fo much activity and skill, as to attract the admiration of their enemies, and the applaufe of thofe hiftorians who have given an account of Polybius. the wars in which they were engaged. In the Lib. 16. Punick wars, the Romans found the benefit of their Schomb. Ob. alliance, by the very effential service which they performed, in attacking the naval armaments of the Carthaginians.

ferv.

Wealth naturally produces luxury, which gradually enervates the powers of a state. This was the cafe with the Rhodians; for after maintaining their political importance from the time already mentioned till the termination almost of the Roman republic, they visibly began to decline in wealth and power. Cicero, in his fpeech on the Manilian law, obferves that they were a Cicero pro people, whofe naval power and difcipline re- lege Manimained even to the time of his memory; and Cicero expired with the republic.

From this fhort hiftory it appears, that the Rhodians were very famous for their naval power and ftrength: but however refpectable they might be on that account, they were much more illustrious, and obtained a much higher praise among the nations of antiquity, for being the first legiflators of the fea, and for promulgating a fyftem of marine jurifprudence, to which even the Romans themfelves paid the greatest deference and respect, and which they adopted as the guide of their conduct in naval affairs. Thefe excellent laws not only ferved as a rule of conduct to the ancient maritime ftates; but as will appear from an attentive comparison of them, have been the basis of all modern regulations refpecting navigation and commerce. The time at which thefe laws were compiled is not precifely afcertained: but we may reasonably fuppofe, it was about the period when the Rhodians first obtained the fovereignty of the fea, which was about 916 years before the æra of Christianity.

a 3

lia, cap. 13.

Selden's Ma re claufum. Lib. 1. cap. 10. f. 5.

Schomberg Obf. on Rhodian Laws.

Mare clau

fum. lib. 1.

cap. 10. 1.5.

Chriftianity. Selden fays, that the Rhodians maintained the fovereignty of the feas 23 years; and that their laws were compiled in the days of Jehofaphat, king of Judab. This opinion agrees exactly with the preceding calculation; for this king began his reign about 914 years before the birth of Christ. Notwithstanding this, it will always remain a doubtful point, when they were compiled; nor perhaps is it very material that it should be accurately afcertained. It is of more confequence to know when they were adopted by the Romans; but that is alfo a fact involved in fome obfcurity. We meet with no traces of them in the time of the republic; and from the manner in which Cicero mentions them in the fpeech laft alluded to, he treats of them as laws, which had gained the admiration of the world, rather than of fuch as then made a part of the Roman code. Selden fays, that they obtained a place in the Roman law in the reign of Tiberius Claudius, a conjecture in which he is fupported by Peckius, one of the commentators on the laws of Rhodes, and by the well known character of Tiberius himself, who difcovered the greatest attention to maritime affairs, and gave many figSueton. Vi- nal inftances of his attachment to Rhodes. But ta Tiberii although thefe iflanders were thus famous for their laws, we cannot difcover from the fragments that have come down to our times, that they had the fmalleft idea of the contract of infurance; nor is there any tradition to induce us to conjecture, that they ever were acquainted with that mode of fecuring their property. It is true, that this is not a conclufive argument; because, although no fuch contract is mentioned in the fragments which we have, it by no means follows, that it did not form a part of their whole system, more especially as Emerigon, a very celebrated French writer of the prefent day, is of traité des Af- opinion, that the real laws of the Rhodians have never reached us; and that the fragments which

Claudii.

Emerigon

furances, preface, p. 3.

we

we fee, are certainly apocryphal. But as thefe laws were adopted by the Romans, it is fair to conjecture, that whether we have the real regulations of Rhodes or not, we fhould have the contract of insurance, if it had been known to them, incorporated with the other naval laws in the Imperial code. This idea is countenanced by the contract of bottomry, which is to be found in the fragments of the laws of Rhodes, and with which the peo- Leg. Rhod. ple of that ifland were certainly acquainted; and f. 1. art. 21. in every book of the civil law, the contract de f. 2. art. 16. nautico fœnore, de ufura maritima, alfo forms a Digeft. lib. confiderable part. It is not going too far then Cod. lib. 4. to prefume, that, as the Romans adopted a con- tit. 33. tract fo beneficial to commerce, as that of bottomry; they would not have paffed over a contract, of which the influence is ftill more extenfively ufeful in the promotion of navigation and trade, if thofe, from whom they borrowed their naval laws, had themfelves been acquainted either with its nature or advantages.

22. tit. 2.

Having faid thus much of Rhodes and its laws, let us turn our attention fhortly to the commerce of the Greeks. It is certainly true, that commerce flourished very much in feveral of the ftates of Greece, particularly in Corinth and Athens. Montefq. The former feparated two feas, was the key of loix, liv. 21. Efprit. des Greece, and a city of the utmost importance: its ch. 7. trade was extensive, having a port to receive the merchandizes of Afia, and another, those of Italy; and there have been but few cities where the works of art were carried to fo high a degree of perfection. Athens indeed was particularly fa- Taylor's Cimous for commercial knowledge; for their ma- vil Law. p. nufactures of all forts were in high repute, and 507 emulation was excited by the public rewards and honours which were bestowed upon thofe, who attained to excellence in any of the ufeful arts. The attention of this people to maritime affairs, (for they aimed at the fovereignty of the fea and obtained it) contributed much to their skill in navigation.

a 4

Potter's Gre- navigation. The many laws which they left to cian Antiq. Vol. 1. p. 80 pofterity, with regard to imports and exports, $3. 84, 167. and the contract of bargain and fale; the many privileges granted to the mercantile part of the ftate; the appointment of magiftrates, who had the cognizance of controverfies that happened between merchants and mariners; the attention which they paid to their market, and the many officers concerned in that department, give us a very favourable idea of their judgment in the true principles of commerce. But notwithstanding this, the Athenians being of a very ambitious difpofition, being more attentive to extend their maritime power than to enjoy it, and having a government of fuch a caft, that the public revenues were distributed among the common people to be fquandered at their pleasure, (a) did not carry on fo extenfive a trade as might naturally be expected from the number of their feamen, from the produce of their mines, from their influence over the cities of Greece, and from thofe excellent laws and inftitutions, which have been juft enumerated. Their trade was almoft entirely confined to Greece and to the Euxine fea. From fuch of their laws as we have feen, and from fuch accounts as we have obtained of their naval hiftory, we have not the fmalleft reafon to fuppofe, that

Montefq. El prit des loix.

liv. 21. c. 7.

(a) From feveral of the orations of Demofthenes it appears, that the poor were enti.led to receive from the publick ftock, as much money as would admit them to the diverfions of the theatre; and befides this it was made a capital offence for any one to propofe the restoration of the theatrical money, to its original ufes. This cuftom was at length fo much abufed, that under pretence of theatrical money, almost all the public funds were distributed among the people. Hence the Athenians contracted an averfion for war, and spent their time and money upon public thews. Of this enormity Demofthenes vehemently complains, and inveighs against it, with as much warmth, as from the nature of the law juit mentioned, he durit venture to do. See the first and alfo the third Olynthian.

this celebrated people knew any thing of the contract of infurance.

edit. Introd.

P. 3.

Some notice fhould have been taken before Beawes Lex now of the Phenicians, an ancient commercial and Merc. opulent people. Indeed, the height of grandeur red. th. to which they attained is a fufficient proof of the vaft refources of a commercial nation. Many writers, both facred and profane, from their florid and magnificent defcriptions, give a vaft idea of their wealth and power. I forbore to fpeak of them till I fhould have occafion to mention one of their colonies, that of Carthage, which in opulence, and the extent of her commerce and naval power, equalled, if not surpaffed, the parent state herself. Whether either, or both of these maritime powers ever promulgated any code of naval law cannot now be afcertained: for the former was entirely destroyed by Alexander the Great; Quint. Curand that it might never be restored, he removed tius, lib. 4. its marine and commerce to Alexandria, in which cap. 8, &c. removal, probably all its naval regulations might be loft. Carthage, on the other hand, having long difputed with Rome the empire of the world, was at laft obliged to yield to her victorious rival, who, even after the gained the victory, retained fuch a hatred to the Carthaginians, that she rooted out every veftige of their former greatnefs. No time, however, nor the hatred of the Romans, can wholly obliterate the amazing accounts which have come down to us, of the enterprifing fpirit, and hazardous voyages of the Carthaginians, almost exceeding the bounds of credibility. Anderfon's Thus much is certain, that they took fuch diftant hift, of Comvoyages, and went fo far even without the Mediterranean, both to the South and North of it, as induced many people to fuppofe, that they were acquainted with the ufe of the compafs. It is evident, however, that they only followed the coafts. Befides the ancients might fometimes Montefq; have performed fuch voyages, as would make one liv. 21. h. 8. imagine they had the ufe of the compafs: for if a

merce.

Introd. p. 31.

32.