"Anciently Miletus was famed for carpets: for of all fleeces the Milesian were the most beautiful, although the Coraxic bore the second prize."
[Greek: Peri tôn Milêsiôn ephan palloi eriôn;
Peri eriôn Koraxôn en prôtô de Iambô
Hippônax houtôs eirêke, metrô chôlôn Iambôn,
Kôraxikon men êmphiesmenê lôpos.][1]
"Of the Milesian fleeces many have spoken: and to the Coraxic Hipponax has alluded in his Choliambic measure, where he mentions 'a woman enveloped in a Coraxic shawl.'"
Hipponax, who is here cited by Tzetzes, was a satirical poet
of Ephesus, and flourished about 540 B. C. In confirmation
of his testimony it may be proved, that his countrymen and
contemporaries had constant intercourse with a port in the
vicinity of the Coraxi. We learn from Pliny (l. vi. cap. 5.)[2],
that the Coraxi were situated near Dioscurias, which, though
deserted in his time, had been formerly so illustrious that 300
nations, speaking different languages, resorted to it. As we
learn from other authorities, Dioscurias was a colony of Miletus
and one of its chief settlements. Miletus also in the time of
Hipponax had risen to the summit of its prosperity, and was the
greatest commercial city in the world next to Tyre and Carthage[3].
Its chief trade was towards the north and as far as the
extremity of the Euxine Sea. Among the numerous Asiatic
tribes, which were accustomed to bring their productions to Dioscurias
and exchange them for Grecian merchandise, the Coraxi
were, as we may conclude from the evidence now produced, a
nation of superior enterprize and intelligence, who sent to the
shores of the Ægean in the vessels of Miletus their fine wool,
as well as the carpets and shawls, which they made from it.
If we had no more exact information than that which has been already cited, we might infer, that the Coraxi occupied part of the modern Circassia, a mountainous region admirably adapted to the breeding of sheep. The Circassians of the present day have numerous herds of cattle and vast flocks of sheep and goats. Their vallies are distinguished by beauty and fertility. A late traveller says, that from whatever country you
