The Greeks
Call Them The Tyrrhenian And Adriatic Seas.
This people, in twelve cities,
inhabited the country extending to both seas; and by sending out colonies
equal in
Number to the mother cities, first on this side of the Apennines
towards the lower sea, and afterwards as many on the other side, possessed
all the country beyond the Po, even to the Alps, except the corner
belonging to the Venetians, who dwelt round a bay of the sea." Homer,
Heraclides, Aristides, and Diodorus Siculus, all concur in their
representations of the maritime power and commercial opulence of the
Tuscans at a very early period. Diodorus Siculus expressly says, that they
were masters of the sea; and Aristides, that the Indians were the most
powerful nation in the east, and the Tuscans in the west.
Of the Grecian colonies in the south of Italy, that of Tarentum was the
most celebrated for its commerce. Polybius expressly informs us, that
Tarentum, their principal city, was very prosperous and rich, long before
Rome made any figure, and that its prosperity and riches were entirely the
fruit of the extensive and lucrative trade they carried on, particularly
with Greece. The city of Tarentum stood on a peninsula, and the citadel,
which was very strong, was built on the narrowest and extremest part of it;
on the east was a small bay, on the west the main sea; the harbour is
represented by ancient historians as extremely large, beautiful and
commodious. Its vicinity to Greece, Sicily, and Africa, afforded it great
opportunities and facilities for commerce.
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