Page:History of Greece Vol IV.djvu/26

 8 HIS'lORY OF GREECE. which latter were doubtless procured from Illyria, often in ex change for salt, as they were from Thrace and from the Euxine and from Aquileia in the Adriatic, through the internal wars of one tribe with another. Silver-mines were worked at Damastiuo. in Illyria. Wax and honey were probably also articles of ex- port, and it is a proof that the natural products of Illyria were carefully sought out, when we find a species of iris peculiar to the country collected and sent to Corinth, where its root was employ- ed to give the special flavor to a celebrated kind of aromatic un- guent. 1 Nor was the intercourse between the Hellenic ports and Illyrians inland exclusively commercial. Grecian exiles alsc found their way into Illyria, and Grecian mythes became lo- calized there, as may be seen by the tale of Kadmus and Har- monia, from whom the chiefs of the Illyrian Encheleis professed to trace their descent. 2 The Macedonians of the fourth century B.C. acquired, from the ability and enterprise of two successive kings, a great per- fection in Greek military organization without any of the loftier Hellenic qualities. Their career in Greece is purely destructive, extinguishing the free movement of the separate cities, and dis- the Circassians, and it constitutes the most acceptable present which can be offered to them. They -weave mats of very great beauty, which find a ready market both in Turkey and Russia. They are also ingenious in the art of working silver and other metals, and in Ihe fabrication of guns, pistols, and sabres. Some, which they offered us for sale, we suspected had been procured in Turkey in exchange for slaves. Their bows and arrows are made with inimitable skill, and the arrows being tipped with iron, and otherwise exquisitely wrought, are considered by the Cossacks and Russians as inflicting incurable wounds." (Clarke's Travels, vol. i, ch. xvi, p. 378.) 1 Theophrast. Hist. Plant, iv, 5, 2; ix, 7, 4: Pliny. H. N. xiii, 2 ; xxi, 19: Strabo, vii, p. 326. Coins of Epidamnus and Apollonia are found not only in Macedonia, but in Thrace and in Italy : the trade of these two cities probably extended across from sea to sea, even before the construction of the Egnatian way ; and the Inscription 2056 in the Corpus of Boeckh pro- claims the gratitude of Odessus (Varna) in the Euxine sea towards a citizen of Epidamnus (Barth, Corinthiorum Mercatur. Hist. p. 49 ; Aristot. Mirab. Auscult. c. 104). s Herodot. v, 61 ; viii, 137 : Strabo, vii, p. 326. Skylax places the ?JJo of Kadmus and Harmonia among the Illyrian Manii, north of the En kis (Diodor. xix, 53 ; Ppusan. ix, 5, 3).