On the other hand, Lucian, in the passage quoted above, says that the ship which he describes, at the time when it was forced to put into the Pireeus by stress of weather on the seventieth day from Alex- andria, ought in ordinary course to have been already in its harbour in Italy if it had not been driven astray into the Augean Sea.t This seems to imply that the voyage to Italy just mentioned was an unusually quick one. Had forty days been
*If we assume that he started as soon as unloading was finished, Puteoli would be certain. The Berlin editor gives pendiy devocrorcrio bors : read pndivey exor., ‘that none of the corn- traders has got leave to depart.’ . x :
+It would appear probable that this ship, which sighted Akamas on the seventh day from Alexandria, was on the extreme yight of the fleet. It would signal the others, but was itself too far easb to be able to clear the promontory.
SE ee ee
ROADS AND TRAVEL (IN NT) 381
about the usual length, Lucian would naturally have said that his Ship should have been already
for a long time in an Italian harbour on the
seventieth day.
Accordingly, we conclude that, when not de- tained unduly, fifty days was a more common length of passage from Alexandria to Rome. It would be roughly divided thus—
6 days to Akamas in Cyprus. Bing | jer Nai
10 ,, 5, Rhodes (Gregory’s time). 15 ,, ., west end of Crete. 13 ,, >, the Straits.
1 day in the Straits. 2 days to Puteoli.
When a ship was delayed beyond sixty or seventy days the passage would begin to be considered an unfortunate one ; but no anxiety would be felt, for it must often have been the case that ships were carried far from their course,* and detained even till the following year. Phcenix, in the south-west of Crete, was evidently a common harbour for lag- gard ships to spend the winter in (Ac 27"; also p- 379"): it was convenient as being near to the west end of the island, so that ships could there be on the outlook for promise of a fair passage across the wide sea to Cythera and Italy.
There can hardly be any doubt (though no proof formally exists or could be expected) that the remarkably early Christianization of Crete was due to the ships from Alexandria and Syria having occasionally to winter there. Such a result was natural when crew and passengers were doomed to remain for some months in harbour. On the other hand, the many voyages along the coasts of Pamphylia and Lycia appear to have produced little or no effect, for those provinces seem to have been less affected by Christianity in the early centuries than any other part of Asia Minor. The reason, doubtless, was that passengers in ships on the coast- ing voyage could never count on an hour’s delay. The fitful land winds might change or begin or end at any time, and the passenger was bound to the ship.t Only those who have had the experi- ence can realize how absolutely prohibitive this uncertainty is as regards any intercourse with the country along which the coasting voyage leads. Pamphylia or Lycia could not be Christianized in the same way as Crete, but only by deliberate and intentional missionary effort such as that of Ac 12”.
vii. VOYAGES TO ASIA, THE ANGHAN AND EUXINE SEAS, PALESTINE AND Eq@ypr.—During the rest of the year, except the open season, the voyage to Egypt was made by way of the coasts of Asia Minor and Syria—the same route that war vessels would take even in the very height of summer. Caligula intended to sail by that course, vid Brundisium, when he thought o going to Egypt. This was the more luxurious though the slower route, as he could rest quietly on land every night (Philo, de Leg. 33, cf. in Flac. 5).
Smaller vessels or ships of war never ventured on such long sea courses as were needed in the voyages hitherto described, but kept closer to the shore. . Only the large, heavily - built merchant vessels were suited for such a voyage (Philo, de Leg. 33); they alone had sufficient spread of canvas, or strength of build, or storage room, to go a long voyage and remain out of sight of land for anumber of days. The warships were slighter in construction, moved in a more agile way, and were not dependent on the wind or able to make such use of the wind, for they trusted chiefly to oars.
xTucian’s Ship carried to the Pireus; two to Malta, Ac
1.11 e Of. Dion Chrysostom as quoted on p. 3802, note *.
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The voyages made by the south coast of Asia Minor are naturally similar in many respects to voyages between Rome and the ports of the ‘Hgean Sea or the Euxine. These also may therefore be suitably noticed at this point. Puteoli was the chief harbour of this trade in the Roman Republican times and the first century after Christ. When Delos was the great centre and market of the Algean, before the massacre of Roman traders by Mithridates in B.c. 88, Pute- oli was called Lesser Delos.* When Delos was destroyed, no other harbour of the Aigean was heir to its greatness, and Puteoli became more important than ever. It was crowded with traders and. settlers from all the Eastern lands and har- bours. These brought their religion with them ; and Puteolanian inscriptions reveal a mingled, strange picture of foreign deities, cults, and societies and traders (see the interesting article by M. Dubois on ‘Cultes et Dieux & Pouzzoles’ in Meélanges d’ Histoire et d’ Archéologie, 1902, p. 23).