Page:History of Greece Vol III.djvu/290

 274 HISTORl OF GREECE with the limited navigation of that day, could not be made to em- brace very bulky goods. But this trade, though seemingly a valuable one, constituted only a small part of the sources of wealth open to the Pheni- cians of Gades. The Turditanians and Turduli, who occupied the south-western portion of Spain, between the Anas river (Guadiana) and the Mediterranean, seem to have been the most civilized and improvable section of the Iberian tribes, well suited for commercial relations with the settlers who occupied the isle of Leon, and who established the temple, afterwards so rich and fre- quented, of the Tyrian Herakles. And the extreme productive- ness of the southern region of Spain, in corn, fish, cattle, and wine, as well as in silver and iron, is a topic upon which we find but one language among ancient writers. The territory round Ga- des, Carteia, and the other Phenician settlements in this district, was known to the Greeks in the sixth century B. c. by the name of Tartessus, and regarded by them somewhat in the same light as Mexico and Peru appeared to the Spaniards of the sixteenth century. For three or four centuries the Phenicians had pos- sessed the entire monopoly of this TartAssian trade, without any rivalry on the part of the Greeks ; probably, the metals there pro- cured were in those days their most precious acquisition, and the tribes who occupied the mining regions of the interior found a new market and valuable demand, for produce then obtained with a degree of facility exaggerated into fable. 1 It was from Gades as a centre that these enterprising traders, pushing their coasting voyage yet farther, established relations with the tin-mines of Cornwall, perhaps also with amber-gatherers from the coasts of the Baltic. It requires some effort to carry back our imaginations to the time when, along all this vast length of country, from Tyre and Sidon to the coast of Cornwall, there was no merchant-ship to buy or sell goods except these Phenicians. The rudest tribes find advantage in such visitors ; and we cannot doubt, that the men, whose resolute love of gain braved so many hazards and dif- tratus ap. Athcnne. iii, p. 118. The Phenician merchants bought in exchange Attic pottery for their African trade. 1 About the productiveness of the Spanish mines, Polybius (xxxiv, 9. 8 ap. Strabo, iii, p. 147; Aristot. Mirab. Ausc. c 135.