Changes

Reverend J. P. Mahaffy writes

Reverend J. P. Mahaffy writes

:"We are told, for example, that almost all Greece joined in a war between [[Chalcis]] and [[Eretria ]]about the Lelantine plain—a war alluded to as contemporary by Theognis, and concerning which even [[Aristotle]] still preserved anecdotes.  Historians have justly pointed out the inconceivability of all Greece being interested about some fields in [[Eubœa]], and that the rivalry of the two towns concerning settlements at the mouth of the [[Euxine]] was the real cause, while a local dispute was the occasion, of the war. The passage into the Black Sea was always of vast importance, as even in Attic days the toll levied for passing [[Byzantium]] formed a considerable item of revenue; and it appears that the Greek trading cities supported [[Chalcis]] or [[Eretria]] according as pre-existing treaties secured to them protection or immunity from either party. Thus the Lelantine War, a name unknown to our ordinary compendiums of Greek history, was a great war of traders, and in [[Thucydides]]' opinion (i. 15) the only general struggle throughout historical Greece previous to his own day.

:"We are told, for example, that almost all Greece joined in a war between [[Chalcis]] and [[Eretria ]]about the Lelantine plain—a war alluded to as contemporary by Theognis, and concerning which even [[Aristotle]] still preserved anecdotes.  Historians have justly pointed out the inconceivability of all Greece being interested about some fields in [[Eubœa]], and that the rivalry of the two towns concerning settlements at the mouth of the [[Black Sea|Euxine]] was the real cause, while a local dispute was the occasion, of the war. The passage into the Black Sea was always of vast importance, as even in Attic days the toll levied for passing [[Byzantium]] formed a considerable item of revenue; and it appears that the Greek trading cities supported [[Chalcis]] or [[Eretria]] according as pre-existing treaties secured to them protection or immunity from either party. Thus the Lelantine War, a name unknown to our ordinary compendiums of Greek history, was a great war of traders, and in [[Thucydides]]' opinion (i. 15) the only general struggle throughout historical Greece previous to his own day.

:These facts, as well as the innumerable speeches on commercial disputes left us by the orators, show that there was a strong trading instinct in the Greeks; and there were large portions of the community supported in this way; that it was, as now, the best avenue to wealth.<ref>Mahaffy, Rev. J. P. (1883).  ‘’Social Life in Greece from Homer to Meander’’ (London: Macmillan), pp. 385-6</ref>

:These facts, as well as the innumerable speeches on commercial disputes left us by the orators, show that there was a strong trading instinct in the Greeks; and there were large portions of the community supported in this way; that it was, as now, the best avenue to wealth.<ref>Mahaffy, Rev. J. P. (1883).  ‘’Social Life in Greece from Homer to Meander’’ (London: Macmillan), pp. 385-6</ref>