20 Before Chrift 1 1 84. 



appearance of the (hore. "When that failed them, they mufl have land- 

 ed in order to obtain information *. 



Cuflor of Rhodes, u writer contemporary with Julius Csefar, has 

 made up a kind of catalogue of the nations, v/ho fucceflively attained, 

 what he was pleafed to call, the empire of the fea ; by which is to be 

 underftood feme degree of pre-eminence in naval power on a very con- 

 fined fcale in, or near, the ^Egean fea. In partiality to the Greeks, 

 whofe maritime tranfaclions, with a very few exceptions, were fcarcely 

 worthy of notice, he feems to have almoft loft fight of the Phoenicians, 

 the only people, at leafl on the coafls of the Mediterranean, who in the 

 early ages knew any thing of extenfive voyages and the art of naviga- 

 tion. As Eufebius has copied this catalogue from Caflor, and feveral 

 chronologifts have done it the unmerited honour of tranfcribing it from 

 him, fome flight notice fhall be taken of each of the nations mentioned 

 in it, as they occur in order of time. 



1 1 79 — ^The Lydians are the firfl people, after the Cretans under the 

 reign of Minos, who are honoured by him with the title oi Majlers of 

 the fea. They certainly had fome claim to a commercial character, but 

 not as navigators, unlefs the teflimonies of Caflor and Ilidore are to be 

 preferred to that of Herodotus, [L. i, c. 27.] The invention of mer- 

 chandize and of coin is afcribed to them by fome autliors ; and Ifidore 

 goes fo far as to call them the firfl builders of fhips, and inventors of 

 navigation. The Mteonians, who may be confidered as a part of the 

 Lydians, and the Carians, their neighbours, were pofTefTed of ivory, 

 whlcli muft have been imported, and they underflood the art of ma- 

 nufacturing it into toys and ornaments, and of flaining them with co- 

 lours, \^Hom.ll. L. iv, zj. 141 Herod. L. i, c. 94.] The Lydians are 



faid to have fent a colony into Italy, who fettled on the wefl fide of the 

 Tiber among the Umbri and Pelafgi, and allumed the name ofTyrr- 

 heni, from Tyrrhenus their leader, \_Herodot. L. i, c. 94.] But the 

 date of the migration feems uncertain ; nor is the fa£l itfelf uncontro- 

 verted. For feveral learned men are of opinion, that the Etrurians pof- 

 ■lefled all Italy many ages before the Trojan war ; and that the arts, fci- 

 ences, and commerce, were carried to great perfection among them 



* As Homer is generally I)i.li'tved to have been into a good birth, or commodious fitiiation, then 



.very corrcd in adapting his delcrlptions to the let go the anchors, (or whatever cll'e Ihould be iin- 



times of which he wrote, the following paflagc dei flood by ttraj) and carried out ftcrn-fafts or per- 



dtferves our notice. haps bent the cables to the ftern ; Vfu^»i;i £?>),-«»'. 



Agamemnon launched a fafl-failing (liip to carry [^Iliud, L. i, iv. 308, 430 et fcqq.~\ 



Chryfeis home to her father. Btfidea Chryfeis, The truth of the few notices I have here col- 



Ulylfea, and probably attendants, the veffel carried lefted does not depend upon tlie reality or falfe- 



twenty chofen rowers, and a hecatomb for facrifice. hood of tiie long-rtceived hillory of the Trojan 



When they got to their port, they took in \\\k jails, war. Tiiey at any rate (hew the (late of fociety 



and llowcd them away in the hold. Then, eafing and of nautical knowlcge in the time of Homer, if 



off the main ftay, they lowered the mad into its not in that afligncd to the war of Troy, 

 crutch or red. After this ihry rowed the velTel 



