Corinth, once so celebrated, was among the first of the Greek states to avail herself of the many advantages nature had given her. Built a little to the west of the isthmus connecting the Peloponnesus with northern Greece, she was destined by her position to be the entrepôt of both. Nor did her people fail to appreciate this, for, contrary to what Herodotus states generally of the Greeks, the Corinthians are known to have been expert sailors, and to have made navigation and ship-building their study, being, as Thucydides remarks (i. 13), the inventors of the trireme.[179] In maritime pursuits, and by an extensive commercial intercourse with the neighbouring states, they amassed great wealth. Corinth also affords a striking instance that the cultivation of commerce can be successfully combined with a taste for the most refined arts, for the Corinthian column continues to this day the finest type of architectural beauty; while Corinth was famous in antiquity for her celebrated artists, and their works.[180] [Sidenote: B.C. 326.] The writers, however, of ancient Greece have left but few particulars either of the merchant vessels or of the trade in which they were engaged. Of the character and habits of its seamen, or of the remuneration they received, the accounts are brief and fragmentary, though we know that after the time of Demosthenes their wages were provided for by a tax upon property. In cases of emergency, it would seem that men of substance in Greece, besides paying the whole of this special tax, fitted out at their own expense numerous vessels for the service of the state, and that a patriotic and generous rivalry prevailed among them, inducing them to do their utmost for the good of their country. From this laudable public spirit arose, in a great measure, that enlarged and enlightened system of commerce with foreign nations, for which the Greeks have been in all times conspicuous, and which still largely prevails among the leading Greek merchants resident in England. [Sidenote: Athens.] Athens, too, though in a less degree than Corinth, was also a place of commercial importance; for though at some distance from the sea, it possessed three harbours—the Piræeus, Munychia, and Phalerum, themselves forming a city as large as, if not larger than, Athens herself. From the harbour of the Piræeus a large foreign trade, chiefly in corn, was carried on with the countries bordering on the Black Sea and the Crimea, as well as with Palestine and Egypt. The Piræeus contained extensive warehouses for the reception of various descriptions of produce, as well as a large portico or arcade, where, after the fashion of eastern bazaars, manufactures of every description were exposed for sale.