355

CHAPTER XII.

EXPORTS OF THE ISLANDS, ITALY, GAUL, AND SPAIN.

BEFORE we describe the trade of Syria, Egypt, and the farther East, we shall endeavour to give some account of that carried on by the numerous islands of the Mediterranean, together with Italy, Gaul, and Spain, and the whole northern coast of Africa. The commodities furnished to commerce by the various groups and larger islands of the Ægæan and Ionian seas scarcely yielded in number to those of Asia Minor. Of these the most important were the wines, which fluctuated in value, strength, and flavour, according to the soil, temperature, and elevation above the sea, of the vineyards which produced them.

The island of Lesbos, during the flourishing ages of the Athenian republic, formed part, as it were, of the territory of that great maritime state which compelled it to carry its wines exclusively to Athens.1 Among these was the Pramnian, which, also produced in Achaia, was a strong, harsh wine, apparently resembling port. Most, however, of the islands, both large and small, supplied wine-as Tenedos, Chios, Cypros, which furnished, among others, a curious fig wine; Thasos, where one par

3

8

5 Plut. de Anim. Tranquil. §

10. Dioscor. v. 11. Vib. Sequest. p. 32, ed. Oberlin.

6 Plin. Nat. Hist. xiv. 2. Synes. Epist. 147.

7 Καταρχίτης or Συκίτης. Dioscor. v. 41.

8 Athen. vii. 67. x. 37, 40.

2

ticular kind was somniferous,' Peparethos, Lesbos, Euboea, Crete, where among others was found the Malmsey; Leucadia, Cos,* and Corcyra.

3

Few of the islands grew more corn than they could consume, except Euboea," which was for many years the granary of Athens. Lesbos, too, produced the most superb barley, which was grown upon the hills round Eresos, the birthplace of Theophrastus. The Thasians, likewise, cultivated an inferior kind of barley which, from the extreme productiveness of the island, seems occasionally to have been exported, though I remember no authority in proof of the fact. Samos furnished Greece with the best olive oil next to that of Attica."

But of all the minor islands none appear to have supplied so many articles to the coasting trade of Greece as Thasos, whose productions were singularly rich and varied. There, in the earlier ages, the Phoenicians discovered and worked gold mines which in after times became exhausted, but the fertility of the island and the industry of its inhabitants seem never to have failed. From hence were exported radishes, fish sauce, pickles, almonds, and walnuts,10 with the trees of which the island was thickly shaded.

8

Crete, Cypros, and Naxos exported hones; " Paros figs 12 and the best white marble 13 drawn from quar

4

6

5

ries, the vast extent of which is still the admiration of travellers. Cypros, sory, a substance resembling verdigris, sulphate of copper, emeralds, and jasper.3 Linen, white and dyed purple, was brought from Amorgos; thapsia from Thapsos; painters' earth of the best quality, that is of loose texture, crumbling, dry, and without fatness, " obtained from the neighbourhood of Pharis; sulphur,' alum,8 and pumice stone from Nisyros and Melos,9 where this latter substance was extremely light, and sometimes found imbedded in other stones. The pumices of the island of Nisyros 10 were of an inferior description, and crumbled to pieces in the

seq.

1 Tournefort, Voyages, i. 238,

2 Dioscor. v. 119. Plin. Nat. Hist. xxxiv. 30.

3 Theoph. de Lapid. § 35.

Schol. ad Eschin. Timarch. p. 381. Schol. Aristoph. Lysist. 150, 735. Poll. vii. 74.

5 Dioscor. iv. 157. Sibthorp, Flora Græca, tab. 287. See a description of the plant in Tournefort, t. iii. p. 298, sqq. Theoph. Hist. Plant. ix. 8.3.

6 Dioscor. v. 129.

7 Dioscor. v. 124. Plin. Nat. Hist. xxxv. "Le soufre de Milo "est parfaitement beau, et a un petit œil verdâtre et luisant,

66

qui le faisoit préférer par les "anciens à celui d'Italie: on "trouve ce soufre en cette isle 66 par gros morceaux en creusant "la terre, et par grosses veines "dans les carrières d'où l'on tire "les meules de moulin." Tournefort, Voyage du Levant. i. 187. Buondelmonti gives the following account of the sulphur of Nisyros: "Circa medium (insula) mons I erigitur altissimus, quo in sum"mitate per subterraneos meatus

66

sulphureus ignis die ac nocte

"ad jactum lapidis, fons calidis"simus emanat in imum, et in "plano circa lacum profundissi

mumque obscurum aquæ de"scendunt; ibique colentes quan"titatem maximam sulphuris "mercatoribus præparant." § 17. p. 76, seq.

8 Dioscor. v. 123.

9 Theoph. de Lapid. § 21. Pumice stones are at present found in great numbers on the shores of the Troad, whither Chandler supposes them to have been floated by the waves from Mount Etna or Vesuvius, though an abundant supply appears to be constantly furnished by the volcanic islands of the Archipelago. Travels, i. 26.

10 Theoph. de Lapid. § 21. Plin. Nat. Hist. XXXVI. 42. This island likewise supplied the Greeks with excellent millstones. Eustath. ad Dion. Perieg. 526, and purple fish. Steph. de Urb. p. Suid. v. Niovpos t. ii. p. Eustath. ad Il. ß. t. i.

594. c. 234. d. p. 241.

hand. They were, however, extremely plentiful, occurring in heaps, and generally about the size of the fist.

3

Carystos in Euboea exported verde antico,' and the amianthos, or stone from which towels and similar fabrics were manufactured, indestructible by fire; Eretria medicinal earth; Chalcis exported copper; Cimolos chalk and fullers' earth; 5 Samos jars and medicinal earths, ash-coloured and white,' in which was found a stone used by jewellers in polishing gold.R

6

From Lemnos three different kinds of earth were obtained, the first known among the ancients by the name of terra sigillata, was sold in small round cakes mingled, according to Dioscorides, with the blood of a goat and stamped with his image in the sacred seal of Artemis; though Galen, who visited the island on purpose to examine this earth, denies that, in his time, any blood was intermixed with it. The second of the Lemnian earths 10 was reddle, and the third fullers' earth. The first of these earths, of a slight red colour, was sometimes denominated sacred, apparently because used in sacrifices. In modern times the substance known under this name is usually brown or pink-coloured.

1 Strab. ix. t. i. p. 667. Dion. Chrysost. Orat. lxxx. p. 664.

2 Strab. x. ii. p. 684. Casaub. Coronelli, Mem. de la Morée, p. 208, seq.

3 Celsus, v. 19. 7.

4 Steph. Byzant. v. Xaλriç.

5 Ovid. Metamorph. vii. 463. Plin. Nat. Hist. XXXV. 16. Tournefort, i. p. 172. Strab. x. 5. t. ii. p. 386. Poll. x. 135. vii. 39. Zoroaster, ap. Geopon. vii. 6. 11.

6" Morning Chronicle," July 17, 1838, p. 3. Cicero, pro Muren. 36. Plin. Nat. Hist. xxxv. 48. 46.

7 Plin. Nat. Hist. xxviii. 53. 77. xxxi. 46.

8 Dioscor. v. 173. Plin. Nat. Hist. xxxvi. 40.

9 Ἡ δὲ Λημνία γενωμένη γῆ, ἔστιν ἔκ τινος ὑπονόμου, αντρώ δους, αναφερομένη ἀπὸ Λήμνου τῆς νήσου, ἐχούσης ἑλώδη τόπου, κακεῖθεν ἐκλέγεται καὶ μίγνυται αἵματι αἰγείῳ· ἣν οἱ ἐκεῖ ἄν θρωποι αναπλάσσοντες καὶ σφρα γίζοντες εἰκόνι αἰγὸς, σφραγίδα καλοῦσιν αἰγὸς. Dioscor. v. 113. 10 Theoph. de Lapid. § 52. Florent. ap. Geopon. x. 90. 1. Plin. Nat. Hist. xxxvi. 14. Salmas. ad Solin. p. 1156.

The mine whence the sealed earth is at present excavated lies on the summit of a precipitous mountain, on the eastern shore of the island, about four bowshots from the ancient city of Hephæstia. The road leading thither, after arriving at the chapel of Sotira, is divided, and branches off to the right and left. Both ways pass by a fountain; the one on the right bordered with elder, willow, and carob trees, by one which, though closely shaded from the sun's rays, fails in summer; while that on the left conducts to a spring which, lying in a marshy spot, producing nothing but rushes, is perennial. Both these fountains are situated among the roots of the hill, now ascended by steps cut in the rock, but anciently by a road practicable all the way to the summit. The digging of the Lemnian earth appears to have been always under the protection of religion; for, during the operation, a priest anciently stood on the mountain near the mine, and, after having made a sort of libation of corn, which was cast as an offering upon the ground, and performed various other ceremonies, caused a waggon to be laden with the earth and conducted to the city, where it was prepared, sealed, and sold to merchants.

2

In modern times, ever since the period when the Venetians were in possession of the island, a different and more cumbrous set of ceremonies has been practised. The principal inhabitants of the island, both Turks and Christians, assembling on the sixth of August, march out in grand procession to the mountains of sealed earth, halting by the way at the chapel of Sotira, where the priests chant the liturgy of the Greek church, and repeat many prayers, after which they ascend the

1 Dapper, Description des Iles de l'Archipel. p. 245. In the island of Cea there were regular pits whence the best reddle was obtained. That found in

iron mines was esteemed inferior. Theoph. de Lapid. § 52.

seq.

2 Cf. Busbeq. Epist. iii. p. 214,