[Sidenote: Mercantile and marine developments at Corinth quoted by Thucydides to illustrate the conditions that led to the rise of tyrannies.] In the passage of Thucydides[945] in which he associates the origin of tyranny with the acquisition of wealth, one other development is mentioned as characteristic of the age. “Greece began to fit out fleets and took more to the sea.” If the views expressed in the last chapter are not entirely mistaken, then in Greece Proper the earliest phases of all these developments, in politics, in industry, and in commerce by land and sea, are all to be associated with Pheidon of Argos. But on the same showing Pheidon was a man born rather before his time and not quite in the right place. The town marked out by its situation[946] to develop the new tendencies to the fullest was Corinth, and it is in fact from Corinth that Thucydides draws his illustration, mentioning in this connexion the shipbuilding of the Corinthian Ameinokles about 704 B.C. and the naval battle between Corinth and Corcyra of about 664 B.C.[947] He says nothing about Corinthian tyrants, but the description of the situation at Corinth is simply a paraphrase of that of the general situation that led to tyrannies[948]. Corinth is chosen to exemplify the normal course of things in a seventh century Greek town, and it may be taken as certain that Thucydides regards the tyranny at Corinth as the outcome of the mercantile and maritime developments described in the passage just quoted. Only, what was the personal relationship of the tyrants to the new developments? [Illustration: Fig. 22. Corinthian vase found at Corinth.] [Illustration: Fig. 23. Corinthian terra cotta tablet depicting a potter at his wheel.] [Illustration: Fig. 24. Corinthian terra cotta tablet depicting the interior of a kiln.] [Sidenote: Seventh century Corinth was also a great industrial centre, especially for pottery.]