Panticapeum, Built By The Milesians, According To Strabo, The Capital
Of The European Bosphorus, With Which, As Has Been Already Mentioned, The
Athenians Carried On A Considerable Trade.
Theodosia, also mentioned
before, was likewise formed and colonized by the Milesians:
Its port could
contain 100 ships. Tanais, on the Cimmerian Bosphorus; Olbia and
Borysthenes, both situated near the mouth of the river from which the
latter took its name; Panagorea and Hermonassa on the Bosphorus, and
several others. Besides these colonies in this part of the world, the
Greeks founded others, for the express purposes of commerce; as Syracuse,
in Sicily; Marseilles, in Gaul, the mother of several colonies established
on the neighbouring coasts, and, as we shall afterwards notice, a place of
very considerable wealth, consequence, and strength, derived entirely from
commerce, as well as the seat of the arts and sciences; Cyrene, an opulent
city in Africa, and Naucratis, situated on one of the mouths of the Nile.
They likewise formed settlements in Rhodes and Crete, in the islands of the
Egean Sea, on the opposite coasts of Asia, &c.; most of which were of
importance to the mother country, from the facilities they offered to the
extension of its commerce.
The war between the Romans, and Philip king of Macedon, which intervened
between the second and third Punic war, first afforded the former an
opportunity and an excuse for interfering in the affairs of Greece. Till
the time of Philip, the father of Alexander, Macedonia does not appear to
have had any connexion with the rest of this celebrated portion of the
ancient world; the Greeks, indeed, regarded its inhabitants as savages; but
from that period, Macedonia became the most important and influential state
in Greece. Its boundaries varied at different periods of its history: it
seems originally to have been bounded on the east by the Egean Sea; on the
south by Thessaly and Epirus; on the west by the Ionian Sea; and on the
north by the river Strymon, at the mouth of which, as has been already
mentioned, the Athenians founded one of their most flourishing and useful
colonies. The princes of Macedonia viewed with jealousy, but for a long
time were unable to prevent the states of Greece from forming colonies in
the immediate vicinity of their dominions: their union, however, with the
king of Persia, when he first fixed his ambition on Greece, was rewarded by
a great accession of territory, which enabled them to contest the
possession of the sea-coasts with the most powerful of the Greek republics.
They then extended their territories to the Eastern Sea, but there were
till the reign of Philip, the father of Alexander, several nations between
them and the Adriatic, all of which were subdued by him; and thus this sea
became their western boundary.
Some of the most celebrated cities of Macedonia were founded by foreign
nations. Epidamnus, which was seated at the entrance of the Ionian Gulf,
was a colony of the Corcyrians: it was the occasion of a fierce naval war
between them and the Corinthians, generally called the Corinthian war.
Apollonia, distant seven miles from the sea, on the river Laus, was a
Corinthian colony: it was renowned for its excellent laws. On another part
of the coast of the Adriatic were the sea-ports of Elyma and Bullis. The
district of Paraxis, which was full of gulfs and inlets formed by the Egean
Sea, had several ports, but none of any repute. From this description of
Macedonia and its principal sea coasts and ports, it is evident that it
possessed many advantages for commerce and naval affairs, which, however,
were never embraced till the period when the Romans first turned their
thoughts to Greece. Had its sovereigns been disposed to engage in commerce,
the Adriatic, with its extensive and safe haven of Epidamnus, in which
there were several ports, would have opened the trade to Italy; the Egean
Sea, still more advantageous, would have secured the trade of Greece and
Asia, by means of its spacious bays, one of which, the Sinus Thermaeus, was
at least sixty miles long.
The produce of Macedonia also would have favoured its commerce; the soil
was every where fruitful, and, especially near the sea, abounding in corn,
wine, and oil: its principal riches, however, consisted in its mines of
almost all kinds of metals, but particularly of gold. In the district of
Pieria, it is said, there were found large quantities of this metal in the
sand, sometimes in lumps of considerable size: but by far the most
productive and valuable mines of gold were in the mountain Pangaeus, in a
district which Philip, the father of Alexander, added to Macedonia. The
people who inhabited the country near the river Strymon derived great
wealth from these mines, and it was the knowledge of this, as much as the
facility of obtaining timber, which induced the Athenians to found their
colony near this river. The Thracians drove the Athenians from this part of
Macedonia, and Philip expelled them: he paid great attention to the working
of the mines; and by employing persons well skilled in this and in refining
the ore, he rendered them so extremely valuable, that, according to ancient
authors, he obtained the empire of Greece principally by means of the
immense sums he drew from them, amounting annually, according to Diodorus,
to 1000 talents of gold. When the Romans reduced Macedonia, they expressly
forbade the inhabitants from working the mines of gold or silver, or
refining either of those metals; permitting them, however, to manufacture
any other metal.
The princes of Macedonia previous to Philip, the father of Alexander,
notwithstanding the great advantage for maritime affairs and commerce
afforded by the sea-coasts, bays, harbours, &c., neither practised nor
understood them: this arose in a great measure from their being continually
engaged in wars, or having their ports occupied or blocked up by the
maritime states of Greece. Philip was the first who freed his country from
these evils and inconveniences; but his thoughts were too intently and
constantly fixed on other objects to allow him to turn his attention to
maritime affairs or commerce.
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