CONTINENTAL TRADE
The ancient coastal harbour towns of the north Aegean (Fig. 2.2) were
dominated by a commercial network of Greek-speaking ship-owners,
captains, and agricultural producers providing for them. In order to
understand the close relationship of the former to the inhabitants of
the continental hinterland, whether westwards, towards Macedonia, or
northwards, into Thrace, we should begin not with theperiploithat trace
port-to-port traffic, but with Thucydides’analysis of the interdepend-
ence between inland communities and coastal ones:
those who live inland, or off the main trade routes, ought to recognise the
fact that, if they fail to support the maritime powers, they willfind it much
more difficult to secure an outlet for their exports, and to receive in return
goods which are imported to them by sea. (Thuc. 1.120.2)Thucydides put these words into the mouths of the Corinthian delegates
to the congress that took place at Sparta in 432bc, on the eve of the
Peloponnesian war. The people whom the Corinthians wanted their
fellow delegates to pay special attention to were the Athenians, whose
collective policies were consciously intended to restrict traders from
Megara. On the other hand, the warning was intended to remind inland
cities of the Peloponnese that Corinth was the largest and most active
regional exchange centre. Whatever the precise reasons for this celebrated
Fig. 1.2.Afishing boat at anchor on the Sithonia peninsula of Chalkidike.
18 Introduction