They Also Levied On Its
Inhabitants A Heavy Tribute In Silver Coin.
As this city was well situated
for commerce, and the Athenians, wherever they went, or were settled, were
eager in pursuit of gain, their colonists in Amphipolis extended their
trade, on one side into Thrace, and on the other into Macedonia.
They were
enabled, in a great measure, to monopolize the commerce of both these
countries, at least those parts of them which were contiguous, from the
situation of their city on the Strymon; of which river they held, as it
were, the key, so that nothing could depart from it without their consent.
The ancients represent this river as frequently exhibiting immense logs of
wood floating down it, which had been felled either on Mount Rhodope, or in
the forests of Mount Hemus. The Athenians retained this important and
valuable colony till the time of Philip, the father of Alexander, by whom
it was taken from them.
The island of Samos may justly be regarded as a Grecian colony; having been
chiefly inhabited by the Iones, to whose confederacy it belonged. Its
situation between the mainland of Asia and the island of Icaria, from both
of which it is separated by very narrow straits, which were the usual
course for the ancient vessels in their voyage from the Black Sea to Syria
and Egypt, rendered it the resort of pirates, as well as celebrated for its
ships and commerce. The city of Samos, as described by the ancients, seems
to have been a place of great consequence. Herodotus mentions three things
for which it was remarkable in his time; one of which was a mole or pier,
120 feet long, which formed the harbour, and was carried two furlongs into
the sea. The principal design of this mole was to protect ships from the
south wind, to which they would otherwise have been much exposed. Hence it
would appear, that even at this early period, they had made great advances
in commerce, otherwise they would neither have had the disposition or
ability to build such a mole. But we have the express testimony of
Thucydides, that even at a much earlier period, - nearly 300 years before
the Peloponnesian war, - the Samians gave great encouragement to
shipbuilding, and employed Aminodes, the Corinthian, who was esteemed the
most skilful ship-builder of his time; and Herodotus speaks of them as
trading to Egypt, Spain, &c., before any of the other Greeks, except
Sostrates, of Egina, were acquainted with those countries. The same author
informs us, that the Samians had a settlement in Upper Egypt, and that one
of their merchant ships, on its passage thither, was driven by contrary
winds, beyond the Pillars of Hercules, to the island of Tartessus, which
till then was unknown to the Greeks. This island abounded in gold; of the
value of which, the inhabitants were so utterly ignorant, that they readily
allowed the Samians to carry home with them sixty talents, or about
13,500_l_. According to Pliny, they first built vessels fit to transport
cavalry.
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