Book 6 — CHAPTER XII. EXPORTS OF THE ISLANDS, ITALY, GAUL, AND SPAIN.
Reading edition
Before we describe the trade of Syria, Egypt, and the farther East, we shall endeavour to give some account of that carried on by the numerous islands of the Mediterranean, together with Italy, Gaul, and Spain, and the whole northern coast of Africa. The commodities furnished to commerce by the various groups and larger islands of the Ægæan and Ionian seas scarcely yielded in number to those of Asia Minor. Of these the most important were the wines, which fluctuated in value, strength, and flavour, according to the soil, temperature, and elevation above the sea, of the vineyards which produced them.
The island of Lesbos, during the flourishing ages of the Athenian republic, formed part, as it were, of the territory of that great maritime state which compelled it to carry its wines exclusively to Athens.[2110] Among these was the Pramnian,[2111] which, also produced in Achaia, was a strong, harsh wine, apparently resembling port. Most, however, of the islands,[2112] both large and small, supplied wine—as Tenedos,[2113] Chios,[2114] Cypros,[2115] which furnished, among others, a curious fig wine;[2116] Thasos,[2117] where one particular 356kind was somniferous,[2118] Peparethos, Lesbos, Eubœa,[2119] Crete, where among others was found the Malmsey;[2120] Leucadia, Cos,[2121] and Corcyra.
Few of the islands grew more corn than they could consume, except Eubœa,[2122] which was for many years the granary of Athens. Lesbos,[2123] too, produced the most superb barley, which was grown upon the hills round Eresos, the birthplace of Theophrastus. The Thasians, likewise, cultivated an inferior kind of barley which, from the extreme productiveness of the island, seems occasionally to have been exported, though I remember no authority in proof of the fact. Samos furnished Greece with the best olive oil next to that of Attica.[2124]
But of all the minor islands none appear to have supplied so many articles to the coasting trade of Greece as Thasos, whose productions were singularly rich and varied. There, in the earlier ages, the Phœnicians discovered and worked gold mines which in after times became exhausted, but the fertility of the island and the industry of its inhabitants seem never to have failed. From hence were exported radishes,[2125] fish sauce, pickles,[2126] almonds, and walnuts,[2127] with the trees of which the island was thickly shaded.
Crete, Cypros, and Naxos exported hones;[2128] Paros figs[2129] and the best white marble[2130] drawn from quarries, 357the vast extent of which is still the admiration of travellers.[2131] Cypros, sory, a substance resembling verdigris,[2132] sulphate of copper, emeralds, and jasper.[2133] Linen, white and dyed purple, was brought from Amorgos;[2134] thapsia from Thapsos;[2135] painters’ earth of the best quality, that is of loose texture, crumbling, dry, and without fatness,[2136] obtained from the neighbourhood of Pharis; sulphur,[2137] alum,[2138] and pumice stone from Nisyros and Melos,[2139] where this latter substance was extremely light, and sometimes found imbedded in other stones. The pumices of the island of Nisyros[2140] were of an inferior description, and crumbled to pieces in the 358hand. They were, however, extremely plentiful, occurring in heaps, and generally about the size of the fist.
Carystos in Eubœa exported verde antico,[2141] and the amianthos, or stone from which towels and similar fabrics were manufactured, indestructible by fire;[2142] Eretria medicinal earth;[2143] Chalcis exported copper;[2144] Cimolos chalk and fullers’ earth;[2145] Samos jars[2146] and medicinal earths, ash-coloured and white,[2147] in which was found a stone used by jewellers in polishing gold.[2148]
From Lemnos three different kinds of earth were obtained,—the first known among the ancients by the name of terra sigillata, was sold in small round cakes mingled, according to Dioscorides,[2149] with the blood of a goat and stamped with his image in the sacred seal of Artemis; though Galen, who visited the island on purpose to examine this earth, denies that, in his time, any blood was intermixed with it. The second of the Lemnian earths[2150] was reddle, and the third fullers’ earth. The first of these earths, of a slight red colour, was sometimes denominated sacred, apparently because used in sacrifices. In modern times the substance known under this name is usually brown or pink-coloured.
359The mine[2151] whence the sealed earth is at present excavated lies on the summit of a precipitous mountain, on the eastern shore of the island, about four bowshots from the ancient city of Hephæstia. The road leading thither, after arriving at the chapel of Sotira, is divided, and branches off to the right and left. Both ways pass by a fountain; the one on the right bordered with elder, willow, and carob trees, by one which, though closely shaded from the sun’s rays, fails in summer; while that on the left conducts to a spring which, lying in a marshy spot, producing nothing but rushes, is perennial. Both these fountains are situated among the roots of the hill, now ascended by steps cut in the rock, but anciently by a road practicable all the way to the summit. The digging of the Lemnian earth appears to have been always under the protection of religion; for, during the operation, a priest anciently stood on the mountain near the mine, and, after having made a sort of libation of corn, which was cast as an offering upon the ground, and performed various other ceremonies, caused a waggon to be laden with the earth and conducted to the city, where it was prepared, sealed, and sold to merchants.
In modern times, ever since the period when the Venetians were in possession of the island, a different and more cumbrous set of ceremonies has been practised.[2152] The principal inhabitants of the island, both Turks and Christians, assembling on the sixth of August, march out in grand procession to the mountains of sealed earth, halting by the way at the chapel of Sotira, where the priests chant the liturgy of the Greek church, and repeat many prayers, after which they ascend the 360acclivity. Arrived at the summit, fifty or sixty stout men commence excavating in search of the stratum of precious clay, which being found, the priests fill therewith a number of skin sacks, which they deliver to the custody of the Subashi.
When a sufficient quantity has been procured the mouth of the mine is closed, and never opened again until that day twelvemonths. A certain quantity is then despatched to the Sultan, who distributes it in presents to princes and monarchs. The remainder is sold as of old to the merchants. It is quite possible that this substance might be discovered in other parts of the island; but the Greeks would set no value upon it unless obtained from the spot in question, and excavated with the proper ceremonies. For any private individual to attempt digging it is a capital offence.
Copper dross or tutty[2153] was obtained from the muddy bottom of a copper mine in Cypros.[2154] Having been exposed to dry in the sun, a quantity of brushwood was cast around it and set on fire, by which means it underwent a second calcination, and thence obtained the name of diphryges, or twice-burned.
In the same island was found the recrement of brass called Cadmia[2155] by the ancients. It was generated in the following manner: the furnaces in which they smelted copper were constructed of iron arched above, and of very large dimensions. As the metal underwent the action of the fire, the lighter and mere aërial particles, detaching themselves from the molten mass, ascended like sparks, rolling upwards along the sides of the furnace and settling on the roof.
Here, these particles forming into layers, one above another, coalesced into a hard substance which was called Cadmia.[2156] Of this there were several 361kinds, one of which was produced by the burning of Pyrites, obtained from precipices overhanging the city of Soli. In these extraordinary mountains were found veins of copper ore,[2157] sulphate of copper,[2158] sory,[2159] verdigris,[2160] lapis lazuli,[2161] chrysocolla,[2162] copperas, and tutty.[2163]
The recrement of silver was produced in a similar manner during the smelting of the silver ore, but it was in colour paler, and of an inferior quality. In various parts of the island were found in abundance black and white alum,[2164] nitre, sulphur, rock and sea salt,[2165] the former near Citium, the latter in the neighbourhood of Salamis. It likewise exported burnt copper and copper flakes. Several kinds of precious stones were moreover discovered here, as the diamond,[2166] the emerald, the agate,[2167] found also at Lesbos, the opal, the jasper, the sapphire, the eagle stone,[2168] the amethyst,[2169] crystal, and talc,[2170] and hones from the environs of Arsinoë.
The Egyptians alloyed their silver money with a third part of gypsum, copper, and an equal portion of sulphur. Mines of gold have been in modern times worked in the islands near Nicosia.
The finely tempered steel of Cypros,[2171] known by the name of adamant among the ancients, was used in making the best cuirasses and deemed impenetrable.
From this island were obtained the finest spodium and flowers of zinc, which were produced in the 362following manner: In a building, two stories high, was constructed a furnace, open at top, and having directly over it a small aperture, communicating with the upper room. The bellows were worked in an adjoining apartment, the snout passing through a wall into the furnace, with which the workman was enabled to communicate by a small door. The fossil Cadmian-stone having been broken into small pieces was cast into the fire through an aperture from above, after which the flames having been blown up to greater fierceness, the mineral converted itself into a dense white vapour, and a cloud of fiery sparks ascended through the mouth of the furnace, the lighter particles attaching themselves like white bubbles or flocks of wool to the walls and vaulted roof of the building, while the heavier, after cooling, fell back into the flames or were scattered about the floor, where they indurated and formed a sort of incrustation. This coarser and weightier substance was usually found when scraped off to contain hairs, splinters, and particles of earth, and received the name of spodion, while that detached from the walls or roof was either milk-white or azure, and was what we now denominate flowers of zinc.
Another mode of manufacturing this article was to cast the fossil Cadmia, reduced to powder, on the surface of the liquid metal in bronze furnaces which caused a similar evaporation. Spodion was likewise procured from gold, silver, and lead, and next after the above this last was considered the best.
Near the village of Amianthos was a celebrated asbestos quarry whose produce, a greyish filamentous stone, was carded like wool and spun and woven into cloth[2172] which when soiled was cast into the fire instead of being washed, and came forth brilliant and pure as from the loom, though at each burning 363it lost something of its weight. In cerecloths of asbestos the bodies of kings and illustrious personages were burned, in antiquity, to preserve their remains from mingling with the ashes of the pyre.[2173] Matches likewise were made of this substance, more particularly for those durable lamps which were kindled by the Pagans in sepulchres,[2174] and supposed to burn on for ever. Other quarries of asbestos were found in Cypros, chiefly at the foot of the precipices bordering the road leading from Gerandium to Soli.
There was found in the island of Siphnos a fossil substance, usually of a spherical form, which was scooped out, and turned into various articles, such as vases, plates, and even pots which would bear the fire. When rubbed with oil and exposed to the action of the air it became black and hard, and resembled the finest pottery:[2175] similar stones are in modern times brought from the island of Minorca.[2176]
Two kinds of medicinal earths, the one white, the other ash-coloured, were obtained from Eretria, in Eubœa.[2177] Chios, likewise, exported a white earth used in cosmetics and at the baths.[2178] From time immemorial the Greeks appear to have obtained from the island of Zacynthos[2179] tar impregnated with a bituminous scent. It was found anciently in a pool, about seventy feet in circumference, and of very great depth, situated in a small valley on the sea-shore nearly encircled by mountains. The tar ascended from the bottom in bubbles as large as a cannon-ball, through the clear water, and on reaching 364the surface spread over the pond in a kind of film. It was drawn forth with myrtle branches attached to the end of a pole, and laid in pits to harden, after which it was barrelled and exported. It now sells for about two shillings per cask.
Among the medicinal plants and substances produced in the Grecian islands were the argol,[2180] anis,[2181] germander,[2182] hemlock,[2183] hellebore,[2184] and dittany, found chiefly in Crete;[2185] together with the misletoe, the seeds of which[2186] were bruised and beaten into a paste; hyssop,[2187] the cyperus comosus which abounded in the Cyclades,[2188] from which also an excellent kind of honey[2189] was exported; marjoram,[2190] scammony, green terebinth; resin from Cypros,[2191] aloes from Andros,[2192] aspalathos from Nisyros, Crete, and Rhodes;[2193] hartwort or seseli[2194] and onions[2195] from Samothrace, an island much vexed by winds; origany from Tenedos; from Chios hemlock[2196] and gum mastic,[2197] which the Turkish ladies chew constantly to keep their breath sweet and their teeth white;[2198] Chios, also, as well as Cos and Crete, furnished also tragoriganon.[2199] The 365last-mentioned island alone produced the Idæan bramble, whose flowers were used in remedies for ophthalmia.[2200] The inhabitants of Rhodes obtained from the Egyptian, or Pharaoh’s fig-tree, a medicinal gum esteemed a remedy against the bite of serpents.[2201] In early spring, before the appearance of the fruit, they gently bruised the bark with a stone, upon which, on all sides, there gushed forth a kind of liquor which, collected with flocks of wool or with sponge, was suffered to harden, formed into small round cakes, and preserved in earthen vases.[2202]
The modes of collecting the ladanum,[2203] of which the best sort appears to have been found in Cypros,[2204] was still more curious. It was found in spring exuding from the leaves of a species of costus on which the goats delighted to feed. As they pastured among the plants the gum attached itself to their beards and the long hair about their legs, from whence it was removed by the goatherds, who melted and strained it like honey, after which it was rolled up into balls and sold to the merchants. Sometimes, 366however, a number of cords were thrown over the shrubs, about which the gum collected.
In addition to the above, the islands furnished numerous other commodities, such as onions,[2205] of which the best came from Cypros and Corcyra;[2206] beans from Lemnos;[2207] from Rhodes ampelitis,[2208] pitch,[2209] the best white transparent glue,[2210] raisins,[2211] chalk,[2212] carobs,[2213] dried figs, which procured agreeable dreams,[2214] excellent aphyæ[2215] and cabbage-seed, which last was in great request at Alexandria,[2216] almonds from Naxos and Cypros,[2217] whence also came the best pomegranates,[2218] mustard,[2219] and excellent lettuces[2220] grown in the neighbourhood of Paphos.[2221]
Lesbos[2222] produced myrtle-berries and figs; Cos and Cypros[2223] exported odoriferous unguents[2224] and honey;[2225] Scyros, variegated marbles;[2226] Ceos, pears and service-berries;[2227] Eubœa, sheep,[2228] pears,[2229] shining apples,[2230] olives,[2231] walnuts, walnut-wood,[2232] an inferior kind of 367deal,[2233] marble,[2234] iron, phagroi, anchovies, turbots, and soles;[2235] Thera, variegated garments;[2236] Chios, soft beds and large casks or jars;[2237] Crete, cypress-wood,[2238] Cyprian figs,[2239] hemlock,[2240] honey,[2241] and bees’ wax,[2242] which was blanched in the rays of the sun and moon. These articles of merchandise were likewise supplied by Cypros;[2243] which also exported rich flowered or variegated hangings,[2244] triclinia cushions,[2245] table-cloths,[2246] oakum,[2247] bronze vessels,[2248] nails,[2249] &c. Snails,[2250] which formed an important article in the materia medica of the ancients, were exported from Chios and Astypalæa,[2251] a small island among the Sporades,[2252] which likewise carried on a considerable fishery,[2253] and boasted an excellent breed of horses.[2254] Thasos furnished the sculptors of Greece with a fine white marble which constituted the material of two celebrated statues of the Emperor Adrian 368at Athens.[2255] The marble of Chios was dead black, like the obsidian stone, and slightly transparent.
Cerinthos in Eubœa, furnished a sort of light dry earth,[2256] used to preserve corn in granaries. Malta supplied the idle and luxurious ladies of Greece with a domestic kind of lap-dogs.[2257] Sciathos was famous for its mullets; Melos exported kids;[2258] Naxos and Scyros, milch goats and lobsters;[2259] Leros, guinea fowl; Samos, peacocks; and Cypros, hairy sheep[2260] and doves.[2261] Among the wild and almost inaccessible cliffs of modern Crete is found a species of blue nightingale,[2262] in size somewhat inferior to the thrush, which it resembled in the richness and variety of its notes. This bird is often caught and kept in cages, where it is sometimes taught to imitate the human voice. Occasionally it forms an article of traffic, and is exported into Italy; but if the ancients traded in these birds, the passage in which it may be mentioned has escaped me. In the same island is found an elegant sort of merops which darts in flocks along the sides of the thymy mountains in pursuit of the bees, which delight in those fragrant places. It is of rich and variegated plumage like the parrokeet. The children take it in a very ingenious manner; passing a crooked pin with a fine thread attached through the hard corslet of the cicada, they let go the insect which mounts, thus transfixed, into the air. The merops, bold and voracious, immediately pounces upon and gorges it, when the pin sticks in the throat, the bird becomes hooked like a fish, and is easily drawn down and taken.
369The next branch of Greek commerce which demands our notice was that carried on with the countries on the Adriatic, Italy, Sicily, Sardinia, Gaul, and Spain. This trade was in most instances of later origin than that maintained with regions lying more to the East, but nevertheless came at length to be of considerable importance, especially after the Hellenic colonies in Italy and Sicily had risen to eminence. The cities founded, moreover, on the coasts of Illyria exercised considerable influence over the commerce of Greece, by imparting to the rude natives a taste for her productions and manufactures, and exciting them to the exercise of greater industry to supply suitable commodities in their turn. Nevertheless, the information we possess on this subject is extremely scanty.
The barn-door fowls of these regions,[2263] though inferior to those of Greece, and of a smaller size, were yet exported thither, simply because they were foreign, while the natives on the contrary were eager to enrich their country with the breed of Attica. Wild turnips and parsnips,[2264] it has been remarked by the ancients, were found growing in Dalmatia;[2265] but as they abound in most other countries, it seems not unreasonable to infer, from this particular mentioned of them, that they were exported.[2266] The best iris, the odoriferous roots of which were much used in the making of perfume, came from the interior of Illyria,[2267] where, having 370been dug up and cleared of the leaves, they were strung on a linen cord and dried in the shade.
From the same country also were obtained the aspalathos[2268] and the wild spikenard,[2269] whose leaf resembled that of the ivy, though somewhat smaller and rounder. The wines of the Adriatic shore were in no great request. That which was called Prætutian[2270] was light and aromatic, and therefore deceived those who drank of it, being powerfully intoxicating and somniferous. The wines of Istria partook of the same character.
From the city of Apollonia[2271] was exported the substance called pissasphaltos,[2272] brought down by the river from the Ceraunian mountains, and found in large lumps upon the shore. It exhaled a mingled odour of pitch and bitumen. Great quantities of salt[2273] were made in another part of Illyria, where, during the spring, they took of the water of a stream flowing forth from a cleft in the rock and poured it into shallow pits exposed apparently to the sun and air, where it hardened in about five days into salt. The beans of Apollonia were famous for keeping long.[2274] Other Illyrian commodities were slaves, ampelitis,[2275] cattle, and skins, for which the natives received wine and oil, and other productions of civilised countries in return.[2276]
The wines of ancient Italy, which formed an important article in the commerce of that country,[2277] are so familiar to most persons that it will be sufficient barely to enumerate the principal of them,—as the Falernian, the Cæcuban,[2278] the Alban, the Surrentine, the Brundusian, and the Antheia, a Thurian 371wine.[2279] Of medicinal herbs and substances, Italy exported considerable quantities, and among them were the hyssop,[2280] the melilot,[2281] from the country round Nola, the wild spikenard,[2282] the madder,[2283] cultivated in the neighbourhood of Ravenna, and Celtic spikenard from the Ligurian Alps,[2284] which was kept tied up in handfuls, together with its roots. Of this article vast quantities, as much it is said as sixty tons per annum, were in the last century exported from hence into the inland parts of Africa, as Æthiopia and Abyssinia,[2285] where it was chiefly used in softening and rendering shining the skin. Another export of Italy was the Ligurian all-heal,[2286] from the lofty and umbrageous summits of the Apennines, where it flourished chiefly along the edge of the water-courses.
There was in this same mountainous district a species of snail,[2287] furnished with a shell in winter, which appears to have been both eaten and used as a medicine.
In many parts of Italy they still make use of snails for the same purpose, digging them up out of the earth with an iron instrument. The ancients kept tame snails for eating, which they fatted with a mixture of flour and sweet wine.[2288] In France they are still fed on vine leaves[2289] in cages, where 372they attain an immense size. Connoisseurs in snails find a great difference in their flesh, according to the plants and trees on which they pasture. Those which attach themselves to the wormword plant are bitter, while such as are found among calamint, pennyroyal, and origany, have an extremely agreeable flavour.
Among the delicacies of Italy best known to the ancients, and doubtless exported, were mushrooms,[2290] of which several excellent sorts are still produced; those particularly which the Tuscans call Prignoli and Porcini, which, being boiled and afterwards dredged with flour and fried, are exceedingly savoury.[2291] The real Porcini are salted and preserved with peculiar care, to be eaten during Lent and other fasts.
There are found in the kingdom of Naples certain stones,[2292] which being sunk in the ground, covered with a thin layer of earth, and irrigated with warm water, produce mushrooms in four days. These stones are preserved both at Rome and at Naples in cellars, for the production of mushrooms. Occasionally, however, contrivances of this sort prove fatal. In a convent in France where the nuns cultivated mushrooms on a hot bed in a cellar, the noisome exhalations destroyed several persons sent down to collect them.[2293]
It has been seen that the yew-tree of Arcadia was much used by cabinet-makers; but the Italian yew[2294] is mentioned by Greek botanists only for its singular and noxious properties, since the birds, they inform us, which ate of its berries turned black, while men were afflicted with troublesome diseases. Around that of Gaul the imagination had woven a tissue of terrors almost equal to that which modern 373times have cast about the upas; for, to sleep, or even to recline, beneath its shade, was supposed to cause dangerous maladies and occasionally even death.
The plant of most deadly qualities known to the ancients grew plentifully in the mountains of the Vestini, neighbours of the Sabines.[2295] It was identical in nature with that of Pontos, and many extraordinary circumstances are related of its effects. By the mere touch it was said to possess the power to benumb the scorpion, which again recovered its activity if brought in contact with the hellebore. It was used by hunters in the chace to destroy wild beasts, and by physicians for various purposes. At present it appears to be found chiefly among the recesses of the Rhætian Alps, from whence it passes to the Papal States and the kingdom of Naples, in both which countries there is a particular class of men whose sole occupation is the extirpation of wolves, and who formerly used to sell this poison openly on the bridge of St. Angelo, at Rome.[2296]
Among the other exports of Italy may be enumerated the squills of Minturnæ,[2297] which exceeded in size those of Smyrna, and the lobsters of Alexandria: amber, too, and coal, of which there are said to have been mines in Liguria,[2298] found their way into the channels of commerce. The amber of the Po existed only in the regions of mythology.[2299]
Calabria supplied pitch,[2300] and bronze from Temessa;[2301] Etruria, resin,[2302] figured gold, plate and articles in bronze,[2303] Thurii, gypsum, and wine;[2304] Tarentum, fine 374gauze-like fabrics; Italy,[2305] generally, groats and salt-beef,[2306] whetstones, wax,[2307] and adarces, used as a dentifricedentifrice;[2308] Algidum, transparent radishes;[2309] Apulia, capparis;[2310] Campania, wheat, from which the best gruel was made, zea, and panic.[2311] Northern Italy, which abounded in forests, reared immense droves of pigs, which were fed on acorns, so that Rome was almost entirely supplied from thence with pork and bacon.[2312] It likewise exported millet, pitch,[2313] exceedingly fine wool from the neighbourhood of Mutina and the banks of the Scultenna,[2314] long coarse wool from Liguria and the country of the Symbri,[2315] with a middling sort from the neighbourhood of Padua, with which coats, carpets, with several varieties of shaggy cloth, were manufactured.[2316]
This part of Italy, likewise, produced immense quantities of wine, which the inhabitants laid up in tuns as large as dwelling-houses.[2317] Gold mines were anciently worked in the country of the Vercelli.[2318]
The chief exports of Sicily were wheat,[2319] of which 375the best and cleanest came from the neighbourhood of Agrigentum;[2320] cheese,[2321] which appears to have been made in all parts of the island, as far back at least as the days of Polyphemos; hogs,[2322] pigeons, and doves,[2323] whose chief haunt was about the temple of Aphroditè[2324] on Mount Eryx; variegated robes,[2325] costly furniture, more particularly plate and pillows,[2326] and superbly wrought chariots.[2327] The Sicilian saffron,[2328] grown in the neighbourhood of Centuripa was of an inferior quality, but seems nevertheless to have been imported into Italy,[2329] where it is supposed to have been applied to the dyeing of the cedar beams used in the construction of temples.
The honey of Mount Hybla,[2330] celebrated through all antiquity, constituted another important article of commerce, as did likewise, more particularly, the Adrian and the Mamertinian.
Among the better known plants of Sicily were the marjoram,[2331] and the cactus, the latter of which was eaten, whether fresh or pickled.[2332]
From the neighbourhood of Tetras, was obtained a sort of stone which became light and porous in burning so as to resemble the pumice.[2333]
About the Erinæan promontory a species of jet was found in great plenty, which when burnt emitted a bituminous odour.[2334]
Sicily likewise exported salt,[2335] emeralds,[2336] lapis specularis,[2337] and agates.[2338] An abundant supply of coral 376was obtained from the sea around Cape Pachynos, near Syracuse;[2339] and from Agrigentum, a liquid bitumen found floating on the clear surface of fountains and burnt instead of oil in lamps, and therefore called by some the oil of Sicily.[2340] Poisons of great force were also found in the island. Among the favourite dishes of the ancients were the lampreys and eels of the Pharo of Messina,[2341] the bellies of thunnies caught near Cape Pachynos,[2342] snails,[2343] and oysters from Cape Peloros.[2344]
The Lipari islands exported sulphur,[2345] alum,[2346] reddle, pumice stone,[2347] crabs,[2348] and anchovies;[2349] Corsica, timber[2350] of a superior quality; Sardinia, carnelians,[2351] snails,[2352] salt provisions,[2353] wax,[2354] and honey, which though bitter, because the bee there fed on wormwood, was much used in cosmetics. In this island likewise was found the seseli,[2355] the juice of which, extracted from the root, was set to thicken in the shade, because, exposed to the sun, it evaporated altogether. It was esteemed a cure for the toothache. The persons 377employed in collecting it were careful to anoint their beard and nostrils with oil of roses, in order to escape those pains and vertigoes which would otherwise have been caused by its effluvia. The little island of Elba exported iron ore and a precious stone richly sprinkled with brilliant colours.[2356]
With Gaul Greece carried on no great trade. The few articles which it thence obtained were hams, reckoned among the best in the ancient world,[2357] pitch,[2358] larch, resin,[2359] wool; French lavender, from the island of Hieres; wormwood from Xaintonges;[2360] seseli,[2361] whetstones called passernices,[2362] and carbuncles from Marseilles, which were so highly esteemed, that a stone of very small size sold for fifty pieces of gold.[2363] In the environs of Ruscino[2364] a very fine sort of mullet was caught in certain sandy lagoons near the sea. Aquitania produced gold; Belgium a sort of white stone (pierre franche) which was sawed into tiles more easily than wood, and used for mosaics.[2365]
The produce of Spain and Portugal was richer and more varied: merino rams[2366] for breeding, valued at two hundred and forty pounds, were thence imported into Greece, together with wool of the very finest quality.[2367] At an earlier period superior cloth had been manufactured for exportation.[2368] The linen of Emporiæ and of the Saltiæti long continued to be famous.[2369] The kermes[2370] procured from Spain were of an inferior quality, but they always continued to be an article of commerce,[2371] as well as 378the alum,[2372] the slate used in medicine, the whetstone,[2373] lapis specularis,[2374] the sory,[2375] minium,[2376] and palmati, round pebbles having within the figure of a palm-tree, found near Munda.[2377]
The cinnabar[2378] of this country was artificial,[2379] and produced from the mixture of a certain ore and argentiferous sand, which being cast into furnaces assumed a most brilliant and flame-like colour. In the mines the above ore emitted so pestilential a vapour that, to protect themselves from it, the workmen covered their faces with a mask of transparent bladders, which at once guarded their eyes and prevented their inhaling it, until by their own breath it had been somewhat tempered. This pigment was used by artists in painting the most costly and gorgeous frescoes.
It has often been remarked that Spain[2380] was to the ancient world what Peru and Mexico afterwards were to Spain. Gold and silver abounded almost throughout the land. The miners in constant working were numerous; the rivers and mountain-torrents rolled down golden sands; and frequently after floods morsels of this precious metal were discovered flashing and glittering among the rocks and stones.[2381] Silver was so plentiful, that the natives applied it to the most common uses, and the Phœnicians and Greeks who first touched upon the shore not only freighted their ships with it, but absolutely cast 379away their anchors and supplied their place with masses of silver.[2382]
The large and opulent province of Bætica, now Andalusia, supplied the ancient world with numerous valuable commodities, among which were wheat,[2383] wine,[2384] oil,[2385] bees’ wax, honey, pitch,[2386] kermes,[2387] vermilion not inferior to that of Sinopè,[2388] rock-salt, and excellent salt-fish.[2389] The thunnies of this part of Spain were said to fatten, like droves of wild hogs,[2390] on the large acorns of the dwarf oak which grew plentifully along the coast, and dipped its fruit into the sea. Hence, too, were obtained numerous species of shellfish, among which were conchs of enormous size.[2391] The congers and murænas, likewise, attained extraordinary dimensions, some of them weighing no less than eighteen minæ, while polypi were found a full talent in weight, and cuttle-fish a yard in length.[2392]
The Spartium, or Spanish broom, principally used in the manufacture of ropes[2393] and cables, grew chiefly[2394] along the high and arid plains of Valentia and Catalonia, through which passed the great high road from Italy.[2395] Spain exported, besides, cumin, together with wild rocket,[2396] which grew chiefly on the shores of the Atlantic.[2397] The seeds were substituted 380by the natives for mustard. In fact, we find that it was a common practice among the ancients to use the seed of rocket in seasoning their dishes; and in order to preserve it for constant use they reduced it with milk or vinegar to a kind of paste, which they fashioned into round cakes, and laid up when dry.
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