[ 175 ] 18 



been sent by Augustus to compile an account of the oriental regions^ 

 and who informed his countrymen that precious garments were manu- 

 factured by the Seres, from threads finer than those of the spider.* 

 Among all the articles of elegance belonging to the luxurious Cleopa- 

 tra, none seemed to excite their admiration and astonishment, as the 

 silk sails of her pleasure-barge, in which she visited them at Alexan- 

 dria. For a long time after, it continued to be so scarce and dear, that, 

 iji the Roman dominions, it was confined to women of fortune. It 

 was, moreover, deemed so effeminate an article, as to be unfit for the 

 dress of men; and, in the reign of Tiberius, a law was passed, " that 

 no man should dishonor himself by wearing silken garments. "t Two 

 hundred years subsequent to this date, the use of it constituted one of 

 the many opprobrious charges which were made against the character 

 of the emperor Elagabulus. Even fifty years after, another emperor:j: 

 refused his queen a garment of silk, by reason of the high price it bore 

 — its weight in gold. 



For centuries, the Persians enjoyed a monopoly of the trade in silk; 

 but, after they were subdued by Alexander, (300 years before Christ,) 

 this valuable commodity was brought to Greece, and thence sent to 

 Rome. The anxiety of the luxurious people of that nation, to trade 

 with those from which the costly article was to be procured, induced 

 the Emperor Marcus Antoninus to send ambassadors to negotiate a 

 more direct commercial intercourse with their country, than the sub- 

 jects of Rome had yet been able to accomplish; and, as the jealousy 

 of the Parthians and Persians prevented the passage of all foreigners 

 through their kingdoms to China, the ambassadors were obliged to 

 proceed by the tedious way of Egypt and India. Another was sent 

 in the year 272, which leld to more favorable arrangements, and a 

 shorter route, viz: along the ranges of mountains, now called Hin- 

 dookho, and Cuttore.§ But the price of silk, for a long time, con- 

 tinued a source of regret, and the article an object of increasing desire 

 among the wealthy. Justinian made another attempt, shortly after he 

 ascended the throne, to obtain it. He sent Julian as his ambassador 

 to the Christian king of Axuma, in Abyssinia, requesting that, for the 

 sake of their common religion, he would assist him in a war with 

 Persia, and direct his subjects to purchase silks in India, in order to 

 sell them to the Romans, whereby the Axumites would acquire great 

 wealth, and the Romans would have the satisfaction of paying their 

 gold into the hands of their friends, instead of enriching their Persian 

 enemies. Julian also urged the Homerites in Arabia Felix, then un- 

 der the vassalage of Axuma, to the same effect; and promised, on the 

 part of the emperor, to purchase silk from them, if, with their as- 

 sistance, he could wrest the silk trade from the Persians, and they be- 

 come the medium of intercourse with the country of the Seres. The 

 kings of both the countries promised to comply with the emperor's 



* Periegetes de situ orbis, 6 v. p. 7S2. 



■f Ne Vestis Serica viros foedaret. Tacitus, book 2d, chap. 33. 



i Aurelian . Vopiscus in vitam Aureliani, c. 45, libra enim auri tunc libra serici fuit. 



§ See Rennel's map of the countries between the Ganges and the Caspian Sea. 



