Though the value of the precious metals was already well understood, they had not been adopted as the sole instruments of exchange; for, from the often-cited passage of the Iliad,[1475] it is clear that the practice of barter still prevailed. The poet describes certain ships arriving at the Grecian camp with a cargo of wine from Lemnos, on which the chiefs and soldiers flock to the shore, and provide themselves with what they needed, some giving in exchange for it a quantity of brass, iron, skins; and others, oxen or slaves. Among the rustic population of Greece, if the poets may be relied on, the system of barter prevailed down to a very late period, since we find the goatherd, in Theocritus,[1476] giving a she-goat and a cheesecake for a pastoral cup. The Spartans, too, after the death of Polydoros, purchased his palace from the widow for a certain number of oxen; whence it was afterwards called βοώνητα,[1477] or “bought with oxen,” unless the legend was invented to account for the name. Pausanias, however, states as a reason for the transaction, that neither gold nor silver money was yet in use, but that things were disposed of after the ancient fashion of exchanging goods for their value in some other article,—oxen, slaves, or gold or silver in ingots. He adds, in illustration, that the Indians, even in his age, were ignorant of the use of money, though abounding with the precious metals, and used to barter their own manufactures for the merchandise brought by the Greeks: besides, at Sparta, there was a law, attributed to Lycurgos, which prescribed barter in lieu of purchase and sale.[1478] ----- Footnote 1475: Il. η. 472, sqq. Cf. Plin. Hist. Nat. xxxiii. 1. Footnote 1476: Eidyll. i. 57, seq. where, for τυρόεντα, both Porson and Kiessling propose τυρῶντα. Ἄρτον τυρῶντα occurs in a fragment of Sophron. ap. Athen. iii. 75. Footnote 1477: Paus. iii. 12. 1-3. Footnote 1478: Justin, iii. 2. ----- From a passage in the Iliad, which would seem to signify the direct contrary, it has been inferred, that the use of money in commerce was known among the Greeks in the Homeric age. Speaking of the exchange of armour, between Glaucos and Diomedes, the poet says: Χρύσεα χαλκείων, ἑκατόμβοι ἐννεαβοίων.[1479] Gold armour for brazen, a hundred-ox value for nine. ----- Footnote 1479: Il. ζ. 236.