Corcyra was
inhabited by skilful mariners, who, in the time of Herodotus, possessed a
greater number of ships than any other people in Greece, with the exception
of the Athenians; and, according to Thucydides, at one period they were
masters of the Mediterranean Sea. On the invasion of Greece by Xerxes, they
fitted out a fleet of sixty ships, with which they promised to assist their
countrymen; but, instead of this, their ships anchored in a place where
they could see the result of the battle of Salamis, and when they
ascertained that the Greeks were victorious, they pretended that they had
been prevented from affording the promised succours by contrary winds, so
that they could not double Cape Malea. Of the commerce of this island we
have no particulars detailed by ancient writers.
Egina, in the Saronic Gulf, acquired great wealth from the cultivation of
commerce: in the time of the Persian war, they equipped a very powerful and
well-manned fleet for the defence of Greece; and at the battle of Salamis
they were adjudged to have deserved the prize of valour. According to
Elian, they were the first people who coined money.
The island of Euboea possessed excellent harbours, from which, as it was
very fertile, the Athenians exported large quantities of corn.
