Page 378 - Four Thousand Years Ago by Geoffrey Bibby

[1230-1160 b.c.] The Sack of Troy 325
usually fast merchantman coming down from the Adriatic, which
turned out, when they eventually close-hauled her, to have a
free pass from Laertes of Ithaka. And Laertes was an ally who
must not be antagonized, so they got nothing more out of that
than an amber necklace each which the captain thought it wise to
offer as insurance for the future.
They commented then on the increasing scarcity of prizes to
be picked up at sea, and that fall they went to the trouble of
discussing it with the merchant who was just about the biggest
importer in Mycenae. He was quite outspoken about it. “You’re
ruining your own trade,” he said, “—and mine. Of course,
there’ve always been privateers on the trade routes, and even
some of the traders haven’t been averse to fighting for a cargo in­
stead of paying for it. But now it’s reached a pitch where it
hardly pays to send a ship on a long trip at all. There’s not
an even chance of it getting back in safety, and even the bank­
ers in Byblos won’t touch marine insurance these days.”
He poured out Egyptian wine for his princely customers,
and went on. “When my great-great-grandfather founded the
business after Knossos fell, things were different. The merchant­
men had the legs—and the teeth—of most other craft, and any­
way the Cretans had policed the seas from Trieste to the Nile.
You could sail for years and never meet a pirate. It was in my
father’s time, with all the new people pushing down from the
north, that the long ships began really large-scale raiding. And
it’s not merely the merchantmen that suffer. Any town near the
sea is fair game, and a port is lucky if it doesn’t get plundered and
burnt at least once in a generation. Of course it keeps goods in
circulation—I make a good thing out of selling your plunder for
you—but it isn’t the same thing as steady trade.” He shook his
head at them. “You’re living on the accumulated fat of genera­
tions of steady trade,” he said. “One of these days there’s going to
be no fat left.” The two princes laughed. “It’ll last our time out,”
said Agamemnon.
Only three years later, with less than a score of followers,
many badly wounded, they sought refuge and sanctuary from
Tyndareos, king of Sparta. Atreus, their father, had fallen in ac­
tion, and Thyestes held Mycenae.