Page:History of Greece Vol IV.djvu/25

 ARTICLES EXCHANGED. thfc Komans. 1 On the other hand, these tribes possessed two articles of exchange so precious in the eyes of the Greeks, that Polybiui* reckons them as absolutely indispensable, 2 cattle and slaves ; 1 Strabo, rii, p. 317 ; Appian, Illyric. 17 ; .Aristct. Mirab. Ausc. c. 138. For the extreme importance of the trade in salt, as a bond of connection, see the regulations of the Romans when they divided Macedonia into four provinces, with the distinct view of cutting off all connection between ono end the other. All commercium and connubium were forbidden between them : the fourth region, whose capital was Pclagonia (and which included all the primitive or Upper Macedonia, east of the range of Pindus and Skardus), was altogether inland, and it was expressly forbidden to draw its salt from the third region, or the country between the Axius and the Peneius ; while on the other hand the Illyrian Dardani, situated northward of Upper Macedonia, received express permission to draw their salt from this third or maritime region of Macedonia : the salt was to be conveyed from the Thermaic gulf along the road of the Axius to Stobi in Pseonia, and was there to be sold at a fixed price. The inner or fourth region of Macedonia, which included the modern Bitoglia and Lake Castoria, could easily obtain its salt from the Adriatic, by the communication afterwards so well known as the Eoman Egnatian way ; but the communication of the Dardani with the Adriatic led through a country of the greatest possible difficulty, and it was probably a great convenience to them to receive their supply from the gulf of Therma by the road along the Vardar (Axius) (Livy, xlv, 29). Compare the route of Grisebach from Salonichi to Scutari, in his Reise durch Rumelien, vol. ii. a remarkable passage in Polybius, wherein he treats the importation of slaves as a matter of necessity to Greece (iv, 37). The purchasing of the Thracian slaves in exchange for salt is noticed by Menander, &pa tvyevfc d, Trpof uAaf qyopaaftevoe : see Proverb. Zenob. ii, 12, and Dioge- nian, i, 100. The same trade was earned on in antiquity with the nations on and near Caucasus, from the seaport of Dioskurias at the eastern extremity of the Enxine (Strabo, xi, p. 506). So little have those tribes changed, that tho Circassians now carry on much the same trade. Dr. Clarke's statement carries us back to the ancient world : " The Circassians frequently sell their children to strangers, particularly to the Persians and Turks, and their princes supply the Turkish seraglios with the most beautiful of the prison ers of both sexes whom they take in war. In their commerce with the Tchernomorski Cossacks (north of the river Kuban), the Circassians bring considerable quantities of wood, and the delicious honey of the mountains, sewed up in goats' hides, with the hair on the outside. These articles they exchange for salt, a commodity found in the neighboring lakes, of a very excellent quality Salt is more precious than any other kind of wealth to
 * About the cattle in Illyria, Aristotle, De Mirab. Ausc. c. 128. There is