Manners and Customs of Ancient Greece. Vol III., by J.A. St. John

1333. Poll. vii. 80-96. Schol. Aristoph. Acharn. 299. Eq. 321. 709. Vesp. 103. Athen. iii. 56. On the Cretan Cothurn. Poll. vii. 193. v. 18. Bœttig. Les Furies, p. 35. There was an expensive sort of Ionian shoe called βαυκίδες. Etym. Mag. 192. 17. Κρηπίδες. Hieron. Mag. Miscell. iii. 3. A pair of these slippers appears to have been a day’s work, and cost in Lucian’s time seven oboloi. Somn. seu Gal. § 22. Herodotus speaks of purple buskins, vii. 76. The women of Thessaly wore wooden shoes. Athen. xiii. 55.

1334. Luc. adv. Indoct. § 6.

1335. Poll. ii. 195. x. 141. Antich. di Ercol. t. i. tav. 35. p. 187.

1336. Theoph. Hist. Plant. v. 5. 1.

1337. Ezekiel, xvi. 10.

1338. Schol. Aristoph. Av. 259.

1339. Dioscor. iv. 184.

1340. Ῥόος. Dioscor. i. 147.

1341. Theoph. Hist. Plant, iii. 9. 1. 14. 3.

1342. The low oak, which produces the large acorn used in tanning, is now found in abundance in the Troad. Chandler i. 25.

1343. Herod. vii. 75.

1344. Sandals of leather with the hair on are still occasionally observed among the sailors of Greece. Chandler. ii. p. 12.

1345. Schol. Aristoph. Eq. 398.

1346. Schol. Aristoph. Nub. 269.

1347. Dioscor. ii. 26.

1348. As early as the age of Moses we find mention of rams’-skins dyed red. Exod. xxv. 5.

1349. Poll. vii. 87.

1350. Poll. vii. 171. The President Goguet, however, imagines the Greeks had no hats. v. 440. Nightcaps. Sch. Vesp. 10. Arist. Cf. Antich. di Ercol. t. viii. p. 47. Gitone, Il Cost. Ant. e Mod. di tut. i Pop. t. i. p. 102. pl. 16.

1351. Aristot. de Gen. Animal. v. 1. p. 355.

1352. Dion Chrysost. ii. 67.

1353. Poll. x. 164. Athen. i. 12.

1354. Poll. vii. 124. x. 127, 138. Solerius, de Pileo. c. viii. p. 167.

1355. Solerius, de Pileo. c. viii. p. 167.

1356. Bœttiger. Furies, p. 29, sqq.

1357. Plut. Eumenes. § 8.

1358. Sch. Aristoph. Acharn. 63. Cf. Poll. iv. 154.

1359. Schol. Aristoph. Nub. 269. Poll. iv. 139.

1360. Cf. Plat. Tim. t. vii. 95. De Rep. t. vi. p. 183, seq. Don J. P. Canáls y Martí, sob. la Purp. de los Antiguos. Gibbon, however, considered the ancient purple very inferior to our own: “By the discovery of cochineal, &c., we far surpass the colours of antiquity. Their royal purple had a strong smell, and a dark cast, as deep as bull’s blood—obscuritas rubens (says Cassiodorus, Var. i. 2,) nigredo sanguinea. The president, Goguet, will amuse and satisfy the reader.” Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vii. 90. Note. Goguet will, no doubt, amuse and instruct, but I very much question whether he will satisfy, the reader. When Goguet and Gibbon wrote, the subject was much less understood than it is at present.

1361. Hist. de l’Art. iv. 5. 500, sqq.

1362. Horat. Epist. ii. 1. 207.

1363. Poll. i. 45. sqq. Palæphat. Fragm. ap. Gal. Opuscul. Mytholog. &c. p. 62. Goguet, Origine des Loix. iii. 196. Fab. Column. de Purp. i. 22.

1364. Cf. Pausan. x. 37. 3.

1365. Cf. Poll. i. 97. Plat. Sophist. t. iv. p. 134. Æl. Var. Hist. xiii. 43.

1366. Athen. iii. 33.

1367. Poll. i. 47, sqq.

1368. Exod. xxv. 4, sqq.

1369. Il. ζ. 219. θ. 221. ρ. 547. Odyss. δ. 115. 154. τ. 225. 242. θ. 373. δ. 298. ι. ω. 645. 796. ι. 200. Odyss. υ. 151. Cf. Pind. Pyth. iv. 203. 6.

1370. Odyss. ξ. 53. 306.

1372. See a representation of the purple fish on a red jasper in Gori, Mus. Florent. ii. pl. 21. fig. 4.

1373. Plin. Nat. Hist. ix. 60.

1374. Arist. Hist. Anim. v. 15. p. 128, seq. Vitruv. vii. 13.

1375. Plin. Nat. Hist. ix. 60.

1376. There was another purple fishery of considerable note carried on in the Corinthian gulf by the citizens of Bulis, a city of Phocis. Pausan. x. 37. 2. 3. Steph. de Urbib. p. 238. On the modern state of Bulis see Chandler, ii. p. 288.

1377. Pausan. iii. 21. 6.

1378. Pausan. iii. 21. 6.

1379. Dion Chrysost. Orat. vii.

1380. This fish is now abundant on the shores of Naples, where it is commonly eaten. Fab. Column. de Purp. iv. 1.

1381. The proportion of salt was 20 oz. to 1 cwt. of the purple matter. Plin. Nat. Hist. ix. 62.

1382. The animal matter mingled with it being constantly skimmed off. Plin. Nat. Hist. ix. 62.

1383. Plin. ix. 62. Gog. iii. 20.

1384. Carm. ii. 16. 35, sqq. On this the ancient scholiast quoted by Bentley, says, “Bis tinctæ, dibaphæ vestes preciocissimæ.” Cf. Pompon. Mel. iii. 10. 35, p. 301. Gronov.

1385. Epod. xii. 21, seq.

1386. Epist. ii. 2. 180, seq.

1387. The buccinum, for example, to give the ruddy hue. Fab. Column. de Purp. i. 19. Johan. Daniel. Annot. p. 33. Plin. ix. 37.

1388. Beckmann, i. 59, sqq.

1389. Goguet, iii. 20.

1390. Fab. Column. de Purpura, c. i. § 8.

1391. Dalecamp. ad Plin, ix. 62. t. iii. p. 770. Cf. Winkel. iv. 1. § 14.

1392. Valm. de Bomare. v. Murex, p. 169.

1393. Theoph. Hist. Plant. iv. 6. 5. Another method of dyeing purple prevailed in a district of Asia Minor, where the quality of the springs would appear to have fixed the colour: “The waters of Hierapolis were surprisingly attempered for tinging wool with a colour from roots, rivalling the more costly purples; and were a principal source of the riches of the place.” Chandler, i. p. 270. The learned traveller, who is exceedingly sparing of his authorities, doubtless based his relation on the following passage in Strabo: Ἔστι δὲ καὶ πρὸς, βαφὴν ἐρίων θαυμαστῶς σύμμετρον τὸ κατὰ τὴν Ἱεράπολιν ὕδωρ, ὥστε τὰ ἐκ τῶν ῥιζῶν βαπτόμενα ἐνάμιλλα εἶναι τοῖς ἐκ τῆς κόκκου καὶ ταῖς ἁλουργέσιν. l. xiii. c. iv. t. iii. p. 158.

1394. Plut. Vit. Alex. § 36.

1395. Theoph. Hist. Plant. iv. 6. 9. Cf. Fab. Column. de Purp. i. 13. Don Juan Pablo Canáls Y Martí, Memorias sobra la Purpura de los Antiguos. c. v. Phile, De Animal. Proprietat. c. xliii. p. 172, sqq. appears to describe, though in an indistinct and imperfect manner, the cochineal insect among the productions of India.

1396. Beckmann, ii. 171.

1397. Herod. iii. 139.

1398. Plut. Thes. § 17. In later times we find Alcibiades, on his return to Athens, hoisting purple sails in the Admiral’s galley. Plut. Alcib. § 32.

1399. Schol. Aristoph. Pac. 1140. ad Acharn. 118. Cf. Plin. xxiv. 4.

1400. Virg. Eclog. iv. 45. Beckmann, History of Inventions, iii. 256—note.

1401. Poll. vii. 13.

1402. Ισάτις ἥμερος. Dioscor. ii. 215. Cf. Aristoph. Cimon. 332. Nub. 71. Dioscor. iii. 160.

1403. Beckmann, History of Inventions, t. iii. p. 255.

1404. Dioscor. v. 141.

1406. Plin. Nat. Hist. xxxv. 42.

1407. Herod. i. 203.

1408. Casaub. ad Theoph. Charact. p. 241.

1409. Herod. iv. 14. i. 92.

1410. Plin. vii. 57. Goguet. iv. 6.

1411. Theoph. de Lapid. § 67.

1412. Constant. v. χαλαστραῖον. Theoph. de Lapid. § 64. Plat. Rep. t. vi. 184. Poll. vii. 39. x. 135.

1413. Στρουθίον. Dioscor. ii. 193. Cf. Theoph. Hist. Plant. iv. 10. 3. Plin. Nat. Hist. xix. 18.

1414. See Mitchell on the Acharnes. 7. Gog. Origine des Loix, i. 279.

1415. Dioscor. v. 138.

1416. In the heads of certain fish, jewels are said to have been sometimes found. Athen. iii. 70.

1417. Strabo relates an excellent anecdote in illustration of this passion of his countrymen. Speaking of the city of Iasos, situated in an island of the same name on the coast of Caria, whose inhabitants drew their chief subsistence from their maritime pursuits, and were abundantly supplied with fish, he adds,—that once upon a time a celebrated musician was performing in public before the inhabitants of this city: suddenly the bell which announced the opening of the fish-market was heard to sound. Away, in an instant, scampered the Iasians, eager to secure their favourite dainty, all except a single individual, who appeared to enjoy the performance of the citharador. Flattered by this mark of his taste or politeness, the musician approached the man, and said, “I am greatly obliged by the attention you have shown me, and have to congratulate you on your love of the art; for all the rest, as soon as they heard the bell ring, ran away.”—“What then! has the bell rung?” inquired the apparent listener, who happened to be deaf. “Yes,” answered the musician. “Then good luck be with you!” cried the man, and rising hastily from his seat, he rushed after his townsmen. Strab. xiv. 2. t. iii. p. 203, seq.

1418. The observations made by Spallanzani on the eel and lamprey fisheries of Stromboli, may, with equal propriety perhaps, be applied to those which are found along the roots of Ætna: “The fish here,” he says, “are very plentiful and large, especially the sea-eels and murænas; and, during my short stay in this island, I saw a greater quantity taken than during the whole time of my continuance in all the Eolian isles. They are, likewise, of an excellent taste. This abundance, I am inclined to attribute to the volcano, which has continued incessantly burning from time immemorial; and which, extending to an immense depth, must necessarily communicate a part of its heat to the submarine base of the mountain, and to the waters that surround it, in the gentle warmth of which the fish find a more agreeable place of resort, and perhaps propagate in greater numbers than elsewhere.” Travels in the Two Sicilies, iv. 125.

1419. Plut. Timol. § 20. In catching this fish it was customary to disturb the waters. Schol. Aristoph. Eq. 862. In the polypus fisheries, besides the difficulty of detaching the animal from its place, there was supposed to be another, arising from the power it possesses of assuming, like the chameleon, the colour of the surrounding rocks. Lucian. Dial. Deor. Marin. iv. § 3.

1420. This fish served for food as well as a dye. Luc. Cynic. § 11. The cuttle-fish also was eaten as now. Catapl. § 7.

1421. Theoph. Hist. Plant. iv. 6. 5. Poll. i. 97.

1422. Aristot. Hist. Animal. ix. 37. p. 279. 20. Bekk.

1423. Dutens, Origine des Découvertes, 145.

1424. Aristot. Problem. xxxii. 5.

1425. Paus. x. 19. 2. Athen. vii. 48. Anthol. Græc. ad Palat. Cod. ed. ix. 296. Cf. Herod. viii. 8. Quint. Curt. iv. 3.

1426. Dion Chrysost. i. 220. Cf. Aristoph. Nub. 878. Ran. 139. Eq. 1220. Acharn. 367.

1427. Dion Chrysost. i. 220.

1428. See a comparison between the hardy occupations of the citizen and the hunter in Oppian. Halieut. i. 12. Cyneget. i. 49. The same poet in the third book of his Halieutics, (35, sqq.) describes the principal qualities of a fisherman, bodily and mental, such as strength, watchfulness, love of the sea, all which must have admirably fitted him for distinguishing himself in his country’s navy.

1429. Plut. De Solert. Anim. § 24. Poll. i. 97. Anglers’ lines were sometimes made of τέρμινθος, a plant resembling flax. Id. i. 233. Salmas. ad Solon. p. 911. a. Etymol. Mag. 753, 10. Fishing-hooks. Goguet, i. 166. Nets were sunk by leaden weights. Poll. i. 97. Cf. Philost. Icon. i. 13. p. 783. Artemid. Oneirocrit. ii. 14. p. 102.

1430. See in Oppian a long and highly picturesque passage describing the allurements by which the Black Sea drew into itself those innumerable shoals of fish which in the text I have described flocking towards it. Halieut. i. 598, sqq. Cf. Strab. vii. 6. t. ii. p. 112.

1431. Gyllius, De Topograph. Constant. p. 6.

1433. Dioscor. iv. 165. Plat. De Repub. Cf. Schol. Aristoph. Concon. 404. See the whole process of poisoning described by Oppian, Halieut. iv. 647, seq.

1434. Cf. Herod. i. 62.

1435. Chandler supplies us with a picture of this kind of fishing as carried on in modern Greece: “We embarked with a rougher sea than was pleasing, and rowed out in the dark towards the island, intending to fish. We joined our two seines, and the boats parted, moving each a different way, a man letting the net gently down into the water. We met again in the centre, when some embers which had been hidden, were blown up and exposed on an iron grate, the flame was fed with cedar dipped in oil, which blazing in the wind, brightened over the deep; the red coals hissing as they fell, and were extinguished. At the same time we began to clatter with wooden hammers on the sides and seats of the wherries, to dash with a pole, and to throw stones, disturbing and driving the fish, and darting a trident or spear if any appeared at the top, dazzled by the light; sprinkling oil to render the surface tranquil and pellucid. The men drew up the net with caution, fearing the fins of some poisonous fish, particularly the scorpion, which is killed with a blow on the head while entangled, when the danger ceases. The boats meeting again, they untie the seines, and throwing the fiery brands into the sea, proceed in the dark to some other place. This is the common method of fishing in these seas.” Travels in Greece and Asia Minor, ii. p. 198, seq.

1436. Quint. Smyrn. Posthomeric, vii. 569, sqq.

1437. Cf. Oppian. Halieut. iii. 429.

1438. Antich. di Ercol. t. xii. p. 273.

1439. Plin. ix. 20. Cf. Schol. Aristoph. Eq. 313. 361. 862. Philost. Icon. i. 13, p. 783.

1440. Suid. v. θυννοσκόπος. t. i. p. 1336, seq. Aristoph. Eq. 313. Aristot. Hist. Animal. iv. 10. They who act as sentinels in the catching of the sword-fish, take their station on a platform in the fishing boat itself. “In the middle (of the bark) is fixed an upright pole, seventeen feet high, with ladders to go up it, and a kind of round platform at the top, for one of the crew, who acts as sentinel, to stand on. This platform is called fariere.” Spallanzani, Travels in the Two Sicilies, iv. 336.

1442. Similar methods still prevail in the Mediterranean. “We had,” says Chandler, “frequent opportunities (while at Genoa) of seeing the method of fishing within the mole. Several seines are united and extended so far as to form a large semicircle, but much curved at the two extremities. The men then retire to some distance, and begin clattering with sticks or hammers on the sides of their boats; the noise making the fish rise. One stationed on the yard-arm of a ship, takes notice which way they swim, and gives directions, until they are within the net, when they are driven towards the ends, and are soon entangled; or, trying from despair to leap over, fall on a wing, which is fastened to long reeds, and kept floating horizontally on the surface. The reward of much toil was, now and then a few mullet. The thynnus, or thunny fish, was anciently and is now taken nearly in this manner, but in shoals which endanger and often break the nets.” Travels, &c., i. p. 6, seq.

1443. Plin. Nat. Hist. xxxvii. 17.

1444. Cf. Winkelm. ii. 93.

1445. Observations made on the habits of the swordfish may be thought to give some colour to this relation of the ancient naturalists: “The swordfish, we are told, is taken by the Messinese sailors in two ways; that is, with the lance, and the palimadara, a kind of net with very close meshes. This fishery begins about the middle of April, and continues till the middle of September. From the middle of April to the end of June it is carried on upon the coast of Calabria; and from the end of June to the middle of September on that of Sicily. The reason of this is, that, by the account of all the fishermen, the swordfish, from April till June, entering by Faro, coasts the shore of Calabria, without approaching that of Sicily; and passes the contrary way from the end of July to the middle of September. We know not whether it takes this contrary route for the sake of food, or from any other cause; or whether it be the same fish that passes and repasses; it is only certain that it does not coast the shore of Sicily but when it goes to spawn.” Spallanzani, Travels in the Two Sicilies, iv. 331.

1446. Plin. Nat. Hist. ix. 20.

1447. Oppian, who tells a wonderful story about the thunny devouring its spawn, immediately adds, that the roes which escaped, concealed among the reeds and rushes, became pelamydes:

Τὰ δ᾽ ἐν δονάκεσσι καὶ ἐν σχοίνοισι μένοντα
Πηλαμύδων ἀγέλας ὥρη τέκεν
Halieut. iv. 510, seq.

1448. Aristot. Hist. Animal. viii. 13. p. 231. 30.

1449. Oppian. Halieut. i. 600, sqq.

1450. Voyages au Nord, vii. 187.

1451. Pallas supposes this fish to be the Mugil Cephalus, or mullet, from the eggs of which Botargo is prepared. Travels in Southern Russia, iv. 241.

1452. Ælian. de Nat. Animal. xv. 11.

1453. Ovalle, i. 17. Baumgarten, i. 4. Aristot. Hist. Anim. iv. p, 109. Plin. Nat. Hist. ix. 20, seq.

1454. According to Oppian, however, most species of fish, like the Olympian Zeus, refuse to submit to the chains of sleep, and keep their intellectual faculties perpetually on the stretch. But the Scaros, he allows, is occasionally caught napping. Halieut. ii. 656.

1455. Aristot. Hist. Animal. iv. 10. p. 109.

1456. Plin. Nat. Hist. ix. 85.

1457. Oppian. Halieut. iii. 205, sqq.

1458. Athen. vii. 86, seq.

1459. Remarkable for its voracity. Lucian. Dial. Mort. viii. The sea-dog was classed by Linnæus among the amphibia; but Spallanzani and M. Vicq-d-Azyr, restored it, upon more accurate observation, to its place among the fishes. Travels in the Two Sicilies, iv. 379.

1460. Schol. Aristoph. Eq. 361.

1461. Chandler, i. 85. Cf. 151. Osbeck, Voyage to China, i. 199.

1462. Paus. i. 32. 7. Meurs. Rel. Att. c. viii. p. 32. Chandler. ii. 184.

1463. Paus. i. 38. 1. ii. 24. 6. Chandler, ii. 210.

1464. Athen. vii. 24.

On the commerce of Greece, which would supply materials for an interesting work, it is not my design to enter into very numerous details, though a brief view of the subject belongs to this undertaking. The blessings of commerce are well understood in our times, and the grand scale upon which it is now conducted may perhaps induce some to look back with something like contempt on its feeble beginnings in the Mediterranean.^[1465] There, however, lay the centre of that circle which has gone on increasing until it at length embraces the whole world, and almost renders the most distant races necessary to each other. It must be interesting, therefore, to look

at the first movements of men towards forging the links of this chain which binds together the whole human race in one society, disturbed sometimes by evil passions, but cohering nevertheless, and apparently becoming more interfused daily.

In this movement there were, doubtless, several nations that preceded the Greeks. The civilisation of the East existing anterior to that of Greece, it was the Orientals who made the first step towards opening up that intercourse which afterwards became so intimate between the inhabitants of Hellas and the Arabs of Phœnicia, the Egyptians, the Persians, and other nations of the East. At first, indeed, the camel,^[1466] that important instrument of human improvement, revealed to the rude tribes bordering on Arabia, the existence of wants within them, of which they before knew nothing. He came with sweets and luxuries on his back to the hamlet or the encampment, and by the sight of them created desires, to gratify which the aid of industry was to be called in. At a very early age strings of camels, laden with perfumes and spices, and gold, traversed the plains of western Asia, ascended and descended along the Nile, penetrated the northern coasts of Africa, and, by barter and traffic, diffused the productions of the East much further even than their own footsteps reached, as now the manufactures of England find their way into the countries never beheld by an Englishman.

Presently the blue and beautiful waters of the Mediterranean tempted the adventurous Arabs who had settled in Phœnicia, the country of the palm-tree, to launch their barks on it, and push from isle to isle till they found themselves in Hellas, where the beauty of the women occasionally, perhaps, when they were not to be enticed away, may have tempted an adventurer ^[1467] to remain as other Arabs have done in every land whither they have wandered.^[1468] This, I am persuaded, is all that can be conceded to those who see so many proofs of Oriental colonies in Greece. But though the Orientals did not colonize Greece, they no doubt aided very powerfully in civilizing it. For when the rude natives saw that there were many desirable things to be obtained from the strangers if they could give them any thing valuable in return, it must have set their wits at work to invent new means of obtaining the things they coveted. At the outset it was a rough system of barter. The Phœnicians took the produce of the country in exchange for their merchandise, and secured their own success by awakening an appetite for pleasures which they alone could furnish.

However, tradition has preserved evident traces of voyages of discovery and commercial adventure undertaken by the Greeks ^[1469] themselves, in imitation of the Phœnicians,—for, into this the Argonautic expedition, in what direction soever it proceeded, resolves itself, in fact. The Greeks possessed manufactures, ships, commerce, and, as a consequence, considerable wealth, long before the birth of history, a circumstance which goes far to overthrow the wild theories of certain modern scholars respecting the Iliad and Odyssey; for, if the Greeks had constant dealings with nations who were indisputably in possession of the art of writing, with abundant materials, they must have been the slowest and most stupid of mankind if they neglected to imitate those nations. Besides, the Phœnicians would be as ready to supply them with paper, parchment, and whatever else they wrote on, as with any other articles of commerce, and must have desired to awaken in them the wish to consume what they were deeply interested in supplying. Thus, if the Phœnicians and Egyptians understood the art of writing, as from the sacred Scriptures we know they did, it is all but impossible that the Greeks should have remained ignorant of it.

Homer, of course, supplies the best account we can possess of Grecian commerce in remote antiquity, though it had been carried on ages before his time. Mariners, in the Odyssey, obtain the name of πρηκτῆρες, or “merchants,” and are elsewhere said to plough the seas, ἐπὶ πρῆξιν καὶ χρήματα,—“for traffic and gain.”^[1470] The most celebrated mariners known to Homer were the Phœnicians, whom he therefore terms,

CHAPTER VIII. COMMERCE OF DORIC STATES.

CHAPTER VIII.
COMMERCE OF DORIC STATES.