DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1004#0208
166
MARITIME FORCE OF ATTICA AND BCEOTIA.
specifies only a single city in the neighbouring district of Attica. The sole
place in the latter province which he mentions as having augmented the
numbers of the Greek army, is Athens. But it is observable, that the con-
tribution of this single city amounted to precisely the same sum as that
which was supplied by the thirty towns of Bosotia, Each of these two
parties furnished fifty ships.
We hence conclude, that while Bceotia was much more thickly peopled
than Attica in the Homeric age, the latter had already attained a degree of
maritime skill which placed it as far above its rival in that respect, as it was
inferior to it in numerical strength.
Both these circumstances are in strict accordance with the physical
qualities and features of the two countries to which they relate. Of the
causes which tended to produce the nautical and commercial celebrity
and affluence of Attica, we have already spoken. Both negatively and
positively they existed there in the highest degree. The same may be said
of the natural endowments which conduced to give Bceotia a superiority
over its neighbour in the number of cities which covered its soil, and in the
aggregate amount of its population.
If we take our station on the summit of the lofty citadel of Obchomenus,
at the north-west angle of the Cephissian or Copaic lake, and cast our
MARITIME FORCE OF ATTICA AND BCEOTIA.
specifies only a single city in the neighbouring district of Attica. The sole
place in the latter province which he mentions as having augmented the
numbers of the Greek army, is Athens. But it is observable, that the con-
tribution of this single city amounted to precisely the same sum as that
which was supplied by the thirty towns of Bosotia, Each of these two
parties furnished fifty ships.
We hence conclude, that while Bceotia was much more thickly peopled
than Attica in the Homeric age, the latter had already attained a degree of
maritime skill which placed it as far above its rival in that respect, as it was
inferior to it in numerical strength.
Both these circumstances are in strict accordance with the physical
qualities and features of the two countries to which they relate. Of the
causes which tended to produce the nautical and commercial celebrity
and affluence of Attica, we have already spoken. Both negatively and
positively they existed there in the highest degree. The same may be said
of the natural endowments which conduced to give Bceotia a superiority
over its neighbour in the number of cities which covered its soil, and in the
aggregate amount of its population.
If we take our station on the summit of the lofty citadel of Obchomenus,
at the north-west angle of the Cephissian or Copaic lake, and cast our