Page:Greece from the Coming of the Hellenes to AD. 14.djvu/69

Rh colonisation, which seems to have begun perhaps as early as B.C. cSoo, but to have been at its height between B.C. 700 and 600. To account for this we must remember that continental Greece was a small country with an extensive seaboard. Inland, though there are some extensive plains, as in Thessaly, it is generally mountainous and without great or navigable rivers. Most of the cities, therefore, which became important were near the coast, and their inhabitants, much shut off from the interior and from other cities, took to the sea and became bold and skilful mariners, finding their way from island to island, and from headland to headland, noting spots here and there which were uninhabited or so thinly inhabited as to invite settlers. From remote times trade with the countries round the Black Sea became important to the Greeks. One of the earliest legends is that o{ the Argo penetrating as far as the Crimea in search of the Golden Fleece! The Iliad itself is a record of an expedition to the southern shore of the Hellespont; and before the beginning of history the Thracian Chersonese, which forms its northern coast, had been occupied by Hellenic settlers. Above all things it was necessary to keep this channel free and open for the corn-ships, on which many of the Greek states depended for their food. It is not surprising, therefore, to find the shores of the Propontis and of the Black Sea studded with Greek colonies. But the pressure of want at home, or an adventurous disposition, led the Greeks in other directions as well—to Egypt, Sicily, and Italy, to the islands of the Ionian Sea, and the coasts of Epirus. The Greek