Miletus, the capital of Ionia, the great ſchool for aſtronomical and nautical inſtruction, and the prime ſource from whence moſt of the colonies [1] of antiquity were derived, founded ſeveral cities on the Euxine ſea, and ſome even on its moſt remote ſhores. Among theſe, were on the ſouthern coaſt, Sinope, Tios, Amifus, and Trapezus, and, according to Paterculus, even Byzantium and Cyzicus. On the eait, Diofcurias, the principal city in that neighbourhood. On the north, Panticapaeurn, Theodoſia, and Olbia, and on the Weil, Iſtria and Apolloniania.
The European Greeks, as well as the Aſiatic, founded cities on the ſame ſea. Heraclea Pontica was a colony from Megara, and Athens contributed to that ſent to Amiſus. Apollonian in Ponto was built by emigrants from Corinth, or Corcyra. Amaſtris was of Greek original, and, according to Arrian, the whole of the cities on the weitern coaſt were Greek colonies
The commodities furniſhed as articles of trade by the countries bordering on the Euxine ſea were neither very numerous; nor of great value. Honey, wax, hides, proviſions of all kinds, and materials for building or rigging ſhips, were the principal. It mutt not be omitted, that linen-cloth[2], both white and dyed, or painted, was an article of trade from this country to Greece in very early times.
But the Euxine ſea itſelf was the great ſource of ſupply for
- ↑ Super octoginta urbium per cuncta maria genitrix, Plin. Nat. Hifi. lib. v. c. 29. Primæ in Ionia fundatæ et matris multarum et magnarum urbium in Ponto atque Ægypto, atque pluribus locil mundi Milefiorum civitatis Senatus et Populus &c. &c. Tranſat. of a Greek Inſcription in Chandler, pag. 17. No. xliii.
- ↑ Strabo, lib. xi. Herodot. lib. ii. c. 5.
