Delos itself (that had been long worked,) and the elegant vases,
manufactured from this copper,--were the principal commodities exported
from Delos. In return and exchange, foreign merchants brought the produce
and manufactures of their respective countries; so that the island became,
as it were, the storehouse of the treasures of nations; and the scene,
during this mixture of religious festivals and commercial enterprise, was
peculiarly gay and animated. The inhabitants were, by an express law, which
is noticed by Athenæus, obliged to furnish water to all the strangers who
resorted thither; to which, it would appear, they added, either
gratuitously, or for a small remuneration, cakes and other trifling
eatables.

The Athenians were so anxious to protect and extend the commerce carried on
in Delos, that they gave encouragement to such strangers to settle there as
were conversant in commerce, as well as strictly guarded its neutrality and
privileges. On the destruction of Tyre, and afterwards of Carthage, events
which gave a new direction to the commerce of the Mediterranean, a great
number of merchants from these cities fled to Delos, where they were taken
under the protection of the Athenians; and it appears by an inscription
found in the 17th century, that the Tyrians formed a company of merchants
and navigators there. The Romans traded to it, even before their war with
Philip, king of Macedon. After the restoration of Corinth, the Athenians
used all their efforts to keep up the commerce of Delos; but the wars of
Mithridates put an end to it; and in a very short period afterwards, it
seems to have been entirely abandoned by the merchants of all nations, and,
as a commercial place, to have fallen into utter neglect and decay.

Corinth, next to Athens, demands our notice, as one of the most commercial
cities of Greece. The Corinthian dominions were extremely small, their
extent from east to west being about half a degree, and from north to south