Page:History of Greece Vol III.djvu/426

 410 HISTORY OF GREECE. general trade of the island, and the encouragement for its shipi ping, must probably have been greater during the sixth century B. c., while the cities of Magna Gnecia were at the maximum of their prosperity, than in the ensuing century, when they had comparatively declined. Isor can we doubt that the visitors and presents to the oracle of Dodona in Epirus, which was distant two days' journey on landing from Korkyra, and the importance of which was most sensible during the earlier periods of Grecian history, contributed to swell the traffic of the Korkynrnns. It is worthy of notice that the monetary system established at Korkyra was thoroughly Grecian and Corinthian, graduated on the usual scale of obols, drachms, mina?, and talents, without in- cluding any of those native Italian or Sicilian elements which were adopted by the cities in Magna Gnvciu and Sicily. The type of the Corinthian coins seems also to have passed to those of Leukas and Ambrakia. 1 Of the islands of Znkynthus and Kephallenia, Zante and Cephalonia, we hear very little: of Ithaka, so interesting from the story of the Odyssey, we have have no historical information at all. The inhabitants of Zakynthus were Achoeans from Peloponnesus : Kephallenia was distributed among four separate city governments. 3 Neither of these islands play any part in Grecian history until the time of the maritime empire of Athens, after the Persian war. Danube forked at a certain point of its course into two streams, one flowing into the Adriatic, the other into the Euxine. See the Inscriptions No. 1838 and No. 1845, in the collection of Boeckh, and Bocckh's Metrologic, vii, 8, p. 97. Respecting the Corinthian coinage cur information is confused and imperfect.