Chapter One, Excerpt 2 of 3
The Energy Circuit of the Classical World

What is peculiar about this aspect of the venture of Pytheas is that he was far from being the first civilized man to pass the fabled portal of the Atlantic. On the contrary, it had been a trade route of Phoenician merchant ships time out of mind.

Obviously, the Phoenicians were the leading industrial and commercial nation of their considerable day. Mysteriously, failing to resolve into the positive frame of an empire, the center of their undefined sphere of authority and influence was determined by the forces in motion, on a line from Syria to Spain. Against the old despotic monarchies of the East the Phoenicians had established and maintained their special place successfully. There are as many explanations of the dominance and decline of nations as there are examples. The drawback is that each theory will be found applicable only to one age or people, with nothing to account for the actual existence of a given factor.

The conflict of Greece and Carthage may properly be called a trade war. In this respect Rome was comparatively negligible at the time. Apparently, the flow of energy was sufficient to require habitual accommodation, and consequently to make the Romans realize the equivalent need of strong bases fixed on the land. But they did not get into the mainstream of world trade during the formative period, in which they established their civic structure.”