Page:Early Man in Britain and His Place in the Tertiary Period.djvu/524

496 the use of iron became known, and in the Prehistoric Iron age the condition of Britain was higher than it had ever been before. A commerce was carried on with the Mediterranean peoples, and works of Etruskan art penetrated as far to the west as Ireland.

We have also noted the gradual disappearance of the wild animals, which stands in an inverse ratio to the increase in the domestic species.

The influence of the classical peoples of the Mediterranean on the nations of the north has also engaged our attention, and we have remarked the trade-routes by which Greek, Etruskan, and Phœnician commerce was carried on with the barbarians of the north, a commerce which was aimed more particularly at the gold, tin, and amber so eagerly sought in the ancient world. We have also traced the progress of discovery in the north-western seas by the Phoenicians and Greek mariners, and have only ended our enquiry with the circumnavigation of Britain in the time of Agricola. The Etruskans, from their commanding position in northern Italy, were most powerful in spreading civilisation northwards, in Gaul and Germany. Their influence was felt in Gaul in the Bronze age, and throughout Germany in the late Bronze and Iron ages. It is natural to suppose, also, that the Phœnicians, from their extended commerce, must have exercised a powerful influence on the peoples of Spain and of Gaul, but this it is impossible to trace, because they were mere manufacturers and merchants, without any art of their own. In later times the Greek influence became powerful in Gaul and Germany, penetrated into Britain, and was followed in due time by that of Rome. There is obviously a considerable overlap between the Historic period of the Mediterranean