not safe to trust to such loose rhetorical illustrations. From a passage in Thucydides we may learn that the Athenians derived part of their supply of corn from Euboea; this passage is also curious as exhibiting a surprising instance of the imperfection of ancient navigation. Among the inconveniences experienced by the Athenians, from the fortifying of Dacelia by the Lacedemonians, this historian particularly mentions, as one of the most considerable, that they could not bring over their corn from Euboea by land, passing by Oropus, but were under the necessity of embarking it, and sailing round Cape Sunium; and yet the water carriage could not be more than double the land carriage. The articles imported by the Athenians from the Euxine Sea, besides corn, were timber for building, slaves, salt, honey, wax, wool, leather, and goat-skins; from Byzantium and other ports of Thrace and Macedonia, salt fish and timber; from Phrygia and Miletus, carpets, coverlets for beds, and the fine wool, of which their cloths were made; from the islands of Egean Sea, wine and different fruits; and from Thrace, Thessaly, Phrygia, &c., a great number of slaves. The traffic in slaves was, next to that in corn, of the greatest consequence to the Athenians, for the citizens were not in sufficient numbers, and, if they had been, were not by any means disposed, to cultivate the land, work the mines, and carry on the various trades and manufactures. The number of slaves in Attica, during the most flourishing period of the republic, was estimated at 400,000: of these the greater part had been imported; the rest were natives of Greece, whom the fate of arms had thrown into the hands of a conqueror irritated by too obstinate a resistance. The slaves most esteemed, and which brought the highest price, were imported from Syria and Thrace, the male slaves of the former country, and the females of the latter: the slaves from Macedonia were the least valued. The price of a slave seems to have been extremely low, as Xenophon mentions that some were sold at Athens for half an Attic mina, or rather more than thirty shillings: those, however, who had acquired a trade, or were otherwise particularly useful, were valued at five minæ, or about fifteen pounds.