There Were Also Other
Circumstances Which Contributed To Render It A Place Of Great Importance To
Commerce:
Its commodious situation for the navigation from Europe into
Asia; its festivals, which brought immense crowds to it (and
As we have
just observed, wherever a multitude of Greeks were collected, by
superstitious rites or amusements, commerce was mingled with their duties
and pursuits); and the bias which its original, or at least its very early
inhabitants, had to commerce: 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.
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