were physicked with hellebore.^[1264] The deadly qualities of this plant, when taken in any quantity, were universally known, and, therefore, the pharmacopolist, Thrasyas,^[1265] of Mantinea, who boasted of having invented a poison which would kill without pain, attained the credit of possessing something like miraculous powers, because he used frequently, in the presence of many witnesses to eat a whole root, or even two, of hellebore. One day, however, a shepherd, coming into his shop, utterly destroyed his reputation; for, in the sight of all present, he devoured a whole handful, observing that it was nothing at all, for that he and his brethren on the mountains were accustomed to do as much, and more, daily.^[1266] They had, in fact, discovered, that medicine is no medicine, and poison no poison, to those with whose bodies they have been assimilated by use. When limbs were to be amputated, and previous to the application of the cautery, a dose of powdered mandragora-root was usually administered.

On the nature, power, and uses, of ancient poisons, it is not my purpose to enlarge.^[1267] It may be proper, 211however, to observe, that they had discovered drugs which would kill secretly, and at almost any given time from the moment of administering them. They, by certain preparations of aconite,^[1268] so called from Aconè, a village in the country of the Mariandynians, the professional poisoners could take off an individual at any fixed period, from two months to two years. The possession, however, of this poison was in itself a capital offence.^[1269] It was usually administered in wine or hydromel, where its presence was not to be detected by the taste. At first, there was supposed to exist no remedy, so that all who took it inevitably perished; but, at length, physicians, and even the common people of the country, discovered more than one antidote prepared from the ground-pine,^[1270] from honey, and from the juice of the grape. Another poison, evidently in frequent use, was the bulb of the meadow-saffron (colchicum autumnale), which being known to everybody, and nearly always at hand, slaves^[1271] were said to have plucked and eaten when enraged against their masters; but, repenting presently, they used, with still greater celerity, to rush in search of an antidote. Some persons, anxious to fortify their children against the effects of all noxious drugs, were in the habit of administering to them as soon as born a small dose of the powder of bindweed,^[1272] which they believed to possess the power of protecting them for ever. When persons were invited out to dine where they ran the risk of meeting with ratsbane in their dishes, it was customary to chew a little calamint before the repast.^[1273] In the case of the canine species the Argives, instead of having recourse to poison, like their neighbours, used to celebrate an annual festival during 212the dog-days, in which they seem to have slaughtered^[1274]

the moist atmosphere of their city having been peculiarly liable to engender hydrophobia.

Among the more remarkable of the materia medica was the cedar gum, generally transparent, and of a most pungent odour. It was esteemed destructive of living bodies, but formed, doubtless, an important ingredient among the embalmer’s materials, since it completely preserved corpses from corruption, on which account it was sometimes called the Life of the Dead.^[1275] It entered, moreover, into preparation designed to sharpen the sight.

The gum obtained from the cherry-tree^[1276] was administered in wine and water to promote appetite. A dose of saffron and boiled wine restored the tone of the stomach after excess at table. Asses’ milk was habitually given to consumptive patients, connected with which practice there is an apothegm of Demosthenes, which may be worth repeating. When he was once exerting himself to prevail on some foreign state to ally itself with Athens, an orator in opposition observed, that the Athenians were like asses’ milk, whose presence always indicated sickness in the places they visited. “It is true,” replied Demosthenes, “but the sickness previously exists, and they come to cure it.” A mixture of salt and water, to which the Egyptians added the juice of the radish,^[1277] constituted a very common emetic. Opium was in general use even 213so early, apparently, as the age of Homer,^[1278] who seems to have celebrated it under the name of nepenthè. The Spartan soldiers appear to have made considerable use of the poppy-head;^[1279] but whether for the same purpose as the Rajpoots of modern India, I do not pretend to determine. Persons desirous of obtaining frightful and dismal dreams^[1280] could always gratify their wishes by eating leaks or lentils, or the seeds of the great bind-weed,^[1281] mixed with dorycnion. We may mention by the way, that the ancients understood well the doctrine of the circulation of the blood.^[1282]

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In spinning and weaving the ancients evidently rivalled us, though without the aid of machinery. As far, indeed, as the former process is concerned, no machinery can rival the human hand, which, from its slight oily exudation^[1283] is enabled to communicate superior strength and evenness to the finest threads. Thus in Hindustân muslins were formerly produced, which, laid on the grass and wetted by dew, became invisible.^[1284] And there is no reason for doubting that the produce of ancient Greek looms rivalled those of Dakka. The fabrics of Cos^[1285] and Tarentum appear, in fact, from the testimony of the ancients, to have floated like a snowy mist around the female form, disclosing its whole contour like a gauze veil.^[1286] In flowered and variegated tissues,^[1287] too, they attained extraordinary 215excellence. The finest and most brilliant shot stuffs imitating the breast of the dove, flowered cloth of gold, and the weaving of gold wire itself, were known to the ancients. Silk, before that of China^[1288] was common in the west, they obtained from the beard of a sea shell; and lawn and cambric and open work, like Brussels or Valenciennes lace, were familiar to them.

Being ignorant of who was the inventor of the art of weaving, they attributed the honour to Athena, who imparted a knowledge of it to Arachnè,^[1289] a virgin of Mæonia, afterwards changed into a spider. But spiders were not long the only weavers among the Hellenes, who speedily invented the upright and horizontal looms, which, in after times at least, were constructed from the wood of the andrachnè.^[1290]

Among the finest and most elegant fabrics of Greece were those manufactured in the Achæan city of Patræ,^[1291] where the women being twice as numerous as the men, would alone appear to have worked in the factories, from which the greater number of the inhabitants, doubtless, derived their livelihood. The flax, from which the fine linen and head-nets^[1292] 216of this town were made, was not grown in the neighbourhood, but in the plains of Elis,^[1293] where alone, in Greece, the plant attained the highest degree of perfection, not yielding in fineness to the best produced in India, while it was possessed of superior whiteness.^[1294] The fine cloths manufactured from it sold for their weight in gold.^[1295] Another species of very fine flax was cultivated in the island of Amorgos,^[1296] where were likewise manufactured linens of the most beautiful texture, frequently dyed purple, on which account the word Amorgis^[1297] has sometimes been supposed to denote a purple stuff, though the fabrics of the island were as often white as of any other colour. In imitation of the Egyptians, they wove a sort of fine napkins, which were evidently used in the same manner as our pocket-handkerchiefs.^[1298]

Even from hemp, very superior cloths were produced^[1299] in antiquity, especially amongst the Thracians, in whose country this plant was found both in a cultivated and a wild state. It differed very little from flax, except in its superior height and thickness; and the fabrics manufactured from it were not to be distinguished from linen, save by the most 217experienced judges. From hair, too, they both wove and plaited a variety of garments, among which would seem to have been a sort of mantle for ladies.^[1300] Sacks, too, were manufactured from the same materials, together with socks, whips, and fishing-lines. The Egyptians, we may observe by the way, wove fine cloths and sails, and made ropes, from the fibre of the papyrus plant,^[1301] as the Indians did from a sort of grass or fine rush.^[1302]

In the island of Cos existed, from a very early age, the art of rearing silkworms and weaving silk. As these insects, however, fed on the leaves of the pine, the ash, and the oak, the white mulberry not having been yet introduced into Greece, the silk they produced was very different in quality from that of China. The art of unwinding the cocoons and spinning the threads was invented by Pamphila, daughter of Plates,^[1303] who thus became the benefactress of her country, whose fabrics were universally admired for their delicacy, fineness, and transparency, since they allowed the whole form and colour of the body to be distinguished through them, like the gauze chemises worn by the Turkish ladies in the recesses of the harem.^[1304] Another kind of silk was manufactured by the ancients from the floss-like beard of the pinna marina, or silk-worm of the sea,^[1305] found on the coasts of Asia Minor, Sicily, and the Balearic isles. This kind of silk was evidently, at one period, held in the highest estimation, since we find the emperors of Rome bestowing robes of it as a mark of their imperial favour on the satraps of Armenia. In modern times, however, this branch of industry has been almost totally neglected, though very warm and beautiful winter gloves and stockings are still 218manufactured from it at Tarento. A pair of these gloves was considered of sufficient importance to be presented as a gift to Pope Benedict the Fourteenth.^[1306]

But not for lightness and fineness only were the silks and other delicate fabrics of the ancients valued. They were variegated^[1307] with stripes, lozenges, the figures of birds and other animals, sprigs, flowers,^[1308] and stars,^[1309] inwoven into their texture, and of the most brilliant and beautiful colours.

Occasionally, moreover, when the ground of the whole tissue was white, a border of fanciful scrolls, leaves, and flowers, intermingling their several tints, extended round the whole robe or mantle, which was sometimes also bedropped with asterisks of gold. Their flowered silks, and cloths of various colours, were worn, not only by ladies in their dresses, but occasionally, also, by vain young men, who thus exposed themselves to the derision of the multitude. Bed-curtains, too, and the hangings of apartments^[1310] were of variegated stuffs. In the manufacturing of tapestry^[1311] and drapery for the statues and temples of the gods, the greatest possible magnificence and beauty were displayed. Whole years were devoted to the production of a single piece, which exhibited views of landscapes and cities, together with figures of gods, and heroes, and groups of warriors, sometimes arranged in religious processions, at other times engaged in battle, where the scene, the combatants, their armour, their weapons, and the flowing gore were represented by various colours to the life.^[1312] In the manufacture of carpets, the Greeks displayed great taste and elegance, whether we regard the figures of animals, trees, or flowers, with 219which they were inwrought, or their pile, softness, and texture.^[1313] Many times when they had not been flowered by the hand of the weaver, they were adorned by the ladies themselves with sprigs, and leaves, and figures, in embroidery; sometimes of various bright colours, at others with threads of gold.^[1314] Even napkins in Egypt were embroidered with golden flowers,^[1315] as both these and all kinds of handkerchiefs still are throughout the East. In Greece, the fine soft vests which warriors^[1316] wore beneath their shirts of mail were usually figured with rich embroidery by the females of their family.

It appears to be generally supposed,^[1317] that silver threads were not employed until a very recent period, either in weaving or embroidery;^[1318] we find 220mention, however, in Philo Judæus,^[1319] of purple coverlets inwrought with silver and gold. But at length the love of show and magnificence rose to so high a pitch, that robes were woven entirely of threads of gold.^[1320] Ribbons also were manufactured of the same materials, and several fragments of these fabrics have more than once been discovered in cinerary urns at Rome, though the greediness of the finder has almost invariably led to their being melted down.^[1321] At a later period stuffs were woven partly of silk or woollen and partly of gold.^[1322]

Of gloves^[1323] the Greeks made little use, though they must have observed very early, that they were worn by the Persians, and probably by other nations of Asia.^[1324] Nay even among their own rustics they would appear to have been in fashion as far back as the heroic ages.^[1325] The principal customers, therefore, of the Hellenic glovers were the hedgers and ditchers, woodmen, and actors; for on the stage it was frequently necessary to appear in gloves,^[1326] either in order to disguise the colour or augment the size of the hands, or, as in the case of the Furies, to give them the appearance of being furnished with talons like those of the hippogriff.^[1327]

Stockings properly so called, were perhaps little known to the Greeks, though we find mention made of certain socks woven from the cotonaceous filaments of a species of river truffle,^[1328] which must have resembled them very closely both in form and texture. Besides, we see in works of art representations of this kind of sock reaching nearly to the 221knees, and somewhat loose, which may probably therefore have been woven. But the common sock, like the hat, was of felt,^[1329] and usually white,^[1330] fitting close to the foot and leg, and chiefly worn by women, with shoes or sandals,^[1331] and sometimes in lieu of them,^[1332] though in some cases it occupied the same place in the costume of the Greeks as it does in modern times.

The Hellenic cordwainers^[1333] appear in every age to have carried on a thriving trade, since all the world, with the exception of a few philosophers, went well shod. Their workshops seem to have been neatly furnished. The shoes already made, whether plain or gilded,^[1334] used to be ranged on shelves fixed up against the wall with fanciful brackets, while their lasts, pastepots, pincers, awls,^[1335] and other implements, were kept in armories, sometimes furnished with double folding-doors, four or five deep shelves, and extremely elegant in form. Their cutting-boards^[1336] were made from the wood of the wild pear-tree which being of a close hard grain kept their knives constantly in edge. Among the Israelites we find mention made of shoes of badger-skins.^[1337]

Of the various processes resorted to for tanning, dressing, and dyeing leather,^[1338] whether to be worked 222up into clothing, armour, shoes, or parchment, too little by far is known. We are merely informed that, in removing the hair from hides and skins, they made use of the berries of the white briony;^[1339] that, in preparing them for receiving any dye or colour, the seeds of the sumach^[1340] were employed; and that the bark of the fir-tree and the wood of the alder,^[1341] reduced to chips, entered into various preparations for dressing and dyeing.^[1342] Fawn-skins among the Thracians were prepared probably with the hair on,^[1343] for a sort of buskins,^[1344] and the skins of sheep,^[1345] and dogs,^[1346] beavers,^[1347] otters, and badgers, tanned in a variety of ways, sometimes with and sometimes without the hair, were appropriated to the manufacture of various articles of dress. Leather, moreover, was dyed of every bright colour,^[1348] purple, scarlet, and crimson, and occasionally gilded or flowered with gold,^[1349] for sandals, thongs, and other purposes.

The manufacture of hats and caps,^[1350] though a less important branch of industry than among the northern nations of modern times, afforded nevertheless employment to a pretty numerous class of persons. At Athens it was not fashionable in fine weather to wear a hat at all, chiefly, perhaps, because the practice was supposed to hasten the approach of grey hairs;^[1351] but in those seasons of the year when sudden 223showers were looked for, cautious persons seldom went abroad without their broad-brim, which being furnished with a long skin thong was suffered to fall back and hang over the shoulders. If they happened to be caught by the rain when not thus provided, they threw, like Strepsiades in the Clouds, a corner of their mantle over the head. These hats were of various shapes,^[1352] and manufactured of very different materials; sometimes square or lozenge-formed, like our college-caps: sometimes round with broad leaf^[1353] and low basinet crown; sometimes peaked atop with rim curling all round like the bell of the Egyptian lotos. There was another modification of the hat,^[1354] fashioned like a limpet-shell, and without a brim, chiefly worn by fishermen and poor operatives, and sometimes also by travellers.^[1355]

The cynic, Menippos, however, when making his round through Thebes, in the costume of a Fury, wore a broad-brimmed Arcadian hat, on which were represented the twelve signs of the zodiac.^[1356] Among the Macedonians, who in all things affected magnificence, the hats of the courtiers and nobles were purple,^[1357] like the tiara of the Persians,^[1358] which, however, was furnished with side-flaps, resembling a peacock’s wings. The most common material was felt, though they were likewise made of leather. Caps were ordinarily manufactured of dog, or sheep, or lamb skin.^[1359]

But if in some of these branches of the useful arts the Greeks approached, and, perhaps, equalled, the moderns, in another they probably excelled them; I mean in dyeing,^[1360] more particularly, that deep crimson, 224or purple, of which Greek and Roman authors so often speak with an admiration bordering on rapture. Winkelmann^[1361] is not far wrong in supposing there were two kinds of purple, the one containing a tinge of violet, or sea-blue, produced at Tarentum,^[1362] the other resembling our lake, known in antiquity as Tyrian dye. On the origin of this colour the ancients had many legends (for they loved to build a mythos on what they could not explain), from among which we shall select the most poetical. The Tyrian Heracles loved, they say, a nymph, who dwelt somewhere about the sea-coast, and her name, it is added, was Tyros. In visiting this young lady, Heracles, according to the custom of the heroic age, was accompanied by his dog, as we find Telemachos, in the Odyssey. This same dog, not having love to support him, grew hungry by the way, and espying a purple fish upon a rock, with its head protruding from the shell, he seized, and devoured it. On Heracles reaching the residence of the nymph, she observed the muzzle of the animal dyed of a bright purple, and, in the style of a froward beauty, declared she would never again see her lover until he brought her a dress of that colour. Now this hero, as all the world knows, or may learn from the comic poets, was always more remarkable for courage and gluttony than for invention. Love, however, on the present occasion, sharpened his wits. He discovered the fish, turned dyer, and, having produced such an article as the lady required, had the 225honour of being esteemed the inventor of the Tyrian purple.^[1363]

The writer to whom we are indebted for this fable, which he related for the amusement of Commodus, has preserved a valuable account of the purple fishery as carried on by the Phœnicians. They fastened, he observes,^[1364] a number of small bell-formed baskets, at regular distances, to a long, stout, and tough cable, capable of resisting the action of the sea. These baskets, like the eel-traps of modern times, were surrounded at the mouth with a circle of slender twigs^[1365] projecting inward, and almost meeting at the centre, resembling the bottom of a claret bottle, but with an opening through which the fish could easily force its way in, though the twigs closing with a spring behind it prevented its egress. To entice the prey, there was a bait in the basket, which, according to some, was a cockle, according to others, a frog, upon a hook,^[1366] so that assurance was made doubly sure. All things thus prepared, the fisherman conveyed the apparatus to a rocky part of the shore, where they let it down, having previously fastened to it a strong cord with a piece of cork at the end, that they might be able to discover and pull it up. Leaving their traps there all night and all the ensuing day, they generally took up the basket full. Then, pounding both shell and flesh together, to prepare it for dyeing they cleansed away all impurities with water, and boiled the whole in a cauldron. The blood, being of an oily nature, melted on coming in contact with the heat and acquired its rich colour. Not always did it assume the same tint, but was sometimes yellow, sometimes a deep violet, and, occasionally, some other shade. Into this whatever was dipped immediately took the tincture of it. 226Nor did it all fade in the sun; but, on the contrary, rejoiced in the rays of light, as it were, its brightness imparting additional brilliance, and heightening the bloom and splendour of its tints.^[1367]

Wherever, and by whomsoever, discovered, the purple was known in the time of Moses, who introduced it into the costume of the high priest, and among the ornaments of the tabernacle.^[1368] Homer,^[1369] too, speaks of purple among the colours worn by his heroes, for example, a large purple pelisse. Iris is denominated “purple;” we have mention, also, of a “purple cloak, of a purple ball wherewith to play;” “purple coverings,” of great beauty, for beds, or seats; “purple carpets;” “purple threads,” where the “sea-purple” is distinctly spoken of.^[1370] Again, in another part of the Odyssey, we find it said, that women wove the “purple cloaks.”^[1371] The President Goguet has entered into many useful investigations respecting the manner in which the Tyrian dye was used; but at the outset confounds the conchyliatæ vestes with the purple garments, though Pliny, on whom he chiefly relies, constantly distinguishes them. The dye was obtained from several kinds of shell-fish^[1372] found in the Mediterranean, the best on the island on which New Tyre was built.^[1373] Aristotle, who of all the ancients has best described the purple fish, observes, that there were several species, of which some were of considerable size, such as those caught near Sigeion and Lecton; while those found on the coast of Caria and in the Euripos were small. Generally, he says, such as inhabited bays or arms of the sea were large and rough, and contained a liquid of blackish hue, though 227sometimes it was reddish, and small in quantity. Some of these were a mina, or about seventeen ounces, in weight. Those caught close along shores, or about headlands were usually of small size, but the dye they yielded was of a ruddier tinge. In general, too, it was thought that those found on northern coasts produced a darker, those on southern coasts a ruddier dye.^[1374] Purple fisheries were carried on on the coast of Africa, near the island of Menninx, and on the shores of Getulia.^[1375] So, likewise, in Europe,^[1376] on the coast of Laconia,^[1377] whose purple was greatly celebrated; in the Euripos, as we have seen above;^[1378] and in the terrible southern bend of Eubœa, beneath the cliffs of Mount Caphareus.^[1379] An inferior kind of purple was obtained from the buccinum,^[1380] but the genuine dye was produced by the calchè alone. The colour was contained in a white vein about the neck, the remainder of the fish being of no value. To secure, this, however, it was necessary to take the fish alive, for at its death the colour fled. Having been carefully collected, and left to macerate in salt^[1381] during three days, it was mixed with a certain quantity of water. The whole was then boiled for ten days in leaden boilers over a slow fire.^[1382] After this the wool well washed, cleansed and properly prepared, was dipped into it. Here it was allowed to soak during five hours. It was then taken out, dried, carded, and thrown back, where it was suffered to remain till it imbibed the 228whole of the dye.^[1383] To this double-dyed purple the poets often allude. Thus Horace:

And again where the Phœnician operation is spoken of:

Elsewhere in enumerating the things, wherein the vulgar pride themselves, he once more enumerates purple garments—

It was seldom or never considered sufficient to rely upon one species of fish. Usually several kinds were mingled together;^[1387] and to the mixture were added many other ingredients, as nitre, urine, water, salt, and the fucus—a kind of moss—by some writers supposed to be our argol,^[1388] found in abundance on the rocky shores of Crete.^[1389] The tint produced by this mixture resembled the colour of the amethyst.^[1390] For, under the word purple, the ancients included three distinct colours,—the first a deep violet with a black or dusky tinge, designed by Homer, when he speaks of the “purple wave,” or of “purple death.” This was the amethystine shade spoken of as so magnificent by Pliny; produced 229by the calchæ and buccina alone. The second which resembled deep scarlet or crimson, which is the colour of a ripe pomegranate, was the purple of Tyre and Tarentum. The third was the deep blue of the Mediterranean sea, when it begins to be ruffled by the winds; a variety produced by the buccinum alone, and always understood by the word conchyliata.^[1391] Near the Isthmus of Darien, a sea-snail has been discovered, which some have supposed to be the murex of the ancients. In dimensions it is about equal to the bee. Being of extremely rare occurrence, the Indian fishermen preserve it, when found, in a vessel of water until they have collected a sufficient quantity for dyeing a piece of stuff. They then, like the ancient Tyrians, pound it shell and all with a smooth stone or something which serves them for a mortar, which as the shell is extremely thin and frail is a task of little labour, and immediately dip the cotton yarn or stuff in the liquor thus obtained. The colour resulting from this operation is the richest purple that can be conceived, which instead of fading by being passed through water grows more lustrous and brilliant the more it is washed. Stuffs dyed in this manner are, as may be supposed, exceedingly costly, and on account of their beauty much coveted by the richest of the Indian women.^[1392]

The fucus above-mentioned, found on the shores of Crete, was sometimes employed separately in dyeing fillets, garments, and wool, and the colour thus produced was still more brilliant than that of the purple fish, though no means of fixing it could be discovered.^[1393] The purple of Hermione, however, preserved its lustre and freshness for centuries. 230Alexander, for example, found in the royal palace of Susa vast quantities of purple garments dyed at Hermione, which, though they had been laid up nearly two hundred years, exhibited all their pristine bloom and beauty; because, observes the historian, the wool had been previously combed with white oil, and the colour fixed with honey.^[1394] Even in Plutarch’s own time garments of equal age were to be seen, the purple of which had preserved its brilliance and splendour undiminished. Nay, a small pot of the dye was discovered at Pompeii which though covered atop with a thick tawny film had preserved all the deep tone and richness attributed to the Tyrian purple by the ancients.

In dyeing scarlet, the ancients made use of kermes^[1395] or cochineal, found in several parts of Greece, but imported likewise from various other countries. It was sometimes employed in giving the ground to purple stuffs.^[1396] Garments of this colour would appear to have been extremely rare among the Orientals, since the admiration excited in Darius by the scarlet cloak of Syloson, whom he saw walking in the great square of Memphis, can be accounted for only by supposing that he had never beheld the like before;^[1397] otherwise he would not have been so captivated by its magnificent colour as to press its wearer to sell it to him in the street. Syloson 231presented him the cloak as a gift; but afterwards, when Darius was king of Persia, he took care to proceed to court and make the circumstance known, upon which the generous prince overwhelmed him with his favours. This kind of dye appears to have been known in Greece from the remotest antiquity, since Simonides supposes that even the signal sail given by Ægeus to Theseus in his expedition to Crete was of a scarlet colour.^[1398] Sardis was celebrated for its scarlet,^[1399] whence the proverb,—to be dyed with the tincture of Sardis,—for, to be beaten black and blue. The ancients, however, generally mistook the insect for the fruit of the holm-oak, upon whose leaves it feeds; a circumstance which may be regarded as very extraordinary, when it is remembered that both the insect and the tree were daily under their eyes.

The wool of sheep is said by the Greek poets to have been dyed red on their backs by eating the madder plant.^[1400] The wool of brown sheep was spun, woven, and worn of its natural colour, as it is still by the rustics of several European countries. Dyes of every other colour were likewise known to the ancients; as bright flame and saffron-colour, pink, green, and russet grey;^[1401] deep and sky-blue, produced by woad;^[1402] and red by madder.^[1403] The Phrygian dyers made use of a kind of mineral^[1404] obtained from Cappadocia; and wool was sometimes dyed with a decoction of beans.^[1405] Among the Egyptians, linens, muslins, and all kinds of cloths were painted with flowers and figures, in a great variety of colours;^[1406] which was the case, also, among the Massagetæ, who 232impressed on their fine woollen cloths a multitude of patterns, which preserved their brilliance unfading to the last.^[1407]

As many kinds of woollens are wholly spoiled by common washing,^[1408] they were regularly, when soiled, carried by the Greeks to the fullers,^[1409] whose mill and trade are supposed to have been invented by Nycias of Megara.^[1410] These artisans made use of numerous earths and other substances in their operations; such as gypsum,^[1411] the Cimolian earth and the Chian, the Lemnian, the Sardian, the Umbrian, the Samian, the Tymphæan, and the Chalastræan.^[1412] Wool, previous to being spun, was cleansed by soap-wort.^[1413] In washing clothes they commonly made use of a lye prepared with lime or wood ashes.^[1414] Sponges were blanched in the following manner:^[1415] over such as were extremely soft they sprinkled a quantity of salt-fish, collected from the rocks, after which they were carefully washed, and laid in the summer sun with their hollow part uppermost. They were rendered still whiter by being saturated with salt froth or sea-water, and exposed during a succession of calm summer nights to the moon’s rays.

The extent and importance of the Grecian fisheries^[1416] may be inferred from the prodigious quantities of fish eaten in every part of Greece; for although they knew nothing in antiquity of those long fasts during which the members of the Greek church in modern times, ceasing to prey upon the dumb inhabitants of terra firma, let loose their voracity against those of the sea, they were no less 233partial to this kind of food than their descendants,^[1417] as will have been seen from a preceding portion of this work. Fisheries were accordingly established on nearly every part of the coast of Hellas, as well as of those islands and distant colonies of which she became mistress.

Thus a celebrated lamprey^[1418] fishery existed on the Faro of Messina, an eel-fishery at Syracuse,^[1419] another 234for taking the purple fish, on the eastern coast of Eubœa, a second on the shores of Laconia, a third at Sigæum in Asia Minor, and a fourth in the neighbourhood of Tyre and Sidon.^[1420] Whales and dolphins were caught in the Mediterranean, and in the Black Sea; thunnies in the same sea, on the Bosporos, in the sea of Marmora, in the Hellespont, in the Adriatic, and in nearly all the eastern parts of the Mediterranean. Many kinds of smaller fish afforded employment to numerous bodies of men in the gulfs and bays of Attica and the Peloponnesos; and flourishing sponge-fisheries were carried on along the coast of Crete, and in several other parts of the Archipelago.^[1421]

In seas frequented by sharks, sponge-fishers necessarily incurred much risk. They therefore carefully observed every circumstance denoting the absence of danger, as for example, the appearance of the anthias,^[1422] which is supposed never to be seen in the neighbourhood of any voracious sea-monster; for which reason it obtained from the Greeks the name of the Sacred Fish.

The divers engaged in this trade made use, moreover, of many contrivances to diminish the toil and hazard of their dangerous calling. Sometimes they poured oil^[1423] upon the waves, which rendered them at once more tranquil and translucent and enabled them the better to carry on their operations at the bottom of the sea. They made likewise the first step towards the invention of the diving-bell, by descending with a large vessel turned upside down upon their heads, taking care that its edges sank into the water at the same instant, by which means 235they carried along with them a quantity of air, and were enabled to continue a considerable space of time beneath the surface.^[1424] A diver and his daughter are said to have performed good service for their country during the Median war; for, descending into the sea during a tempest, they loosened the anchors of many Persian vessels, and thus set them adrift to perish by the weather; in remembrance of which services, a statue was erected to both father and daughter at Delphi.^[1425]

The business of fishing was pursued in much the same manner as in modern times. Great numbers of smacks,^[1426] of all dimensions, crowded the narrow seas between the islands and the main, making sometimes pretty long voyages, and taking passengers to augment their gains.^[1427] These, moreover, formed the principal nurseries for the Grecian navies,^[1428] particularly those of Athens, which consequently were manned, in the better ages of the republic, by the hardiest and most expert seamen in the ancient world. They employed in their operations both the harpoon and various kinds of large nets;^[1429] and the ease and rapidity with which they filled their vessels may be inferred from the accounts given in modern times of the vast shoals of fish of all species and dimensions which in spring time collect 236in the eastern extremity of the Mediterranean, and pour in such multitudes into the narrow stream of the Dardanelles and the Bosporos,^[1430] that, with one sweep of a net, the fishermen are enabled to fill whole skiffs, while they may be taken by the hand from the shores, killed like birds with stones, caught with unbaited hooks, or by the women in common baskets, let down by ropes from the windows of such houses in Constantinople^[1431] as happen to stand on the beach. Elsewhere the fishermen made use of stop-nets in rivers or along the sea-coasts where the water for some way out was shallow. Various kinds of baskets,^[1432] also, they had recourse to, together with the rod and line. Even that barbarous method, still in many parts of Europe put in practice by the vulgar, of poisoning the waters, was known to the Greeks, who, for this purpose, cast into streams or ponds the pounded leaves of the Euphorbia Platyphylla.^[1433]

On the land-locked seas, also, and lakes, and rivers, they pursued that striking and romantic species of fishery^[1434] carried on at night,^[1435] in which a 237flaming torch held at the boats’ bows allures the fish to the surface, where by their bright eyes and glittering scales shining through the transparent water, they directed the aim of the fisherman’s trident.^[1436] A small fleet of this kind of boats dispersed over a smooth sea under the lea of woody headlands or rocky shores, each with its bright red light, gliding noiselessly^[1437] hither and thither, discloses a scene of singular beauty to the imagination. In the paintings of Herculaneum,^[1438] we find a landscape representing a group of fishermen immediately before day, when the dusky shadows are beginning to be dispersed by the first straggling rays of light which barely enable us to distinguish the boats, the nets, the rods, the fishermen themselves, and the picturesque shore on which they are at work.

One of the most profitable of the Greek fisheries was that of the thunny, which commenced about the rising of the Pleiades and terminated shortly after the setting of Arcturus.^[1439] As this animal always moves about in troops, and swims near the surface of the water, which it visibly disturbs in its progress, at the same time blowing sportively, and uttering a loud noise, the fishermen, on the shores frequented by it, constantly stationed a number of watchmen along the beach, some perched aloft on the summits of cliffs, others on detached rocks, 238rising out of the waves, or in trees, or on the top of masts set up at certain distances along the coast, that they might give notice of the approach of the thunnies.^[1440] As soon as the signal was given the fishermen pushed out with their barks, making a wide circuit, so as to take the fish in flank. Then letting down their long nets furnished with leaden weights to sink them, and with cords^[1441] wherewith to draw them up, they formed themselves into a semicircle, which rapidly narrowing round the shoal drove them towards the land, by which means the greatest number were either taken in the nets, or speared by tridents.^[1442] Respecting one of these fishing stations, on the coast of Cypros, a very romantic anecdote is related.^[1443] The inhabitants we are told, having sculptured a marble lion, which they adorned with emerald eyes, set it up on the tomb of a prince of the country named Hermias,^[1444] upon 239an eminence overlooking the sea. The splendour of the emerald, penetrating through the waves, scared away the thunnies, which in truth are remarkable for their timidity, so that the fishermen of that part of the island must unquestionably have been ruined had they not discovered the property of their lion’s optics, and substituted in lieu of the emerald, eyes less terrible to the pusillanimous herds of Thetis. A circumstance almost equally extraordinary is related of the strait by which the stream of the Bosporos disgorges itself into the Propontis. Here they say a rock of marvellous whiteness is discovered on the Asiatic side through the waves in the neighbourhood of Chalcedon, which by its brightness scares away the thunnies, both in their way to and from the Black Sea. The ancient naturalists remark, that the thunny in this part of its migrations observes steadily one course, keeping generally on the Asiatic side in the ascent to the Pontus, where, excepting the seal and the dolphin, nothing destructive to fish is found, and, after making the circuit of its shores, returning to the Ægæan close along the coast of Europe.

This proceeding they account for by supposing that, of its two dull eyes, the right sees best, and that, in obedience to the guidance of this peeper, it makes the circuit of the sea in the manner stated. A better reason may be, that its peculiar food^[1445] is most 240plentiful on the Asiatic coast in spring, and on the European in autumn, if, after all, we are to regard the fact itself as well established.^[1446] In this traject, however, it seems in reality, for some cause or another, to shun the vicinity of the City of the Blind, which constituted, perhaps, one of the principal causes of its inferiority to Byzantium. Nevertheless, a very delicate species of pelamys,^[1447] caught there, was known in the commerce of the ancient world, and transported to all parts of Greece.

We have remarked above, that the taking of the thunny commenced in spring, when it appears to have been in excellent condition, and very highly prized. During winter, whatever may have been its quality, it was not to be caught, since it retired to the depths of the Ægæan, beyond the reach of nets or tridents. In the heat of summer it was rendered lean and flabby by the persecution of a kind of worm, which, insinuating itself beneath the fins,^[1448] harassed it incessantly. But, towards autumn, being delivered by nature from this pest, it again became plump, and was esteemed excellent eating. The growth of this fish is extremely rapid, more especially in the Black Sea, where, amid the vast quantities of mud and slime brought down by the numerous rivers, it finds in great abundance the food most congenial to its taste.^[1449] The thunny, properly so called, is at present^[1450] scarce along the coast of Mingrelia, where, by the ancients, it is said to have 241abounded, which renders it not improbable, that they included under this name more than one species of sturgeon, a fish still found in great numbers in those parts of the Black Sea.

The method of taking the pelamys^[1451] has been graphically described by an ancient writer. A well-appointed and swift bark, putting to sea with her rowers, dashed out as rapidly as possible into deep water, upon which one of the crew, stationed at the stern, let down the tackle. This consisted of two strong ropes, one on either side, to which were attached a number of small cords, each with a hook at the end, baited with the Laconian purple fish, and garnished with a feather of the sea-mew, which, glancing hither and thither in the currents of the sea, assisted in attracting the eye of the pelamydes. The boat then traced various lines upon the surface of the deep, now skimming in this direction, now in that, until it was followed by a shoal of fish, which, coming up with it, voraciously gorged the baits until not a single hook was left without its prey. Upon this the rowers desisted from their toil, and, pulling up the ropes, generally found their boat laden with the take.^[1452]

The manner in which the thunny is taken on the coast of Chili may, perhaps, be worth mentioning for the sake of comparison. As soon as the Indians discover a shoal of these fish near the shore they put to sea on large sealskin floats inflated, like bladders, with air, carrying with them a sharp-pronged trident, fastened to a tough and very long rope. They then approach and pierce the fish, which, immediately upon being struck, darts out to sea with prodigious celerity, the Indian, meanwhile, rapidly uncoiling his rope till the strength of the thunny is spent through loss of blood, after which he draws 242back his prey, and, raising it upon his float, returns to the shore rejoicing.^[1453]

It is probable that, in this manner of fishing, the Indian draws near the thunny while asleep,^[1454] as we find to have been often the practice among the Greek fishermen, who when they went forth at night, at which time the thunny is exceedingly drowsy, were attracted towards their prey by the white belly of the fish sleeping quietly on the surface of the water. Many other kinds of fish also appear to have been taken while asleep, notwithstanding that in general their slumbers are brief. Thus flat-fish, nestling in the sand or mud, were discovered through the transparent water, and pierced with the trident. So likewise the sea-dog, the gilthead, and the mullet, were taken by day, with the trident, while asleep; otherwise it has been thought they could scarcely be touched by this instrument. The skate and other fishes of the Selachian tribe were sometimes found to sleep so soundly, that they could be taken by the hand.^[1455]

On the shores of the Chelidonian isles there was a celebrated anthias fishery which was carried on in a peculiar manner. The fishermen putting to sea in their bark, and clad in garments of a sober colour, sailed backward and forward daily in the same place and at the same hour. By this means, the anthias, which in great numbers frequents that part of the sea, became accustomed to the sight of the vessel, and by degrees approached it, one of the shoal generally preceding the rest. To him the fishermen threw out something of which the anthias is fond, and continued to do so until the fish became so tame that they would eat food from 243his hand. A hook was then introduced into the bait, and as the fish crowded around the bark in prodigious multitudes, they were caught rapidly, and handed to a second person, who threw them into the bottom of the boat upon heaps of soft rags, lest by their bounding and struggling they should make a noise and frighten away their companions. The shadow of the boat assisted in concealing this manœuvre from the fish. It was considered necessary to spare the anthias which first approached, since, being probably a kind of leader, his disappearance instantly put all the rest to flight.^[1456] Sometimes it is said multitudes of these fish were collected round the boat by the striking of two bits of wood together in the manner of castanets.^[1457] The Milesians^[1458] possessed close to their city a very lucrative fishery chiefly of the sea-dog,^[1459] which there attained a larger size than anywhere else. This is supposed to have been owing to an extensive lagoon of fresh water, having however with the sea a channel of communication through which these fish found their way in, where they grew tame and fat, and were taken in great numbers.^[1460]

At a point on the gulf of Smyrna, a productive fishery is at present carried on in a very ingenious manner. The shore being low and level, a continuous sweep of reed-fences is stretched along, so as to enclose a considerable space of water, and furnished at intervals with gates, which are raised occasionally for letting in the shoals. The avenues are then closed, and the fish taken with facility. On the coast of China a similar fishery is found, lines of mats being substituted for reeds.^[1461]

244There was a small, but apparently productive, fishery in the canton of Marathon.^[1462] The right of fishing in the salt stream of the Rheitæ was secured by law to the priests of Eleusis,^[1463] whose city was famous for the scombros as well as for soles or turbots.^[1464]

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On the commerce of Greece, which would supply materials for an interesting work, it is not my design to enter into very numerous details, though a brief view of the subject belongs to this undertaking. The blessings of commerce are well understood in our times, and the grand scale upon which it is now conducted may perhaps induce some to look back with something like contempt on its feeble beginnings in the Mediterranean.^[1465] There, however, lay the centre of that circle which has gone on increasing until it at length embraces the whole world, and almost renders the most distant races necessary to each other. It must be interesting, therefore, to look

at the first movements of men towards forging the links of this chain which binds together the whole 246human race in one society, disturbed sometimes by evil passions, but cohering nevertheless, and apparently becoming more interfused daily.

In this movement there were, doubtless, several nations that preceded the Greeks. The civilisation of the East existing anterior to that of Greece, it was the Orientals who made the first step towards opening up that intercourse which afterwards became so intimate between the inhabitants of Hellas and the Arabs of Phœnicia, the Egyptians, the Persians, and other nations of the East. At first, indeed, the camel,^[1466] that important instrument of human improvement, revealed to the rude tribes bordering on Arabia, the existence of wants within them, of which they before knew nothing. He came with sweets and luxuries on his back to the hamlet or the encampment, and by the sight of them created desires, to gratify which the aid of industry was to be called in. At a very early age strings of camels, laden with perfumes and spices, and gold, traversed the plains of western Asia, ascended and descended along the Nile, penetrated the northern coasts of Africa, and, by barter and traffic, diffused the productions of the East much further even than their own footsteps reached, as now the manufactures of England find their way into the countries never beheld by an Englishman.

Presently the blue and beautiful waters of the Mediterranean tempted the adventurous Arabs who had settled in Phœnicia, the country of the palm-tree, to launch their barks on it, and push from isle to isle till they found themselves in Hellas, 247where the beauty of the women occasionally, perhaps, when they were not to be enticed away, may have tempted an adventurer^[1467] to remain as other Arabs have done in every land whither they have wandered.^[1468] This, I am persuaded, is all that can be conceded to those who see so many proofs of Oriental colonies in Greece. But though the Orientals did not colonize Greece, they no doubt aided very powerfully in civilizing it. For when the rude natives saw that there were many desirable things to be obtained from the strangers if they could give them any thing valuable in return, it must have set their wits at work to invent new means of obtaining the things they coveted. At the outset it was a rough system of barter. The Phœnicians took the produce of the country in exchange for their merchandise, and secured their own success by awakening an appetite for pleasures which they alone could furnish.

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, 248in 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,

That from the beginning, moreover, they obtained celebrity for their piratical arts, the story of Eunæos, 249in 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 250from 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:

An ancient scholiast on the passage understands by βοῦς a piece of money, stamped on one side with the figure of an ox, and on the other with that of a king.^[1480] But one of the scholia published by Villoison, observes on the word ἑκατόμβοια, “worth a hundred oxen, for they did not as yet make use of money.” Another scholion,^[1481] however, remarks, οἱ γὰρ Ἀθηναῖοι ἐν τοῖς ἐαυτῶν νομίσμασι βοῦν ἐνετύπουν. Pollux^[1482] relates the same fact, observing that, in remote antiquity, the Athenians made use of a piece of money called βοῦς, because 251it had impressed upon it the figure of an ox, and that, by many, Homer was supposed to have alluded to this Attic coin in the verse above cited, “indocte,” however, as Heyne^[1483] observes. Mention of a fine called δεκάβοιον occurred, according to Pollux, in the laws of Dracon; and in the procession (θεωρία) to Delos, the herald used to proclaim when a certain prize was given, that so many oxen were bestowed on such a one. The value of the coin was two didrachmæ, so that the Bous was simply a didrachma.^[1484] The ox was stamped by the Athenians on their coins as the symbol of peace and abundance.^[1485]

Plutarch^[1486] assigns, by conjecture, two reasons; first, that Theseus, whom he regards as its inventor, may have meant by the figure of the ox to recall the memory of Minos’s general Tauros; or, second, because he wished to turn the mind of the citizens to agriculture.

The talent of gold is mentioned more than once by Homer;^[1487] but we are not to imagine with Feith^[1488] that there was a piece of money so called, though in the case of Homer he supposes it to signify a certain weight of gold, and not a coin. Modern critics get over all difficulties in the usual way by pronouncing the passage spurious.^[1489] No doubt the people of those early times did not greatly abound in wealth, which, arising from the 252assiduous cultivation of the useful arts, could not be plentiful where these arts were scarcely at all known. Even tyrants, who always contrive to obtain their share of whatever riches exist in their country, were long after the Homeric age possessed of but little wealth, any more than their people.^[1490] Money, however, does not constitute opulence. There was a rude plenty of all the necessaries of life, and as the secret representative of wealth had not been invented, men sought to possess the realities,—herds of oxen, flocks of sheep, lands, houses, and splendid apparel. Fine studs of horses, also, were naturally desired, being at once useful in war, and showy in peace.^[1491]

We observe in these ages, however, as well as in all others, that men no sooner enjoyed the necessaries than they desired the luxuries and ornaments of life. In several countries bordering upon the Mediterranean, there was already great magnificence displayed. The kings of Midian, for example, wore purple garments, golden earrings, and jewelled collars; their camels, moreover, were covered with costly trimmings and ornaments of gold.^[1492]

Of the internal commerce of Greece, in the earlier ages, little, comparatively, is known. Goguet^[1493] appears to suppose, that hardly any traffic can be carried on without the aid of sumpter animals, such as camels, mules, or asses. But the natives of Canara^[1494] drive a pretty thriving trade, though nearly every article of merchandise is transported on men’s heads. In Greece, however, the use of vehicles was very ancient, its origin being lost in fable.^[1495] Boats, canoes, &c., came early into vogue also; and yet Thucydides relates, that the intercourse of the rural tribes of the Hellenes was for many ages so slight 253as scarcely to merit attention. Bad roads, the absence of inns, the want of a police, the great number of robbers, were great obstacles; but the very existence of robbers attests the fact, that attempts were constantly made to extend inland commerce, though it may have been long before it was established on a solid basis.

Descending towards the historical periods we find the Æginetans first distinguishing themselves as a commercial people. Their history, as far as ancient fragments supply it, has been composed by a modern scholar^[1496] of eminence, whose researches must prove of the utmost utility to all succeeding inquirers. This people, living on a small and nearly barren island, early directed their attention to the arts, to the various processes of industry, and to commerce, the only employment suited to the nature of their soil. Too much stress has, perhaps, been laid on the situation of Ægina, which will not at all explain the commercial turn of its inhabitants, since Crete, with more abundant means, and possibly a better situation, was never very remarkable as a trading country. However, poverty and a good position combined with the genius of the people to render them commercial. They enjoyed still fewer advantages in the matter of soil even than Attica; their lands were of little value; they could neither become hunters nor shepherds; nor could even the most slender population subsist on the produce of the mines. Fishing they, probably, tried at the outset, as well as piracy, but, finding that neither led to opulence, they adopted the mercantile life; for which reason they have, with much ingenuity, been termed the Phœnicians of Greece,^[1497] though no colonies from Phœnicia ever settled in their island. The Æginetæ were already famous, however, from 254remote antiquity, as mariners, and, in the course of time, converted their whole island into an emporium.^[1498]

On the antiquity of the Æginetan trade a very curious passage occurs in Pausanias. This writer relates, that, in the time of Pompos, king of Arcadia, who flourished during the second century before the first Olympiad, Æginetan ships landed at Cyllenè, the great harbour of Elis, whence they transported their merchandise, on strings of sumpter animals, to Arcadia. The king was so much pleased with them on this account, that he named his son Æginetes, in remembrance of their traffic.^[1499] It was about this period that the Greeks first began to trade in their own bottoms, and to possess merchandise of their own. It has been observed, that in Homer the word ἔμπορος never signifies merchant, and that where mention of real merchants occurs they are always barbarians, or semi-barbarians,^[1500] Phœnicians, Cretans, Tyrsenians, Lemnians, Taphians, or Phæacians.^[1501] No Achaian or Argive is found who derived his subsistence from commerce, though there seem to be passages from which the contrary may be inferred. But in Hesiod, who lived later, and describes more homely scenes and manners, we find commerce already spoken of as a profitable employment.^[1502]

Originally, the Æginetans were led by their piratical propensities to apply themselves to maritime affairs; finding, no doubt, that robbery was an easier and more agreeable profession than any modification of industry, particularly as in those tolerant ages there was no disgrace, but the contrary, attached to it, when exercised against men of a different class. These worthy islanders, however, were impartial in their rapine. For, no sooner had they thrown off the yoke of the Epidaurians, than they 255made incursions^[1503] into their mother country, which they soon extended to the coasts of Attica; and they were, probably, the buccaneers against whom the tyrant Hippias fitted out a fleet.^[1504] Afterwards, forming an alliance with the Thebans, they plundered and devastated all the maritime towns of Attica, and even lay in ambush to intercept the sacred galley on its way to Delos.

Having been restored to their country, after the Peloponnesian war, they resumed their plundering habits, and obtained from the Spartan Ephori permission to infest the Attic coasts, which they frequently did in times of profound peace. Their taste for piracy was lasting. In the age of Demosthenes their island was a nest of pirates, and a fair for the sale of their plunder, which it continued for many centuries after.^[1505]

Reverting, however, to the trade of Ægina: its ancient traffic with Arcadia was marked by many curious circumstances. In the first place we must infer from it, as the historian of the island remarks, the existence of previous traffic elsewhere.^[1506] For, if their merchandise consisted merely of raw materials, these must still have been procured from other lands; and, if of manufactured goods, then, in addition 256to the existence of a foreign trade to supply them with the raw articles, we must suppose in them the existence of considerable skill. Again, as Pompos, the Cypselid, probably reigned at Orchomenos, they must have been able to perform long voyages by sea, and long journeys by land; though we can account for their taking the dangerous route round capes Skylleion and Malea, and the mountainous roads from Eleia to Arcadia, in preference to the shorter way from Corinthia or Argolis, only by supposing them to have been driven to it by the rivalry of the Argives and Corinthians. It must be admitted to be honourable to their ingenuity thus to have opened up a road into Arcadia, which would seem to be shut out by nature from all commerce.

With the Arcadians alone, however, could inland trade be carried on upon a large scale; among every other Hellenic people possessing sea-coasts and harbours, it degenerated into mere peddling. Hence, the Æginetans obtained the character, once possessed in this country by the Scotch, of being a nation of pedlars—sometimes travelling from village to village, with their packs; at other times settling, like the Maltese of the present day, in towns on the coast of Greece, they became corn-chandlers, vintners, toymen, or victuallers, in established shops or stalls in the agora. Hence, all kinds of humble wares, or pedlary, obtained the appellation of Æginetan wares. Like the Jews, too, both they and the Cretans (noted liars, as St. Paul^[1507] assures us) were regarded as skin-flints, and, in many cases, betook themselves to the practice of usury.^[1508]

Frequently, however, they soared above these petty arts, and became merchants on a large scale, 257trading with distant lands and acquiring very great wealth. The entire island, in Strabo’s time, was regarded as an emporium; and, even so far back as the age of Aristotle, their whole marine was employed in commerce. In some cities, he says, nearly all the shipping is engaged in one kind of service; those of Byzantium and Tarentum in the fisheries; those of Athens in war; those of Chios and Ægina as merchantmen; and those of Tenedos as transports.^[1509] It has been conjectured, not without reason, that Sostratos, the son of Leodamos, celebrated by Herodotus for his riches, was a merchant. “The Samians,” says this historian, “induced by divine command to undertake the voyage of Tartessos, brought home with them greater wealth (sixty talents) than any other Greeks ever gained by trade, if we except Sostratos, with whom no one can contend in opulence.^[1510]”

But the Æginetans also engaged in foreign trade, sending ships to Tartessos towards the west, and to the Black Sea towards the east. It is related, for example, that when Xerxes was at Abydos, he saw merchantmen sailing down the Dardanelles with corn for Ægina and the Peloponnesos,^[1511] which were stopped by his fleet with the design of taking both ships and men. But when Xerxes learned they were bound for Greece, he dismissed them, considering the corn as so much provision for his own army, which, he doubted not, would be able to subjugate the whole country. From which Müller conjectures, but without reason, that the great corn markets of the Black Sea were at that time exclusively in the hands of the Æginetans; though afterwards, during the Peloponnesian war, when Ægina fell, they passed over to the Athenians. The reason “that the Æginetans stood so much in need of the supply, that they would not have endured a rival,” could only hold good if they had the 258power to command a monopoly, which, for any length of time at least, is highly improbable, since although they are said to have been masters of the sea about the age of Darius Hystaspes,^[1512] their domination was extremely short-lived.^[1513] It would seem, however, that they were at that time in the habit of supplying the Peloponnesos with grain. Slaves they imported both from Pontos and from Crete, and it is doubtful whence they obtained the greater number. A large proportion of their exports found their way into Crete, where they had established a colony at Cydonia. Besides lying one day’s sail distant from the Peloponnesos, and that of a day and a night from Africa, this great island formed an excellent midway station between Ægina and the mouth of the Nile.

The port at which all the Greeks resided during their stay in Egypt was Naucratis in the Delta, which the Pharaohs granted them in the same way as the Chinese emperors now do Canton to the Europeans, as their only abode. Here, by permission of Amasis, such Greeks as merely traded with Egypt built altars and erected sacred enclosures in the neighbourhood of the city, though I vainly sought, when on the spot, to discover the slightest trace of them. The nine cities of Ionians, Dorians, and Æolians erected at their common expense a sacred edifice, which they called Hellenion. The Ionian cities were Chios, Teos, Phocea and Clazomenæ; the 259Dorian, Rhodes, Cnidos, Halicarnassos, and Phaselis; of the Æolian, Mitylene only. The Æginetans raised for their own use a temple to Zeus,—the Samians to Hera,—the Milesians to Apollo.^[1514] At this time, however, Naucratis was the only harbour in Egypt; and as this was pretty generally known, ships making land anywhere else were naturally suspected of being pirates; for which reason the captain was required to swear that he had come hither involuntarily. This done, he was to steer from the Canopic mouth of the Nile; or, if the weather were contrary, his cargo was conveyed round the Delta in barides to Naucratis, which the historian^[1515] understood to be done for the benefit of the foreign settlers, for so greatly, says he, was Naucratis honoured. At this time, one of the principal articles exported into Egypt by the Greeks would appear to have been wine, since all then drunk in the country was foreign, the vine not having been as yet introduced.

Of the trade of Sparta extremely little is known. In fact, until a comparatively late period, it appears to have been inconsiderable, and to have been conducted in the rudest manner possible. Each citizen, on receiving the proceeds of his lands, laid up in his storehouses what he judged sufficient for the consumption of the ensuing year, and disposed of the remainder in the Agora, not, it has been conjectured, for money, but by the ancient manner of barter.^[1516] It is said that the Lacedæmonians exhibited much ingenuity in their mode of preserving the fruits of the earth; but in what that ingenuity consisted we are not informed. They were likewise noted for the care and order with which the implements of domestic economy were kept, so that everything was ready at hand when wanted.^[1517] The fact that they had granaries 260on their estates, which were locked up and sealed, argues much greater connexion with the country, than they are supposed to have maintained; for had they never lived on those estates, it is not probable they would have left their property there, subject, as Mr. Müller^[1518] thinks, to the conscientious visits of every poor man who might choose to out-hunt his provisions.

Money, we are incessantly told, was prohibited at Sparta; but, nevertheless, it seems to have been in constant use. It is affirmed, indeed, by a writer somewhat too prone to panegyric, that “it was employed more often as a medium of comparison than of exchange; small coins were chiefly used, and no value was attributed to the possession of large quantities.”^[1519] But I do not see what is meant by employing money “as a medium of comparison;” and with regard to the value set on money by the Spartans, history incapacitates us for accepting the generous gloss of Mr. Müller. It is perhaps true that Lycurgos aimed at eradicating avarice from the Spartan breast, but, in the means to be adopted for that end, only showed his ignorance of human nature; since, though he might bring his vinegar-cooled iron medium of comparison into contempt, he could not thereby diminish the value of the things exchanged, that is of real wealth, which accordingly was estimated as highly at Sparta as elsewhere. Thus we see that poor men, not able to contribute their quota of provisions, were excluded from the common tables, which therefore resembled the hospitality and common tables of an inn,^[1520]

261The learned, with all their leaning towards scepticism, sometimes interpret too literally the language of authors in whom license and exaggeration are a merit. Thus Bœckh^[1521] conceives “that, even in the time of the Trojan war, the precious metals were well known in the Peloponnesos,” because Homer describes Menelaus as possessed of both gold and silver.^[1522] But the Achæan prince had travelled in the East, whence, according to the poet, he brought his gold, and it does not appear historically that the precious metals were “well known,” which extensive use only could render them, till some ages after the Trojan war. The Dorians, however, whatever may have been the case with the Achæans, long continued to be scantily supplied with the precious metals, which may be accounted for from their isolated mountainous country, want of industry, and aversion for all intercourse with strangers, without adopting the unphilosophical fancy, that they were instigated by a kind of argyrophobia strictly to prohibit the use of gold and silver.^[1523] Conceiving that, by cutting his people off from human intercourse, he might render them more warlike, as dogs are made savage by chaining, Lycurgos, or whoever was the author of the Spartan constitution, may have desired to keep them poor, and therefore have prohibited commerce. But even in their own domestic traffic, the necessity of some instrument of exchange was soon perceived, and iron^[1524] being as plentiful as gold and silver were scarce, he adopted the expedient of employing iron money. At first the metal was used in bars or spits (ὀβελοὶ, ὀβελίσκοι) which were stamped with some mark in 262the furnaces of Laconia, just as in other countries bars of silver or copper were used; “whence the obolos or spit and the drachma or handful received their names.”^[1525]

When the Argives, in the reign of Pheidon, abandoned the use of metallic bars, and began to coin money, the Spartans followed in their train, but still adhered to the use of iron, so that the coins which first proceeded from a Laconian mint, probably resembled quoits more than crown-pieces. Mr. Müller observes, but I know not on what authority, that the chief coin was called from its shape, and perhaps also from its size, πέλανορ, the cake used in sacrifices. If this was the case it must have been a coin of extraordinary conformation, for the pelanos resembled, in figure, a bull, horns and all,^[1526] and was habitually offered to Apollo, Artemis, the Moon, and Hecatè. This odd-looking piece of money was in value about four chalci or hemioboloi, that is, about three farthings. But such an unwieldy coinage, which, as tokens, might serve very well for the home currency, would be of no service abroad; so that when Sparta began to aim at foreign conquest, it found it necessary to set aside the ancient laws, and create a currency for effecting its purpose. A tribute was therefore imposed on the islands, and a contribution of a tenth was demanded from all those Greeks who acknowledged its supremacy.^[1527]

It seems, however, to have been intended by the legislator, that individuals should not possess gold and silver money; but the severity of the punishment^[1528] awarded transgressors, instead of proving 263how strong the hold of this ancient custom (of being without money) was upon the Spartan mind, shows the direct contrary, for there is no necessity to be severe with men who obey from habit, but with those who evince a disposition to break through all restraint. Besides, the law seems to have permitted the use of the precious metals when wrought into ornaments or articles of furniture. Offerings of gold, such as the stars of the Dioscuri, were dedicated by the state at Delphi, and statues of gold and ivory, the works of native artists, were set up within the city about the period of the Persian war.^[1529] A hundred years earlier, when the state desired to gild the face of Apollo, at Thornax, they travelled as far as Lydia^[1530] in search of the necessary gold, which wholly disproves the assumption of Bœckh mentioned above.

But after all the learned researches of modern writers, this Spartan ordinance respecting the possession of money is surrounded by insurmountable difficulties. For Sparta, unquestionably, carried on some commerce, which it could not have done without possessing a coinage of universal currency; though Mr. Müller is not authorized to state, as he does, that there was a constant export of corn from Laconia and Arcadia downwards to the coast of Corinth, since the passage in Thucydides,^[1531] on which he relies, merely relates in the words of the Corinthians, that unless they joined in the war against Athens in aid of the maritime states, they would find no market for the produce of their lands, (including corn, no doubt,) nor would they be able to import what they might stand in need of from abroad.^[1532] However, so far back as the Persian war, the Peloponnesos did not produce corn sufficient for home consumption, since we find 264it importing it from the countries of the Black Sea. It is, therefore, extremely improbable that it should have done so in the time of the Peloponnesian war, when it had grown far more populous, so that possibly among the things which ἡ θάλασση τῇ ἠπείρῳ δίδωσι corn may have been included.

It appears, therefore, that Sparta both exported and imported; but who were the agents? The state, which alone it is supposed possessed an available instrument of exchange, could not, it is argued, have carried on the trade. But wherefore? “Because it would have required a proportionate number of public officers.”^[1533] Those officers, however, might easily have been found, and, therefore, this is no reason; and that no such officers existed, our knowledge of the government is too scanty to enable us to affirm. Accordingly, it does not follow from this that the trade “was in the hands of the Periœci.” However, if such was the case, the possession of a gold and silver coinage must have been permitted to them, which at once places the great majority of the free inhabitants of Laconia in precisely the same condition as other nations in this respect. Admitting this, it will be difficult to believe that their neighbours and acquaintances, the military and ruling class, would abstain from what they enjoyed. In fact, we cannot consent to believe, that such a state of things “could not have had much influence on the Spartans, since they had not any personal connexion with the Periœci, the latter being only tributary to the state.” The reverse of all this is true, as any one might know without any other testimony than his own experience. Our countrymen in India occupy the same position as the Dorians in the Peloponnesos, and for a short time kept much aloof from the natives. But personal intercourse became inevitable, and it would now 265be absurd to say, that the wealth of the Hindûs would exercise little influence on the English, supposing the latter to be poor and proud as the Spartans. The fact of the Periœci being tributary, which seems to be offered as a reason, is no reason at all. It were far better to confess our ignorance at once, than by a series of groundless conjectures, put forward with confidence, to create a semblance of knowledge. There does not appear to be any foundation for the statement, that none but iron money was used in the Spartan market, where the landlords and their serfs disposed of the produce of their lands. On the contrary, it seems probable, that as, in many cases, it must have been sold to the Periœci for exportation, (foreigners being excluded,) the landlords would receive gold and silver unminted, perhaps, to evade the law in return. Again, the kings of Sparta, it is evident, could possess gold and silver. This, history proves so clearly that Mr. Müller is constrained to confess it. And if the kings and the Periœci, nay, even the very Helots could amass and enjoy the precious metals, and the luxuries they purchase, it is too much to suppose that the masters of the kings, of the Periœci and all, would have dwelt in ascetic forbearance in the midst of so many temptations. Besides, we constantly find the Spartans in situations in which their iron money could be of no service to them. What, for example, could it have availed them at Olympia? Yet there they were, the men in person, the women by proxy, with their horses and their chariots, and every mark and indication of wealth.

But to men travelling beyond the borders money was allowed. This sum they might expend, or they might not. If they did not, were they searched on their return, and the surplus taken from them? Otherwise men would make journeys and accumulate cash in that way. Again, we are told, that great obstacles were placed in the way of foreign travel by the necessity of obtaining 266a passport along with the travelling expenses (ἐφόδια) from the magistrates or the king, and reference is made to Herodotus. But that historian in the passage referred to is speaking of king Demaratos, who being driven from the country by his mother’s bad character, takes what money he needs for his journey, and departs without asking leave of any one.^[1534]

However, when straitened in circumstances individuals had sometimes recourse to the kings or to the state as to a bank; and that the thing was customary appears from the fact, that princes, in order to start with a popular measure, always upon their accession remitted the debts of the citizens both to themselves and to the state.^[1535] On this occasion they destroyed all the bonds or instruments of mortgage (κλάρια), bringing them into the agora, and there piling them up into a heap and setting them on fire.^[1536]

It is certain, therefore, and admitted even by Mr. Müller, that whatever may have been the intention of the original Spartan institutions, their severity was soon relaxed, and wealth with all its concomitants, introduced into the state. Even so far back as the ages before the Persian war, as we learn from the speech of Leutychides,^[1537] at Athens, foreigners found no obstacle to prevent their bringing gold and silver to Sparta, where one of the most distinguished citizens undertook the keeping of a rich Milesian’s money, whose children he afterwards endeavoured to defraud. Could he have made no use of this money he would scarcely have desired to retain it. The share of the plunder accruing to Sparta in the Persian war was evidently not confined to the public coffers, though we may possibly allow that the Persian subsidies went to the defraying of national expenses.^[1538] At all events certain 267it is that Sparta, about the time of Socrates, was by many regarded as the wealthiest state in Greece, and that not as a community, but individually, reckoning their estates in Messenia, the number of their slaves, Helots and others, their splendid studs, and vast droves of cattle. Nay, their wealth in gold and silver is particularly specified, with the additional remark, that for many ages the precious metals had been flowing into that country, both from Grecian and barbarian sources,^[1539] but that no one had ever seen any flow out, an observation which Montesquieu,^[1540] and others have applied without reflection, to Hindústân.

It exceeds our faith in human nature to believe, with Mr. Müller, that, in spite of these untoward circumstances, “the citizens maintained the same proud indigence.” History, in fact, renders inexcusable the belief in such virtue, though men occasionally arose at Sparta, as well as at Athens and elsewhere, who, with a stoical firmness, resisted the allurements of riches and pleasure. The greater number fell, and yielded themselves up with so much enthusiasm to the pursuit of gain, adding acre to acre and gold to gold, that from the Ephoralty of Epitadeus downwards, the city was infested with usurers, great capitalists, and extensive landed proprietors, who, by degrees, got into their hands the whole property of the country. Much less ingenuity than the Spartans possessed would, in fact, have enabled them to evade the old law, which seems to have immediately grown obsolete when the arts of rendering it powerless had been invented. They deposited 268their surplus wealth at Delphi, in Arcadia, and several other countries, so that if driven into exile,^[1541] of which there was always a probability, they might be able to subsist in splendour in their new country.^[1542] But these speculations sometimes failed; in the case of the Arcadians, the possession of the gold converted bankers into enemies, as, by picking a quarrel with the owners, they hoped to be able to defraud them.^[1543] Lysander, though he did not commence this practice, at least countenanced it by his example. Gylippos, inheriting from his family the thirst of gold, was condemned and starved to death, by the Ephori, for purloining public property. His father Cleandridas, in conjunction with king Pleistoanax, had accepted bribes from Pericles, and ended his days in exile.^[1544] From this period, as seems to be undeniable, the possession of gold and silver by private individuals was permitted by law, or connived at; and the Spartans proceeded, after the manner of all other nations, to divide themselves into very rich and very poor, to house together, in the same city, misery and splendour, extreme luxury and extreme want, until the common fate, foreign conquest and slavery, overtook them.

The trade which, meanwhile, was carried on by Laconia must have been at times very considerable, though there were few points on the coast provided with roadsteads, or harbours, capable of receiving ships of burden. To facilitate intercourse with foreign nations, an artificial harbour was constructed at Trinasos, around which the inhabitants of Gythium, situated on an eminence some distance inland, gradually clustered, deserting their ancient residence for one more convenient and profitable. From hence 269the productions of Laconia, which will be enumerated elsewhere, were shipped for foreign countries, Libya for example, and Egypt, whence merchandise of various kinds were obtained in return. But, as this port appears to have been little commodious or secure, the merchantmen, on their return from Africa, usually put into the island of Cythera,^[1545] where are several harbours, amongst which that of St. Nicholas, anciently Scandeia,^[1546] on the eastern coast, is sheltered and spacious, and provided with so narrow an entrance that it may at pleasure be closed with a chain. The inhabitants of this island, like those of the Laconian territories on the main, were free Lacedæmonians, who appear to have directed their attention entirely to commerce and agriculture, and the management of the productive purple fishery, carried on among the shoals and rocks encircling their island.^[1547] Besides its use in dyeing, this fish is said to have been employed as a bait in taking the pelamys, and there was, likewise, in this sea, a considerable whale fishery. The nerves of these leviathans, properly prepared, were used in stringing the psaltery, and other musical instruments, and also for bowstrings. It may, therefore, be presumed, that they formed an important article of commerce.^[1548]

Here, likewise, were quarries of porphyry,^[1549] from 270which, in earlier ages, the island is said to have obtained the name of Porphyrussa. At the distance of a mile and a quarter from Scandia stood the city of Cythera, with an Acropolis situated on a very high rock. At this place was a temple of the celestial Aphroditè, esteemed one of the most ancient in Greece,^[1550] the inhabitants having addicted themselves to the worship of this goddess, because, when she first sprang from the waves, she is said to have come floating thither on a shell of mother-of-pearl.^[1551] How many of the productions of this island passed annually into commerce cannot be known. But, it is described as abounding, in modern times, with wild asses, and deer, and hares, and quails, and turtle-doves,^[1552] which last were, of old, sacred to the goddess of the isle. Corn, also, and oil, and wine of excellent quality, were found in Cythera, though by no means in abundance. It likewise produces tragoriganon and bastard dittany. The island being thus productive, it is by no means surprising that the Spartans should have set a high value on it, and sent thither, annually, a magistrate, named Cytherodices, together with a garrison of heavy-armed men. Another advantage which Sparta derived from the possession of this island was, that it served it as a kind of defence against the incursions of pirates, commanding, in some sort, the narrow sea between Peloponnesos and Crete.

271That 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]

272In 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 273Lechæum 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]

274Much 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 275to 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.

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To speak now of the commerce of Attica, the most extensive and important in the ancient world. It is an error shared by persons in other respects above the vulgar, that a commercial people is necessarily sordid; and hence Napoleon considered it opprobrious to the English, that they are a nation, as he expressed it, of shopkeepers. There are some lessons in the science of human nature that Napoleon had not learned, among which this is one,—that the greatest, wisest, and most virtuous of mankind have risen and flourished in trading communities, and been themselves in many instances engaged in commerce. No country in the modern world has produced men of more chivalrous honour or heroic disinterestedness than England; and in antiquity the Athenians, as a community and as individuals, far outshone in wisdom, high-mindedness, and patriotism, every other people with whom we could compare them. In one word, they were the English of antiquity;—bold, adventurous, indefatigable people, equally renowned in trade, philosophy, and war. That they were less fortunate may be accounted for from their geographical position, lacking the inestimable advantage which we enjoy in being seated on an island,—a misfortune well understood by Pericles, who alludes to it in his first oration for the war.^[1570]

277No country, however fertile, produces all that its inhabitants, when advancing in civilisation, require, which tends more than any other circumstance to promote the amelioration of society; and Attica, from its comparative barrenness and very limited extent, peculiarly experienced the necessity of foreign commerce. To this accordingly the Athenians from a very early period applied themselves, and with so much success, that whatever commodities the ancient world produced were generally to be found in the greatest abundance in their city.^[1571] They enjoyed as has been already observed, most of the advantages of insular position, that is,^[1572] excellent harbours conveniently situated, in which they received supplies during all winds,^[1573] and, in addition to these, some of the compensating advantages of being situated on the continent, in facilities for inland traffic. Chief of all, however, were the blessings flowing from the wisdom, and moderation, and liberality, of its government, which rendered Athens the resort of all the enterprising and enlightened men of every other country. Its dealings with foreigners were facilitated by the purity of the coin, as the traders who did not choose to purchase merchandise might take bullion, which, as Xenophon expresses it, was a very handsome article, and of so little alloy as everywhere to pass for more than its nominal value, like the old Spanish dollars, and English gold currency in the East.^[1574] Prohibitions to export money, as Bœckh observes, were unknown in ancient times, and are only compatible with bills of exchange.^[1575]

Though war to a certain extent interfered with Athenian commerce, yet, being masters of the sea, they could generally command a plentiful supply of foreign commodities, so that many articles regarded 278as rare in other countries might be found abundantly in the warehouses of the Peiræeus. “Hither, on account of the richness of our city,” says Pericles, “are borne the products of all lands, so that we are not more familiar with the use of wheat grown in Attica than with the productions of other countries.”^[1576] So Isocrates: “the Peiræeus, has been established as an emporium in the heart of Greece, and so far excels all its rivals, that articles with difficulty met with singly in other ports may be readily found here altogether.”^[1577] And true it is, that every region of the east and island of the Mediterranean poured their productions into Attica, whence they were distributed throughout Greece. Thither were brought the magnificent carpets and fine wool of Persia, Phrygia, and Miletos; the gloves and purple of Tyre and Sidon; the fine linen of Egypt;^[1578] the gold and ivory of Africa; the pearls of India and the Red Sea;^[1579] white and black slaves, and corn, and timber, and spices, and costly wines, and perfumes from Spain, Sicily, Italy, Cypros, Lydia, the Black Sea, and the farthest regions of the east.^[1580]

This extended commerce, and the encouragement which strangers of all countries found to settle at Athens, rendered it the home of all languages and religions,^[1581] and led to the adoption of many barbarous words. But she thus created a boundless market for her own exports, whether consisting of manufactures or the surplus produce of the soil; and as we now retail to the Continental nations many productions of Eastern Asia, so the Athenians disposed, in the uncommercial countries around, of the commodities they had elsewhere collected. For example, they found a vent among the nations on the Black 279Sea for the wines of the islands and shores of the Ægean, Peparethos, Cos, Thasos, Mendè, Skionè, Lemnos, and Crete.^[1582] From a passage in Xenophon, it would appear either that Greek sailors amused themselves by reading on their voyages, or that books were exported to Pontos, for there seems to be no foundation for the suspicions that they were blank books.^[1583] “Here,” says Xenophon, speaking of the coast of Thrace, “are found numerous beds, cabinets, books, and such other things as shipmasters are accustomed to transport in chests.”^[1584] Theopompos represents the Persians as carrying books (χάρται βιβλίων) along with them in their invasion of Egypt, and the Greeks could have been scarcely less literary.^[1585] Certain, at all events, it is, that there was a book-market at Athens, probably resembling the bazars of the East, where the dealers in manuscripts kept their shops;^[1586] and thence, in all likelihood, the Greek cities on the Black Sea were supplied; and this is by no means inconsistent with the proverb respecting Hermodoros, Plato’s Sicilian publisher, who was said, contemptuously, to traffic in words; for, as he himself was one of Plato’s hearers, it may have been thought beneath him to turn trader.^[1587] Somewhat later we read of Zeno, a stranger in the city, going into a bookseller’s shop to sit down, where he finds the owner reading Xenophon, and is recommended by him to follow Crates.^[1588]

So extensive a trade as Athens carried on could not be conducted without protecting regulations, and the co-operation of a commercial police. Accordingly the government exhibited much wisdom and 280liberality in whatever related to commerce, by all means seeking to encourage enterprise and industry. Numerous officers were appointed to watch over the commercial dealings of the citizens; such as the superintendents of the harbour, ten persons appointed annually by lot; the overseers of the market, likewise ten, of whom five superintended the markets in the city, the other five, those in the Peiræeus; fifteen inspectors of weights and measures, ten of whom attended in the city, the other five those in the port; and subordinate, probably, to these were the public meters, who seem to have been Scythians, and therefore slaves of the state: their duty was to measure whatever grain was sold in the market,^[1589] for which was paid a small sum, applied, it may be supposed, to the augmentation of the revenue. Great care, in fact, was bestowed on the subject of weights and measures, and to the market regulations generally; and yet we find from the comic poets^[1590] that much fraud was occasionally committed.^[1591]

It is, by some writers, supposed that credit was at a low ebb in Greece; but this notion seems to have been formed hastily, without allowing for circumstances, as the condition of the times sufficiently accounts for the facts which suggested it; for all large and established houses are known to have possessed almost unlimited credit, since they were able, on the mere security of their name, to raise whatever money they needed; so that none, probably, but persons little known, or not known advantageously, were required to give security.^[1592] The inhabitants of certain cities, as, for example, of Phaselis, enjoyed, as we say, a bad reputation,^[1593] and were, no doubt, among those whom people refused to trust.

281If severity, however, in the laws of debtor and creditor have any tendency to support credit, the confiding portion of the community had little reason to complain at Athens, since the spirit of this branch of Athenian jurisprudence was unusually stern. The man who obtained the loan of money and fraudulently withheld his security, was deemed to have committed a capital offence, nor could his high rank or honourable connexions skreen him from punishment.^[1594] For it was considered, observes the orator, that an offender of this description not only defrauded the individuals with whom he dealt, but also made an attempt against the sources of public prosperity, commercial operations depending not on the borrower but on the lender, without whose coöperation no ship, or captain, or passenger, can move. On which account the most effective protection was afforded them by law.

Merchants and sea-captains were also defended by very severe enactments against false accusers, who, upon conviction, were heavily fined, and, in default of payment, deprived of the rights of citizenship.^[1595] Causes of this kind were tried in the Commercial Court of the Nautodikæ, which was also empowered to examine the claims of citizens accused of foreign extraction.^[1596] The causes were introduced by the Thesmothetæ, and in lawsuits between citizens of different nations, by virtue of 282a particular agreement, there existed an appeal from one state to the other.^[1597] Nothing more clearly shows the consideration in which nautical and mercantile affairs were held at Athens, than the laws which regulated the proceedings of this court: in the first place, not to interrupt the course of business and occasion loss to individuals, the Nautodikæ sat during the winter months, from September till March, when navigation was usually suspended. At first, indeed, they did not commence their sittings till January;^[1598] but this was found inconvenient, the decision of the court being frequently delayed till late in the spring or summer, to the great loss and detriment of the litigants. Consequences still more disastrous, perhaps, ensued when the cause stood over till the ensuing winter, when, as new judges would be appointed, the whole business had to be commenced de novo. To remedy this evil a plan of reform was conceived by Xenophon,^[1599] but with nothing like a statesman’s views, its chief merit consisting in proposing a prize to be awarded to the most able and expeditious judge. His scheme, however, may have had the merit of fixing the attention of wiser men upon the subject, which at length produced the monthly suits to which belonged all causes concerning trade-clubs, dowries, and mines.^[1600] Upon the introduction of this improvement in the practice of the commercial court the advantage proposed by Xenophon was fully obtained, since causes could not, as some have imagined, stand over from month to month, but must absolutely be decided within the term.^[1601] The more completely to protect and advance the interests of commerce, each state had its consul^[1602] (προξένος) who represented 283the interests of his country, and, like our own consuls in the Levant, was bound to receive and entertain such citizens as arrived at the port where he resided. Besides, when a merchant or trader died abroad, it was part of the consul’s duty to take charge of his property, and transmit immediately to his friends an account of what had taken place, with the necessary particulars.^[1603] Occasionally, however, very improper persons obtained this respectable and, no doubt, lucrative situation, as the man Lycidas, formerly one of Chabrias’s slaves, who contrived, by intrigue, to be appointed consul of Messina; and Dionysios, a man of like origin and character, and by birth a Megarean, who enjoyed the honour of representing Athens at Megara.^[1604]

It has been made a question, whether or not perfect freedom of trade existed among the ancients, and upon the whole it appears, that among the Athenians, at least, no unwise or vexatious interference habitually took place.^[1605]

Bœckh remarks that, in the plan of Xenophon for restoring the revenue, no allusion is made to the removal of onerous restrictions on trade; from which it may be inferred that none such existed. Heeren^[1606] is clearly of this opinion: “nothing was known of the balance of trade, and consequently all the violent measures resulting from it were never devised by the Greeks. They had duties as well as the moderns; but these duties were exacted only for the sake of increasing the public revenue, not to direct the efforts of domestic industry by the prohibition of certain wares. There was no prohibition of the exportation of the raw 284produce; no encouragement of manufactures at the expense of the agriculturist. In this respect, therefore, there existed a freedom of industry, commerce, and trade. And such was the general custom. As every thing was decided by circumstances, and not by theories, there may have been single exceptions, and perhaps single examples, where the state for a season usurped a monopoly. But how far was this from the mercantile and restrictive system of the moderns!”

This it appears to me is the philosophical view of the matter, which is not modified materially by the remarks of Bœckh. No doubt the interests of the state were regarded as paramount, comprehending, as in just states they do, the interests of all individuals; but for this very reason they would, to the best of their knowledge, beware of interfering capriciously or unnecessarily with private interests, since a prosperous community cannot be constituted of unprosperous members. Mr. Bœckh seems, with all his learning and acuteness, to misapprehend the political theory of the ancients, and to imagine that, because the right of governments to regulate the actions of individuals was recognized, they might safely do so on all occasions without rhyme or reason. But in this he is certainly in error. The object of government was understood then as well as it is now; so that I am apt to think that the erudite professor advances, in the following passage, a doctrine which would have met with but a cold reception among the Athenians, though adopted literally by the historians of the Doric race: “Not in Crete and Lacedæmon alone, two states completely closed up, and from their position unsusceptible of free trade, but generally throughout the whole of Greece, and even under the free and republican government of Athens, the poorest as well as the richest citizen was convinced that the state had the right of claiming the whole property of every individual; 285any restriction in the transfer of this property, regulated according to circumstances, was looked upon as just, nor could it properly be considered an infringement of justice before the security of person and property was held to be the sole object of government; a light under which it never was viewed by any of the ancients.”^[1607]

It would be difficult to select from any writer, ancient or modern, a passage more abounding than this with erroneous conclusions. Neither Lacedæmon nor Crete was excluded by its position from the advantages of free trade; and at Athens there was no citizen, however poor or ignorant, who acknowledged in the state any such right as Mr. Bœckh speaks of, except for the purpose of providing for the general safety, in which case it would be as cheerfully acknowledged in every modern community. While penning the concluding sentence, Mr. Bœckh must have been thinking of the despotic governments of Germany. An Englishman considers the preservation of his political rights as much an object of government as the protection of his person or his property, and would as strenuously contend for it, in which feeling he resembles the Athenian. But I will not permit even this theme to tempt me from the matter in hand.

There can be no difficulty in admitting that, as the very existence of commerce, properly so called, depends on the existence of political communities, the state has a right to interfere, under certain circumstances, with the movements of commerce. For example, merchants may justly be prevented by the laws from furnishing their country’s enemy with arms, with ammunition, with provisions, in short, with any article whatsoever, which, by strengthening the hands of the foe, may tend to the detriment of their own community. Again, in famines and scarcities, the law of self-preservation authorizes states to restrain 286the exportation of articles absolutely required for home consumption; because distress produces discontent and tumult and insurrection, and may thus endanger the very existence of the government itself. Prohibitions to export, originating in such motives, are perfectly defensible. But so much can scarcely be said for monopolies, which were not unknown to the Greeks, though it is not denied that they were of short duration.^[1608] “It can, however, be safely asserted,” says Mr. Bœckh, “that no republic ever demanded of its citizens that they should furnish commodities to the state in specific quantities, and at prices arbitrarily fixed at a low rate, with a view to secure to itself a monopoly: such a demand could only have been enforced in countries under the government of a tyrant.”^[1609] The folly, as well as the wickedness, of such despotic interference, I witnessed in the depopulation and misery of Egypt, which at length proceeded so far as to alarm the Pasha himself, and produce some amelioration of his vicious system.

It is, no doubt, possible, that many monopolies of which we know nothing may have existed in antiquity;^[1610] but it will be quite evident that, upon such possibility, it would be useless to reason. The monopolies which we know to have existed were few, and of short duration. Aristotle, while observing what advantages both individuals and states sometimes derived from them, attributes a better policy to Athens. He gives two or three examples of private monopolies, the well-known story of Thales and the oil-presses, and that of a man who bought up all the iron^[1611] at Syracuse, and adds, that, in great pecuniary straits, governments were sometimes found to imitate them.^[1612] Thus, at a late period of their history, the Athenians are supposed to have monopolised the lead obtained from the silver mines of 287Laureion, which they did, we are told, at the instigation of Pythoclos; that is, they bought it up at the usual price of two drachmas the commercial talent, and sold it at six drachmas.^[1613] At Rome the price was higher. As there can be little doubt that the lead was for exportation, no injury was inflicted on individuals. With respect to the monopoly granted by the Byzantines to a banker, it may be observed, that it was only one of the many shifts to which the nakedness of their treasury compelled them to have recourse. The list is given in the second book of the Economics, and is not without interest. I would not affirm that their contrivances were innocent.^[1614] Again, the Selymbrians, in a period of public difficulty, constituted themselves monopolists in a manner which Mr. Bœckh might fearlessly have pronounced “less defensible.” By law they were not permitted to export in times of scarcity; but being in want of money, they decreed that the state should purchase all the old stock at a fixed price, leaving individuals sufficient for their yearly consumption, after which they sold the surplus at a higher price, with permission to export.^[1615]

It is difficult to say what men will agree to consider “perfect freedom of trade;” but it appears to me, that commerce was as unshackled at Athens as it could have been consistently with the welfare of the community. Mr. Bœckh says, “There are abundant proofs that exportation and importation were regulated according to the exigencies and interests of the community, which is by no means consistent 288with the perfect freedom of trade.”^[1616] There appears to lurk a fallacy in this. Such freedom as this writer would call perfect is inconsistent with the very existence of civil society, whose fundamental laws require that no man’s freedom shall trench upon the freedom, and still less upon the life, of another. But if in commerce the exigencies and interests of the community could have been set at nought, there would have been an end of such community, since frequently its well-being, if not its being, depended on its commercial relations with foreign states.

So far, therefore, it must, doubtless, be admitted, that commerce was not free. To this extent, and no further, does Aristotle counsel or contemplate interferences with trade: “With regard to importation and exportation,” he says, “it is necessary to know how large a supply of provisions the state requires, and what proportion of them can be produced in the country and what imported, and what imports and exports are necessary for the state, in order that commercial treaties and agreements may be concluded with those of whom the state must make use for this purpose.”^[1617]

With regard to the prohibition to export attributed to Solon, it is necessary either to abandon the subject altogether, or to understand it in the contrary sense to that usually given. Plutarch, as his text now stands, tells a very strange story, observing, that the exportation of every thing but oil was prohibited by Solon, and therefore he adds, it is not wholly improbable that figs also were prohibited.^[1618] I understand the matter differently. Solon, probably observing that Attica, at that time, produced barely sufficient oil for its own consumption, prohibited its exportation, though as agriculture improved, the law fell into desuetude, and oil became a principal export. From this example, Plutarch 289thinks it not improbable, that figs also may at some time or another have been prohibited. The matter is thus clear and natural. Besides, the Scholiast on Pindar, alluding no doubt to some particular period, observes, that the exportation of oil was not permitted.^[1619] It is therefore surprising that Bœckh should have laid any stress at all on so contradictory a passage, without endeavouring to restore it, particularly as Solon was himself a merchant and a transgressor of his supposed law. That the exportation of corn should not have been allowed is both intelligible and reasonable, as Attica never produced sufficient for its own consumption; and they were not disposed to adopt the system of the modern Tuscans, who would sell their own corn to the English, and subsist on an inferior sort from the Black Sea, if indeed it be inferior.^[1620]

Certain commodities were, however, undoubtedly not allowed to be exported, as for example, timber, tar, wax, rigging, and “leathern bottles, articles which,” as Bœckh observes, “were particularly important for the building and equipment of the fleet.”^[1621] But the word which this distinguished scholar conceives to mean “leathern bottles,” had a very different signification, and meant that leathern defence through which the oars passed, and which was designed to keep the sea from rushing in at the row-port. This we gather as well from the scholiast on Aristophanes,^[1622] as from several passages of Pollux overlooked by Bœckh. This writer observes, that the leathern defence of the row-port was called ἄσκωμα,^[1623] and elsewhere he says that a woman’s breast, when full of milk, was also so 290called;^[1624] from which we may conjecture what form the askoma assumed, when the oar forced it outwards during the act of rowing. Nor do I suppose that such prohibition existed only during time of war, for it would have been equally imprudent to furnish such articles to men preparing for war, as men always are in peace, as to such as were actually engaged in it. From a passage in Theophrastus, it has been inferred that permission to export timber for ship-building was sometimes granted free of duty to individuals; but as it is the Boaster who makes the assertion, adding that, to avoid envy, he never made use of it,^[1625] it may be regarded as no less a joke than the reason for prohibiting lamp-wicks from Bœotia, viz., that they might set the fleet on fire!^[1626]

The prohibition to export arms during war to the country of the enemy, and that under pain of death,^[1627] was an obvious measure of self-defence. In time of peace, however, the trade in arms was as free as any other trade; and the Athenians imported from their neighbours, the Bœotians, helmets,^[1628] in the manufacture of which this people excelled. No doubt, as states derive the sinews of war, in part at least, from commerce, the Athenians had the sagacity to attack their enemies in the vulnerable point of their pride, for the purpose of bringing them the sooner to reason. They thus, too, taught the inferior states, such as Megara and Bœotia, that Athens was independent of them in all respects, while it was for them to 291consider whether they were equally independent of her.^[1629] Thus the Ocean Queen of antiquity was said to exercise (as Great Britain formerly) a despotic sway over trade; as when, for example, she exacted a tenth from all ships sailing to or from the Black Sea;^[1630] though in this, as in all human affairs, the despotism^[1631] arose naturally from the possession of superior power, and could scarcely have been guarded against. To weaken the enemy by every possible means was the object of a wise policy; so that in contemplating every coast belonging to a power not in alliance with Athens as in a state of blockade,^[1632]—in seizing, capturing, or detaining, all vessels of every description by which her interests could be infringed, Athens only acted in self-defence. That she was hated for her superiority we need not be surprised, who know with what heart-burnings and secret aversion our own maritime supremacy has ever been beheld by the nations of the Continent, who repeat against us all the accusations anciently muttered by the surrounding states against Athens.

Utopian speculators, reading history in their easy chairs, find it facile to condemn the measures of ancient statesmen. But allowing them to have been reprehensible, it remains to be seen whether, in the same circumstances, we could have carried any better into execution; for the ability to imagine better is nothing, unless we suppose that events always allow men to act up to their knowledge. However this may be, the Athenian government found itself compelled by its position sometimes to interfere with the course of trade; but it may well be doubted whether any other freedom of trade than there existed be either possible or desirable. For, both commerce, and every other mode in which the energies of a nation can develope themselves, should no otherwise 292exist than as they are beneficial to the nation at large; and of this the managers of public business ought always to be better judges than merchants or speculators, who only consider their own interests, which may not always be identical with those of the state. I am far, however, from designing to maintain that the commercial regulations of Athens were in no case oppressive. Perhaps in the matter of the corn-trade they were so; and yet much may be said for a populous city surrounded by a barren country, and therefore solicitous about its own subsistence. Let us examine those regulations. According to the letter of the law, which was often transgressed, no inhabitant of Athens could land a cargo of corn anywhere but on the Peiræeus; but, arrived there, and the necessities of the state provided for, the remainder could be disposed of elsewhere. This was the full amount of the grievance, if it ought to be so called.

With respect to the law which is supposed to have restrained capitalists from lending money on any vessel not returning to Athens with corn or other commodities, it would be highly unreasonable, with Mr. Bœckh, to denominate it “excessively oppressive,” until we understand it.^[1633] For my own part, until something better be proposed, I must adopt the interpretation of Salmasius, that it was not permitted to lend money for the purpose of buying corn in other countries except upon the condition, that that corn should be imported into Athens.^[1634] There no doubt are difficulties attending this view of the matter; but this is equally the case in whichever way we understand it. It may have been that, in order to render Athens as far as possible the emporium of the world, the law required that money should not be lent to merchants or supercargoes, unless it was their intention to return 293thither with a lading, whether of corn or some other commodity. But even this seems very doubtful.

But, by whatever laws this branch of trade was regulated, no doubt can exist as to its extent and importance. For, as the population of Attica had, at a very early period, outgrown the means of subsistence supplied by the country itself, the republic found itself constrained to depend for the primary article of food upon the productions of foreign states, to the amount of nearly one-third of its whole consumption; that is to say, while there were grown at home two hundred and ninety-two thousand three hundred and ninety-two quarters, as may be proved by calculation,^[1635] there were imported a hundred and eighteen thousand quarters in the age of Demosthenes. Earlier its importation of corn was still more considerable, when the greater part of the supply was obtained from Eubœa, by the way of Oropos and the pass of Deceleia.^[1636]

Of the hundred and eighteen thousand quarters abovementioned, about sixty thousand were obtained from the countries on the Black Sea, chiefly from Theodosia, now Kaffa,^[1637] in the Crimea, the remainder 294from Thrace, the islands of the Ægæan, Egypt, and Sicily.^[1638]

Yet the people of Athens were subject to few scarcities; and those they experienced happened in later times, when their enemies had acquired the superiority at sea. For so long as this state attended to her own navy and maintained her maritime supremacy, there was never, I believe, a deficiency of the grain in Peiræeus,^[1639] though attempts were frequently made by the corn-dealers to create a monopoly and extort famine prices from the public,^[1640] for which they were sometimes punished with death. Numerous proofs of the ease with which Athens could provision herself, occurred during the latter years of the Peloponnesian war, and the age immediately succeeding. Thus, when the Spartans, with their king Agis, were in possession of the pass of Deceleia, and ravaged habitually the whole territory of Attica, they felt that even the occupation of that important post was scarcely of any avail to them so long as Athens remained mistress of the sea, since they daily saw numbers of corn ships from all parts of the Levant, sailing into the Peiræeus.^[1641] Afterwards, when the Spartans had begun to apply themselves to naval affairs, one of their first endeavours was to distress Attica, by attacking her corn ships, as on the occasion when Pollis sought to capture the transports in the neighbourhood of Geræstos, which however were relieved by the fleet under Chabrias.^[1642]

No inconvenience was ever experienced from the reluctance of the corn-growing states to export their 295produce. On the contrary, the petty kings of the countries on the Euxine were so anxious to secure to themselves the custom of Athens, that they conferred on that state numerous privileges and made her great presents, in order to tempt her corn ships into their harbours and prevent the application to rival states. It may indeed be said, that peace was scarcely ever interrupted between Athens and the exporting countries, and that not through the Athenians truckling to them to obtain their corn, but through their truckling to the Athenians to be allowed to supply them. Thus, as far as the experience of antiquity can be relied on, it must be concluded, that the country which purchases agricultural produce invariably exercises a paramount influence over the countries which supply it. It is in fact a rule all the world over, that it is the customer who coerces the dealer, not the dealer who influences the customer.

But, further, this immense importation of grain did not throw any of the lands of Attica, however poor and barren, out of cultivation.^[1643] On the contrary, the powers of the soil were still taxed to the utmost, and the processes of agriculture carried to a much higher degree of perfection than in any other part of Greece.^[1644] In fact, with its vineyards, the whole of Attica resembled a continued garden up to the very walls of the city.^[1645] From which, as well as from positive testimony, it appears evident, that the Athenians always retained their partiality for rural labours,^[1646] notwithstanding the extent to which the manufacturing system was carried among them. The cultivation of the soil has, indeed, so many charms for mankind, that they will never desert it so long as it is able to provide for their wants. Men become manufacturers only when they can no longer live by agriculture.

296It should, perhaps, he added, that of the grain imported into the Peiræeus the surplus was frequently exported to other parts of Greece, when the wants of the commonwealth had been properly supplied, and that a slight fixed duty, for the sake of revenue, appears to have been always levied on imported grain.^[1647]

But this necessary of life was not generally paid for in specie. On the contrary, it was with manufactures that Greece purchased the corn of the rude nations on the Euxine, whom, by her trade, she gradually reclaimed from barbarism, inoculated with a taste for harmless luxuries, and, at length, even for Hellenic literature.^[1648]

In one case we find that the Nomadic Scythians applied themselves to the cultivation of the soil, and, of course, became stationary merely for the purpose of supplying Greece with corn.^[1649] Again, in the later ages of the Roman republic, when a corn-field was a rarity in Italy, which had been almost entirely converted by the nobility into gardens and pleasure-grounds,^[1650] Sicily, Egypt, and other agricultural countries of the Levant, furnished so ample a supply of grain, that scarcity was never experienced, except when the public officers were grossly negligent of their duty. In fact, the carrying trade devolved upon the Phœnicians, who, to a great extent subsisting by it alone, were necessarily most careful, for their own sake, to keep up the supply.^[1651] Had the Romans been themselves a commercial people, like the English, their traffic might have been still better regulated.

To return, however: it is admitted, that liberal as, upon the whole, the principles of trade were in antiquity, those of the Athenians were the most so of any.^[1652] The Argives and Æginetans, at one 297period, prohibited the importation of Athenian manufactures, particularly their pottery, or, at least, prohibited the use of them in religious ceremonies, though up to that period they had been allowed. The object, of course, was to bring their own earthenware into use, Argos,^[1653] especially, possessing a manufacture which at length rivalled that of Attica itself. It is regarded as a mark of ancient simplicity, that neither gold nor silver, nor jewelled plate, but fictile vases merely, were originally employed in making libations to the gods.^[1654]

The same principles which regulated maritime commerce governed also the intercourse which nations carried on by land. It would, therefore, be unreasonable to look for what is, oddly enough, denominated “unrestricted freedom,” since, without at all admitting that “the police mixed itself with everything,” we cannot deny that the state, in this, as in all other respects, sought to advance its own interests. Foolish attempts were sometimes made to bring down the price of certain necessaries, as salt, an example of which is mentioned by Aristophanes; but the law was soon abrogated.^[1655] Had the state been disposed to interfere tyrannically in anything, it would have been where corn was concerned. It is, however, admitted by Bœckh, who has taken the wrong side on this question, that in this article “we certainly find a great freedom of prices,” though the law interfered to prevent the evil consequences to the public of combinations among corn-dealers for the purpose of creating a monopoly.^[1656]

In general, the business of retail-dealing in the market was confined by law to the citizens, but this was not always rigidly enforced, since we find Egyptians, Phœnicians, and other foreigners, had 298their stalls there, for which, it would appear, they paid a distinct duty.^[1657] They were more especially found among the fishmongers and dealers in small wares. But, in the Peiræeus, the number of foreign traders greatly exceeded that of the natives. For their use, moreover, a species of exchange (δεῖγμα) was created, whither they brought specimens of their merchandise for exhibition, the place being usually crowded with buyers from all the neighbouring countries. This was, possibly, the most striking scene in Greece, crowded with merchants from the East, in their gorgeous and varied costumes, intermingled with Greeks of all classes, and gay women who came hither to see and be seen.^[1658]

On the prices of things in antiquity, compared with those at present prevailing, we have only one way of judging, and that is by ascertaining whether a greater degree of labour was required to provide the necessaries of life. The contrary was certainly the case in Attica, which, nevertheless, was, probably, the most expensive place of residence in the world. Even the slaves would appear to have enjoyed more leisure and exemption from toil than the industrious classes of our own most industrious community: and the citizens themselves, with their numerous festivals and amusements, public and private, evidently devoted a far greater proportion of their time to pleasure than would now be possible to any save the opulent. This, in fact, resulted from the moderate custom duties charged by the state, but much more from the superior fertility of the soil, which yielded greater returns for less labour, and from the comparative fewness 299of unproductive inhabitants. In modern language, the supply was greater in proportion to the demand. Still, it appears quite certain, that, though the duties laid on by the state were moderate, the merchants and retail dealers made very great profits. “This,” as Bœckh observes, “is sufficiently proved by the high rate of interest on money lent upon bottomry, in which thirty per cent for one summer was not unfrequently paid.”^[1659]

I am not quite sure that, as a general rule, “a high rate of interest and profit is an infallible sign that industry and trade are yet in their infancy,” and still less that lowness of interest is a sign of a flourishing country.^[1660] On the contrary, I should infer, from the former, that trade was in that healthy state in which it is scarcely a speculation; and, from the latter, that its current had become stagnant. However, a high interest was paid, and great profits were made in antiquity. Of this a striking example is furnished by Herodotus. A Samian ship trading with Egypt was, by some accident, led to push its way westward, as far as Tartessos, in Iberia, antecedent to the period at which the Greeks began to trade regularly with that port.^[1661] What the nature and value of its cargo may have been is not known, any more than the articles which it received in exchange. The conjecture, however, that it received silver at a low rate, as the Phœnicians anciently did, is not improbable. At all events, the merchants engaged in this adventure cleared upon that one cargo the sum of sixty talents, of which, in pious gratitude, they dedicated a tenth to Hera the tutelar goddess of their island. And this historian adds, that, with the exception of Sostratos of Ægina, the most fortunate of mercantile adventurers, no Grecian merchant had ever up to his time made so successful a voyage.

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As the art of navigation was not invented by the Greeks, it will be in this place unnecessary to inquire very minutely into its rude beginnings. Most maritime tribes doubtless discovered for themselves the means of traversing such rivers, and creeks, and bays, and arms of the sea, as lay in their immediate neighbourhood and impeded their communication, whether hostile or friendly, with the various tribes on their borders. Another motive, moreover, which probably tempted men to trust themselves very early upon the waters, was the desire to regale on those dainty fish which abound on nearly all shores, and constitute among the most savage nations an important article of food. It will readily be believed that history cannot pretend to name the individual who in any country first launched his raft or canoe upon the deep. Nevertheless, tradition among the Phœnicians, endeavoured to supply the defect of history. Ousoös, we are told,^[1662] a primitive Arab hero, observing the trunk of a large tree overthrown, perhaps by a hurricane, near the shore, lopped off the branches, set it afloat, and committed himself along with it to the mercy of the waves. He had very soon an abundance of imitators. In every part of the Red Sea, on the Nile, the Indus, and the Persian Gulf, hardy navigators made their appearance, who undertook voyages more or less hazardous, in piraguas constructed of a 301single bamboo, or the shell of a vast tortoise, or of a wicker-work frame covered with leather^[1663]—the coracles of our British ancestors still in common use on many streams in Wales. Occasionally, too, more especially on the rivers and shores of the Euxine, capacious, long, and sturdy barks^[1664] were scooped out of the trunks of enormous trees, which were denominated Monoxyla, and seem to have been at one time or another in general use all over the world from the island of Australasia to the Arctic Circle. A specimen of those employed by our own forefathers may be seen in the colonnade of our national Museum. On the Nile were several kinds of barks peculiar to Egypt, such for example, as those which were plaited from the papyrus plant,^[1665] or from rushes. Most extraordinary of all, however, were their boats of earthenware, in which, furnished both with sails and oars, they glided over the serene bosom of the river.

As soon as the Greeks began to apply themselves to maritime affairs, they constructed ports and docks in various parts of the country, where they built numerous ships, rude enough at first, perhaps; but improving by experience and study^[1666] they in time equalled, and at length surpassed, the Phœnicians, by whom at the outset they may perhaps have been instructed. Among the greatest difficulties they had to encounter was the scarcity of ship-timber, for which they were always compelled greatly to depend on other countries. The materials, however, being collected, their shipwrights appear to have proceeded in much the same manner 302as those of modern times, laying down the keel, fixing in the ribs, planking, decking, caulking, and pitching, until the hull was completed.

In their war-galleys,^[1667] constructed under the superintendence of a naval architect elected by lot, they exhausted all the resources of art in their endeavours to communicate to them the greatest beauty of form and splendour of appearance. Painting, carving, and gilding,^[1668] were called in to cover both stern and prow with images and ornaments of the most fanciful kinds, glowing with bright blue or vermilion,^[1669] intermingled with scrolls and flourishes of other colours, and figures of burnished gold. Occasionally beneath the rim of the prow were bright cerulean bands,^[1670] painted in encaustic and defended by so durable a varnish that they could neither be blistered by the sun, nor dimmed by the action of the sea-water. In this part, beneath the roots as it were of the acrostolion, were placed those ornaments resembling eyes, one on either side, over which the name of the ship was written.^[1671] The sweep of the deck was a gentle curve, the lowest dip of which was at the ship’s waist. On the poop stood a deep alcove in which the pilot took his station,^[1672] protected in a great degree from wind and weather, and having over his head a large lantern, in which a bright light was kindled at nightfall.

Firm and lofty bulwarks rose along the ship’s sides, protecting the mariners from being swept off in tempests by the passing surge. On the bows again, there was usually a square tower furnished with lofty portals, through which the combatants, 303protected from annoyances on both flanks, poured, in close fight, their darts into the enemy’s ship, or rushed forward to board it. At the very front of the prow, where our bowsprit is now placed, arose an elegant winding scroll, which though projecting slightly beyond the hull, could never touch the corresponding part of the enemy’s galley until the iron or brazen beaks^[1673] below had met and shattered each other. The rudder^[1674] consisted of two paddles placed one on either side of the ship, which was impelled along by oar and sail. The row-ports of these galleys being somewhat capacious might, if left open, have shipped a great deal of water, on which account they were furnished with strong leather bags, in form like a woman’s breast, projecting outwards, nailed to the circle of the row-port, and fitting tight about the oar. The rowers, to render their condition more comfortable, were furnished with cushions or soft-dressed fleeces.^[1675]

The merchantmen differed considerably both in form and general arrangements from the war-galleys. As in our own ships of burden, under the old system of admeasurement, the hull instead of sinking down sharp towards the keel, bellied outwards at the sides, so as to render the bottom almost 304flat. They were very much shorter, moreover, in proportion to their height than ships of the line,^[1676] which, from their slender elongated figure, obtained the appellation of long galleys. In trading vessels,^[1677] much greater stress was laid on sails than on oars, since the crews could never be sufficiently numerous to furnish constantly fresh relays of rowers; and, in their protracted voyages, it would have been impossible for the same men to remain perpetually on the benches. The masts consequently were here of very great height, equalling, according to rule, the length of the ship, which rendered it practicable to crowd an immense quantity of canvass, but at the same time rendered them liable to capsize in a heavy gale, as is still the case with the Levant-built ships, which are generally much taller rigged than ours. They commonly gave a greater length to the hull of transports, though not altogether so great as to ships of war. Pirate luggers were always built without decks,^[1678] and extremely low that they might be the better able to approach their prey unperceived. Their sloops, smacks, and lighters,^[1679] together with all the other small craft employed in the coasting trade, exhibited every variety of form, but appear to have been generally stout-built and well-appointed.

Respecting the tonnage and dimensions of the largest class of merchantmen, we possess little positive information. It would appear, however, that in comparison with the vessels engaged in the corn-trade, between Alexandria and Italy,^[1680] they were of 305very moderate burden, since the appearance of one of those large ships in the Peiræeus excited general astonishment. The size of this Egyptian trader, which seems to have been no way distinguished from others engaged in the same traffic, may perhaps assist the imagination in forming some definite idea of an ancient merchantman: its length, from stem to stern, was one hundred and eighty feet, its breadth nearly fifty, and its clear depth in the hold about forty-five. It was furnished with one enormous mast, with yards in proportion, and a capacious mainsail, composed of numerous tiers of ox-hides. The cables and anchors, capstains, windlasses, with all the other appurtenances of a ship, were on a suitable scale, while the crew was so numerous as to be compared to an army. In the stem were airy and spacious cabins, above which rose the gilded figure of a goose. On either side of the bows stood an image of Isis,^[1681] bending over the waves and appearing to afford her divine protection to those who had chosen her for their tutelar goddess. Among the Greeks, however, the place assigned to the tutelar divinity was sometimes the stern, where oaths were taken, expiations made, prayers and sacrifices offered up, and where such of the crew as had committed any offence took sanctuary. On the top of the mast was a vane^[1682] of burnished metal which, turning and flashing in the sun, appeared like a streak of flame. As their ships, more especially during long voyages, ran perpetual risk of being assailed by pirates, they were abundantly supplied with all kinds of arms 306and implements of war, which were ranged along the cabin partitions and elsewhere with so much order and regularity, that they could always, by night or day, be found at a moment’s warning.

It was by very slow advances that the ancients arrived at that high degree of excellence in the art of ship-building, which, in the most flourishing ages of Greece, its maritime states exhibited. In the Homeric age, the largest vessels known were of very moderate burden, since even the poet, who would doubtless allow himself some licence, speaks of no transport which could carry more than one hundred and fifty men. These barks, too, Thucydides thinks, were undecked, like the pirate vessels of his own times, and indeed in ours also, in most parts of the Ægæan, though I have myself sailed in a large Greek brig, of piratical construction, which carried several guns, and was not only decked, but so admirably built, that after labouring ten days in a storm, she made not an inch more water than when in port.

The various stages in improvement have not been marked. They went on, however, each age excelling that which had preceded it, until at length having reached the utmost perfection of which their system was susceptible, they began to apply their skill to the creation of huge fabrics merely for show and magnificence, and calculated rather for the gratification of an insane luxury than for the genuine purposes of trade. One of these naval monsters was constructed at Syracuse under the eye of Archimedes, and at the expense of king Hiero.

Having procured from the forests of Mount Ætna timber sufficient for the building of sixty triremes, together with a variety of other materials from Italy, Spain, and Gaul, as crooked timber for ribs, hard wood for pegs, with pitch and hemp, and Spanish broom^[1683] for cables, he assembled a sufficient number of ship-wrights, 307with Archias, the Corinthian, at their head, and set them to work under the inspection of Archimedes, though he himself spent the greater part of his day overlooking the workmen at the dock. When in about six months the planking had been carried to about half the height of the hull, and properly sheathed with lead in lieu of the copper at present employed, the ship was launched^[1684] by means of a machine, invented for the purpose by Archimedes, into a sort of floating dock, where it was completed in other six months. The planks were fastened to the ribs with copper bolts, of which some were of ten and others fifteen pounds’ weight, passed through holes prepared for them by the auger; and over the heads of these bolts plates of lead were fixed, having been first lined, as it were, with a layer of wadding steeped in pitch.

They next proceeded to the interior arrangements, the explanation of which is replete with difficulty. The whole depth of the ship seems to have been divided into four stories, of which the lowest, or hold, was filled by the cargo; the second, descended to by long flights of steps, was appropriated to the rowers, who were ranged in twenty banks; the third was laid out in cabins for the use of the crew, while the military officers and the men occupied the uppermost. The kitchen was situated in the stern.

All these cabins were adorned with pavements in mosaic, representing in a long series of compartments 308the entire action of the Iliad; while the furniture, doors, and ceilings were furnished with proportionate splendour and elegance. On the upper deck was a gymnasium, exactly proportioned to the dimensions of the ship, together with a number of walks running through the midst of gardens laid out on leaden terraces, and containing all kinds of odoriferous plants and flowers. All these alleys were arched with trellis-work, overlaid with the intermingled foliage of the white-ivy and the vine growing out of troughs filled with earth, arranged along the promenades, and watered like other gardens. In a different part of the ship was a magnificent apartment called the Aphrodision, furnished with three couches, and having a pavement variegated with agates, and all the richest and most beautiful marbles of Sicily. It was wainscotted and roofed with cypress, while its doors were of Atlantic citron-wood inlaid with ivory. On all sides, moreover, it was adorned with pictures and statues and vases and goblets, of the most fanciful and varied forms. Contiguous to this chamber was the library, furnished with five couches and store of books. Its doors and wainscot were of box, and on its roof was a sun-dial, constructed in imitation of that in the Achradina. There was also a bath, in which were three couches, and three caldaria of bronze, together with a basin containing five metretæ, lined with Taurominian marble of various colours. There were numerous cabins fitted up for the soldiers and the crew, from whom was selected a number of persons whose sole business it was to superintend the pumps.^[1685] The ship likewise contained twenty stables, ten on either hand, well supplied with fodder, and every convenience for the grooms.

In the bows was a prodigious reservoir of fresh-water, lined with tarpaulin, and kept under lock and key; and near it lay the piscina or fish-pond, overlaid with lead, and filled with sea-water, in which 309was preserved an ample supply of fish for a long voyage. On projecting galleries, extending along the ship’s sides, were situated the wood-house, the kitchen, the bake-house, the mills, and other conveniences. At different distances along the sides were ranged numerous figures of Atlas, nine feet in height, supporting the triglyphs and the projecting portions of the ship: its whole surface, moreover, was adorned with suitable paintings.

There arose from the deck eight towers, two on the stern, two on the prow, and four in the ship’s waist, in diameter and elevation proportioned to the dimensions of the whole. From the outer battlements of each of these turrets projected two immense beams, hollowed out like troughs, which being balanced in the middle on the edge of the tower, could be filled with huge stones, that, by elevating the inner extremity of the machine, were launched into the enemy’s ship as it sailed beneath. These engines were probably worked by ropes and pulleys attached to the opposite battlements. Six armed men, two of whom were archers, took their station in each turret, the whole interior of which was filled with stones and darts. All round the ship, supported by a series of triangles, ran a gallery, defended by a parapet and battlements. On this stood a catapult, invented by Archimedes, which cast darts eighteen feet long, with stones upwards of three hundred and fifty pounds in weight, to the distance of a furlong. This gallery, as well, I presume, as the men who worked the engine, was protected by a close net-work of large ropes suspended from brazen chains. To each of the three masts was attached a couple of engines, which darted iron bars and masses of lead against the enemy. The sides of the ship bristled with iron spikes, designed to protect it against boarding; and on all sides were likewise grapples, which could be flung by machines into the galleys of the foe, so as to retain them within reach of the missiles from on board. Along the galleries, 310and round the masts and catapults, were drawn up two hundred and forty men in complete armour. In the fore, main, and mizen-tops were stationed other warriors, who were supplied with stones and similar missiles by baskets running on pulleys, and worked by boys. The ship was supplied with twelve anchors, of which four were of wood, and eight of iron.^[1686]

Very little difficulty was experienced in discovering pines sufficiently lofty for the fore and mizen-masts of this huge galley; but it was only by accident that a swineherd in the mountains of the Abruzzi found a tree of sufficient magnitude for the mainmast. It was conveyed to the sea by Philias, an engineer of Taurominium. The pump, notwithstanding its great depth, was easily worked by the screw of Archimedes, and only required the labour of one individual. The name first bestowed on this ship by Hiero was “The Syracusan;” but when afterwards he despatched it as a present to King Ptolemy, he changed it to that of the “The Alexandrian.”

Besides the individuals already enumerated, there were six hundred men stationed on the prow; and to administer justice in this floating commonwealth a court was instituted, consisting of the captain, the pilot, and the principal officers in command in the forecastle, who judged according to the laws of Syracuse. It was followed on the voyage to Egypt by a number of smaller craft, of which the majority were fishing-smacks.

The cargo of “The Alexandrian,” which, together with the vessel itself, was presented to King Ptolemy at a time when famine raged in Egypt, consisted of sixty thousand medimni of corn, two thousand jars of salt-fish, twenty thousand talents of wool, and 311an equal quantity of other commodities. The poet Archimelos having written a copy of verses on this nautical castle, Hiero felt so greatly flattered by the compliment that he sent the author a thousand medimni of wheat, which he landed for him at the Peiræeus.

In order to convey some idea of another department of nautical architecture among the ancients, in which there was probably a greater display of fancy than of science, we shall here introduce the description of a pleasure-barge in which Ptolemy Philopater and the ladies of his court used to sail upon the Nile.^[1687] Among the caliphs and sultans of the East we find traces of a similar taste for gorgeous and magnificent barks; but neither in history nor fiction do we remember to have met any account of a vessel so curiously constructed, or so superbly and sumptuously adorned. It was, in the first place, half a furlong in length, flat-bottomed, and rising high above the water on account of the swell, with projecting keel, and prow of most graceful curvature,—or, I should rather, perhaps, say, prows, for it appeared double in front, as though a pair of galleys had been lashed together. Along the sides and stern ran two galleries, the one above the other, where the persons on board might stroll and take exercise as the barge was wafted along by the wind. Of these the lower one resembled an open peristyle, the upper a close arcade furnished at intervals with windows looking out upon the river.

Considering the whole barge as one great building, the architect placed the extreme hall encircled by a single row of columns at the extremity of the stern, where it was, doubtless, approached from the upper gallery. Having traversed this, you next beheld a propylæon erected with the most 312precious wood and ivory. This led into a proscenion roofed over, in the vicinity of which lay a variety of chambers. Of these the most remarkable was a vast peripheral hall fitted up with twenty couches. This apartment was wainscotted with cedar and Milesian cypress; the doors, twenty in number, were formed of panels of citron wood richly inlaid with ivory. The hinges, the nails, the knockers, and door-handles, were of copper, gilt. The shafts of the columns were cypress wood, and the Corinthian capitals of gold and ivory were surmounted by an architrave richly overlaid with gold. Above this again was a broad frieze adorned with numerous figures of animals roughly sculptured in ivory, but remarkable for the costliness of the materials. The ceiling was of cedar wood elaborately carved and covered with a blaze of gilding. Close at hand were the apartments of the women, in the structure and ornaments of which equal magnificence was displayed. In another part of the bark was a chapel of Aphroditè surmounted by a dome. It contained a statue of the goddess in Parian marble. This sacred edifice was surrounded by other suites of apartments among which was a symposion adorned with pillars of Indian marble. Towards the prow was a saloon sacred to Dionysos, surrounded on all sides with pillars furnished with numerous couches, and adorned with gilded cornices. The roof was enriched with ornaments suited to the character of the god, that is, in all probability orgeastic processions of Bacchantes and Bacchanals, with crowns of ivy and vine leaves. On the right hand this saloon opened into a grotto or cavern, in which the colours of rocks were imitated by an incrustation of precious stones, whose brilliance was in various parts relieved by ornaments of gold. The busts of the royal family sculptured of Parian marble were ranged round the grot.

On the roof of the great saloon was erected a 313small symposion, in the form of a tent, exceedingly agreeable from its airiness and the fine prospect it commanded over the whole valley of the Nile. It was completely open in front, and the roof consisting of a series of semicircular hoops like the top of a calèche, it could be bent down and drawn forward at pleasure, and was covered with purple hangings. By a winding staircase constructed in a different part of the bark, you ascended to another hall, constructed and decorated after the Egyptian manner, being adorned with a number of round pillars composed of a succession of blocks of equal height, alternately white and black. Their capitals, likewise were round, but contracting rather than expanding at the top like an elongated rose-bud.

In all this part of the column, technically denominated calathos, there were neither volutes nor rows of open and projecting foliage as in Greek architecture, but bells of the river lotos, or other flowers, intermingled with newly formed fruit of the date palm. To correspond with these columns, the walls of Egyptian edifices were frequently lined with black and white slabs alternating with each other. Of these the white were sometimes of alabaster.

This bark was furnished with but one mast, one hundred and five feet in height, to which was fitted a single sail of byssus with purple fringe. The dimensions of the sail must, however, have been prodigious, but from the fineness of its fabric it could never have been hoisted in rough weather.

If we turn now to the materials wherewith the ships of the ancients were constructed we shall find that they here differed as much from the practice of modern nations, at least in the north, as in the form and style of rigging. With us scarcely anything but oak or teak is employed in those parts which come in contact with the water, whereas 314the Greeks constructed their war galleys, in which speed was of the greatest moment, of fir,^[1688] while they chiefly made use of pitch pine in the building of merchantmen, as that wood long resists the corrosive action of the sea.

The Cypriotes appear in all cases to have given the preference to the pine which abounds in the island, and was esteemed superior to the pitch tree,^[1689] though the latter was sometimes appropriated to the building of ships of war. Among the Syrians and Phœnicians, in whose country a supply of pine was not to be obtained,^[1690] the custom prevailed of building ships entirely of cedar.^[1691] The practice of employing oak^[1692] had, likewise, already been introduced, though it does not appear to have been common; but in the larger classes of ships the keel was always of that timber, in order that, when drawn on shore, it might be able to sustain the weight of the superincumbent mass. In the holcades or merchantmen, the keel, like the ship itself, was of pitch pine; but all such vessels were in those days supplied with a false keel, called chelysma,^[1693] of oak, or oxya, designed to act as a protection when they were drawn up into dry dock. Masts and yards were commonly of the silver fir;^[1694] oars of such timber as grew on the northern slopes of mountains.^[1695] The turned work used in ornamenting the interior was commonly of mulberry, ash, 315elm, or platane wood, of which the last was least esteemed.^[1696]

Sails were made and manufactured from a variety of materials. It has been seen above, in speaking of the Egyptian war ships, that they sometimes consisted of a number of hides sown together. They were, likewise, in various countries, plaited, as now in China,^[1697] from reeds, or rushes, but the sailcloth of the Greeks was generally, like our own, woven from hemp.^[1698] For this, in Egypt, the papyrus was sometimes substituted. Princes and grandees occasionally, in their pleasure-boats, employed, in lieu of these rude materials, cotton or fine linen, dyed, to augment their beauty, of the most brilliant purple. To this Shakespeare alludes in the following passage, which though familiar, perhaps, to the reader, I must, nevertheless, beg permission to quote:

316An ancient anonymous writer on the art military describes a vessel closely resembling our steamboats in construction, but in which bullocks, stationed in the hold, worked the paddle-wheels instead of an engine. It flew along the water, says the author, without oars or sails, simply by the impulses of wheels, which, rising partly above the waves, operated, when in action, like a succession of oars.

Ropes and cables^[1700] were manufactured in antiquity from a great variety of materials. At first, the cordage most in use would appear to have been composed of twisted thongs; for which, in process of time, was substituted goats’ hair,^[1701] the Spanish broom,^[1702] the bark of the cornel^[1703] and linden-tree,^[1704] with byblos, hemp,^[1705] and flax.^[1706] The enormous cables which supported the bridge thrown by Xerxes over the Hellespont were manufactured from mixed materials, of which two-thirds were byblos and one-third white flax.^[1707] They were of dimensions so vast that a piece half a yard in length weighed one hundred and twenty-five pounds.

Of the sailors, upon whose energy, skill, and courage, the success of every voyage necessarily depended, ancient writers have been more than usually scanty in their communications. We know, however, that the mariners as well on board the merchantmen of Athens as those of the other states of Greece, were partly citizens, partly strangers, and in many instances slaves. Leading a life full of hardship and danger, engaged as it were in a perpetual conflict with the elements, their tempers grew fierce, 317their manners boisterous and rude,^[1708] and their morals none of the most elevated. During the intervals they spent on shore, they endeavoured by snatching at all the coarse pleasures within their reach, to make themselves some amends for their habitual privations. The excuse, however, for this conduct was often sophistically borrowed from religion, for during the prevalence of storms at sea, it was customary to make vows to Poseidon, or Castor and Polydeukes, or some of the other patrons of the nautical art; and on reaching port the victims were slain and offered up, and the sacrifice of necessity was accompanied by a feast. To these their boon companions, dancing-girls, female flute-players, hetairæ, jugglers, and low parasites, were invited, and the whole usually terminated in excessive intoxication and a battle royal. Most mariners were attached to some dame of equivocal reputation in the Peiræeus or elsewhere, to whom on their return from voyages they were in the habit of bringing presents, such as a pair of gilded slippers, a dainty cheese, a jar of pickles, or saltfish, or a measure or two of onions. What was the amount of wages, which enabled them to indulge in this kind of liberality, I have nowhere been able to discover, though in all probability it was at least equal to the pay received by seamen in the war-galleys, that is from three to four oboloi a-day. Their operations while on board, were regulated of course by circumstances and the accidents of the weather. Thus, when the breeze was strong and favourable, they might lounge or sit about the decks, or sleep, during the greater part of the twenty-four hours, without shifting a sail or handling an oar, though a man was always stationed at the prow to keep a sharp look-out, and watch the aspect of the sky.^[1709] In calms, however, or when the swell and roar of the sea foretold an approaching tempest, the whole crew 318took to their cushions, and raising at the command of the boatswain,^[1710] a loud chant,^[1711] which contended in volume with the angry voice of the ocean, they strained every nerve to augment the velocity of their bark, and gain some friendly port before the storm fairly set in. Occasionally, however, they were overtaken by tempests in the neighbourhood of rocky islands or bleak and inhospitable promontories like the Chelidonian rocks, where from whatever point of the compass the wind might blow a heavy surge beat upon the shore perpetually. Under these circumstances it was observed, more especially during the darkness of the night, that two brilliant glancing lights played evermore about the masts and yards, shooting hither and thither, and kindling up the crest of the surge by their luminous appearance. These were the Dioscuri, the tender and affectionate brothers of Helen, whose benevolence towards mankind in general was only to be equalled by their attachment to each other. When matters came to extremities and the waves appeared ready to engulf both crew and passengers, all on board became keenly sensible to the irregularities of their past lives, and the whispered interrogation passed round the bark: “have you been initiated?” Because those to whom the truths treasured up in the sanctuary of Eleusis had been revealed, were supposed to be better prepared than other men for meeting death, and appearing at the judgment-seat of heaven. It was now that vows and prayers were heard, and that feelings of repentance were sincere, and it would have required a more than ordinary degree of apathy to forget such circumstances when, by an unlooked-for interposition of Providence, they were snatched from the jaws of death, and restored to their kindred and their homes. We may remark here, by the way, that, to passengers labouring 319under the effects of sea-sickness, a decoction of a species of thyme^[1712] (thymum tragoriganum) was administered.

In their political predilections,^[1713] the mariners of Greece were almost invariably observed to be democratic, probably because being possessed of superior energy they naturally spurned all control save that of the laws, and were ready at all times and under all circumstances to contend for liberty. This was more especially the case with the Athenian seamen, who, in the flourishing periods of Hellenic history bore much the same relation to the other seafarers of Greece, as the sailors of England do to those of the neighbouring European states.

Although the mariners’ compass had not yet been invented, the ancient sailors did not, as appears to be generally supposed, creep timidly from headland to headland along the shore, but traversed boldly the open sea, directing their course by the constellations, more particularly that of the greater bear. In this practice the Arabs of Phœnicia led the way as in most other early improvements connected with seamanship.

It is sometimes believed that, in very remote ages, mankind possessed no names for the winds,^[1714] because as they had not yet addicted themselves to navigation, it concerned them very little to observe how or which way they blew. Possibly, however, we somewhat exaggerate the heedlessness and ignorance of the remoter generations of men who must have been singularly obtuse in their intellect if they could not tell whether the wind blew up or down a valley, or on the back or front of their houses, and had failed to designate the several currents of the atmosphere by distinct appellations, whereby to distinguish them when they had occasion to speak of their effects. About the period 320of the Trojan war some inventive genius sprang up who gave a name to the north and the south winds, and already in the time of Homer the Greeks had contrived to have four points to their compass, at least the poet speaks but of the four cardinal winds, Boreas, the north; Euros, the east; Notos, the south, and Zephyros, the west. To these other four were afterwards added, and at the same time some change was introduced into the ancient nomenclature, the north-east was called Cæcias;^[1715] the south-east, Euros; the name of the east being changed to Apeliotes; the south-west, Libs; the north-west, Argestes, and sometimes Olympias,^[1716] or Iapyx, or Sciron; which, however, according to Pliny differed from the Argestes, and was peculiar to Athens. These are the winds represented on the tower of Andronicos Cyrrhestes at Athens, spoken of by Varro, Vitruvius,^[1717] and many modern travellers. Pliny,^[1718] Galen, and Aulus Gellius differ from Aristotle in confining the name of Aparctias to the north wind, and giving that of Boreas to the north-east, or Aquilo of the Romans.^[1719]

Winds blowing from the northern points of the compass are most frequent in Greece. Aristotle^[1720] remarks, that Boreas is strong at its commencement, but feeble towards its close; and that of the south wind, the reverse is true.^[1721] It may, moreover, be added, that the north wind was not only the most common, but also the dryest and most severe, though sometimes accompanied by lightning, and hail, and snow. The same wind brought rain on the Hellespont, and at Cyrenè. The Cæcias commonly prevailed about the vernal equinox, and, in Attica and the islands, was a rainy wind;^[1722] the 321Apetiotes was a humid but soft wind felt chiefly in the morning.^[1723] The Euros, which, as Gœttling^[1724] observes, is the Scirocco of the Italians, prevails about the winter solstice, and at first is warm and dry, but afterwards by blowing long over the sea becomes moist, and brings rain, particularly in Lesbos.^[1725] Aristotle, however, speaks of the Notos as the chief rainy wind in this island,^[1726] and observes what I have myself verified in the Delta, that during the Simoom objects appear greater than their natural size.^[1727] The Notos blows chiefly about the end of autumn in Greece, as I found it also on the Nile immediately after the winter solstice, and at the commencement of spring.^[1728] It likewise prevails during the dog-days^[1729] (ἐπὶ κυνὶ). Naturally moist and warm, it was at first weak, but grew powerful as it drew towards its end, when it covered the sky with clouds and ended in rain.^[1730] South winds blowing from the sea, by which they were cooled, were considered favourable to vegetation particularly in the Thriasian plain in Attica, lying between the Sciros and the Cephissos. These same winds were supposed to be cold in Libya; I think erroneously, since the south winds are warm in Egypt. The Libs is moist and cloudy, though less so than the Cæcias; but the clouds which it brings are quickly dispersed; it blows chiefly about Cnidos and Rhodes.^[1731]

The Zephyr^[1732] which prevails in the spring, at mid-summer and in autumn is felt chiefly in the evening and never in the morning. According to Aristotle it is the gentlest wind that blows.^[1733] Theophrastus, 322however, remarks, that it is cold in some countries, though less so than Boreas;^[1734] but in the opinion of Hippocrates, it is most of all winds charged with rain.^[1735] The Argestos is no less dry and serene than the Aparctias, though it sometimes brings thunder-clouds and hail.^[1736] This wind is remarkably cold at Chalcis in Eubœa. When about the winter solstice it happens to blow, it dries up and withers the trees more than long continued heats and droughts.^[1737] At Rhodes and at Cnidos it is usually accompanied by heavy clouds.^[1738]

The Etesian winds which commence immediately after the summer solstice, and continue through the dog-days, are in reality northern winds, but occasionally point obliquely both towards the west and towards the east. They prevail chiefly at night;^[1739] and are sometimes exceedingly powerful on the coast of Egypt.^[1740] Another class of Etesian winds prevailed earlier in the year, beginning about twenty days after the winter solstice. These are weaker, more variable, and of briefer duration than the real Etesian winds, and I will add, from my own experience, cover the sky with dark clouds, and blow extremely cold even along the shores of Marmarica and Cyrenè. In ancient Greece they obtained the name of Ornithiæ—“the Bird Winds”—because they announced the return of the birds.^[1741] Or, according to another version of the matter, because they were so cold as to strike dead various kinds of birds during their flight, and strew the earth with their bodies.^[1742]

During the winter months these cold and piercing winds blow with so much fury over the land-locked seas and islands of Greece, that among the ancients 323all navigation was suspended during the brumal season. In proof of the violence of these aërial currents, which may almost be said to set steadily in one direction through a great portion of the year, it may be observed, that in several of the islands neither vines nor fig-trees can be trained upright, but are blown down and compelled to creep along the rocks.^[1743] An example of the strength of the gales which sometimes also prevail on the Hellenic continent is recorded in history; during the retreat of Cleombrotos out of Bœotia, his army being overtaken by a storm as it was traversing the mountain passes leading from Creusis to Ægosthena along the shore of the sea, numerous sumpter asses were blown with their ladings over the precipices; even the shields and arms were in many cases whirled from the hands of the soldiers and precipitated into the waves below; and to prevent similar misfortune the rest of the army turned their bucklers upside down and filled them with stones, while they pushed forward, divested of defensive armour, into the Megaris, a friendly country, from which they afterwards returned and fetched off their shields.^[1744]

In cases of shipwreck the protection afforded to crews and merchandise depended in most cases, perhaps, on the character and progress of civilisation of the people on whose shore the accident happened. On the coast of Thrace, in the neighbourhood of Salmydessos, where the whole maritime population appear to have been confirmed wreckers, numerous pillars were set up along the beach to mark the limits within which each little community might claim whatever booty was drifted in by the sea. Previous to this arrangement, the barbarians used frequently to come to blows in the eager pursuit of this inhuman calling, and in these brawls many lives were lost. Afterwards they appear to have 324carried on their war against distressed mariners with perfect harmony and equanimity.^[1745] But among the Rhodians, an enterprising mercantile people, the amount of salvage was regulated by a law which, together with the rest of their commercial code, was afterwards adopted by the Romans.

If gold, or silver, or any other article, be brought up from the depth of eight cubits, the person who saves it shall receive one-third. If from fifteen cubits, the person who saves it shall, on account of the depth, receive one-half. If goods are cast up by the waves towards the shore, and found sunk at the depth of one cubit, the person who carries them out safe shall receive a tenth part.^[1746] It was customary, moreover, in old times, to keep a number of divers on board ships for the purpose of descending to loosen the anchors when they chanced to take too firm a hold in the sand, as also to recover goods which had been thrown overboard in times of danger.^[1747]

On various headlands and promontories of the ancient world beacon-fires were habitually kindled to guide the course of the ships into port; and for these, in after ages, light-houses, adorned with every beauty of architecture, and carried to a vast height, were substituted. Of these the most remarkable was that erected for Ptolemy Philadelphus, by Sostratos, the Cnidian, whose name, by permission of the king, was inscribed upon the structure.^[1748] By one author it is described as four hundred and fifty feet high, and equal in dimensions at the base to one of the great pyramids of Memphis. In form it may possibly have resembled the Haram el Kedâb, which consists of a series of square towers from the basement upwards, diminishing in size, and appearing to spring up out of each 325other. With this the language of Strabo^[1749] very well agrees, since he tells us, it was a building consisting of numerous stages. On the summit bright fires were kept perpetually burning, so that on that low shore, where there is no hill or mountain for many days’ journey, the Pharos was ever the first object which presented itself to mariners at sea, where its light, we are told, was visible at the distance of a hundred miles. Occasionally, however, from its great size and brilliance, it was mistaken for the moon, as this planet itself, rising behind the dome and towers of a great capital, has suggested to distant beholders the idea of a conflagration.^[1750]

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Although we have above glanced slightly at the exports and imports of Athens and several other states, we ought here perhaps to enter into greater detail, for the purpose of rendering as complete as possible our idea of the vigorous and extensive commerce carried on by the Greeks. It will not of course be understood, that all the articles enumerated in the present chapters constituted at any one time the floating materials of Hellenic trade; the probability being, that some grew out of fashion and were succeeded by others, for which at a later period they may again have been substituted. But the mind must suppose itself to be dealing with the whole extent of authentic Grecian history, within the limits of which it will be found, that everything we here mention was trafficked in, though it seems to be now impossible to observe in these matters a strict chronology and fix the epoch at which each particular commodity came into vogue, or was abandoned for something else.

Attica itself exported comparatively few of its own natural productions;^[1751] but having obtained the raw materials from other regions, it expended upon them so much skill, and taste, and industry, that they appeared to undergo a new creation, and were issued 327from the Peiræeus like the native growth of the soil. This was the case with various kinds of arms and armour, as sabres, and scimitars, greaves, cuirasses, and helmets.^[1752] These were sometimes richly gilt or inlaid with gold, and adorned with embossed figures of rare workmanship.^[1753]

Perfumes,^[1754] also, with unguents and essences,^[1755] and odoriferous oils were among the exports of Athens, which, indeed, at one period retailed to the rest of Greece the manufactures of every country in the civilised world.

Among the articles of merchandise,^[1756] the peculiar produce of her own soil, were the fragrant gold-coloured honey of Hymettos, the best in the ancient world; olives, and olive oil,^[1757] which likewise appear to have been unrivalled; fruits of various kinds, but more especially figs,^[1758] which were transported to Persia and most of the other regions of the East.^[1759]

328A trade was carried on too in herbs and plants, which being more fragrant and possessing greater virtues here than in any other country, the citizens of the neighbouring states sought to obtain the like, by procuring slips and seeds from Athens. Thus strangers having observed that the knolls and uplands of Attica were covered with thyme,^[1760] which, flowering about midsummer, filled the air with sweetness, and enabled the owners of bees to foretell with exactness whether honey would be scarce or plentiful, desired to transplant it to the neighbourhood of their own cities. It was found however by experience, that it flourished and attained its natural luxuriance only in such situations as were reached by the sea breezes.^[1761] In Arcadia, for example, it refused to be naturalised, though the climate of that country was found to agree very well with the marjoram, and the summer savory. Among the simples employed by the ancients in their materia medica were the Attic valerian,^[1762] hemlock,^[1763] and melilot.^[1764] Kermes also were produced in this country.^[1765]

The Athenian pottery,^[1766] being the most tasteful and 329beautiful known to the ancient world, was consequently in great request and exported in immense quantities to all the countries on the shores of the Mediterranean.^[1767] At one time, however, the people of Ægina and Argos, partly out of resentment,^[1768] and partly to encourage some less costly manufacture of their own, prohibited its introduction; while the people of Aulis,^[1769] Samos,^[1770] and Rhodes,^[1771] became, in this branch of industry, the rivals of the Athenians, whom they endeavoured to undersell by producing an inferior article.^[1772]

Among the other exports of Athens we find enumerated soft fine wool,^[1773] linen and woollen cloths,^[1774] slippers,^[1775] beds, chests, books,^[1776] wine,^[1777] Sphettian vinegar,^[1778] sweetmeats,^[1779] glaucisci,^[1780] anchovies,^[1781] sheep,^[1782] live 330fowls,^[1783] Hymettian^[1784] and Pentelic^[1785] marbles, quicksilver,^[1786] ochre,^[1787] and cinnabar.^[1788]

Another class of exports consisted of statues and works of arts of all kinds, in gold, marble, bronze, and ivory, jewellery, and engraved gems.

But the most valuable and commodious of all her merchandise was that silver^[1789] of unrivalled purity and fineness which so long placed her foremost among the commercial states of antiquity, and was one of the great props of her empire both by sea and land.

In the matter of imports we shall consider Athens in a double point of view; first as the purchaser of the surplus produce of the other Grecian states,^[1790] and second as the representative of Greece in general, collecting together in her ports the commodities of the rest of the world, and afterwards distributing them among her neighbours. With the Megaris, which once formed part of her own territory, Athens, at particular periods of her history, carried on an active traffic in the common necessaries of life,—as groats,^[1791] fish,^[1792] salt,^[1793] goats, vegetables,^[1794] leverets, poultry, pigs, and cattle.^[1795] Hemlock was likewise numbered among the exports of Megara,^[1796] together with 331jars,^[1797] and rough upper garments.^[1798] It seems probable moreover that, as numerous sheep were reared in this territory, fine wool was likewise on occasions imported thence into Attica,^[1799] together with the rich sweet wine made at Ægosthena.^[1800]

From the various divisions of the Peloponnesos, which we may here regard as one country, several useful commodities were exported. In the matter of corn these divisions of Greece were alternately exporters and importers according, probably, to the fluctuations of the season or peculiar exigencies created by the accidents of peace or war.^[1801] They perpetually, however, supplied their neighbours with cheese and wine, and various other articles of use or luxury.

The poet Alcman celebrates a fragrant wine produced in the vicinity of Sparta,^[1802] but it is nowhere stated whether it was exported or not. The little state of Phlius produced likewise a superior wine which was esteemed at Athens.^[1803] Laconia exported cheese, which, being shipped at Gythium,^[1804] was commonly supposed to be made at that place. The cheese of Tromileia in Achaia enjoyed as great a reputation throughout Greece, as the Parmasan in modern Europe. It was remarkable for the extreme delicacy of its flavour, and was made from goat’s milk with the juice of the fig-tree instead of rennet.^[1805] Sicyon carried on a considerable trade in salted conger.^[1806]

Several medicinal plants were obtained from this part of Greece, as liquorice vetch^[1807] found on the tops 332of lofty mountains where the snows lay unmelted during a considerable portion of the year. The canton which most abounded in this plant seems to have been the country round Pheneon in Arcadia.

In the neighbourhood of Psophis in the same state, the cultivation of the heraclean all-heal^[1808] was carried on to a great extent, as Arcadia traded largely in this article of the materia medica. The juice was collected in two ways, and at two different seasons of the year; first from the root when the plant began to germinate in spring. A small trench having been excavated about it, an incision was made in the root and a number of broad leaves spread around to receive the liquor which flowed forth. This, at first white, assumed externally as it dried, a saffron hue. The second method was to make an incision in the stem about harvest-time, when the fluid appears tog have been collected in the same manner as before. Near Nonacris was obtained a poisonous water which distilled slowly like dew from a rock. It was of a sharp and icy coldness, and so bitter and acrid, that no vessel whatsoever could contain it save the hoof of an ass, in which accordingly it was preserved.^[1809]

Among the poisons of the Peloponnesos was the root of the meadow-saffron,^[1810] found chiefly in Messenia, where likewise grew the æthiopis, a plant used by magicians as well as by the children of Æsculapius.^[1811] The centaury,^[1812] likewise, and the seseli,^[1813] were among the exports of this part of Greece.

From Arcadia were obtained large carbuncles,^[1814] 333which were cut and polished into mirrors, with timber of all kinds,—as deal, larch, and pine, together with the smilax,^[1815] which was sawed into thin planks, and used for necessary articles of furniture. The neighbourhood of Mantinea produced an excellent species of radish which was exported.^[1816] Arcadia likewise produced, in its rich pastures, fine herds of cattle, together with asses and horses, no way inferior to those of Thessaly.^[1817]

Argos exported also horses,^[1818] with purple garments,^[1819] wild boars,^[1820] caldrons,^[1821] shields,^[1822] and richly varied carbuncles,^[1823] found in the neighbourhood of Trœzen;^[1824] Sicyon, pictures,^[1825] wine,^[1826] and a peculiar kind of shoe which looked well with white socks or stockings;^[1827] Elis, magnificent horses,^[1828] whips,^[1829] flax,^[1830] poisons, iris unguent,^[1831] centaury from the skirts of Mount Pholoë,^[1832] nenuphar,^[1833] which was found growing on the river Anygros, and sea-coal, used chiefly by smiths;^[1834] Achaia mistletoe, parsley,^[1835] headnets, all kinds of fine linen, manufactured at Patræ,^[1836] and the Pellenian cloaks,^[1837] which were proposed as prizes in certain games. Epidauros was remarkable for its noble breed of horses;^[1838] Corinth, which was frequently supplied with corn from Epeiros, 334itself exported^[1839] carpets, ladies’ summer mantles, linen tunics,^[1840] articles of virtu in bronze and gold,^[1841] and carbuncles variegated like those of Trœzen, with purple and white, but of a paler hue.^[1842] Quinces^[1843] of the richest colour and finest flavour, were found in this part of the isthmus; and probably pears which were found every where else in Peloponnesos. Corinthia abounded also with large and excellent turnips, which were no doubt exported to the neighbouring countries.^[1844]

Among the productions which Laconia^[1845] supplied to commerce were a bearded and somewhat light wheat,^[1846] cheese, rathe figs,^[1847] cabbage, lettuces, cucumbers,^[1848] which required much watering, the euphorbia, hemlock, second in virtue to that of Susa,^[1849] clouded canes,^[1850] beautiful green marbles,^[1851] hones and emeralds from Mount Taygetos.^[1852] The dogs of Sparta were highly prized by the rest of Greece,^[1853] and exported 335largely for the chace; according to Shakespeare, as early as the age of Theseus.

In addition to the above, Sparta exported cothons,^[1854] a species of fictile cups of a dusky brown, and so small as to have been conveniently carried in the long-necked wicker baskets which served the soldiers of Greece in lieu of a knapsack. It had one handle, and the rim projecting inwards, kept back the grosser particles of mud contained in the water, or rather, perhaps, deceived the eye by its hue. It was, moreover, the common drinking vessel of sailors on board ship.^[1855] The manufacture of these cups formed a distinct branch of business, the individuals engaged in which were called cothon-makers,^[1856] to distinguish them from ordinary potters.

In their festivals and marriage entertainments, as well as in war which they regarded much in the same light, the Spartans indulged in the luxury of fictile vessels, but at their common tables they drank out of wooden bowls,^[1857] for the production of which, as well as of smaller goblets, Laconia was famous. It likewise, in later times at least, manufactured for exportation massive gold plate curiously chased, which, under the Macedonian kings, found its way to Egypt.^[1858] Indeed these military 336utilitarians appear to have excelled in the making of all articles of ordinary convenience, as couches, easy-chairs, and tables, which accordingly were much sought after.^[1859] Doors have likewise been enumerated among Laconian exports,^[1860] but with little probability, especially when we recollect the directions given by the Spartan legislator for the construction of this part of domestic defence;^[1861] nor is it a jot more likely that the carts and waggons which the Lacedæmonians constructed of smilax ever found their way beyond the borders of Laconia, unless employed in carrying provisions for its own armies.^[1862]

The steel and iron, however, of the Lacedæmonian forges were, as elsewhere stated, in great request for the making of carpenters’ and stonecutters’ tools, augers, files, chisels,^[1863] &c.; as were likewise the Laconian locks and keys, which were divided into three wards, and far more intricate than those in common use.^[1864] The manufactures which flourished in the city of Sparta itself, and were chiefly, perhaps, designed to supply the home-market were those of iron rings, daggers,^[1865] short scimitars, swords, spits, axes, hatchets, and scythes, together with felt,^[1866] walking-sticks,^[1867] lute and bow-strings, which, as well as several of the above, we know to have been exported.^[1868]

337The 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 338to 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]

339Phocis 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]

340From 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 341Philippi, 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.

342Among the other exports of Thrace and Macedonia were wine flavoured with wormwood,^[1943] truffles,^[1944] beans from about Philippi,^[1945] heraclean all-heal,^[1946] the juice of which was called opopanax, odoriferous roots some of which exhaled the perfume of spikenard,^[1947] the meon,^[1948] alum,^[1949] corn,^[1950] cheese,^[1951] salt-fish,^[1952] mullets from Abdera,^[1953] delcani from the lake Delcon,^[1954] eels from the Strymon,^[1955] skates from Ænia,^[1956] enormous horns of wild bulls,^[1957] timber for ships^[1958] and oars,^[1959] chrysocolla,^[1960] alum, reddle, jet from the neighbourhood of Bena,^[1961] dark carbuncles,^[1962] and earths for preserving corn found near Olynthos.^[1963]

From the countries situated on the Bosporos and the Black Sea, Greece imported numerous valuable commodities, among which the principal were corn,^[1964] salt-meat,^[1965] and fish,^[1966]—as thunnies, corduli, turbots, the kolias, a kind of mackerel, Tethæan oysters from Chalcedon, amiæ,^[1967] mullets,^[1968] sturgeons, 343oxyrunchi,^[1969] coracini, skates, herrings,^[1970] crabs,^[1971] and the edible mussel.^[1972] The way in which some of these fish were caught in the Euxine is perhaps worth describing:^[1973] the natives pitching, in winter, their tents on the ice,^[1974] cut therein large open spaces, towards which the fish thronging to enjoy the light, were taken in great numbers.

To the above may be added^[1975] nuts, chestnuts, walnuts,^[1976] honey, wax,^[1977] tar, wool, rigging, leather, goatskins, timber,^[1978] horses^[1979] and pheasants from the Phasis,^[1980] and slaves, particularly archers.^[1981] The honey of Heraclea, like that of Mazanderân, and certain poisons, is said to have produced a temporary 344madness.^[1982] From the kingdom of Pontos was obtained that medicinal root denominated rha,^[1983] which has sometimes been confounded with rhubarb,^[1984] though the latter be laxative, the former astringent, together with isinglass,^[1985] used in cosmetics, for smoothing the wrinkles of the face, liquorice-root, brought also from Cappadocia,^[1986] wild spikenard found growing on shady mountains,^[1987] wormwood which fattened sheep and diminished their gall,^[1988] amomon,^[1989] and germander.^[1990]

Melilot^[1991] was exported from Chalcedon, and Cyzicos, where there was likewise an extensive manufactory 345of unguent of marjoram,^[1992] a plant which appears to have grown abundantly amid the neighbouring hills, and was commonly wreathed in garlands. The making of this article of commerce was a complicated operation, and numerous ingredients entered into its composition,—as oil of green olives, and of acorns, balsam wood, odoriferous rushes and reeds perfumed with marjoram, spikenard, costus, amomon, cassia, carpobalsamon, and myrrh. To render the ointment still more precious cinnamon was sometimes intermingled with it, the vessel in which it was kept moistened with wine, while honey was made the basis of the paste.

The shores of the Propontis furnished wine flavoured with wormwood,^[1993] cardamums,^[1994] and the substance called halcyonion, supposed by the ancients to have been that indurated froth of the sea,^[1995] with which the halcyon built her nest. It was obtained as well on the continent as from the island of Besbicos, now Kalolimno.^[1996] A very similar substance, called Adarces, was found in Cappadocia,^[1997] about the rivers and marshes, where it hung suspended on the tops of reeds. Aconite^[1998] and origany came from the country of the Maryandinians,^[1999] and agaric from Sarmatia,^[2000] doubtless by way of the Dnieper. The Sea of Marmora produced black coral, as also a sort of floating petroleum.^[2001]

346The orpiment^[2002] of Pontos and Cappadocia enjoyed but a secondary reputation; the first place being given to that of Mysia. The lapis lazuli^[2003] of Scythia necessarily found its way into Greece by the Black Sea, as did, likewise, the cinnabar of Colchis, said to have been discovered amid inaccessible rocks and precipices,^[2004] whence it was brought down by darts and arrows. Probably, also, brass was exported from Colchis.^[2005] In the Homeric age great quantities of silver^[2006] would seem to have been obtained from the country of the Halizones, as in later ages of steel and iron from that part of Asia Minor inhabited by the Chalybes,^[2007] who are said to have worked their mines naked. The finest kind of minium was excavated from certain caverns in Cappadocia,^[2008] and transported by land to the city of Sinope, whence it was sent into Greece.^[2009] It was of three kinds,—the one deep, the other extremely pale, and the third sort a shade between the two. There were likewise in the same district mines of ochre, and both were so infected with damp and malaria, that the workmen, as in our own coalpits, were constantly in danger of their 347lives.^[2010] Many of the commodities of this place were probably distributed through Greece and Asia by the travelling merchants, who resorted, at the annual festival of the goddess, to the great fair of Komana.^[2011]

In speaking of the Black Sea we have already entered upon that of Asia Minor, which, taken altogether, was perhaps the richest and most important anywhere carried on by the Greeks. Every province of this fertile and beautiful division of Asia abounded in costly or useful articles of merchandise, and its roads and rivers incessantly poured towards Greece not only the productions of its own soil, but those also of Central Asia, brought thither by the caravans from both shores of the Caspian. Gold dust^[2012] was collected from the sands of the Pactolos;^[2013] marbles of the most brilliant whiteness were exported from Ephesos, (whose inhabitants decreed divine honours to the shepherd Pyxodoros,^[2014] 348by whom the quarries were discovered), and from Synnada in Phrygia;^[2015] large veins of lapis specularis, a stone so transparent^[2016] that it served the ancients instead of glass for windows, were found in Cappadocia; the precious gem called alabandine^[2017] was procured from the district round Miletos, jet^[2018] from Lycia, not far from the river Gagas, and the fortress Plagiopolis. The places whence this mineral is chiefly obtained at present are Inspruck, in the Tyrol,^[2019] where it is rolled down by the waters of a certain stream, and Wirtemberg,^[2020] where it is wrought into all kinds of ornaments.

The touchstone was found in great quantities in the bed of the river Tmolos.^[2021] It resembled in form a flat pebble, though considerably larger, and the side which had lain uppermost exposed to the sun was supposed to exercise a greater power over metals than the side opposite, which was more saturated with moisture. Basalt and the green marble called verdello are now often used instead of it in making experiments on the purity of gold.^[2022] From this part of the world also was first obtained that extraordinary stone whose properties slightly observed by the ancients have since effected so wonderful a change in the science of navigation; I 349mean the magnet, found originally in Lydia, near the city of Heraclea.^[2023]

In the neighbourhood of Ephesos there was a manufacture of cinnabar,^[2024] which was produced in the following manner: taking a quantity of sand of a bright scarlet colour, they triturated it to a very fine powder in stone mortars, after which it was washed in brazen vessels, and the remainder pounded and washed as before till the whole had been reduced to the fineness required.

The fossil and mineral salt called alum,^[2025] was dug out of the earth near Hierapolis in Phrygia, from which country also the best salt^[2026] was procured. It was found, as at present, on the shores of Lake Tatta, on which account it obtained the name of the Tattæan salt.^[2027] A causeway traverses the lake nearly through the centre, as in the case of the lake Tritonis in northern Africa.

The best nitre^[2028] known to the ancients came from Philadelphia, near the source of the Cogamos in Lydia. That of Magnesia, in Caria, was esteemed inferior. From Colophon,^[2029] in early times was obtained that liquid resin which distils from the pine and pitch trees, on which account it obtained the name of Colophonia.^[2030]

Medicinal chalk^[2031] and dry pitch, of which there were two kinds,^[2032] were imported from Lycia and 350Mysia.^[2033] From the same country likewise, as well as from Galatia, came the best wild cumin,^[2034] a low plant found growing along the slopes and crests of hills. Herb mastic,^[2035] resembling origany in fragrance, was produced in Magnesia and around the Lydian city of Tralles. Both Lydia and Cilicia exported saffron.^[2036] That, however, which enjoyed among the ancients the greatest celebrity grew upon the heights of Mount Corycos,^[2037] in the neighbourhood of the Corycian cave.^[2038]

The saffron of Lycia was likewise the produce of a mountain, being found chiefly on the Olympos of that country.^[2039]

The kermes,^[2040] with which alone before the discovery of America and the introduction of cochineal, a bright scarlet dye could be produced, were obtained from various parts of Asia Minor, Galatia, Lycia, and Cilicia, where they were found feeding on the leaves of the scarlet oak.^[2041] The gathering of these insects, then, however, supposed to be mere tubercular excrescences, formed an important branch of industry, carried on entirely by women, who separated them from the leaf with a crooked iron instrument, and not with the mouth as has been inferred from a wrong reading in Dioscorides.^[2042] At present the nail only is used in this operation, which is performed before sunrise, while the dew is still on the tree.^[2043]

351Chervil^[2044] and oil^[2045] were exported from Cilicia; wild spikenard came from Phrygia;^[2046] madder from Caria, where it was cultivated in the interspaces between the olive-trees, and produced an immense return;^[2047] wormwood^[2048] and the blue flowers of a species of wild thyme from Cappadocia and Pamphylia;^[2049] and centaury from the neighbourhood of Smyrna and from Lycia.^[2050] In the gathering of this last plant the rizotomists observed certain rules. Going forth at peep of dawn into the fields, they were careful to cull it immediately before the rising of the sun, and during serene weather, when the virtues of plants are in great perfection.

From this country as well as from Cappadocia was obtained the lycion,^[2051] a syrup about the consistence of honey, regarded as a remedy against ophthalmia.

The hyssop of Cilicia^[2052] was in great esteem for flavouring wine, as were likewise its mountain spikenard,^[2053] its pickled cactus,^[2054] its agrostis,^[2055] its œnanthe,^[2056] its tragoriganon,^[2057] its hemlock,^[2058] its silybos, whose young shoots were eaten as food, while the juice of its root was employed as an emetic,^[2059] its 352fossil verdigris,^[2060] and its cyperus comosus,^[2061] used in giving a body to perfumes.^[2062]

From Galatia and Cappadocia came the white hellebore,^[2063] southernwood,^[2064] and wild rue;^[2065] from Pisidia, the most fragrant lilies for perfumes;^[2066] from Mount Ida, in the Troad, timber,^[2067] pitch,^[2068] and the æthiopis,^[2069] a species of verbascum, used by enchanters to open locks and stay the course of rivers; from Sigeion and Lecton, now Cape Baba, on the confines of the same country, and from Æolia, purple fish;^[2070] from Abydos oysters; from Parion sea urchins;^[2071] from Colophon mustard;^[2072] from Galatia and Cilicia agaric, where it grew among the cedars;^[2073] from Ionia carobs;^[2074] from Mount Amanos, on the confines of Syria, stone parsley,^[2075] and cœrulescent wormwood.^[2076]

Among the exports of Pisidia and Cilicia was the gum styrax,^[2077] which being usually burned on 353the altars of the theatre during the performance of Phrygian airs it was observed by one of the Greeks to be redolent of that wild music.^[2078] The tree from which this gum was obtained resembled that of the quince. A kind of artificial styrax, in appearance like macaroni, was manufactured in the following manner, and preferred by the ignorant to the gum itself. Taking a quantity of wax and perfumed lard, and working it up into a paste with a certain proportion of styrax, they placed it in the sun during the hottest days of the year, when, having been thus rendered nearly liquid, it was passed through a coarse sieve into cold water.^[2079]

Iris unguent^[2080] was exported from Perga, a city of Pamphylia; a sarcophaginous stone used in making coffins,^[2081] scammony,^[2082] and beans from Mysia; from Smyrna^[2083] a superior kind of lettuces.^[2084] At present the bees make much honey in the neighbourhood of this city, from the flower of the hypecoum recumbens.^[2085] Caria exported slaves,^[2086] excellent oil and vinegar,^[2087] gum sycamore,^[2088] purple fish, figs,^[2089] and carobs,^[2090] which were grown in the neighbourhood of Caunos and Cnidos; Paphlagonia chestnuts and splendid almonds;^[2091] Cappadocia the finest horses known to the ancients;^[2092] Phrygia slaves,^[2093] cheese made of mares’ and asses’ milk,^[2094] hams of the finest qualities cured at Cibyra,^[2095] carpets, oil,^[2096] and fine black wool, 354which latter commodities were also among the merchandise of Miletos.^[2097]

From this city were likewise obtained the sheep that produced the celebrated fleeces, together with water-cresses,^[2098] roses,^[2099] rich tapestry, soft beds,^[2100] and cypress wood;^[2101] chestnuts, eunuchs, and fine scarlet cloths, with richly-figured carpets of double pile, were also brought from Sardis.^[2102] The wines of Asia Minor in most estimation were those of Ephesos, Miletos,^[2103] Phygela, Armata, Clazomenè,^[2104] and that denominated Catakekaumenitis.^[2105] Physicians condemned those of Mount Tmolos as generative of headache. Ephesos exported tents and jewellery;^[2106] Miletos sea wolves^[2107] and cockles; Smyrna squills; and Patara, in Lycia, seems to have been famous for its gilded sandals.^[2108] The same country, likewise, supplied hams of a superior quality.^[2109]

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Before we describe the trade of Syria, Egypt, and the farther East, we shall endeavour to give some account of that carried on by the numerous islands of the Mediterranean, together with Italy, Gaul, and Spain, and the whole northern coast of Africa. The commodities furnished to commerce by the various groups and larger islands of the Ægæan and Ionian seas scarcely yielded in number to those of Asia Minor. Of these the most important were the wines, which fluctuated in value, strength, and flavour, according to the soil, temperature, and elevation above the sea, of the vineyards which produced them.

The island of Lesbos, during the flourishing ages of the Athenian republic, formed part, as it were, of the territory of that great maritime state which compelled it to carry its wines exclusively to Athens.^[2110] Among these was the Pramnian,^[2111] which, also produced in Achaia, was a strong, harsh wine, apparently resembling port. Most, however, of the islands,^[2112] both large and small, supplied wine—as Tenedos,^[2113] Chios,^[2114] Cypros,^[2115] which furnished, among others, a curious fig wine;^[2116] Thasos,^[2117] where one particular 356kind was somniferous,^[2118] Peparethos, Lesbos, Eubœa,^[2119] Crete, where among others was found the Malmsey;^[2120] Leucadia, Cos,^[2121] and Corcyra.

Few of the islands grew more corn than they could consume, except Eubœa,^[2122] which was for many years the granary of Athens. Lesbos,^[2123] too, produced the most superb barley, which was grown upon the hills round Eresos, the birthplace of Theophrastus. The Thasians, likewise, cultivated an inferior kind of barley which, from the extreme productiveness of the island, seems occasionally to have been exported, though I remember no authority in proof of the fact. Samos furnished Greece with the best olive oil next to that of Attica.^[2124]

But of all the minor islands none appear to have supplied so many articles to the coasting trade of Greece as Thasos, whose productions were singularly rich and varied. There, in the earlier ages, the Phœnicians discovered and worked gold mines which in after times became exhausted, but the fertility of the island and the industry of its inhabitants seem never to have failed. From hence were exported radishes,^[2125] fish sauce, pickles,^[2126] almonds, and walnuts,^[2127] with the trees of which the island was thickly shaded.

Crete, Cypros, and Naxos exported hones;^[2128] Paros figs^[2129] and the best white marble^[2130] drawn from quarries, 357the vast extent of which is still the admiration of travellers.^[2131] Cypros, sory, a substance resembling verdigris,^[2132] sulphate of copper, emeralds, and jasper.^[2133] Linen, white and dyed purple, was brought from Amorgos;^[2134] thapsia from Thapsos;^[2135] painters’ earth of the best quality, that is of loose texture, crumbling, dry, and without fatness,^[2136] obtained from the neighbourhood of Pharis; sulphur,^[2137] alum,^[2138] and pumice stone from Nisyros and Melos,^[2139] where this latter substance was extremely light, and sometimes found imbedded in other stones. The pumices of the island of Nisyros^[2140] were of an inferior description, and crumbled to pieces in the 358hand. They were, however, extremely plentiful, occurring in heaps, and generally about the size of the fist.

Carystos in Eubœa exported verde antico,^[2141] and the amianthos, or stone from which towels and similar fabrics were manufactured, indestructible by fire;^[2142] Eretria medicinal earth;^[2143] Chalcis exported copper;^[2144] Cimolos chalk and fullers’ earth;^[2145] Samos jars^[2146] and medicinal earths, ash-coloured and white,^[2147] in which was found a stone used by jewellers in polishing gold.^[2148]

From Lemnos three different kinds of earth were obtained,—the first known among the ancients by the name of terra sigillata, was sold in small round cakes mingled, according to Dioscorides,^[2149] with the blood of a goat and stamped with his image in the sacred seal of Artemis; though Galen, who visited the island on purpose to examine this earth, denies that, in his time, any blood was intermixed with it. The second of the Lemnian earths^[2150] was reddle, and the third fullers’ earth. The first of these earths, of a slight red colour, was sometimes denominated sacred, apparently because used in sacrifices. In modern times the substance known under this name is usually brown or pink-coloured.

359The mine^[2151] whence the sealed earth is at present excavated lies on the summit of a precipitous mountain, on the eastern shore of the island, about four bowshots from the ancient city of Hephæstia. The road leading thither, after arriving at the chapel of Sotira, is divided, and branches off to the right and left. Both ways pass by a fountain; the one on the right bordered with elder, willow, and carob trees, by one which, though closely shaded from the sun’s rays, fails in summer; while that on the left conducts to a spring which, lying in a marshy spot, producing nothing but rushes, is perennial. Both these fountains are situated among the roots of the hill, now ascended by steps cut in the rock, but anciently by a road practicable all the way to the summit. The digging of the Lemnian earth appears to have been always under the protection of religion; for, during the operation, a priest anciently stood on the mountain near the mine, and, after having made a sort of libation of corn, which was cast as an offering upon the ground, and performed various other ceremonies, caused a waggon to be laden with the earth and conducted to the city, where it was prepared, sealed, and sold to merchants.

In modern times, ever since the period when the Venetians were in possession of the island, a different and more cumbrous set of ceremonies has been practised.^[2152] The principal inhabitants of the island, both Turks and Christians, assembling on the sixth of August, march out in grand procession to the mountains of sealed earth, halting by the way at the chapel of Sotira, where the priests chant the liturgy of the Greek church, and repeat many prayers, after which they ascend the 360acclivity. Arrived at the summit, fifty or sixty stout men commence excavating in search of the stratum of precious clay, which being found, the priests fill therewith a number of skin sacks, which they deliver to the custody of the Subashi.

When a sufficient quantity has been procured the mouth of the mine is closed, and never opened again until that day twelvemonths. A certain quantity is then despatched to the Sultan, who distributes it in presents to princes and monarchs. The remainder is sold as of old to the merchants. It is quite possible that this substance might be discovered in other parts of the island; but the Greeks would set no value upon it unless obtained from the spot in question, and excavated with the proper ceremonies. For any private individual to attempt digging it is a capital offence.

Copper dross or tutty^[2153] was obtained from the muddy bottom of a copper mine in Cypros.^[2154] Having been exposed to dry in the sun, a quantity of brushwood was cast around it and set on fire, by which means it underwent a second calcination, and thence obtained the name of diphryges, or twice-burned.

In the same island was found the recrement of brass called Cadmia^[2155] by the ancients. It was generated in the following manner: the furnaces in which they smelted copper were constructed of iron arched above, and of very large dimensions. As the metal underwent the action of the fire, the lighter and mere aërial particles, detaching themselves from the molten mass, ascended like sparks, rolling upwards along the sides of the furnace and settling on the roof.

Here, these particles forming into layers, one above another, coalesced into a hard substance which was called Cadmia.^[2156] Of this there were several 361kinds, one of which was produced by the burning of Pyrites, obtained from precipices overhanging the city of Soli. In these extraordinary mountains were found veins of copper ore,^[2157] sulphate of copper,^[2158] sory,^[2159] verdigris,^[2160] lapis lazuli,^[2161] chrysocolla,^[2162] copperas, and tutty.^[2163]

The recrement of silver was produced in a similar manner during the smelting of the silver ore, but it was in colour paler, and of an inferior quality. In various parts of the island were found in abundance black and white alum,^[2164] nitre, sulphur, rock and sea salt,^[2165] the former near Citium, the latter in the neighbourhood of Salamis. It likewise exported burnt copper and copper flakes. Several kinds of precious stones were moreover discovered here, as the diamond,^[2166] the emerald, the agate,^[2167] found also at Lesbos, the opal, the jasper, the sapphire, the eagle stone,^[2168] the amethyst,^[2169] crystal, and talc,^[2170] and hones from the environs of Arsinoë.

The Egyptians alloyed their silver money with a third part of gypsum, copper, and an equal portion of sulphur. Mines of gold have been in modern times worked in the islands near Nicosia.

The finely tempered steel of Cypros,^[2171] known by the name of adamant among the ancients, was used in making the best cuirasses and deemed impenetrable.

From this island were obtained the finest spodium and flowers of zinc, which were produced in the 362following manner: In a building, two stories high, was constructed a furnace, open at top, and having directly over it a small aperture, communicating with the upper room. The bellows were worked in an adjoining apartment, the snout passing through a wall into the furnace, with which the workman was enabled to communicate by a small door. The fossil Cadmian-stone having been broken into small pieces was cast into the fire through an aperture from above, after which the flames having been blown up to greater fierceness, the mineral converted itself into a dense white vapour, and a cloud of fiery sparks ascended through the mouth of the furnace, the lighter particles attaching themselves like white bubbles or flocks of wool to the walls and vaulted roof of the building, while the heavier, after cooling, fell back into the flames or were scattered about the floor, where they indurated and formed a sort of incrustation. This coarser and weightier substance was usually found when scraped off to contain hairs, splinters, and particles of earth, and received the name of spodion, while that detached from the walls or roof was either milk-white or azure, and was what we now denominate flowers of zinc.

Another mode of manufacturing this article was to cast the fossil Cadmia, reduced to powder, on the surface of the liquid metal in bronze furnaces which caused a similar evaporation. Spodion was likewise procured from gold, silver, and lead, and next after the above this last was considered the best.

Near the village of Amianthos was a celebrated asbestos quarry whose produce, a greyish filamentous stone, was carded like wool and spun and woven into cloth^[2172] which when soiled was cast into the fire instead of being washed, and came forth brilliant and pure as from the loom, though at each burning 363it lost something of its weight. In cerecloths of asbestos the bodies of kings and illustrious personages were burned, in antiquity, to preserve their remains from mingling with the ashes of the pyre.^[2173] Matches likewise were made of this substance, more particularly for those durable lamps which were kindled by the Pagans in sepulchres,^[2174] and supposed to burn on for ever. Other quarries of asbestos were found in Cypros, chiefly at the foot of the precipices bordering the road leading from Gerandium to Soli.

There was found in the island of Siphnos a fossil substance, usually of a spherical form, which was scooped out, and turned into various articles, such as vases, plates, and even pots which would bear the fire. When rubbed with oil and exposed to the action of the air it became black and hard, and resembled the finest pottery:^[2175] similar stones are in modern times brought from the island of Minorca.^[2176]

Two kinds of medicinal earths, the one white, the other ash-coloured, were obtained from Eretria, in Eubœa.^[2177] Chios, likewise, exported a white earth used in cosmetics and at the baths.^[2178] From time immemorial the Greeks appear to have obtained from the island of Zacynthos^[2179] tar impregnated with a bituminous scent. It was found anciently in a pool, about seventy feet in circumference, and of very great depth, situated in a small valley on the sea-shore nearly encircled by mountains. The tar ascended from the bottom in bubbles as large as a cannon-ball, through the clear water, and on reaching 364the surface spread over the pond in a kind of film. It was drawn forth with myrtle branches attached to the end of a pole, and laid in pits to harden, after which it was barrelled and exported. It now sells for about two shillings per cask.

Among the medicinal plants and substances produced in the Grecian islands were the argol,^[2180] anis,^[2181] germander,^[2182] hemlock,^[2183] hellebore,^[2184] and dittany, found chiefly in Crete;^[2185] together with the misletoe, the seeds of which^[2186] were bruised and beaten into a paste; hyssop,^[2187] the cyperus comosus which abounded in the Cyclades,^[2188] from which also an excellent kind of honey^[2189] was exported; marjoram,^[2190] scammony, green terebinth; resin from Cypros,^[2191] aloes from Andros,^[2192] aspalathos from Nisyros, Crete, and Rhodes;^[2193] hartwort or seseli^[2194] and onions^[2195] from Samothrace, an island much vexed by winds; origany from Tenedos; from Chios hemlock^[2196] and gum mastic,^[2197] which the Turkish ladies chew constantly to keep their breath sweet and their teeth white;^[2198] Chios, also, as well as Cos and Crete, furnished also tragoriganon.^[2199] The 365last-mentioned island alone produced the Idæan bramble, whose flowers were used in remedies for ophthalmia.^[2200] The inhabitants of Rhodes obtained from the Egyptian, or Pharaoh’s fig-tree, a medicinal gum esteemed a remedy against the bite of serpents.^[2201] In early spring, before the appearance of the fruit, they gently bruised the bark with a stone, upon which, on all sides, there gushed forth a kind of liquor which, collected with flocks of wool or with sponge, was suffered to harden, formed into small round cakes, and preserved in earthen vases.^[2202]

The modes of collecting the ladanum,^[2203] of which the best sort appears to have been found in Cypros,^[2204] was still more curious. It was found in spring exuding from the leaves of a species of costus on which the goats delighted to feed. As they pastured among the plants the gum attached itself to their beards and the long hair about their legs, from whence it was removed by the goatherds, who melted and strained it like honey, after which it was rolled up into balls and sold to the merchants. Sometimes, 366however, a number of cords were thrown over the shrubs, about which the gum collected.

In addition to the above, the islands furnished numerous other commodities, such as onions,^[2205] of which the best came from Cypros and Corcyra;^[2206] beans from Lemnos;^[2207] from Rhodes ampelitis,^[2208] pitch,^[2209] the best white transparent glue,^[2210] raisins,^[2211] chalk,^[2212] carobs,^[2213] dried figs, which procured agreeable dreams,^[2214] excellent aphyæ^[2215] and cabbage-seed, which last was in great request at Alexandria,^[2216] almonds from Naxos and Cypros,^[2217] whence also came the best pomegranates,^[2218] mustard,^[2219] and excellent lettuces^[2220] grown in the neighbourhood of Paphos.^[2221]

Lesbos^[2222] produced myrtle-berries and figs; Cos and Cypros^[2223] exported odoriferous unguents^[2224] and honey;^[2225] Scyros, variegated marbles;^[2226] Ceos, pears and service-berries;^[2227] Eubœa, sheep,^[2228] pears,^[2229] shining apples,^[2230] olives,^[2231] walnuts, walnut-wood,^[2232] an inferior kind of 367deal,^[2233] marble,^[2234] iron, phagroi, anchovies, turbots, and soles;^[2235] Thera, variegated garments;^[2236] Chios, soft beds and large casks or jars;^[2237] Crete, cypress-wood,^[2238] Cyprian figs,^[2239] hemlock,^[2240] honey,^[2241] and bees’ wax,^[2242] which was blanched in the rays of the sun and moon. These articles of merchandise were likewise supplied by Cypros;^[2243] which also exported rich flowered or variegated hangings,^[2244] triclinia cushions,^[2245] table-cloths,^[2246] oakum,^[2247] bronze vessels,^[2248] nails,^[2249] &c. Snails,^[2250] which formed an important article in the materia medica of the ancients, were exported from Chios and Astypalæa,^[2251] a small island among the Sporades,^[2252] which likewise carried on a considerable fishery,^[2253] and boasted an excellent breed of horses.^[2254] Thasos furnished the sculptors of Greece with a fine white marble which constituted the material of two celebrated statues of the Emperor Adrian 368at Athens.^[2255] The marble of Chios was dead black, like the obsidian stone, and slightly transparent.

Cerinthos in Eubœa, furnished a sort of light dry earth,^[2256] used to preserve corn in granaries. Malta supplied the idle and luxurious ladies of Greece with a domestic kind of lap-dogs.^[2257] Sciathos was famous for its mullets; Melos exported kids;^[2258] Naxos and Scyros, milch goats and lobsters;^[2259] Leros, guinea fowl; Samos, peacocks; and Cypros, hairy sheep^[2260] and doves.^[2261] Among the wild and almost inaccessible cliffs of modern Crete is found a species of blue nightingale,^[2262] in size somewhat inferior to the thrush, which it resembled in the richness and variety of its notes. This bird is often caught and kept in cages, where it is sometimes taught to imitate the human voice. Occasionally it forms an article of traffic, and is exported into Italy; but if the ancients traded in these birds, the passage in which it may be mentioned has escaped me. In the same island is found an elegant sort of merops which darts in flocks along the sides of the thymy mountains in pursuit of the bees, which delight in those fragrant places. It is of rich and variegated plumage like the parrokeet. The children take it in a very ingenious manner; passing a crooked pin with a fine thread attached through the hard corslet of the cicada, they let go the insect which mounts, thus transfixed, into the air. The merops, bold and voracious, immediately pounces upon and gorges it, when the pin sticks in the throat, the bird becomes hooked like a fish, and is easily drawn down and taken.

369The next branch of Greek commerce which demands our notice was that carried on with the countries on the Adriatic, Italy, Sicily, Sardinia, Gaul, and Spain. This trade was in most instances of later origin than that maintained with regions lying more to the East, but nevertheless came at length to be of considerable importance, especially after the Hellenic colonies in Italy and Sicily had risen to eminence. The cities founded, moreover, on the coasts of Illyria exercised considerable influence over the commerce of Greece, by imparting to the rude natives a taste for her productions and manufactures, and exciting them to the exercise of greater industry to supply suitable commodities in their turn. Nevertheless, the information we possess on this subject is extremely scanty.

The barn-door fowls of these regions,^[2263] though inferior to those of Greece, and of a smaller size, were yet exported thither, simply because they were foreign, while the natives on the contrary were eager to enrich their country with the breed of Attica. Wild turnips and parsnips,^[2264] it has been remarked by the ancients, were found growing in Dalmatia;^[2265] but as they abound in most other countries, it seems not unreasonable to infer, from this particular mentioned of them, that they were exported.^[2266] The best iris, the odoriferous roots of which were much used in the making of perfume, came from the interior of Illyria,^[2267] where, having 370been dug up and cleared of the leaves, they were strung on a linen cord and dried in the shade.

From the same country also were obtained the aspalathos^[2268] and the wild spikenard,^[2269] whose leaf resembled that of the ivy, though somewhat smaller and rounder. The wines of the Adriatic shore were in no great request. That which was called Prætutian^[2270] was light and aromatic, and therefore deceived those who drank of it, being powerfully intoxicating and somniferous. The wines of Istria partook of the same character.

From the city of Apollonia^[2271] was exported the substance called pissasphaltos,^[2272] brought down by the river from the Ceraunian mountains, and found in large lumps upon the shore. It exhaled a mingled odour of pitch and bitumen. Great quantities of salt^[2273] were made in another part of Illyria, where, during the spring, they took of the water of a stream flowing forth from a cleft in the rock and poured it into shallow pits exposed apparently to the sun and air, where it hardened in about five days into salt. The beans of Apollonia were famous for keeping long.^[2274] Other Illyrian commodities were slaves, ampelitis,^[2275] cattle, and skins, for which the natives received wine and oil, and other productions of civilised countries in return.^[2276]

The wines of ancient Italy, which formed an important article in the commerce of that country,^[2277] are so familiar to most persons that it will be sufficient barely to enumerate the principal of them,—as the Falernian, the Cæcuban,^[2278] the Alban, the Surrentine, the Brundusian, and the Antheia, a Thurian 371wine.^[2279] Of medicinal herbs and substances, Italy exported considerable quantities, and among them were the hyssop,^[2280] the melilot,^[2281] from the country round Nola, the wild spikenard,^[2282] the madder,^[2283] cultivated in the neighbourhood of Ravenna, and Celtic spikenard from the Ligurian Alps,^[2284] which was kept tied up in handfuls, together with its roots. Of this article vast quantities, as much it is said as sixty tons per annum, were in the last century exported from hence into the inland parts of Africa, as Æthiopia and Abyssinia,^[2285] where it was chiefly used in softening and rendering shining the skin. Another export of Italy was the Ligurian all-heal,^[2286] from the lofty and umbrageous summits of the Apennines, where it flourished chiefly along the edge of the water-courses.

There was in this same mountainous district a species of snail,^[2287] furnished with a shell in winter, which appears to have been both eaten and used as a medicine.

In many parts of Italy they still make use of snails for the same purpose, digging them up out of the earth with an iron instrument. The ancients kept tame snails for eating, which they fatted with a mixture of flour and sweet wine.^[2288] In France they are still fed on vine leaves^[2289] in cages, where 372they attain an immense size. Connoisseurs in snails find a great difference in their flesh, according to the plants and trees on which they pasture. Those which attach themselves to the wormword plant are bitter, while such as are found among calamint, pennyroyal, and origany, have an extremely agreeable flavour.

Among the delicacies of Italy best known to the ancients, and doubtless exported, were mushrooms,^[2290] of which several excellent sorts are still produced; those particularly which the Tuscans call Prignoli and Porcini, which, being boiled and afterwards dredged with flour and fried, are exceedingly savoury.^[2291] The real Porcini are salted and preserved with peculiar care, to be eaten during Lent and other fasts.

There are found in the kingdom of Naples certain stones,^[2292] which being sunk in the ground, covered with a thin layer of earth, and irrigated with warm water, produce mushrooms in four days. These stones are preserved both at Rome and at Naples in cellars, for the production of mushrooms. Occasionally, however, contrivances of this sort prove fatal. In a convent in France where the nuns cultivated mushrooms on a hot bed in a cellar, the noisome exhalations destroyed several persons sent down to collect them.^[2293]

It has been seen that the yew-tree of Arcadia was much used by cabinet-makers; but the Italian yew^[2294] is mentioned by Greek botanists only for its singular and noxious properties, since the birds, they inform us, which ate of its berries turned black, while men were afflicted with troublesome diseases. Around that of Gaul the imagination had woven a tissue of terrors almost equal to that which modern 373times have cast about the upas; for, to sleep, or even to recline, beneath its shade, was supposed to cause dangerous maladies and occasionally even death.

The plant of most deadly qualities known to the ancients grew plentifully in the mountains of the Vestini, neighbours of the Sabines.^[2295] It was identical in nature with that of Pontos, and many extraordinary circumstances are related of its effects. By the mere touch it was said to possess the power to benumb the scorpion, which again recovered its activity if brought in contact with the hellebore. It was used by hunters in the chace to destroy wild beasts, and by physicians for various purposes. At present it appears to be found chiefly among the recesses of the Rhætian Alps, from whence it passes to the Papal States and the kingdom of Naples, in both which countries there is a particular class of men whose sole occupation is the extirpation of wolves, and who formerly used to sell this poison openly on the bridge of St. Angelo, at Rome.^[2296]

Among the other exports of Italy may be enumerated the squills of Minturnæ,^[2297] which exceeded in size those of Smyrna, and the lobsters of Alexandria: amber, too, and coal, of which there are said to have been mines in Liguria,^[2298] found their way into the channels of commerce. The amber of the Po existed only in the regions of mythology.^[2299]

Calabria supplied pitch,^[2300] and bronze from Temessa;^[2301] Etruria, resin,^[2302] figured gold, plate and articles in bronze,^[2303] Thurii, gypsum, and wine;^[2304] Tarentum, fine 374gauze-like fabrics; Italy,^[2305] generally, groats and salt-beef,^[2306] whetstones, wax,^[2307] and adarces, used as a dentifrice;^[2308] Algidum, transparent radishes;^[2309] Apulia, capparis;^[2310] Campania, wheat, from which the best gruel was made, zea, and panic.^[2311] Northern Italy, which abounded in forests, reared immense droves of pigs, which were fed on acorns, so that Rome was almost entirely supplied from thence with pork and bacon.^[2312] It likewise exported millet, pitch,^[2313] exceedingly fine wool from the neighbourhood of Mutina and the banks of the Scultenna,^[2314] long coarse wool from Liguria and the country of the Symbri,^[2315] with a middling sort from the neighbourhood of Padua, with which coats, carpets, with several varieties of shaggy cloth, were manufactured.^[2316]

This part of Italy, likewise, produced immense quantities of wine, which the inhabitants laid up in tuns as large as dwelling-houses.^[2317] Gold mines were anciently worked in the country of the Vercelli.^[2318]

The chief exports of Sicily were wheat,^[2319] of which 375the best and cleanest came from the neighbourhood of Agrigentum;^[2320] cheese,^[2321] which appears to have been made in all parts of the island, as far back at least as the days of Polyphemos; hogs,^[2322] pigeons, and doves,^[2323] whose chief haunt was about the temple of Aphroditè^[2324] on Mount Eryx; variegated robes,^[2325] costly furniture, more particularly plate and pillows,^[2326] and superbly wrought chariots.^[2327] The Sicilian saffron,^[2328] grown in the neighbourhood of Centuripa was of an inferior quality, but seems nevertheless to have been imported into Italy,^[2329] where it is supposed to have been applied to the dyeing of the cedar beams used in the construction of temples.

The honey of Mount Hybla,^[2330] celebrated through all antiquity, constituted another important article of commerce, as did likewise, more particularly, the Adrian and the Mamertinian.

Among the better known plants of Sicily were the marjoram,^[2331] and the cactus, the latter of which was eaten, whether fresh or pickled.^[2332]

From the neighbourhood of Tetras, was obtained a sort of stone which became light and porous in burning so as to resemble the pumice.^[2333]

About the Erinæan promontory a species of jet was found in great plenty, which when burnt emitted a bituminous odour.^[2334]

Sicily likewise exported salt,^[2335] emeralds,^[2336] lapis specularis,^[2337] and agates.^[2338] An abundant supply of coral 376was obtained from the sea around Cape Pachynos, near Syracuse;^[2339] and from Agrigentum, a liquid bitumen found floating on the clear surface of fountains and burnt instead of oil in lamps, and therefore called by some the oil of Sicily.^[2340] Poisons of great force were also found in the island. Among the favourite dishes of the ancients were the lampreys and eels of the Pharo of Messina,^[2341] the bellies of thunnies caught near Cape Pachynos,^[2342] snails,^[2343] and oysters from Cape Peloros.^[2344]

The Lipari islands exported sulphur,^[2345] alum,^[2346] reddle, pumice stone,^[2347] crabs,^[2348] and anchovies;^[2349] Corsica, timber^[2350] of a superior quality; Sardinia, carnelians,^[2351] snails,^[2352] salt provisions,^[2353] wax,^[2354] and honey, which though bitter, because the bee there fed on wormwood, was much used in cosmetics. In this island likewise was found the seseli,^[2355] the juice of which, extracted from the root, was set to thicken in the shade, because, exposed to the sun, it evaporated altogether. It was esteemed a cure for the toothache. The persons 377employed in collecting it were careful to anoint their beard and nostrils with oil of roses, in order to escape those pains and vertigoes which would otherwise have been caused by its effluvia. The little island of Elba exported iron ore and a precious stone richly sprinkled with brilliant colours.^[2356]

With Gaul Greece carried on no great trade. The few articles which it thence obtained were hams, reckoned among the best in the ancient world,^[2357] pitch,^[2358] larch, resin,^[2359] wool; French lavender, from the island of Hieres; wormwood from Xaintonges;^[2360] seseli,^[2361] whetstones called passernices,^[2362] and carbuncles from Marseilles, which were so highly esteemed, that a stone of very small size sold for fifty pieces of gold.^[2363] In the environs of Ruscino^[2364] a very fine sort of mullet was caught in certain sandy lagoons near the sea. Aquitania produced gold; Belgium a sort of white stone (pierre franche) which was sawed into tiles more easily than wood, and used for mosaics.^[2365]

The produce of Spain and Portugal was richer and more varied: merino rams^[2366] for breeding, valued at two hundred and forty pounds, were thence imported into Greece, together with wool of the very finest quality.^[2367] At an earlier period superior cloth had been manufactured for exportation.^[2368] The linen of Emporiæ and of the Saltiæti long continued to be famous.^[2369] The kermes^[2370] procured from Spain were of an inferior quality, but they always continued to be an article of commerce,^[2371] as well as 378the alum,^[2372] the slate used in medicine, the whetstone,^[2373] lapis specularis,^[2374] the sory,^[2375] minium,^[2376] and palmati, round pebbles having within the figure of a palm-tree, found near Munda.^[2377]

The cinnabar^[2378] of this country was artificial,^[2379] and produced from the mixture of a certain ore and argentiferous sand, which being cast into furnaces assumed a most brilliant and flame-like colour. In the mines the above ore emitted so pestilential a vapour that, to protect themselves from it, the workmen covered their faces with a mask of transparent bladders, which at once guarded their eyes and prevented their inhaling it, until by their own breath it had been somewhat tempered. This pigment was used by artists in painting the most costly and gorgeous frescoes.

It has often been remarked that Spain^[2380] was to the ancient world what Peru and Mexico afterwards were to Spain. Gold and silver abounded almost throughout the land. The miners in constant working were numerous; the rivers and mountain-torrents rolled down golden sands; and frequently after floods morsels of this precious metal were discovered flashing and glittering among the rocks and stones.^[2381] Silver was so plentiful, that the natives applied it to the most common uses, and the Phœnicians and Greeks who first touched upon the shore not only freighted their ships with it, but absolutely cast 379away their anchors and supplied their place with masses of silver.^[2382]

The large and opulent province of Bætica, now Andalusia, supplied the ancient world with numerous valuable commodities, among which were wheat,^[2383] wine,^[2384] oil,^[2385] bees’ wax, honey, pitch,^[2386] kermes,^[2387] vermilion not inferior to that of Sinopè,^[2388] rock-salt, and excellent salt-fish.^[2389] The thunnies of this part of Spain were said to fatten, like droves of wild hogs,^[2390] on the large acorns of the dwarf oak which grew plentifully along the coast, and dipped its fruit into the sea. Hence, too, were obtained numerous species of shellfish, among which were conchs of enormous size.^[2391] The congers and murænas, likewise, attained extraordinary dimensions, some of them weighing no less than eighteen minæ, while polypi were found a full talent in weight, and cuttle-fish a yard in length.^[2392]

The Spartium, or Spanish broom, principally used in the manufacture of ropes^[2393] and cables, grew chiefly^[2394] along the high and arid plains of Valentia and Catalonia, through which passed the great high road from Italy.^[2395] Spain exported, besides, cumin, together with wild rocket,^[2396] which grew chiefly on the shores of the Atlantic.^[2397] The seeds were substituted 380by the natives for mustard. In fact, we find that it was a common practice among the ancients to use the seed of rocket in seasoning their dishes; and in order to preserve it for constant use they reduced it with milk or vinegar to a kind of paste, which they fashioned into round cakes, and laid up when dry.

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Having thus cast a rapid glance over the principal articles, natural or artificial, which commerce derived from Europe and Asia Minor, we shall pass over into Africa, in order, as nearly as possible, to ascertain what that part of the world contributed to the trade of antiquity. We shall then proceed by way of Egypt into Syria and Arabia, and from thence to Persia, India, and the farther regions of Asia, with which we will conclude our view of the commerce of the Greeks. Numerous articles of merchandise of the highest value were, from very early ages, obtained from Africa;^[2398] as gold in ingots, and gold dust, ivory,^[2399] blocks of ebony and black slaves.^[2400] The ancients have remarked, that a piece of green ebony placed near the fire kindled, and rubbed against a stone assumed a reddish colour.^[2401] In some parts of the country elephants’ teeth were so plentiful, that the very cattle-sheds were enclosed with palings of ivory;^[2402] and the present of the Æthiopians to the Persian king^[2403] consisted of twelve elephants’ teeth, two hundred blocks of ebony, five black slaves, and a quantity of unwrought gold.^[2404] From this country 382were exported linen or flax, medicinal roots, perfumes, and aromatic spices.^[2405]

According to the information furnished to Herodotus by the Carthaginians, there was anciently a lake in the small island of Kerkenna, out of which the young women drew up gold dust with bunches of feathers.^[2406] Africa, likewise, supplied alum,^[2407] salt,^[2408] sory-stone,^[2409] cinnabar,^[2410] hexecontalithoi,^[2411] blood-stones, eagle-stones, black palmati, and magnets.^[2412] Anciently even diamonds are said to have been obtained from certain mines in Æthiopia, lying between the temple of Hermes and the island of Meroe.^[2413]

A purple, rivalling that of Tyre,^[2414] was produced from a fish caught along the northern coast. Hence, also, were obtained kermes^[2415] and ostrich feathers, with which the crests of helmets were sometimes adorned. Monkeys^[2416] were commonly imported from 383Africa, together with Æthiopian sheep, a species of fowl,^[2417] and various kinds of locusts^[2418] which, eaten by the inhabitants only, figured among the materia medica of the Greeks. Dried and burnt, their smoke was snuffed up for certain complaints, and, reduced to powder, they were drunk in Rome as a remedy against the bite of a scorpion.^[2419]

Slabs of citron-wood, used principally in the making of tables, seem to have been obtained exclusively from this part of the world,^[2420] which, likewise, furnished various kinds of beautiful marbles. Fine carbuncles for seals were obtained from the neighbourhood of Carthage,^[2421] as were the emerald and the bastard emerald from a small island called Cothon, opposite that part of the coast.

The gum ammoniac distils in a milky juice^[2422] from an umbelliferous plant growing in the desert near the oracle of Jupiter Ammon, as well as on the confines of Cyrenè, whence it appears to have been chiefly exported.^[2423]

In the same country grew the silphion,^[2424] which, according to tradition, was not indigenous to the soil, but sprang up suddenly for the first time after a violent tempest.^[2425] If we can rely on this relation 384we must suppose the seed to have been borne thither by the winds, probably from some part of the interior. Both the root and the juice were exported, sometimes adulterated with bean-flowers or gum sagapenum. Marmarica supplied an extremely pungent kind of capparis,^[2426] which, also, was found on the shores of the Red Sea. The wild asparagus flourished abundantly in this country, and attained a great height.^[2427]

From Cyrenaica came an inferior sort of saffron,^[2428] with truffles of a very delicate flavour,^[2429] some of which were of a reddish hue,^[2430] the best white hellebore,^[2431] heraclean all-heal,^[2432] the herb alysson from Africa generally,^[2433] with gum-ladanum,^[2434] olive oil,^[2435] iris roots,^[2436] and terebinth berries.^[2437] In the country of the Troglodytes, on the western part of the Red Sea, were groves of myrrh trees, the gum of which was of a palish green, pellucid, and of a biting taste.^[2438]

The euphorbium,^[2439] which received its name from Euphorbius, physician to king Juba, who discovered the virtues of its juices, is found on Mount Atlas, and in most parts of northern Africa. In procuring this substance they spread a number of sheepskins round the shrub, which they then pierced with darts or lances from a distance, in order to avoid the penetrating noxious vapours which exhaled from it at its first coming in contact with the air. The same precaution, according to a modern traveller, is still practised.

Carthage traded generally in all the productions of the ancient world, her exports consequently were numerous, and among these were magnificent tapestry 385and richly figured pillows.^[2440] From the same part of Africa were exported a superior kind of snails.^[2441] Horses, hides,^[2442] and hams cured in a particular manner, were supplied by Cyrenè,^[2443] together with the best unguent of roses.^[2444] This country was likewise famous for its fragrant violets and saffron flowers.^[2445] The horns of the oryx were exported to Phœnicia, where they were employed in constructing the sides of citharæ.^[2446] The scink, whose flesh was used as an antidote and in aphrodisiacs, was exported from the neighbourhood of mount Atlas, where it attained the length of four feet and a half.^[2447] The Carthaginians, who sailed down the western shore of Africa to the gold coast, used to trade with the natives without personal communication. Landing from their ships they deposited a quantity of merchandise on the ground and retired on board, where they kindled large fires, that their coming might be announced by the smoke; upon this the natives approached, and laid close by what they conceived to be the value of the articles in gold. If what they brought satisfied the Carthaginians, they took away the gold and left the merchandise; if not, they suffered the whole to remain; upon which the natives added a quantity of the precious metal, until the strangers were satisfied.^[2448] Similar rules are observed by the Moors in trading with the negroes in various parts of this continent.

On nearly the whole coast of northern Africa flourished the lotus tree, the fruit of which constituted the principal subsistence of some of the natives, who likewise made from it a kind of wine 386which could not be exported, since it turned sour in three days. The nourishing quality of this fruit was experienced by the army of Ophella,^[2449] which proceeding across the desert, to attack the Carthaginians, was reduced to subsist upon it entirely for several days. It is about the size of a white cherry and straw-coloured, excepting on the side next the sun, which has a ruddy blush: the best are said to be without stones, but those which are produced in the Saïd have very large ones. Whether it has yet been introduced into England I know not; I myself, however, made the attempt in pots placed in a warm room; but on the first frosty night of autumn the plants perished entirely, with all the silk trees I had planted at the same time. From the same part of the country was obtained the lotus plant, used in cosmetics and medicines.^[2450]

From Egypt, which we shall here consider apart from the rest of Africa, the most valuable exports were undoubtedly wheat^[2451] and rice,^[2452] after which, in later ages, the wines of Lake Mareotis,^[2453] and several cities along the Nile, deserve to be enumerated. The seeds of the bitter cabbage of Egypt^[2454] were exported to be employed in medicine. Marjoram, too, was obtained from this country,^[2455] together with the odoriferous rush;^[2456] the creeping inula,^[2457] cœrulescent wormwood,^[2458] the arisaron,^[2459] garlic,^[2460] the 387acacalis, or berry of a certain shrub used in remedies against ophthalmia,^[2461] myrobalans,^[2462] amomum,^[2463] cumin,^[2464] gum-acacia, transparent as glass,^[2465] and the leaves and flowers of the Eastern privet.^[2466]

It is possible, that the sensitive plant was introduced into Greece from Egypt, since this appears to be the native country of all the acacia tribe, to which the sensitive plant belongs; and we find it to have been plentifully produced in the neighbourhood of Memphis.^[2467] Both the seeds and flowers of the tamarisk were used in medicine,^[2468] and of its wood were made cups, which were supposed to impart a medicinal virtue to whatever was drunk out of them.

From dill,^[2469] which was exported from Egypt and other countries, a perfume was made, which was supposed to mitigate the acuteness of the headache. Other kinds of perfume^[2470] were likewise manufactured in this country,^[2471] of which that called metopion, chiefly composed of galbanum,^[2472] and the unguent of lilies may be regarded as the principal.^[2473]

Egypt, likewise, exported paper,^[2474] sails, curiously 388wrought linen breastplates,^[2475] linen^[2476] and cotton^[2477] cloths, jars,^[2478] salt, lobsters, Canopic muscles, Venus’s ears,^[2479] the shad,^[2480] dates, mustard,^[2481] vinegar,^[2482] palm wine,^[2483] and salt provisions.^[2484] The scink, or land crocodile, was likewise furnished by Egypt.^[2485] The game-cocks of Alexandria, which appear to have been held in the highest estimation were doubtless exported.^[2486] The Egyptian oil stunk because no salt was used in the making of it.^[2487] Upon the fields of Egypt, at the period of the inundation, was found in great plenty the nymphæa lotus, with its white flower, which was said to remain open so long as the sun continued above the horizon, but closed at the approach of twilight, and dipped its whole head beneath the water, where it remained concealed till sunrise, when it rose and spread its petals to the dawn. The roots of this plant, about the size of a quince, and in taste like the yolk of an egg, when cooked, were 389eaten by the Egyptians, who with its seed made also a kind of bread.^[2488]

Among the minerals and precious stones obtained from this country were the sory,^[2489] the bloodstone,^[2490] the emerald,^[2491] and the carbuncle. Lapis lazuli was manufactured in Egypt,^[2492] the secret of imitating nature in the produce of this substance having been discovered by one of its kings. In the neighbourhood of Memphis was found a sort of variegated pebbles, which, being broken and reduced to powder, were used by surgeons when about to apply the knife or the cautery in dulling the sense of pain, which it effected completely without danger.^[2493]

The morochthos,^[2494] likewise used in medicine, was a species of Egyptian clay applied to the bleaching of linen. From Æthiopia came the stone called thyites,^[2495] which, though green like the jasper, being dipped in water, imparted to it the colour of milk, and rendered it a cure for ophthalmia. The nitre^[2496] of Egypt was superior to that of Lydia.^[2497] Aloes, likewise,^[2498] and the fine sand for the gymnasia were supplied by this country.^[2499] The best burnt copper was exported from Egypt, where it was prepared as follows in the neighbourhood of Memphis.^[2500] Taking a number of copper nails from ships decayed and fallen to pieces, they piled them in unbaked jars, alternating with layers of earth and sulphur of equal weight, which, having been well luted, were then placed in red-hot furnaces, where they were kept until the jars were thoroughly baked. 390In lieu of salt and sulphur alum was sometimes substituted.

Others, without adding any of these substances, burnt the nails for several days; while a fourth method was, previously to smear them with a mixture of alum, vinegar, and sulphur, and afterwards to burn them in unbaked jars. Copper thus calcined assumed a red colour, and, when pounded in Theban mortars and repeatedly washed with rain water, resembled cinnabar or minium.^[2501] It was usually kept by physicians in boxes of bronze. The marbles of Egypt, used by ancient artists, were generally green and red porphyry.^[2502] All kinds of glass vessels, it is well known, were exported from Alexandria.^[2503]

In the commerce of ancient Syria, one of the principal articles was dates,^[2504] whether dried in the ordinary manner or pressed together and fashioned into square masses. Figs,^[2505] likewise, with prunes,^[2506] and walnuts,^[2507] and pomegranates,^[2508] and apples, and nuts,^[2509] and almonds,^[2510] came from thence. With respect to the exports of Phœnicia we can say but little in this place, as it collected together the wealth of the whole ancient world, which it again distributed according to the tastes and wants of various countries. Thus, we find, that from Egypt the merchandise borne to Tyre consisted of fine linen, with broidered work, which was used in sails on her galleys; blue and purple from the Ægæan; silver, iron, tin, and lead,^[2511] from Cilicia; slaves and brazen vessels from Javan, Tubal, and Meschech; horses and mules from Kùrdistân; ivory and ebony 391from the shores of the Persian gulf; emeralds, purple and broidered work, fine linen, coral, and agates, from Syria; wheat of Minnith and Pannag, honey, oil, and balms, from Judea; and white wool and the wine of Helbon from Damascus. Among the other exports of Tyre were bright iron, cassia, and calamus; Arabia furnished her with lambs, rams, and goats, spices, precious stones, and gold, blue cloths and broidered work, and chests of rich apparel, bound with cords and made of cedar.^[2512]

From this country was first obtained the Marocco leather which is no other than goat’s-skin tanned with the bark of the pomegranate-tree.^[2513] The frankincense^[2514] laid up in vast quantities in the sea-ports of Syria to be conveyed to every country on the shores of the Mediterranean, not having been the growth of the country, will be described elsewhere; but various other odoriferous substances, whether gums, oils, or unguents, were the produce of their land.^[2515]

Among these was the balm of Gilead,^[2516] which exuded from a tree originally introduced from Arabia Felix. The gardens, two in number,^[2517] in which the balsam trees were cultivated lay in the valley of Jericho, flanked on both sides by continuous ridges of lofty mountains,^[2518] and were of small dimensions, the larger not exceeding twenty acres. The tree itself, at present found to flourish in several regions of the East, resembled in size that of the pomegranate, spreading into numerous branches and covered with an evergreen foliage, in form like the leaves of rue, though in colour lighter. Its fruit resembled the terebinth-berries both in hue and size. The gum, for which alone it is valued, is 392produced in extremely small quantities, but exhales the most delicious odour.

The season for gathering it in old times was during the extremest heat of the dog-days, when an incision being made with certain iron claws towards the upper part of the trunk, the balsam trickled forth slowly so as scarcely to fill a single shell during the whole day, as was more particularly observed during the visit of Alexander to this valley. The produce of the large garden during the whole year did not exceed six choes, that of the smaller one a chous. The balsam, when it issued from the tree, was liquid, somewhat resembling milk in colour, and about the consistence of oil. It was sometimes collected on flocks of wool and squeezed into small horns, from whence it was transferred to fictile vases. This substance was so fragrant that the smallest particle perfumed the atmosphere to a considerable distance. It is now seldom found unadulterated in Europe. Pompey carried the balsam-tree in his triumph at Rome, and Vespasian afterwards brought another specimen into Italy.^[2519]

The Syrian costus bore the third rank in the estimation of the ancients, and the superior kinds were adulterated with the roots of a species of inula, growing in the district of Comagena.^[2520] Another Syrian export was galbanum^[2521] which appears to have been produced only in this country; another, the speckled wake-robin,^[2522] the roots of which were eaten like parsnips, while the leaves were salted and used to season dishes. This appears to have been one of the plants which formed the garland of Ophelia, to which the queen alludes in the following words:

With the roots of the wake-robin the Italian ladies made a wash, which, under the name of gersa, renders their skin fair and shining.^[2523] Numerous other medicines, plants, and substances, were exported from Syria, among which were the cyperus comosus,^[2524] mountain spikenard,^[2525] cardamums from the district of Comagena,^[2526] and aspalathos,^[2527] used in thickening unguents; crocomagma, a species of perfume,^[2528] elæomel,^[2529] a sweet oil distilled from the trunk of a tree near Palmyra, gum-styrax, produced particularly in the neighbourhood of Gabala and Marathos, from which was prepared a costly ointment, used in medicine, and called styracinon,^[2530] terebinth-berries,^[2531] pistachio-nuts,^[2532] gingidion,^[2533] southernwood,^[2534] the root of the anchusa,^[2535] sison, a kind of spice,^[2536] silphion,^[2537] the magadaris,^[2538] papaver spinosum,^[2539] of which the leaves were dried in a half-cold oven and then pounded to extract the juice; the most fragrant kind of lilies,^[2540] the androsaces, a remedy against gout,^[2541] madder from Galilee,^[2542] and the berries of the wild vine, which were kept in unglazed jars.^[2543]

The calamus and sweet rush, found in many other countries, appear to have been most fragrant in Palestine, where they grew in stagnant waters among 394the marshes bordering on Lake Gennesareth.^[2544] These marshes, in summer dry, occupied a space of about four miles in length, which seems of old to have been thick with reeds and rushes. From the green plants no perfume exhaled, but when they were cut down and laid to dry in the sun there issued from them a delicate fragrance which impregnated the whole air, and, as some fabulously pretended, could be detected by mariners approaching the shore at a distance of more than a hundred and fifty stadia.^[2545]

The cucumbers of Antioch were celebrated.^[2546] From Syria was obtained the best terebinth-wood blacker than ebony, used in making dagger-handles, and turned into cups,^[2547] together with an artificial kind of gypsum made by burning parget stones.^[2548] Near Seleucia there were mines of an earth called ampelitis,^[2549] of which the black was the most excellent, resembling pitch; fine charcoal used, mixed with oil, for blackening the eyebrows and dyeing the hair. People likewise smeared with it the stems of vines to protect them against the depredations of insects.

The best bitumen^[2550] was obtained from the environs of the Dead Sea, in Palestine, and sometimes adulterated with pitch.^[2551] In Judæa also was found the singular stone called by Pliny and the Greek physicians leucolithos, in magnitude about the size of an acorn, of a milk-white colour and marked with a number of parallel bands, regular as if produced by the turning lathe. Reduced to powder it was exhibited as a medicine.^[2552]

The articles of merchandise supplied to commerce 395by the peninsula of Arabia,^[2553] were rather curious and valuable than numerous.^[2554] Of these one of the most extraordinary was that white and transparent gem, in search of which they went forth into the desert at midnight, when the stone was discovered by its brightness reflecting amid palm-trees and sand hillocks the refulgence of the moon, whose several phases it was supposed to imitate in form, being circular at times and at times semicircular. For this reason it obtained the name of aphroselenon or moonstone.^[2555] From a belief in its hidden virtues women wore it about their necks as an amulet against enchantment. It was likewise suspended upon trees to augment their bearing. Eagle-stones^[2556] were also a production of Arabia, together with certain fine white stones which when calcined were used as a dentrifice.^[2557]

Hence too was obtained a beautiful diaphanous marble resembling the phengites, which, when sawed into thin laminæ, served instead of glass for window-panes.^[2558] Near certain islands on the coast of Arabia, in the Persian gulf, was a pearl-fishery which, though inferior in value and celebrity to that of Serendib, still furnished Greece and the whole western world with a large quantity of pearls.^[2559]

The plains of the Arabian wastes have in all ages 396been covered at intervals with forests of palm-trees. Dates, therefore, from the earliest times, have been among the exports of the peninsula. The manner of climbing the trees in the fruit season was much the same in antiquity as at present. The person about to ascend made with a cord a loop inclosing both his own body and the tree, which warping up as he mounted enabled him to rest at intervals.^[2560]

But the soil, sandy and arid, exposed almost perpetually to a burning sun, delights above all things in the production of thorny shrubs and trees, whose gum and resin, from the united virtues of the climate and the earth, are nearly all fragrant and medicinal.^[2561] Of these some are still in use, while others have disappeared from commerce, or are known under different names. Among the latter was the cancamon, a strongly odoriferous gum used by physicians, introduced into the manufacture of odoriferous unguents, and mingled with myrtle and styrax for perfuming apparel.^[2562] Among the former were the ladanum,^[2563] the myrrh, and the frankincense,^[2564] of which the ancient naturalists have left us an interesting account. It was produced, they say, in the territory of the Sabæeans about Mamali, Citibaina and Adramytta, now Hadramaut. Both the frankincense and the myrrh trees grew partly on the mountains, partly on private grounds at their roots, where they 397were cultivated, while the others, apparently, were left to the superintendence of nature. The favoured ridges adorned by these aromatic plantations are said to have been extremely lofty, covered with woods and clad above with snow, while from their slope and summits numerous streams poured down to the plains.

The tree^[2565] which produces this most precious gum attains no great height, sometimes not above seven or eight feet; but throws out exceedingly numerous branches and expands itself in breadth. The foliage, though more diminutive, resembles in form that of the pear-tree, but its verdure approaches the light colour of the rue. In smoothness the bark everywhere, both on trunk and branches, resembles that of the laurel. The myrrh-tree is still smaller, and more like a shrub. Its stem clothed with a smooth bark, and about the thickness of a man’s leg, is extremely tough and twisted towards the root. In character its foliage has at once been compared to the elm and the scarlet oak,—rough, pointed, and uneven, and armed at the edges with thorns.

Of myrrh there were various kinds, deriving their different qualities from the nature of the soil or from the manner in which the gum was obtained from its tree, some being thick and unctuous, and abounding in that sweet oil called stactè,^[2566] while other kinds were light, clean, and transparent. These accounts appear to have been obtained from eye-witnesses. Certain mariners, we are told, setting sail from the gulf of Heroes, now Suez, and arriving in the frankincense country, landed in search of water.^[2567] During this excursion they advanced as far as the mountains, where they observed the appearance of the trees and the manner of collecting the gum. Incisions, they related, were made in the trunk and the branches, some large, as with a hatchet, others smaller.

398From some of these the frankincense rained upon the ground, while in other parts it issued forth more slowly, thickening as it flowed. Mats of palm leaves were by some proprietors spread on all sides under the tree, which thus appeared to spring from a carpeted floor, while others merely levelled the soil and swept it.^[2568] The frankincense, however, which fell upon the mats was more pure and pellucid than the other, which necessarily attracted some particles of earth. What remained sticking to the trees was severed with a knife, on which account it sometimes contained small splinters of bark. The superior kinds were generally found in commerce of a globular form, into which it was said to have run at the first. In colour it was white, unctuous when broken, and immediately kindled at the approach of flame. That which was brought from India in colour somewhat yellow and livid, was manufactured into grains by art; for, having been pressed into a mass, it was cut into small square pieces which were cast into a vessel and shaken until they assumed a round form.

The same observer affirmed, that the whole of this mountain tract was divided among the Sabæans, who were the lords of that part of the country, and distinguished for their justice, on which account the trees required no watching. They were further informed, that both the myrrh and the frankincense when collected were conveyed on camels to the Temple of the Sun, the holiest place in the country of the Sabæans, and continually guarded by armed men. When the precious merchandise had been borne thither, each person piled his own property in a separate heap, on the top of which placing a tablet declaring its weight and value, they committed it to the care of the temple wardens.

When the merchants arrived they inspected the 399tablets, and if satisfied with the price took possession of the merchandise, leaving the value in its place. The transaction being concluded, the priest, according to some authorities, appropriated one-third of the proceeds to the service of the gods; but others speak with more probability of a tenth, which seems, everywhere in the ancient world, to have been consecrated to the service of religion. The remainder was kept for the owners until they arrived to claim it.

The frankincense produced by young trees was of a pale white colour, but less fragrant than the gum of older trees, which was of a deep yellow. The former probably was what was called Amomites, which possessing little consistence easily melted like gum-mastic, by the touch of the hand. On the way to Greece it was frequently adulterated with fine resin and common gum; but the imposture was easily detected because the gum refused to burn, and the resin resolved itself into smoke, whereas the frankincense yielded a clear flame. In the opinion of many the best kind was brought from Arabia, though in colour it was deemed inferior to the produce of the neighbouring islands. Connected with the natural history of this production, a circumstance is related which seems to have been viewed by the ancients in the light of a prodigy. In the grounds of a temple near Sardis^[2569] a species of frankincense tree sprang forth spontaneously from the earth, having a smooth bark like the laurel, and shedding a gum resembling that of the Arabian perfume.

The numerous groves of frankincense trees which covered the hills and valleys of southern Arabia, constantly distilling their sweet gums, are said to have impregnated the whole atmosphere with their delicious fragrance, which, when the breezes prevailed off the land, was wafted out many leagues 400from the shore. To this Milton alludes in the well known lines:^[2570]

Nor is this to be regarded as a mere poetical figure of speech. Sir Thomas Herbert,^[2571] sailing up the Persian gulf on his return from the East Indies, found the atmosphere of the ocean perfumed by the spirits issuing from the flowers of Arabia, and observes, that mariners while yet out of sight of land have discovered where they were by the prevalence of these odoriferous gales. The same effect has been observed in other parts of the world. Pernetty^[2572] relates, that, on approaching the island of St. Catharine on the Brazil coast, the fragrance of its aromatic herbs and flowers may be detected at more than three leagues. In dark nights, or hazy weather, the dogs on board a ship will smell the land at considerable distance, so as in such cases to serve instead of a telescope.

From a district of Arabia Felix, as well as from Petra in Idumæa, was obtained that gum in globules, called bdellion,^[2573] alluded to in the second chapter of Genesis,—“and the gold of that land is good; there is bdellion and the onyx stone.” Arabia likewise exported preserved ginger,^[2574] though not apparently till a comparatively late period. In the country itself they seasoned their drinks and 401potages with the green leaves, as the Greeks usually did with rue.^[2575]

Among the other exports of Arabia was cassia^[2576] of various qualities, together with cinnamon,^[2577] respecting the gathering of which the following mythological narrative was delivered to strangers. The trees producing this sweet and fragrant bark grew, they said, in a certain valley, inhabited by innumerable serpents, to guard themselves against which, those who came to gather cinnamon had their feet and hands carefully covered with boots and gloves.

The spice being collected was divided into three parts, of which one belonged to the Sun. To prevent the god from being defrauded of his due share, lots were drawn, and the portion which thus fell to him was piled up in a heap upon the sand. The Arabs then departed, but, having reached a certain distance, usually turned back, when they were sure to behold the portion of the sun on fire, and sending up its flames and smoke towards the god to whom it appertained.^[2578] It is clear from this, that the natives of the Arabian peninsula had already begun to collect materials for “The Thousand and One Nights.”

Another fragrant production of this country was the wood of aloes,^[2579] which seems to have found its way, in great quantities, to the west, together with capers,^[2580] costus,^[2581] carpobalsamum,^[2582] cardamums,^[2583] 402aloes,^[2584] gum-ladanum,^[2585] myrobalans,^[2586] terebinth-berries,^[2587] and the odoriferous rush;^[2588] the scink, of which we have already made frequent mention, was likewise obtained from Arabia.^[2589] Broth made of the flesh of this animal is taken as an aphrodisiac by the Arabs, and its flesh dried and reduced to powder was still exported in the time of Hazelquist,^[2590] through Alexandria to Venice and Marseilles.

The island of Tylos, now Bahrein,^[2591] on the coast of Lahsa, in the Persian gulf, is said to have furnished excellent timber for ship-building, which in the water would last upwards of two hundred years.^[2592] Could this have been a species of teak?^[2593] Here, also, as well as on the continent grew the cotton tree in great abundance, from which the natives manufactured coarse calicoes and fine muslins. Another production of the island was a tree bearing inodorous flowers resembling the white violet, though four times as large. Here, too, was found another tree with leaves like the rose, which being fully expanded at noon contracted as the day advanced, and closed entirely at night, when the tree, by the natives, was said to sleep. The same thing, by the people of India, is at present predicated of the Averrhoa Carambola.

403The fertility of this island may be compared with that of Thasos. Here grew in abundance the date palm, the vine, the olive, the apple, and most kinds of nuts, with fig trees which never shed their foliage. No value was set upon the moisture derived from the clouds; on the contrary, when any showers fell, the inhabitants were careful immediately afterwards to irrigate their plantations, as if to wash away the rain. With this they were, in fact, enabled to dispense, on account of the number of fountains and streams of water which there abounded.^[2594]

From Mesopotamia, Persia, Armenia, and the adjacent countries, the Greeks obtained a number of valuable commodities, of which far too meagre an account has been left us by the ancients. Of these the most curious, however, may be said to have been the naphtha, or rock oil, which springs forth spontaneously from the earth in several parts of those regions lying between the Caspian and the Persian gulf.^[2595] The most remarkable of their oil springs was found of old near Ecbatana, now Hamadan, where Alexander was smitten with astonishment at beholding a torrent of flame ascending perpetually out of the earth.

404This everlasting fire was supplied through subterraneous channels with naphtha, which in the vicinity welled forth from the soil and formed a small lake. This naphtha, clear, when pure, as fine oil, is, perhaps, the most inflammable substance known, kindling by the invisible gases which surround it considerably before it comes into actual contact with fire. Several experiments illustrative of its qualities were performed for the amusement of the son of Philip. In the first place certain Persians sprinkled with it the street leading to the royal quarters, and then applying a torch to the earth at the farther end of it, the flame ran along with the rapidity of thought, so that in an instant the whole street seemed to be converted into a channel of fire.

On another occasion one Athenophanes, a profligate buffoon who had abandoned the sweets of freedom at Athens to attend on the Macedonian tyrant, being along with his master in the bath, advised him in the true spirit of a courtier to make a cruel experiment of the power of the naphtha on a poor youth named Stephanos, of homely person and comic expression of face, but gifted with a magnificent voice, and who used apparently to divert Alexander while bathing.

“Shall we try the force of this substance on Stephanos? For, if it kindle and prove difficult to be extinguished on him its powers may truly be said to be altogether strange and irresistible!”

The youth readily consented to encounter the peril. As soon, however, as he had been anointed with it and brought near a fire the naphtha^[2596] instantaneously 405kindled, and his whole body was sheathed in flame to the extreme perplexity and terror of Alexander. He would, in fact, have been reduced to ashes had there not been at hand many persons bearing vessels of cold water for the baths, which pouring over him they with extreme difficulty extinguished the flames. He, nevertheless, felt severely the effect of his royal master’s inhuman curiosity.^[2597]

Certain writers, desirous of giving an historical explanation of the legends of the mythology, suppose the golden crown and veil sent by Medea to Creüsa, which utterly consumed her in the presence of her family, to have been smeared with naphtha;^[2598] for the flames burst not forth spontaneously from the ornaments themselves, but a fire burning near, they, by a subtle power, attracted its seeds and were kindled invisibly.^[2599]

It was believed by the ancients that the country of Babylonia was pervaded throughout by veins of fire, which maintained a perpetual inflammation in the earth and produced towards the surface a species of pulsation. For, according to them, grains of barley being cast upon the soil would leap up and rebound, for which, however, other causes might be assigned. But the heat of the climate is undoubtedly prodigious, and, to mitigate it, we are told, the ancient inhabitants were accustomed to sleep on skins filled with water. Harpalos, who was made governor of the province by Alexander, laboured to acclimate there the trees and plants of Greece, and succeeded in everything excepting 406ivy which, delighting in a cold soil, could not be reconciled to the “temper of that fiery mould.”^[2600]

There was obtained from Persia a gum of singularly healing qualities, which on this account received the name of sarcocolla,^[2601] or flesh-glue, as, also, kermes,^[2602] cardamums,^[2603] pistachio nuts,^[2604] artichokes,^[2605] amomum,^[2606] hemlock,^[2607] silphion,^[2608] and citrons. Persia likewise exported gold solder,^[2609] onyx shells,^[2610] whetstones,^[2611] and jaspers,^[2612] one kind of which was intersected with white veins. Amulets of this stone were much used in incantations. From the province of Bactriana emeralds of great beauty, but of small size, were procured for the studding of costly cups or goblets. They were found in a sandy and desert tract of country, the one apparently which separates Khorasan from Balkh and Khawaresmia during the prevalence of the Etesian gales which, unsettling and shifting the sand, kept constantly laid open fresh spots which were, in many cases, strewed with gems. The search for these emeralds, a hardy and laborious undertaking, was performed by horsemen who, by fleet riding, could scour the wilderness in a brief space of time, bending their keen glances hither and thither as they moved along.^[2613]

In a region beyond Bactria a species of corn was found which must unquestionably have been maize, since the grains are said to have been as large as 407olive stones,^[2614] and to maize only can we apply Herodotus’s description of the wheat found in Babylonia, the straw of which was encircled by leaves four inches in diameter, and its return from two to three hundredfold. Now, in wheat, I believe, so prodigious an increase is all but impossible, whereas a still greater return might be obtained from the Indian corn. A lady whom I knew at Thebes counted eighteen hundred grains in one ear of Syrian maize which was, probably, not less than nine inches in circumference; and from such grain the return mentioned by Herodotus^[2615] is not at all extraordinary.

The millet and sesamum of Babylonia are likewise mentioned, though it is probable that, owing to the difficulty of carriage, it only exported small quantities to be used as seed. Barn-door fowls were introduced into Greece from Persia, and always continued to be known by the name of the Median birds.^[2616] Peaches, too, and various other kinds of fruit, as we have already mentioned in the book on Country Life, were brought to Greece from the Persian empire.

This country likewise exported the oil of white violets used in the bath, and the odour of which they enjoyed during their repasts;^[2617] shaggy winter cloaks seem to have been obtained from northern Persia, together with dyed leather,^[2618] resembling the shagreen and marocco of present times, brought partly from Babylonia, partly from Persia Proper, which likewise supplied the world with carpets exquisitely variegated with figures of animals.^[2619]

408The Persians also imported furs, but do not appear to have exported them, the use of these articles being little known to the Greeks.^[2620]

Respecting the commerce carried on with India the notions of the ancients were confused, chiefly because the various commodities passing through other countries were often confounded with their indigenous productions. We know, however, that from this rich land came many of the spices and precious stones in use among the Greeks,—as the diamond, the ruby, the sapphire,^[2621] and the finest kind of pearls,^[2622] the most fragrant spikenard,^[2623] with costus,^[2624] and amomum,^[2625] and cinnamon,^[2626] and cassia,^[2627] and odoriferous reeds.^[2628] Thence also was obtained a kind of cyperos,^[2629] whose juice was bitter, and of yellow colour, and appears to have been used for removing hair from the skin.

409Another Indian export was the bark called narcapthon,^[2630] which, together with wood of aloes obtained from the same country, was used as a perfume.^[2631] Black, white, and long pepper,^[2632] were likewise among the productions of India, which found their way to the west, together with sugar, the art of manufacturing and refining which appears to have been known to the Hindûs from the remotest antiquity. The whiteness of the Indian sugar, as well as that it was loafed may be inferred from a passage of Dioscorides, who compares it to salt, and says, that it broke easily beneath the tooth.^[2633]

There was in India, moreover, a kind of myrrh produced from a thorny shrub, of which no exact description is given.^[2634] But one of its most celebrated productions was the spikenard, which is said to have grown upon a mountain at the foot of which flowed the Ganges. The malabathron,^[2635] another export of the Indian peninsula, was from the similarity of its odour by some of the ancients confounded with the leaf of the spikenard, as it appears to have been by the moderns with the piper betel, or the Canella Silvestris Malabarica. But from the description of Dioscorides, it is clearly neither the one nor the other; for, while the betel is a parasite cultivated on terra firma, like the vine and the Canella Silvestris, the malabathron was, we are told, an aquatic plant, floating on the surface of lakes, or the waters of morasses, without the slightest connexion with the soil beneath, like the little lentil of the marshes: its leaves when gathered were strung on a linen thread, and in that manner 410hung up to dry, after which they were laid by for exportation. Occasionally, during the heats of summer, the malabathron lakes were dried up, upon which the natives were accustomed to scatter heaps of brushwood over their whole site and set them on fire, so that the entire surface of the earth might be burned, without which, it was supposed the plant would no more appear. Among the uses of the malabathron was the sweetening of the breath, which was done by placing a leaf under the tongue. Thrown into coffers or wardrobes it communicated a perfume to raiment, and preserved it from the moth. The uses to which the wood of aloes was put were in some respects similar, as it was kept in the mouth to sweeten the breath, and sprinkled, when reduced to powder, over the body to repress perspiration.

A coarse kind of bdellion,^[2636] and a species of lycion were reckoned among the productions of India.^[2637] From an island on the coast was obtained a precious bark called macer,^[2638] of great medicinal virtue; aloes, too, was thence exported in abundance. The artichoke^[2639] was plentifully produced on the banks of the Indus, as well as in the mountains of Hyrcania and Khawaresmia. The substance denominated onyx shell,^[2640] procured from a fish resembling the myrex, was found in certain Indian marshes, where a species of spikenard is said to have flourished. On the drying up of the waters in the great heats of summer, these shells were found strewed over the soil, and exported for their odoriferous and medicinal qualities. The great lizard, called the land crocodile,^[2641] has likewise been enumerated among the productions of India. Other Indian commodities were fine muslins,^[2642] ivory, and tortoise shell,^[2643] from 411Taprobana,^[2644] a rich species of marble,^[2645] steel of the finest quality,^[2646] peacocks,^[2647] and a large, beautiful breed of white oxen.^[2648]

Two kinds of indigo, employed both in painting and dyeing were exported from Hindùstân.^[2649] Of these the one is said to have been a natural production which exuded from certain canes and hardened in the sun, the other was artificial, consisting of the substance which adhered to the copper vessels wherein artificers dyed blue. Having been scraped thence it was supposed to be dried and introduced into commerce. These accounts have already, by other authors, been shown to be erroneous, but they prove at least that indigo was in common use among the ancients, though we understand nothing of the means by which it was produced, or how it was cultivated.^[2650]

The cotton tree appears to have been grown in India^[2651] from the remotest antiquity, where the natives manufactured from it the finest fabrics, as calicoes, and chintzes, and muslins, regarded even as superior to the manufactures of Greece.^[2652]

Another production of Eastern Asia, which was imported into Greece much earlier than is generally believed, was silk,^[2653] of the origin and natural history of which they had but an imperfect and confused knowledge. It was understood, however, to 412be created by the labour of an insect with eight feet, called ser, about twice the size of the largest beetle. In other respects it was compared with the spider which suspends its web from the boughs of trees. These insects they kept in houses, the temperature of which was regulated according to the change of the seasons. The fine thread spun by the ser was found twisted about its legs. They fed them during four years upon the leaves of common panic, but on the fifth, because they knew they would live no longer, they gave them green reeds to eat, which was the food in which the creature most delighted. On this it fed so greedily, that it burst itself, upon which store of fine thread was found in its bowels.

The country whence this substance was obtained is said to have been a kind of delta, situated in a deep recess of the Indian ocean, and inhabited by a mixed race, half Indian and half Scythian. In this account there is we see some truth, mingled with a great deal of error. The greatest care is still taken in China to regulate the temperature of the houses in which the silkworms are bred, as well as to remove them beyond the reach of all noises and offensive smells.^[2654] With respect to the figure and food of the insect Pausanias had been misinformed, though he might have obtained more correct knowledge by passing over into the island of Ceos, where the silkworm had been found from time immemorial.^[2655]

In later ages the merchandise of India, and central Asia was chiefly conveyed to the countries on the Mediterranean by way of Arabia and the Red Sea, but at an earlier period it came wholly overland. The exact course pursued by the caravans in these remote times has not been accurately described to us; but as the nature of the country has 413always remained unchanged, it is to be presumed, that they pursued exactly the identical tracks which they at present follow. Occasionally some few of the commodities of Central Asia may have found their way into Greece by the desert, north of the Caspian, but the more common route lay through Khawaresmia and Syria, whence they were distributed to the rest of the western world by the Phœnicians.

The produce of India was probably transported across the Indus at Attock,^[2656] and from thence through one of the nine passes into Persia, by way of Candahar and Herat, after which the caravan fell into the road leading to Susa,^[2657] Ecbatana, or Persepolis, according as its destination was the northern or southern part of Mesopotamia. Sometimes commerce followed the course of rivers, down the Indus for example, thence along the coast of Persia, and up the Persian gulf and the Euphrates or the Red Sea. On most of the roads mentioned there appear to have existed in those ages caravanserais, as at present, where merchants and travellers were accommodated with lodging, water, and fuel, being expected to carry along with them whatever provisions they required. Into this part of the subject, however, it is not my purpose to enter at any length, since to investigate it thoroughly would require a separate volume.

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Having now gone through the whole circle of private life among the Hellenes, we shall consider them in the hour of death, and during the ceremonies with which dust was committed to dust. From a great variety of causes, the dissolution of the body was regarded by the pagans of antiquity with less terror and apprehension than modern nations experience. Their belief in the continuance of existence was not perhaps more unshaken than that of pious men in Christian countries, but the life to come was contemplated as more nearly resembling the present; and they imagined that, by the performance of certain rites and ceremonies, and through the favour of the gods in various ways obtained, they might easily secure to themselves a blissful immortality, which, according to their creed, was denied to none but the incorrigibly flagitious. In earlier times, moreover, before the birth of the sceptical systems of philosophy, no chilling doubts had been thrown on the doctrine of immortality. Ignorant they might be of the Divine nature, of the relations of man to his Creator, of the true duties, obligations, and rules of life; but they were so fully convinced of the existence of a race of superior beings, that they might almost be said to feel its truth as they did that of their own existence. These beings they believed to be everlastingly occupied with human, or rather with Hellenic, concerns; for it seems evident that most of the gods were looked upon more as the parents and guardians of the Grecian race than as remote and general watchers over 415the whole universe. To pass out of life, therefore, was but to pass out of the domains of one god into those of another; to exchange the protection of the celestial for that of the infernal Zeus. Everywhere and on all occasions Gods were supposed to attend their footsteps, but more especially at the moment of their decease, when a cloud of heavenly messengers hovered around them, some to accomplish the separation between soul and body, others to lead and protect the spirit in its descent to the subterranean world, and others again to watch over its happiness while there, sharing along with it the same dwelling-place, and bearing the same relation to it as a monarch does to his subjects.

Possessed firmly by persuasions of this kind, it is little to be wondered at that the ancient Greek experienced less reluctance to enter upon the domains of the dead than is now too commonly felt.^[2658] He had, besides, another motive to cheer his departure. It was his firm expectation to be welcomed on his entrance to the Elysian fields by his parents or friends or companions, by all, in short, whom he had loved in life, and who had preceded him to that sacred and serene abode. Thinking and feeling thus, death seemed scarcely death, but a mere shifting of the scene or change of locality. It was but falling asleep in one place to wake in another where their happiness could know no change; where God would wipe away tears from all eyes, and where there should be no more trouble or sorrow or suffering for ever.

These, nevertheless, must be regarded as the habitual convictions of the mind, which, however they might influence the actions and resolutions of men, could by no means stifle their feelings, or prevent that sorrow and regret which must always be experienced by persons about to be separated from those they love. Hence the death-bed of the Greeks 416presented not a scene of stoical indifference. All the tenderness and sympathy of which the human heart is capable was usually awakened. The friends, and more especially the women of the family, crowded about the couch to press the dying hand, and catch the last breath as it fluttered in broken murmurs from the lips.^[2659] Most persons, when about to bid an eternal adieu to the world, desired to lay some command on their sorrowing friends, not as an imperious task but as a labour of love, by performing which they might be reminded of the departed. Such commands as these the Grecian women were most anxious to receive, that they might treasure them up in their souls, and by pondering on them incessantly, day and night, keep vividly alive in their memory the idea of those who had once been all in all to them. Nor when the spirit had departed did they forsake the corpse, nor abandon it to the care of menials. With their own hands they closed the beloved eyes,^[2660] and tied up the mouth from which words of kindness or comfort were never more to sound. Putting a severe restraint upon their feelings, they straightened,^[2661] laved, anointed, and laid out the corpse,^[2662] covered it with costly garments,^[2663] and placed crowns of flowers upon its head: it was then borne to the vestibule of the mansion and laid with the feet towards the door,^[2664] to intimate that it was about to proceed on its last journey, and take up its abode in the house prepared for all living. Vessels of lustral water^[2665] were then placed beside it; that, being accounted unclean, all those who passed in or out and might be supposed to be 417reached by the effluvia which exhaled from the dead, might sprinkle and purify themselves. Branches of laurel and acanthus, with locks of hair, were suspended over the doorway, each being a symbol speaking to the imagination of that lively people. While thus exposed the corpse was watched day and night by its natural guardians, until the moment arrived for bearing it forth to the funeral pile or the grave. It was then laid in a coffin, generally of cedar or cypress-wood,^[2666] which, being placed upon a bier,^[2667] was borne away, the mourning friends and family attending.

At Athens^[2668] this ceremony took place immediately before day-break,^[2669] numerous individuals bearing the mortuary torches, preceding the bier,^[2670] and lighting up its melancholy way. The men next of kin marched silently in the rear of the coffin to intimate that they should shortly follow in the same track, and the women who kept together in a body,^[2671] closed the procession, weeping and lamenting as they went. Stationed here and there in the crowd, were certain funeral musicians playing airs solemn and sad, but with an intermixture of enthusiastic notes, upon Lydian or Phrygian flutes. Sometimes the company was mounted in chariots or upon horses, but when especial honour was intended to the dead, everybody accompanied the hearse on foot. And surely a group like this, moving along by night through the narrow winding streets of Athens skirting the rocks of the Acropolis, flitting across the agora, between its silent booths and stately plane-trees, and issuing forth through the city gates into the sepulchral suburbs of the Cerameicos, where a 418forest of tombs stretched a considerable distance along the said way, to deposit, as if by stealth, the dust of a human being in the bosom of the earth, must have exhibited a striking and a solemn spectacle; more particularly if we suppose that, roused by the mournful music, thousands of neighbours and fellow-citizens hurried to their casements to behold their countryman carried to his long home. Having reached the destined spot, the body, if to be interred, was laid in the grave with its face looking towards the west.^[2672] The earth was then thrown upon the coffin, and a monument, in most cases, speedily erected over it. If by special desire of the deceased, or for any other reason, cremation^[2673] was preferred, they constructed a funeral pile of unctuous and odoriferous woods upon which oil and sweet unguents were commonly poured.

On the summit of this the corpse was then placed, and a torch having been applied to the pyre by some near relation of the dead, the whole was reduced to ashes. Before, however, the flames were quite extinguished, custom required that a little wine should be cast upon them, after which if any bones of the dead remained unconsumed they were carefully collected together with the ashes, and deposited in an urn, which in Greece was usually committed to the earth.^[2674] All the surviving relations now returned mourning to their dwelling, where, towards evening, a funeral feast was celebrated in honour of the dead.^[2675] Twice during the same month were sacred rites performed at the tomb, and afterwards for ever on the anniversary 419of the deceased’s birth, as well as on a certain day of the festival of Anthesteria, when unfading flowers were strewed around, and heaps of crowns and garlands suspended on the monument. The outward tokens of the grief felt inwardly consisted of black garments,^[2676] heads partially shorn and a sad and neglected countenance.

In nearly all parts of the world, the moment death sets the impress of his seal on the human clay it appears to acquire an awful and mysterious sanctity, which none but the hardened and base will consent to violate. Belonging to the grave, its everlasting calm and silence seem already to brood over it. It presents itself to our eyes like the inhabitant of another world, and therefore though voiceless it reveals to us, as it were, some particulars respecting a state of being of which we know nothing, but feel necessarily the most devouring curiosity. Besides, when the deceased has been dear to us in life, we regard his corpse as the deserted mansion of a friend, as the tabernacle of a soul scarcely different, though divided from our own. On this account the ancient Greeks, a people beyond most others pious, imaginative, and affectionate, cultivated with peculiar care the duties which we owe the dead. Ancient writers abound with illustrations of this truth. When the Thebans, after the defeat of Adrastos and Polyneices refused burial to the fallen Argives, it was considered by the Athenians a sufficient cause for declaring war against Bœotia. It was not pretended that the invaders had been engaged in an honourable war; but having expiated their transgression by death, their remains had passed under the protection of the infernal deities, and to refuse them the rites of sepulture was not so much to insult them as Pluto, and the other gods of Hades, whose subjects they were now become. The unburied corpse was, moreover, a polluting 420object which defiled the temples of the celestial divinities, and therefore they also were interested in watching over the rights of the dead; for dogs and beasts of prey might carry their flesh or bones into the fanes, and thus render them unclean. And this sentiment, which constituted one of the most amiable parts of the Greek character, tended likewise to confer imperishable beauty and interest on the Hellenic land. For, the numerous tombs, public and private,^[2677] which clustered over and hallowed its surface, addressed themselves still more powerfully to the heart than to the eye. Everywhere the devotion of the people clung around them. They were at once the creations and the monuments of human love, of public gratitude, of holy reverence for intellect and virtue.

The same observation, indeed, applies universally. The pyramid, the solitary barrow, rising like a hillock on the plains of Asia, the crowded cemetery, the vast suites of sepulchres excavated beneath the surface of the earth, each and all of these must ever be regarded by men of sensibility and unsophisticated understanding as so many unequivocal tokens of the ineradicable goodness of human nature. Examples without number might be adduced in illustration. When a North American chief was urged to cede to the European invaders the hunting-ground of his tribe, he stated his objection in these words: “How can we abandon the country in which all our ancestors lie interred? Shall we say to the bones of our forefathers, ‘Arise, and go along with us into a strange land’?” In many countries a more absorbing interest attaches to the abodes of the dead than to the habitations of the living. Who, for example, can traverse, without the most profound emotion, those suites of subterraneous palaces at Thebes denominated the Tombs of the Kings? You seem, in these vast painted 421halls and dusky passages, to hold actual converse with death. The grave unfolds its mysteries on all sides around. The imagination is kindled and takes a colour from the unearthly creations presented to it, and you return with something like reluctance to the glare and turmoil and busy passions of the world. Among the Greeks, as we have observed, the dead were invested with a sanctity which all good men esteemed inviolable, and this persuasion acquired additional force from the belief, that, though separated, the spirit and the body were not yet wholly independent of each other. For, upon the treatment experienced by its remains the state of the soul was in some measure regulated in the realms below. If these received the rites of interment, the spirit was allowed freely to traverse that stream, dusky and inviolable, which surrounded the realm of Hades. If not, the ghost, cold and desolate, wandered along its hither shore during the space of a hundred years; after which, the laws of Orcus relented, and permitted it to taste of happiness amid the groves of Asphodel,^[2678] and those blissful bowers where poets and sages devoted the circle of eternity to the culture and pure delights of wisdom. From this persuasion, the ghosts of persons denied the rites of sepulture^[2679] are represented by the poets hovering around their corses and presenting themselves in visions to their surviving friends, requesting them to sever, by the performance of their obsequies, the sad links which still bound them to their dwellings of clay. Thus Homer introduces Elpenor^[2680] conjuring Odysseus to perform this last sad office for his remains. Often when, by shipwreck or murder, the body was cast on some solitary shore, or abandoned in the recesses of some forest or mountain, inhumation was solely dependent on chance. But if fortune conducted any 422stranger to the spot, it was considered incumbent on him to discharge, in one way or another, the ties of humanity to the dead. But, because he might not be able to dig a grave or consume the body on a funeral pile, it was reckoned sufficient to cast three handfuls of dust upon the corpse, of which one, at least, was to be sprinkled on the head. Thus we find, in Horace,^[2681] the manes of the Pythagorean philosopher, Archytas, intreating the mariners, who had found his body on the beach, to honour it with this rite:

In order the more certainly to secure this act of humanity from the passer-by^[2682] persons about to perish by shipwreck were accustomed to tie around their body gold, or jewels, or whatever else they possessed of value, that it might defray the expenses of their interment, and reward him who undertook it.

There were, however, certain classes of men who, by their open or secret wickedness, were supposed to be placed beyond the expansive circle of human sympathy, on whom it would have been criminal to lavish sepulchral rites. These were, in the first place, individuals struck by lightning, whom the gods were believed thus to have destroyed,^[2683] from a knowledge of their guilt, though hidden from all other eyes. Corpses of this kind were usually covered with earth where they lay without the slightest ceremony, unless they happened to have fallen in some public temple, or agora, or highway, under which circumstances a hook was fastened to the 423body, by which it was dragged and cast into some pit. On other occasions the carcase was hedged round and so left. Men guilty of suicide were likewise denied the honours of burial, but more especially those of the funeral pile. Their carcases were simply thrown into a pit and covered over, to prevent their becoming a nuisance to the living. Villains who committed sacrilege, and traitors to their country were not suffered to enjoy in death the protection of those divinities whom they had outraged, or the refuge of a grave in a country which they had basely betrayed to the enemy.^[2684] Their dishonoured bones were cast beyond the borders, nor was it permitted any citizen to celebrate for them the rites of burial. Thus King Pausanias, who sought to enslave his country to the Persians, was treated by the Lacedæmonians, Aristocrates by the Arcadians, and Phocion by the people of Athens,^[2685] though in this last case, perhaps, through error and misapprehension. The last and worst class were tyrants^[2686] equally objects of hatred to gods and men, who usually when overcome by their subjects expiated their guilt by the most unheard-of torments, while, in the nether world, the worst pangs of Tartarus were reserved for them. To deposit in the bosom of the earth the carcases of malefactors so heinous would of itself have been esteemed a crime of a very deep dye. The remains were, therefore, trodden under foot, subjected to every other species of indignity, and then cast forth to be devoured by the dogs and vultures. Nay, if we may interpret the expression of Plato literally, the punishment of men who even aimed at tyranny in a free state and failed in the attempt was tremendous: they were tortured and mutilated, had their eyes burned out, suffered every imaginable insult and injury, and at last crucified, or covered with pitch and burned alive: their wives and children suffered the same punishment—the 424innocent being confounded with the guilty. To protect their ashes from insults such as the above, the kings of Egypt who erected the pyramids and were in character fierce and tyrannical, are supposed by Herodotus not to have entrusted their bones to the keeping of those structures. A wild story is also related of Periander of Corinth,^[2687] who, conscious of having ruled his countrymen with a rod of iron, dreaded the effects of their resentment on his corpse. Effectually to conceal the place of his interment he is said to have directed two of his satellites to go forth at night on a certain road and kill and bury clandestinely the first man they should meet. Four others were despatched to execute the same vengeance upon them, and another crowd of assassins received orders to exterminate and bury these four. Periander, then old and infirm, presented himself to the first murderers, was slain and buried, and the place, from the sudden death of all who might have known it, thus remained undiscovered for ever.

Most opposed to these were those honourable citizens^[2688] who fell for their country in defence of its liberty and laws, whom their fellow-citizens followed to the tomb with every conceivable mark of public gratitude and honour, and whose names future generations were taught to reverence like those of gods. In some sense, indeed, they were actually deified. Rites and ceremonies and sacrifices were performed annually in their honour, and by their great and heroic spirits future generations swore as by the most ancient inhabitant of Olympos. Sometimes, 425as on the plain of Marathon, the remains of the warriors were collected together, and with holy rites enclosed in one common barrow, calculated by its dimensions to be co-lasting with the world. On other occasions their remains were brought to the city and buried there. Thus, at the outbreak of the Peloponnesian war, the first citizens who fell received the distinguished honours of a public funeral. Their remains were enclosed in coffins of cedar, and laid in open hearses, drawn by horses carefully caparisoned, and covered with garlands, were conveyed to the Cerameicos, the whole population of the state attending. When they had been there committed to the earth, Pericles, the greatest statesman and orator of those times, ascended a bema, and, in words which must thrill through the hearts of all posterity, pronounced on them an encomium to merit which most brave men would cheerfully have bartered life.

The modes of sepulture prevalent in different ages among the Hellenes were various in like manner as the monuments erected in honour of the dead. Originally, when public security was weak, men buried their dead within the walls of their own dwellings, where alone, perhaps, they could hope to preserve their resting-place inviolable. In accordance with this pious feeling a law was anciently enacted at Thebes in Bœotia, that whoever built himself a house should construct within or adjoining it a repository for the dead. But when states grew up and acquired strength, and the shadow of their protection fell around far and wide, it was found practicable to consult the public health without infringement of the reverence due to the divinities of Hades, and the habitations of the departed were erected, like a sacred circle, round the city walls.

Afterwards, in the period of Grecian decrepitude, the cities once more opened their gates to their ancestors, and permitted that they should share with 426themselves the imperfect security which was the lot of all in those degenerate times.

Much has been said on the custom which obtained among both Greeks and Romans, of extending their cemeteries along the high roads leading countrywards from the city gates.^[2689] Their object appears to have been twofold: first, by erecting the monuments of deceased friends in sight of all persons entering or quitting the city to render their memory more enduring; secondly, that by witnessing the honours paid to the brave and good of past times, those who came after them might be incited to imitate their example.

But no place was deemed too sacred to admit the remains of good or great men, which were occasionally enshrined within the precincts of temples or sacred groves.^[2690] Thus the children of Medea were buried in the temple of Hera, Œdipos found a tomb in the grove of the Eumenides at Colonos,^[2691] and Hesiod, whose body comes floating to the shore while the Samians are engaged in the performance of sacred rites, is honoured with a funeral in the grove of the Nemean Zeus.^[2692] Euchides, likewise, who died in consequence of the extraordinary celerity with which he performed the journey to and from Delphi in quest of the sacred fire, was interred by the Platæans in the temple of Artemis Euclea. Among the Spartans the practice commonly prevailed of burying around sacred edifices; nor did they, even in later times, banish their dead to the suburbs; the design of this departure from the fashion elsewhere established being to eradicate from the mind of youth all apprehensions of spectres, and reluctance to move, whether by night or by day, among tombs and graves. In all parts of Greece, families, at least when above the humblest in rank, possessed each their burial grounds, whether 427standing wholly apart in orchards or gardens,^[2693] or forming so many separate portions of the general cemetery.^[2694] But nowhere does so great stress appear to have been laid on this distinction of families in death as at Sparta, as may be inferred from the account of that battle in which, animated by the songs of Tyrtæos, the youth bound about their right arms tablets inscribed with their own names and those of their fathers, that so, should they all perish, their friends might be able to select from among the heaps of slaughter the bodies of their relatives, and inter them with scarlet mantles and olive-leaves in the cemeteries of their clans.^[2695]

Frequently the remains of distinguished persons were consigned to the dust in picturesque situations, remote from towns and the habitations of men, where chapels were in many instances erected to their memory. Thus we find the heroon of Androcrates^[2696] shrouded in thick copses and trees amid the spurs of Mount Cithæron, on the western extremity of the field of battle of Platæa. In a situation very similar stood the tomb and temple of Amphiaraos, and the heroon of Drimacos in the island of Chios. Among the Cretans, likewise, the sepulchre of Zeus occupied the lofty summit of a mountain, where its ruins are still pointed out to the traveller. A poetical sentiment, moreover, has, in modern times, given rise to the persuasion that the ruins of Themistocles’ tomb are still to be seen amid that line of ancient sepulchres which run along the surf-beaten rocks near the point of Cape Halimos. On this supposition is based the well-known passage of Byron:

But the learning of Colonel Leake has clearly shown, that the monument of this illustrious statesman stood within the horns of the great port of Aphrodisium. In the city of Magnesia, where he died, his tomb stood in the agora, which was customary when extraordinary honour was designed the dead.^[2697] Thus the monument of Timoleon,^[2698] surrounded by porticoes and other public buildings, was erected in the agora of Syracuse; and that of Harmodios and Aristogeiton occupied the same place in the city of Athens, where, in more ancient times, the tombs of distinguished personages were hewn out in the face of the cliffs, lined with marble, and otherwise sumptuously adorned. Solon, however, sought to repress the luxury of cemeteries^[2699] by ordaining that no tomb should have an arched roof, or require more labour than could be performed by ten men in three days. But this law, in all probability, was never strictly observed; for the Cimonian sepulchres, still seen high amid the rocks overlooking the hollow valley which divides the Areopagos from the Pnyx, seem to have been of dimensions too spacious to have been hewn out within the legal term.^[2700] Afterwards, moreover, mortuary monuments of extraordinary magnificence were erected at Athens, as that, for example, of the hetaira Pythonicè. But it was in barbarous countries that funereal structures exhibited the greatest splendour, which reached possibly its acmè in the tomb of Mausolos, king of Caria, an edifice consisting of a pyramid erected on a square basis, adorned on all sides with sculptured figures in relief, and surmounted by a chariot drawn 429by four horses. The tomb of the mistress of Gyges, though for materials inferior, probably exceeded in dimensions this seventh wonder of the world. It was erected, too, as a memorial of affection; for, when the woman who, during her life, had ruled both him and his kingdom, had been removed from earth, that shepherd king collected together, we are told, the whole of his subjects, and threw up so vast a barrow over her remains, that, in whatever part of his realm he might be, within Mount Tmolos, he might enjoy the melancholy pleasure of beholding her grave.

In the structure of their tombs, as well as their mode of interment, the various nations of antiquity observed each a different style. Thus, in the purification of Delos, the monuments of the Carians were easily distinguished from those of the Greeks by the manner in which their remains were deposited in the grave. Certain sepulchral mounds, found in Peloponnesos, were distinguished by some characteristic features from those of the natives, and denominated the Tombs of the Phrygians; and the burying places of certain foreigners on whom the Greeks bestowed the name of Amazons, exhibited as long as they endured some distinctive marks^[2701] by which they were known to cover the ashes of some barbarous people. Over the tomb of Hippolyta, indeed, a pillar was erected in the Grecian manner; but at Chalcis, where there was an Amazonium, the structure would appear to have exhibited some peculiar features, as well as the tomb of these warlike ladies, which was shown in the Megaris, between the agora and a spot named Rhus, in the form of a lozenge,^[2702] resembling their shields. Similar in shape, likewise, were probably the Amazonian monuments found near Scotussa in Thessaly, as well as those on the banks of the rivulet Hermodon, in the neighbourhood 430of Cheronæa.^[2703] On the plains of Troy the Amazon Myrinna reposed under a vast barrow.^[2704]

The structures thus erected in honour of the dead might have proved more durable but for the practice common among the ancients, of interring jewels, gold, precious vases,^[2705] and other treasures with the corpse, which afterwards roused the cupidity of profligate men, and tempted them to rifle the last houses of their forefathers; for it is one of the most odious and debasing features of civilisation, at certain stages of it, that death is habitually desecrated, and the grave ceases to be a refuge. Thus the tombs of the Macedonian kings were plundered by the Gauls^[2706] in the alliance of Pyrrhos. Again, the colony of Roman freedmen sent to raise Corinth from its ashes, discovering by chance that the catacombs contained bronze and fictile vases of great beauty, rifled the whole cemetery, and filled Rome with the spoils, which were denominated Necrocorinthia. Even the obolos^[2707] placed beneath the tongue, and the simple ornaments of the humbler dead, proved sufficient to excite the avarice of a certain class of robbers, denominated from their practices tomb-spoilers.^[2708] When, however, the dust of the departed has reposed in its cerements for many ages, to disturb and plunder it becomes the pursuit of learned men, and is regarded as a branch of the science of antiquities. Thus the sepulchres of the Egyptian kings have been spoiled and polluted by travellers, who have burned by thousands the wooden gods of the Pharaohs in their kitchens, 431sawed off the faces of pillars, dragged forth bodies and coffins from their last hiding-place in order to pilfer the golden ornaments suspended around the necks of the dead. In Etruria, too, the same scientific havoc has been carried on, and the museums of Europe have been enriched by what was once a capital offence. Even in our own country, barrows have been habitually opened, and the bones of our ancestors dislodged from their homes. Very curious relics of antiquity, however, have thus been brought to light. Similar tumuli in the East, denominated topes, have been examined in Affghanistân. Beneath the centre is usually a well, in which the ancient remains, consisting of metallic vases, small cylinders of gold, rings, jewels, and gold pins, appear to be found.^[2709]

It was customary among the Greeks, not only while their grief was yet new, but habitually for many years, to visit the graves of the dead, to suspend garlands and crowns and fillets of wool upon their head-stones, or possibly, as is still the custom in Burgundy, to place wreaths or other ornaments of pure wool upon the grave itself,^[2710] and to protect them by a trellis-work of willow boughs. Hither, too, were brought baskets full of all fair and fragrant flowers, more particularly roses, myrtles, amaranths,^[2711] and lilies, to be strewed upon the beloved spot. Sometimes graves were covered by a netting of wild thyme,^[2712] which, like those characters that are ennobled by affliction, yielded forth a delicious perfume beneath the foot of the mourner. In cool and shady spots, graves were sometimes adorned with the small everlasting,^[2713] and the white flower called pothos.^[2714] 432Public cemeteries were likewise, in many places, beautified by trees, selected in some cases for their thick foliage and spreading form, as the elm; in others, for their graceful shape and evergreen leaf, as the poplar and the cypress. Other trees, also, whether planted by the hand of man or springing up spontaneously, covered the walks or spots of green sward found in the cemeteries of Greece, supplying in abundance that sombre shade into which grief loves to retire, and where the sepulchral plants chiefly delight to grow.

Such spots so shaded, so verdant, and full of fragrance, so consecrated to silence and repose, probably first suggested the idea of the Elysian Fields or Islands of the Blessed, which the poets of Greece assigned to be the abode of happy souls. At first perhaps the ghosts were believed to dwell in the cemeteries, retiring by day to the depths of the tombs and issuing forth during the dark and tranquil hours of night to enjoy, by the light of the moon or the stars, the sight of the world they had partially quitted. From this notion flowed all the modifications observable in the internal structure of tombs. First, care was taken that the earth should not press heavily on the corpse, somewhere within the dimensions of which the ghost was supposed^[2715] habitually to reside. Sentiments not greatly dissimilar still survive among ourselves. I once remember to have read on the gravestone of a little girl standing near the stile by which you enter the shady churchyard of Newport, in Monmouthshire, the following epitaph, in which this idea is clearly embodied:

433Secondly spacious and elegant chambers were frequently constructed for the spirit’s use, where food was likewise placed, and lamps were kindled which, furnished with wicks of amianthos^[2716] and supplied with inexhaustible fountains of oil, were believed to burn on everlastingly. A similar notion leads many Mohammedan nations to turn a small arch in the stone basement of their tombs to accommodate the ghost with free ingress and egress. Connected also with this article in the creed of the ancients^[2717] was the opinion, that spirits might often be seen gliding in shadowy shapes among the tombs, which may be regarded as a notion almost co-extensive with humanity itself.

In their modes of sepulture the barbarous nations^[2718] of the ancient world differed widely from each other and from the Greeks. The Syrians, Egyptians, and even Persians, wholly eschewing the funeral pile, buried their dead, having first embalmed them with various conservative and aromatic substances, as myrrh and aloes, and cedar-gum,^[2719] and honey, and salt, and wax, and asphaltus, and resin, mingled with perfumes and precious unguents. Among the Pythagoreans, who adopted foreign rites in preference to those of their country, it was customary to wrap the dead in leaves of myrtle, poplar, and aloes, and thus to commit them to the earth. The Albani put money into the coffins with the corpse; the Taxilli, the Brahmins, and the Thracians, like the modern Parsees, exposed the bodies of their relations to be devoured by vultures; the Barchæi, a people inhabiting the borders of the Black Sea, followed 434the customs of these nations in the case of such of their countrymen as fell in war; but when they happened to be so effeminate as to die peaceably in their beds, they were condemned to the flames. Dogs and carnivorous birds constituted the sepulchres of the Parthians, Magians, Hyrcanians, and other savage nations, who, however, were careful to inter the bones which were left undevoured. Among these philosophical people no thought was more habitual than that of death, since men walked daily beside their graves; for persons of condition, who could afford to be luxurious in matters of this kind, fed and pampered huge dogs for the express purpose of being devoured by them after death, such mode of interment being among them esteemed the most honourable. The Essedones, the Calantii, the Massagetæ, the Derbices, and the Hybernians, on this point very strongly resembled in taste and habits the Battas of Sumatra, the custom among them having been to honour their parents and friends with a far superior sepulchre to that of the foregoing people, since they ate them themselves. It is remarked, however, in the case of the Essedones, that the skulls were carefully cleansed, gilded, and laid by, to be produced on their solemn annual festivals. The Derbices somewhat improved upon the method of their neighbours; for, when their old people were found to live too long, they hastened the approach of death in the case of the men, by slaughtering them like victims, and in that of the old women, by strangling them.

Among the Hyperboreans the practice was, when old people lived so long as to be thought troublesome, to give them a farewell feast, and then, having crowned their brows with chaplets, to pitch them over steep cliffs into the sea. The Caspians adopted a different method of bringing down the population to a level with the means of subsistence; for, when their parents and friends exceeded the age of seventy, they either exposed them in remote and desolate 435places, as infants in many countries were, or shut them up in huts to perish of hunger and thirst. The mode of disposing of the dead adopted by one of the Scythian nations was, to bind their corpses to the trunks of trees, where they remained a long time, congealed in the midst of ice and snow: to have interred them in the earth they would have regarded as a crime. Not greatly dissimilar was the Phrygian mode, according to which the dead were placed upright on ranges of stones fifteen feet high. A large cemetery of this kind, having many ranges of rude columns, each with its corpse or skeleton, viewed by the dubious light of the moon, with flights of ravens or vultures preying upon the bodies recently set up, must have presented a terrific spectacle. The Nasamones, a people of northern Africa, buried their dead in a sitting posture, which, as I am informed by General Miller, is still the custom among the Araucanian Indians, who, binding the corpse in the necessary posture with cords, excavate for it a grave beneath their own beds. In some parts of the world, as in Thrace, for example, and India, persons greatly advanced in years, more especially such as were distinguished for the cultivation of wisdom frequently ascended voluntarily the funeral pile, like the Yoghee Calanos, and Perigrinos who affected the airs of a philosopher, terminated their existence with composure, or even an appearance of gaiety in the flames. A certain tribe said to have inhabited the coast of the Red Sea, beyond the Æthiopians and the Arabs, interred their friends in the sand, within high-water mark, so that their graves should constantly be overflowed by the surge. The Æthiopians either cast the bodies of the deceased into the Nile, or enclosed them in glass coffins, through which the mouldering form might ever be contemplated. In some parts of Upper Nubia a similar practice still prevails; for the corpse being laid on the sand, a wall of loose rocks is built up around it, and secured with a slab atop. Through numerous 436apertures in the sides, of dimensions to admit light but exclude the jackals, the skeleton may easily be seen.

According to a tradition preserved by Ælian,^[2720] Belos was interred in a glass coffin, which, when Xerxes caused his tomb to be opened, was found nearly filled with oil, wherein the body lay floating. Beside it stood a small column, on which was this inscription, “Woe to him who having broken into this sepulchre shall fail to fill my coffin.” At this Xerxes was troubled, and immediately gave orders that oil should be poured into the sarcophagus, but to no purpose; for, though they made the attempt once and again, it rose no nearer to the brim than before. Conceiving that some grievous calamity was impending over him, the king at length desisted, and quitted the monument in the deepest dejection. He shortly afterwards, adds the historian, undertook his unhappy expedition into Greece, at the conclusion of which, flying back to his own country, he was there assassinated, as believed, by his own son.

The Pœonians cast their dead into marshy pools; the Ichthyophagi into the sea. Very different was the custom of the Troglodytæ, who, tying their corpses neck and heels with the twigs of some flexible shrub, in this manner carried them forth, and raising over them heaps of stones, as the Phoceans did over Laïos and his servants, fixed, with laughter and merriment, the horns of goats upon the tumulus. Similar tombs exist at this day in Affghanistân, in which are stuck sticks bearing wreaths and shreds of cloth, together with tusks of the moufflon, the ibex, and markhur.^[2721] In China, at the annual festival in honour of the dead, the sepulchres are decorated with streamers of red and white paper. Dead bodies, in the Balearic isles, were jointed, cut up, and stowed in urns on which huge piles of rock were thrown. The Panebi, a people of Libya, had 437a custom resembling in part that of the Essedones: on burying the bodies of their kings they gilded their skulls, and suspended them in their temples as ornaments. The Sindi, a people of Scythia, doubtless a branch of the Ichthyophagi, used to bury in the graves of their warriors a small fish for every enemy he had slain in battle, which must, doubtless, if they were a brave people, have rendered their cemeteries anything but odoriferous.^[2722]

From the enumeration of these fantastic and barbarous rites we may perceive how striking was the contrast between the manners of the Hellenes and those of most other ancient nations. At one time, however, a practice, little inferior in atrocity to those above described, is said to have prevailed in the island of Ceos,^[2723] where men on reaching sixty years of age were constrained to drink hemlock or opium, in order to economise the means of subsistence. But this law, if it ever existed, must be thrown back to very remote times, it being wholly inconsistent with even the smallest advances of civilisation.

The ceremonies and symbols by which among the Hellenes sorrow was expressed for the loss of friends were numerous and significant. In the first place, all tokens of pleasure and enjoyment were suppressed, that affliction might seem to have extinguished every spark that might thereafter have kindled joy. From wine and sumptuous viands and whatever else brings gratification to the mind at ease, they abstained as though wholly unworthy to be honoured with even the semblance of a capacity to mitigate their sorrow for the departed. They banished all instruments of music which happened to be in the house, to intimate that they thenceforward renounced the delights derivable from sweet sounds.^[2724] The same 438practice precisely prevailed among the Arabs under the Kalifat. Thus “Haroon-er-Raschid, wept, we are told, over Shemselnihar, and, before he left the room, ordered all the musical instruments to be broken.” They excluded the light from their chambers, and retired to sob and lament in gloomy recesses, as different as possible from the spots which in the company of the beloved and lost object they were accustomed to frequent. They neglected the care of their persons, suffered in some places the hair and beard to grow, or disfigured themselves by cutting off a portion of their locks, casting ashes on their heads, and wrapping themselves in coarse and black apparel.^[2725] In consequence we find, that the very manes^[2726] of their mules and horses were shorn. Alexander, during the paroxysm of his grief for the loss of Hephæstion,^[2727] even demolished the battlements of cities, and, exaggerating the cruelty and barbarism of remoter ages, crucified the physician who had attended the youth, prohibited all music in his camp, and undertaking an expedition against certain tribes hitherto unsubdued, offered up whole hecatombs to the manes of his minion.^[2728] The mourning of the Lacedæmonians on the death of their kings partook largely of the spirit of barbarism. As soon as the event occurred, horsemen were despatched to make it known throughout the Lacedæmonian territories, while crowds of women paraded up and down the city, beating or sounding kettle-drums. From every family two persons, one of either sex, were then selected, who were compelled under grievous penalties to smear and disfigure themselves.^[2729] In fact, assembling in great numbers, Spartans, Laconians, and Helots, together with their wives, they 439beat their foreheads and uttered strange howlings, ever and anon affirming, amid their well-acted grief, that the last king was the best. When the prince happened to fall in battle, his effigy was borne home on a bier sumptuously adorned, and to this the same honour was paid as to the real corpse. During the ten days immediately succeeding the funeral no public business was transacted. For private individuals, the Lacedæmonians scarcely mourned at all, their system of ethics requiring them to suppress every more tender feeling of the heart.

The ceremonies designed to perpetuate the memory of brave men can scarcely perhaps be regarded as envious, but the glory which was like the Shekina on their land, appeared to purify and ennoble their descendants by inflaming them with the love of country and liberty. Grecian manners abounded with rites of this kind, but none seem more worthy of commemoration than those observed annually by the Platæans, in honour of the warriors who fell around their city. It is well-known that the Greeks regarded the spirits of good men of former ages as guardian genii, to whom belonged religious veneration amounting perhaps to worship. Their gods, in truth, were in many cases colonists from earth, which can surprise no one who observes, that among them the principle of life was deified, and this, derived from gods to mortals, resided for a time on earth, and then, by continuing to move on in the circle, returned to the heavens from which it sprang. They seem to have regarded the earth as a sort of nursery-ground in which the seeds of divinity were sown, to be afterwards transplanted and bloom elsewhere. But among the offspring of earth none appeared to them so nearly akin to deity as those in whom courage and energy shone preëminently, who loved passionately the soil from which they sprang, and who sought cheerfully in its breast a refuge from dishonour. Hence the apotheosis and adoration of the brave; hence the Platæan ceremonies, which, down even to Roman times, 440inspired the youth of Greece with admiration for their ancestors, and called to their mind those glorious days when their country teemed with freemen ready at any moment to shed their blood for the institutions and the land which those institutions alone rendered holy.^[2730] These anniversary rites were celebrated on the sixteenth day of the month Maimacterion, the Alalcomenios of the Bœotians. The procession moved forth from the city in the grey of the morning, having at its head a trumpeter sounding the signal of battle. Numerous chariots followed, filled with myrtle-branches, and wreaths, and garlands, succeeded by a black bull. Vessels of wine, and jars of milk, and vases of oil and odoriferous essences were borne next by a number of free youths, no slave being permitted to take part in these solemnities performed in honour of men who had died for liberty. Last in the procession came the archon, habited in a scarlet robe and armed with a sword, though on all other occasions he was forbidden the touch of steel, and went clad in white. In his hand he bore a water-jar taken from the Hall of Archives. In this he drew water from a fountain, and having laved therewith the pillars which surmounted the tombs, he perfumed them with the essences: next slaying the bull at the altar, and addressing his prayers to Zeus and the Chthonian Hermes, he invoked to partake of the funeral repast and the streams of blood, the spirits of those valiant men who had fallen for their country. Then, filling a goblet with wine and pouring it forth in libations, he concluded with these words: “I drink to the warriors who died for the liberties of Greece.”^[2731]

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