CHAP, xiii.] THE TRADE-ROUTE FROM OLBIA. 473 



The Greeks and their Influence. 



The history of Greece began, according to Grote, in 

 B.C. 776 ; and in the days of Homer, who is stated by 

 Herodotus to have lived B.C. 880, the Greeks possessed 

 no money, were ignorant of the art of writing, and were 

 acquainted only with the western parts of the Mediter- 

 ranean. 1 In the Homeric times iron was beginning to 

 be used in place of bronze, and both materials were em- 

 ployed for weapons. The influence exerted by the early 

 Greeks on the nations of the north and west was princi- 

 pally from the colonies on the north of the Black Sea, 

 and from that of Massilia. 



The Trade-Route from Olbia. 



The Greek colonists, who introduced their arts and 

 civilisation into the district north of Pontus, gradu- 

 ally pushed their discoveries farther and farther to the 

 north-east, and ultimately arrived by a new route at 

 Samland. They started from Olbia, at the mouth of the 

 river Bug, passed up the Dnieper, and thence in a north- 

 westerly direction, so as to avoid the huge morasses 

 which bordered most of the rivers traversing these great 

 plains, made for the line of the Lower Vistula, and joined 

 the main line of commerce from the Hadriatic Sea. 

 The rivers also were a means of communication, as well 

 as the roads through the forests, which are marked by 

 the numerous tumuli and many traces of old occupation 

 between Kiew and the Lower Vistula (see Fig. 168, 

 Koute III.) 



1 The ancient inhabitants of Hissarlik and Mykenae appear from Dr 

 Schliemann's discoveries to have lived in the Bronze age. 



