Leg. Rhod. f. I. art. 21. 1.2. art. 16. Digeft. lib. 22. tit. 2. Cod. lib. 4. tit. 33. Montefq. Efprit des loix, liv. 21. ch. 7. This if it had been known to them, incorporated with Having faid thus much of Rhodes and its laws, let us turn our attention fhortly to the commerce of the Greeks. It is certainly true, that commerce flourished very much in feveral of the States of Greece, particularly in Corinth and Athens. The former feparated two feas, was the key of Greece, and a city of the utmost importance; its trade was extenfive, having a port to receive the merchandizes of Afia, and another thofe of Italy; and there have been but few cities where the works of art were carried to fo high a degree of perfecTaylor's Civil tion. Athens, indeed, was particularly famous for Law, p. 507. commercial knowledge; for their manufactures of all forts were in high repute, and emulation was excited by the public rewards and honours which were bestowed upon those who attained to excel lence lence in any of the useful arts. The attention of The Potter's Gre cian Antiq. this people to maritime affairs, (for they aimed at the fovereignty of the fea and obtained it) contributed much to their fkill in navigation. many laws which they left to pofterity, with regard vol. i. p. 80. to imports and exports, and the contract of bargain 83, 84. 167. and fale; the many privileges granted to the mercantile part of the ftate; the appointment of magiftrates, who had the cognizance of controverfies that happened between merchants and mariners; the attention which they paid to their market, and the many officers concerned in that department, give us a very favourable idea of their judgment in the true principles of commerce. But notwithstanding this, the Athenians, being of a very ambitious difpofition, being more attentive to extend their maritime power than to enjoy it, and having a government of fuch a caft, that the public revenues were distributed among the common people to be squandered at their pleasure (a) did not carry on fo extensive a trade as might naturally be expected from the number of their feamen, from the produce of their mines, from their influence over (a) From several of the orations of Demofthenes it appears, that the poor were entitled to receive from the public stock as much money as would admit them to the diverfions of the theatre; and befides this, it was made a capital offence for any one to propofe the reftoration of the theatrical money to its original uses. This cuftom was at length so much abused, that, under pretence of theatrical money, almost all the public funds were distributed among the people. Hence the Athenians contracted an averfion for war, and spent their time and money upon public fhews. Of this enormity Demofthenes vehemently complains, and inveighs against it with as much warmth as, from the nature of the law juft mentioned, he durft venture to do. See the firft and alfo the third Olynthian. over the cities of Greece, and from thofe excellent laws and inftitutions, which have been just enuMontefq. Ef. merated. Their trade was almost entirely confined prit des loix, to Greece and to the Euxine fea. From fuch of ĺiv. 21. c. 7. their laws as we have feen, and from fuch accounts as we have obtained of their naval history, we have not the fmalleft reafon to fuppofe, that this celebrated people knew any thing of the contract of infurance. Beawes Lex Merc. red. 4th edit. Introd. p. 3. Some notice fhould have been taken before now of the Phenicians, an ancient commercial and opulent people. Indeed, the height of grandeur to which they attained is a fufficient proof of the vast refources of a commercial nation. Many writers, both facred and profane, from their florid and magnificent defcriptions, give a vaft idea of their wealth and power. I forbore to speak of them till I fhould have occafion to mention one of their colonies, that of Carthage, which, in opulence and the extent of her commerce and naval power, equalled, if not furpaffed, the parent ftate herself. Whether either, or both, of these maritime powers ever promulgated any code of naval law cannot now be ascertained: for the former was entirely Quint. Cur- deftroyed by Alexander the Great; and that it tius, lib. 4. cap. 8, &c. might never be restored, he removed its marine and commerce to Alexandria, in which removal, probably all its naval regulations might be loft. Carthage, on the other hand, having long difputed with Rome the empire of the world, was at laft obliged to yield to her victorious rival, who, even after fhe gained the victory, retained fuch an hatred to the Carthaginians, that the rooted out No time, merce. 32. fol. ed. every veftige of their former greatness. however, nor the hatred of the Romans, can wholly obliterate the amazing accounts which have come down to us, of the enterprizing fpirit, and haz ardous voyages of the Carthaginians, almost exceeding the bounds of credibility. Thus much is Anderfon's certain, that they took such distant voyages, and Hift. of Comwent fo far even without the Mediterranean, both Introd. p. 31, to the South and North of it, as induced many people to suppose, that they were acquainted with the use of the compafs. It is evident, however, that they only followed the coafts. Befides the Montefq. ancients might fometimes have performed fuch liv. 21. ch. 8. voyages, as would make one imagine they had the use of the compafs: for if a pilot were far from land, and during his voyage had fuch ferene weather that in the night he could always fee the polar ftar, and in the day, the rifing and the fetting fun, he might regulate his courfe by them, nearly as we do now by the compafs. This however must be a fortuitous cafe, and not a regular plan of navigation. (a) From (a) What I have said in the text has been fuppofed by fome not to do fufficient justice to the commercial and enterprising fpirit of the Phenecians, who are faid to have vifited Britain about 900 years before Chrift.* I have already admitted the almost incredible voyages which they performed; but as it is alfo undoubtedly true, that they were unacquainted with the mariner's compass, the honour of difcovering which was referved for later times, they muft, in most cases, have followed the coafts. Nor does their visiting Britain militate against this idea; for by attending to the fituation of the two places, the voyage might have been performed, though no doubt very tedioufly, without once lofing fight of land. See Borlafe's Hift. of Cornwall, p. 27, and Henry's Hift. Great-Britain, book 1. chap. 6. From a flight attention to the commercial and maritime history of the Romans, it will appear that they were as great ftrangers to the contract of infurance, as any of thofe people, of whom much has been already said. It feems to be univerfally agreed that the Romans were never very confpicuous as a maritime power, confidered either Montefq. liv. in a commercial or warlike point of view. 21. ch. 9. Ferguson's vol. i. p. 100. In the latter cafe they relied chiefly on their land forces, who were disciplined to stand always firm and undaunted; and till towards the latter age of the republic, when we read of fome wonderful naval exertions, they do not feem to have poffeffed any thing of a marine establishment. They never were diftinguished by a jealoufy for trade, and even when they attacked Carthage, they did it as a rival for empire, and not for commerce. It is recorded by hiftorians, that till the first Punick war, upwards of 400 years after the building of the city, the Romans were fo entirely ignorant of fhip building, that they took for a model a Carthaginian galley, which had been accidentally ftranded at Meina. Carthage, it must be observed, was at that time in her zenith of power and greatness; and yet from the model of one of her gallies, the Romans were able in fixty days from the time the timber was cut down, to fit out and man for fea, one hundred gallies, of five tiers, and twenty of three tiers of oars. Such were the ships of the famous Carthage. The fpirit of the people of Rome was entirely averfe from commerce; and fully juftifies what was faid by a celebrated Roman histoSalluft. Cati- rian, "fefe quifque hoftem ferire, murum adfcendere, "confpici, dum tale facinus faceret, properabat; eas lina, cap. 7. "divitias, |