It had an arsenal
well supplied with all kinds of naval stores, and a quay for shipping or
landing merchandize. One of the principal articles of export consisted in
copper vessels, and in arms, machines, utensils, &c. of iron: these metals
were at first supplied to the inhabitants from the island of AEthalia (now
Elba); but the copper-mines there failing, iron alone, from the same
island, was imported for the purpose of their various manufactures; the
trade in these flourished in very remote times, and continued in the days
of Aristotle and Strabo.
But the most direct and unequivocal testimony to the power of the Tuscans,
and that that power was principally, if not entirely, derived from their
maritime skill and commerce, is to be found in Livy. This historian informs
us, "that before the Roman empire, the Tuscan dominions extended very far
both by sea and land, even to the upper and lower sea, by which Italy is
surrounded, in form of an island. Their very names are an argument for the
vast power of this people; for the Italian natives call the one the Tuscan
Sea, and the other the Adriatic, from Adria, a Tuscan colony. The Greeks
call them the Tyrrhenian and Adriatic Seas. This people, in twelve cities,
inhabited the country extending to both seas; and by sending out colonies
equal in number to the mother cities, first on this side of the Apennines
towards the lower sea, and afterwards as many on the other side, possessed
all the country beyond the Po, even to the Alps, except the corner
belonging to the Venetians, who dwelt round a bay of the sea.
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