Their naval power and commerce were not utterly annihilated till the time
of Pericles.
The Corinthians, who are not mentioned by Homer as having engaged in the
Trojan war, seem, however, not long afterwards, to have embarked with great
spirit and success in maritime commerce; their situation was particularly
favourable for it, and equally well situated to be the transit of the land
trade of Greece. Corinth had two ports, one upon each sea. The Corinthians
are said to have first built vessels with three banks of oars, instead of
galleys.
Although the Athenians brought a considerable force against Troy, yet they
did not engage in maritime commerce till long after the period of which we
are at present treating.
Of the knowledge which the Greeks possessed at this time, on the subject of
geography, we must draw our most accurate and fullest account from the
writings of Homer and Hesiod. The former represents the shield of Achilles
as depicting the countries of the globe; on it the earth was figured as a
disk surrounded by the ocean; the centre of Greece was represented as the
centre of the world; the disk included the Mediterranean Sea, much
contracted on the west, and the Egean and part of the Euxine Seas. The
Mediterranean was so much contracted on this side, that Ithaca, and the
neighbouring continent, or at the farthest, the straits which separate
Sicily from Italy, were its limits.
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