PEARLS, 91 
for its past glories.” It rises like an island out of 
a vast plain of sand, covered with the magnificent 
ruins of temples, porticoes, aqueducts, and other 
public works, which in splendour and extent, and 
some of them in elegance, were not unworthy of 
Athens, or of Rome, in their most prosperous state. 
The Arabs of the desert now pitch their tents amid 
the ruins; and at Palmyra, as well as at Balbec, 
thousands of little lizards crawl over the ground, 
the walls, and stones of the ruined buildings. 
Such is the present state of Palmyra. In ancient 
times it was the emporium of Eastern commerce, and 
its inhabitants traded with the Romans, and their 
rivals for empire, the Parthians. Indeed so great 
was its power, that Zenobia contended for the 
dominion of the East with the Romans, under one 
of their most warlike emperors: a power, which 
evidently resulted from the opulence acquired by 
extensive commerce. Of this the Indian trade was 
undoubtedly the most considerable and most lucra- 
tive branch. 
But while the merchants of Egypt and Syria ex- 
erted their activity to gratify the increasing demands 
of Rome, the eagerness of gain (as Pliny observes) 
brought India itself nearer to the rest of the world. 
Navigation began to occupy the attention and exer- 
cise the ingenuity of experienced seamen. Hippalus, 
