And The Remarks
Which We Have Made, Also Apply Against The Opinion Of Eustathius, That The
Voyage Of The Argonauts Was At Once A Commercial And Maritime Expedition,
To Open The Commerce Of The Euxine Sea, And To Establish Forts On Its
Shore.
Having rendered it probable, from general considerations, that the object
was the obtaining of the precious metals, we shall next proceed to
strengthen this opinion, by showing that they were the produce of the
country near the Black Sea.
The gold mines to the south of Trebizond, which
are still worked with sufficient profit, were a subject of national dispute
between Justinian and Chozroes; and, as Gibbon remarks, "it is not
unreasonable to believe that a vein of precious metal may be equally
diffused through the circle of the hills." On what account these mines were
shadowed out under the appellation of a Golden Fleece, it is not easy to
explain. Pliny, and some other writers, suppose that the rivers impregnated
with particles of gold were carefully strained through sheeps-skins, or
fleeces; but these are not the materials that would be used for such a
purpose: it is more probable that, if fleeces were used, they were set
across some of the narrow parts of the streams, in order to stop and
collect the particles of gold.
III. It is said that there was an ancient law in Greece, which forbad any
ship to be navigated with more than fifty men, and that Jason was the first
who offended against this law.
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