The prohibition to export arms during war to the country of the enemy, and that under pain of death,[1627] was an obvious measure of self-defence. In time of peace, however, the trade in arms was as free as any other trade; and the Athenians imported from their neighbours, the Bœotians, helmets,[1628] in the manufacture of which this people excelled. No doubt, as states derive the sinews of war, in part at least, from commerce, the Athenians had the sagacity to attack their enemies in the vulnerable point of their pride, for the purpose of bringing them the sooner to reason. They thus, too, taught the inferior states, such as Megara and Bœotia, that Athens was independent of them in all respects, while it was for them to consider whether they were equally independent of her.[1629] Thus the Ocean Queen of antiquity was said to exercise (as Great Britain formerly) a despotic sway over trade; as when, for example, she exacted a tenth from all ships sailing to or from the Black Sea;[1630] though in this, as in all human affairs, the despotism[1631] arose naturally from the possession of superior power, and could scarcely have been guarded against. To weaken the enemy by every possible means was the object of a wise policy; so that in contemplating every coast belonging to a power not in alliance with Athens as in a state of blockade,[1632]—in seizing, capturing, or detaining, all vessels of every description by which her interests could be infringed, Athens only acted in self-defence. That she was hated for her superiority we need not be surprised, who know with what heart-burnings and secret aversion our own maritime supremacy has ever been beheld by the nations of the Continent, who repeat against us all the accusations anciently muttered by the surrounding states against Athens. ----- Footnote 1627: Dem. de Fals. Legat. § 90. Footnote 1628: Poll. i. 149. Footnote 1629: Conf. Acharn. 660, sqq. and Bœckh, i. 76. Footnote 1630: Xen. Hellen. iv. 8. 27. Dodwell, Chron. Xenophon. § 21. Footnote 1631: Xen. Rep. Athen. ii. 3. 11. 12. Footnote 1632: Xen. ut sup. Thucyd. v. 83. -----