=24. Rhodes.=—Only one other city, Rhodes, deserves especial attention, and this not because of its size alone but also because it was so specifically a commercial city. The little island could offer but scanty products to commerce, but it enjoyed an exceptionally favorable position, where navigators from Egypt and Syria, avoiding the dangers of the open sea, would put in for shelter and to trade. Rhodes followed a far-sighted foreign policy, guided by the idea of securing the greatest freedom of trade; it policed the seas and repressed piracy with vigor; and established a code of mercantile law which was celebrated as a model and which invited dealings in its market. The Rhodians were skilful navigators, and developed the principles of commercial association to a point of high efficiency. It is little cause for wonder, therefore, that commerce flowed hither from all parts of the eastern Mediterranean and even from the Black Sea; that foreign merchants sent their sons there to learn the conduct of commerce; and that great riches were accumulated, of which one evidence was furnished by the many colossi, gigantic statues, about the city. QUESTIONS AND TOPICS 1. Prove the statement in the text, regarding the Greek islands. Take a good map, measure off on the scale 25 miles, the distance at which hills of about 125 feet are visible (the Greek islands are mountainous and the air very clear), and show by what stepping-stones timid sailors could advance. 2. Study in detail the influence of the physical characteristics of Greece on the people and their history. [See Myers, chap. 1; Holm, vol. 1, chap. 2.] 3. Write a report on the evidences of early civilization and trade. [Holm, vol. 1, chap. 8.] 4. Write a report on the early commerce carried on by Phœnicians. [Holm, vol. 1, chap. 9.] 5. Make a careful study of the Greek colonial movement, noting, (_a_) the motives to colonization, (_b_) the extent of Greek colonies, (_c_) the relations with the mother-country, (_d_) the mode of life in the colonies, (_e_) the influence on the commercial development of the different parts of Greece. [Myers, chap. 5; Holm, vol. 1, chaps. 12, 13, 14, 21, 25.] 6. Write a report on the history of the Greek colonies of the West, especially Syracuse and its contest with Carthage. [Holm, vol. 1, chap. 25; vol. 2, chap. 6, 29; Freeman, Story of Sicily, N. Y., Putnam, 1892, $1.50.] · 7. Study the growth of the sea-power and empire of Athens, indicating on a map the allied or subject cities. [Myers, chaps. 15, 16; Holm, vol. 2, esp. chap. 17.] 8. Contrast Athenian exports of this period with the exports of modern Greece. [Statesman’s Year-Book.] 9. What is the leading port of modern Greece? [Same.]