ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. bs 
ocean carriers for the whole western world. B. C. 1280, the spirit of trade is 
recorded as having spread over the greater part of Asia. 
The religion of Egypt declared the sea unclean, because the dead body of 
their god Osiris was thrown into it. Egyptians therefore abhorred the sea, 
and formerly avoided any concern in maritime affairs. Their early trade was 
conducted by foreigners; on the Mediterranean and with Arabia, their com- 
merce was for a long time wholly entrusted to the Phenicians. According to 
Apollonius Rhodius, B. C. 1300, and prior to the expedition of the Argonauts, 
Sesostris, king of Egypt, built a fleet of 400 vessels on the Erythrean (Red) 
Sea. The Egyptians were, however, but fresh-water sailors; their hulls and 
masts were made of thorn, and sails of paper. 
The Greeks had skillful ship-builders, and Homer has immortalized Har- 
monides as the builder of the vessels which carried off the beautiful Helen 
from Sparta. During the ‘‘ heroic ages’’ of Greece, the petty princes on the 
sea coast frequently fitted out vessels to go on piratical cruises against the 
merchant ships upon the Mediterranean; hence it became common to question 
a commander whether he professed piracy or trade. 
Their course depended on the previous knowledge of the shore acquired by 
some member of the crew. Homer describes Ulysses as covering his ship 
with long planks, making probably a half-deck. 
B. C. 1194, when Paris carried off Helen, wife of Menelaus, king of Sparta, 
Agamemnon, king of Argos, embarked a Grecian army of 100,000 menin a 
fleet of 1186 vessels to avenge the affront. 
Castor, of Rhodes, a writer cotemporary with Julius Czsar, made a cata- 
logue of nations who successively attained the empire of the (Mediterranean) 
Aigean Sea. 3B. C. 1280, the island of Crete was called by Aristotle the Em- 
press of the Sea. B.C. 1179, the Lydians, after the Cretans, were honored 
by Minos with the title of masters of the sea. B.C. 1058, the dominion of 
the seais ascribed to the Pelasgi. B. C. 1003, Castor alleges the Thra- 
cians had the Empire of the Sea, and held it 19 years. B.C. 890, the domin- 
ion of the sea is ascribed to the Phrygians. B. C. 753, the Milesians are 
represented as supreme in naval power, and having a wide commercial fame. 
B. C. 734, the dominion of the sea is ascribed to the Carians, buccaneers, 
noted for their piracies. B.C. 717, the Corinthians, a nation of Greece, 
made a considerable figure in naval transactions. Thucydides mentions their 
naval force soon after the Trojan war, kept up to protect their trade against 
pirates. B.C. 676, the Lesbians obtained and held command of the sea for 
59 years. B.C. 67, the Romans were masters of the sovereignty of the sea 
without a competitor, having destroyed nearly all the mercantile nations. 
B. C. 1100, the Pheenicians extended their discoveries along the entire 
northern coast of Africa and the opposite shores of Spain. The Mediterra- 
nean was no limit to their enterprise, for they passed the Pillars of Hercules 
(Gibraltar) and established powerful commercial settlements upon the Atlan- 
tic, mutually beneficial to themselves and natives of thecountry. Phoenician 
colonies were societies of opulent and intelligent merchants, ingenious manu- 
facturers, skillful artizans and hardy seamen, who left an overcrowded pop- 
ulation, with the good wishes of their parents and friends, to settle in a dis- 
tant country and there maintain a correspondence for mutual advantage. 
