Ancient Greece: Trade

Viticulture was also important to the economy of many cities, as is shown by the number of states whose coinage bears wine-related designs. Greek wine was traded within Greece, with Athens, the largest and richest city, offering the best market, and exported throughout the Mediterranean world, especially to Egypt, the Black Sea, Scythia, and Etruria (modern tuscany). Soon the colonial cities began to produce and export their own wine. (See celts for archaeological evidence of the geographical extent to which Greek wine and drinking rituals were adopted.) Amphorae from Marseilles are found along the southern coast of France and up the rhône Valley, while in the crimea archaeology has revealed extensive estates, their vineyards protected from the prevailing winds by low walls and planted with indigenous vines which were gradually domesticated, rather than with imported varieties.