All These Combined To Render It A Place Of
Great Importance To Commerce.
Its trade consisted chiefly in slaves:
according to Strabo, in the time of Perseus, king of Macedonia, above
10,000 slaves came in and went out daily.
The corn, wine, and other
commodities of the neighbouring islands; the scarlet linen tunics,
manufactured in the island of Amorgos; the rich purple stuffs of Cos; the
highly esteemed alum of Melos, and the valuable copper, which the mines, of
Delos itself (that had been long worked,) and the elegant vases,
manufactured from this copper, - were the principal commodities exported
from Delos. In return and exchange, foreign merchants brought the produce
and manufactures of their respective countries; so that the island became,
as it were, the storehouse of the treasures of nations; and the scene,
during this mixture of religious festivals and commercial enterprise, was
peculiarly gay and animated. The inhabitants were, by an express law, which
is noticed by Athenaeus, obliged to furnish water to all the strangers who
resorted thither; to which, it would appear, they added, either
gratuitously, or for a small remuneration, cakes and other trifling
eatables.
The Athenians were so anxious to protect and extend the commerce carried on
in Delos, that they gave encouragement to such strangers to settle there as
were conversant in commerce, as well as strictly guarded its neutrality and
privileges. On the destruction of Tyre, and afterwards of Carthage, events
which gave a new direction to the commerce of the Mediterranean, a great
number of merchants from these cities fled to Delos, where they were taken
under the protection of the Athenians; and it appears by an inscription
found in the 17th century, that the Tyrians formed a company of merchants
and navigators there. The Romans traded to it, even before their war with
Philip, king of Macedon. After the restoration of Corinth, the Athenians
used all their efforts to keep up the commerce of Delos; but the wars of
Mithridates put an end to it; and in a very short period afterwards, it
seems to have been entirely abandoned by the merchants of all nations, and,
as a commercial place, to have fallen into utter neglect and decay.
Corinth, next to Athens, demands our notice, as one of the most commercial
cities of Greece. The Corinthian dominions were extremely small, their
extent from east to west being about half a degree, and from north to south
about half that space: according to the geographer Scylax, a vessel might
sail from one extremity to the other in a day. It had no rivers of any
note, and few rich plains, being in general uneven, and but moderately
fertile. The situation of Corinth itself, however, amply compensated for
all these disadvantages: it was built on the middle of the isthmus of the
same name, at the distance of about 60 stadia on either side from the sea;
on one side was the Saronic Gulf, on the other the sea of Crissa.
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