128 PRINCIPAL EPOCHS IN THE HISTORY OF THE 



prosperity, founded on extensive maritime commerce, and 

 on the products of labour and skill in the manufactures 

 of Sidon in white and coloured glass, in tissues, and in 

 purple dyes, led, as every where else, to advances in 

 mathematical and chemical knowledge, and especially in the 

 technical arts. " The Sidonians," says Strabo, " are de- 

 scribed as active investigators in astronomy as well as in 

 the science of numbers, having been conducted thereto by 

 arithmetical skill and by the practice of nocturnal naviga- 

 tion, both of which are indispensable to trade and to mari- 

 time intercourse." ( l68 ) In order to indicate the extent of 

 the earth's surface first opened by Phoenician navigation and 

 the Phoenician caravan trade, we must name the settlements 

 on the Bythinian coast (Pronectus and Bythinium), which 

 were probably of very early formation ; the Cyclades and 

 several islands of the JEgean visited in the Homeric times ; 

 the south of Spain, from whence silver was obtained (Tar- 

 tessus and G ades) ; the north of Africa, west of the lesser 

 Syrtis (Utica, Hadrumetum, and Carthage); the countries in 

 the north of Europe, from whence tin ( l69 ) and amber were 

 derived; and two trading factories ( 17 ) in the Persian gulf, 

 the Baharein islands Tylos and Aradus. 



The amber trade, which was probably first directed to the 

 west Cimbrian coasts, ( 1?1 ) and only subsequently to the 

 Baltic and the country of the Esthonians, owes its first origin 

 to the boldness and perseverance of Phoenician coast navi- 

 gators. In its subsequent extension it offers, in the point 

 of view of which we are treating, a remarkable instance of the 

 influence which may be exerted by a predilection for even a 

 single foreign production, in opening an inland trade between 

 nations and in making known large tracts of country. la 



