DISCOVERY 



59 



Eastern Mediterranean have been free from pirates : 

 the first half of the fifth century under the rule of 

 Athens, and under Roman rule, after Pompey had 

 cleared the seas in 67 B.C. And to-day the same 

 phenomenon may be remarked which Thucydides 

 noticed in the fifth century. Before his time, he tells 

 us, the coastal towns, for fear of pirates, were built not 

 at the harbour's edge, but upon the hills behind ; but 

 since the Athenian Empire had restored security, the 

 towns were creeping down to the obvious convenience 

 of the water's edge. In medireval times insecurity 

 once more drove the villages to the hills, and it is only 

 in the nineteenth century that peace upon the high 

 seas once more permitted them to leave " the Castro " 

 for the harbour. The port of Syra provides a good 

 example. The older villages crown the twin hills 

 behind the harbour, and every building in the modern 

 f)ort, which has grown up at the water's edge, is sub- 

 sequent in date to the liberation of Greece.' 



In the fifth century B.C. Athens became the central 

 mart of the world's trade. The premier commercial 

 powers of the sixth century had suffered from the 

 advance of Persia, and though the states of the Asia 

 Minor coast and islands had been " liberated," they 

 had in fact exchanged a foreign for an Athenian yoke ; 

 while the hostile relations existing between Persia and 

 Greece injuriously affected communities whose com- 

 mercial greatness had been based upon their position 

 at the terminal points at which the Eastern caravan 

 routes debouched. Ionian commerce, no less than 

 Ionian philosophy and letters, migrated in the fifth 

 century to Athens. Ancient trade consisted principally 

 of luxuries and necessaries ; the intermediate class of 

 goods, which may be called dispensable comforts or 

 conveniences, and which form, I imagine, the bulk 

 of modern commerce, was then but little in evidence. 

 The Greek market, like Solomon's, is concerned mainly 

 with " peacocks, apes, and ivories," or with neces- 

 saries like timber, oil, and corn, which, it will be remem- 

 bered, formed the material of the Jewish king's deal 

 with Hiram of Tyre.^ For the merchant luxuries 

 brought in the larger profit ; the most valuable com- 

 modities, says Herodotus, inverting the true significance 

 of the fact, are to be found in the remotest parts of 

 the world. But from the State's point of view neces- 

 saries, which include timber, essential for a shipping 

 power, metals, and corn, are more important. To 

 ensure a supply and to control the distribution of 

 vital necessaries, the State established strict control. 



• Similarly in the western end of Cos the now deserted castle 

 of the Rhodian knights at Antimachia was inhabited for 

 security in recent times. I was assured that the modem 

 villages in its vicinity have all come into existence since the 

 Crimean War. 



- I Kings, V. 



The merchant of an Athenian vessel was compelled 

 by law to load corn as part of his return cargo. At the 

 Dardanelles the destination of cornships was controlled 

 b}' Athenian olficiiils, and Pontic merchants selling 

 corn in any other market without Athenian permission 

 were liable to the death penalty. State officials took 

 charge of the delivery at the Pira;us and regulated the 

 distribution of supplies to retail dealers. 



That Athens was right in regarding the control of 

 the Russian corn trade of vital importance was shown 

 by events. At the battle of ^^sgospotami in 405 B.C. 

 she lost control of the Dardanelles, and her starvation 

 automatically followed. 



More profitable to the private speculator was the 

 trade in luxuries. Carpets and embroideries from 

 Carthage, metalware from Etruria, ivory from Africa, 

 goodly Babylonitish garments from the East, and 

 possibly even silk from China, found a way to the 

 Pirxus ; and the peach, the pheasant, and the peacock 

 made their appearance in Greece in the fifth century. 

 Peacocks were first introduced by Pyrilampes, who 

 had been an ambassador in Persia. They attracted 

 great attention ; " Is it a peacock or a bird? " asks a 

 character in Aristophanes at a time when the novelty 

 was in its first bloom ; but even in the next generation 

 people came from all over Greece to see them, and upon 

 set days the aviary was thrown open to the inquisitive 

 public. 



The standard of luxurv was naturallv raised, and if 



VIICW OI- THE COINTRVSIDF, .\T SUN'ICM ON THE 

 WICST SIDE OK .\TTICA. 



life at the close of the century was hardly comfortable 

 in a modern sense, it was considerably more ostentatious 

 than at the beginning. The change, however, in the 

 materid standard of living was incommensurate with 

 the spiritual change wrought by the expansion of 

 commerce, and the vistas which travel and exploration 

 opened up. We know what the discovery of America 

 did for Europe ; a similar broadening of the horizon 



