INDUSTRIAL AND POLITICAL HISTORY OP COMMKUCE. 



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 the number* ? 



: here are two numbon, which are to each other in the duplicate 

 TIM- i>f i to i, and 34 i a mean proportional between them. What 

 Are the numbers P 



INDUSTRIAL AND POLITICAL HISTORY 

 OF COMMERCK 



CHAPTER XII. -ROME. 



y.-i: a thousand years tho Romans made conquest their policy. 

 They wore essentially a martial people. Warfare, however, is 

 destructive) of tho moans of subsistence. While, therefore, we 

 inquire into the industry and commerce of the Romans, with tho 

 view of ascertaining how much of our prosont prosperity is due 

 to them, there is alao, on the other aide, the question of how 

 much has been lost by tho repression or destruction of the 

 i>nius ami individuality of nations of which they were guilty. 

 The patriotic spirit which leads men to die for their country 

 lost its force in a common subjection to Rome. The sentiment 

 of devotion could not be strong, when tho only tie uniting the 

 provinces to the capital was that of subjugation and tribute. 

 Tho fall of Rome left Europe denationalised ; a spurious civilisa- 

 tion was followed by centuries of barbarism. 



Distaste for labour grew with tho empire. While the Roman 

 territories were small as late, indeed, as the time of Alex- 

 ander agriculture was honoured, and the rulers of the state 

 tilled their own lands. When the wealth of Rome increased 

 by conquet, the cultivation of the land, and the manufactures 

 in connection with it, wore made servile occupations, so that 

 the poor citizens who would have been skilled labourers, had 

 there been no slaves, became state-fed paupers, ready for every 

 political commotion. In the works of Roman writers there are 

 allusions which prove that the Roman citizens did not despise 

 the profits of commerce, and that where even a senator could 

 engage, though illegally and under a feigned name, in the slave 

 or corn traffic, or turn the skill of his slaves to account, .his 

 aversion to the occupation was overcome. Crassus and Cato 

 in this manner gained much of their wealth. Rome, as the 

 capital of the world, the centre of tribute flowing through a 

 thousand channels, disposed of this revenue in a profuse and 

 sumptuous luxury, without parallel either before or since. 

 Denied natural resources fit for interchange, there poured in 

 continuous streams of commodities both by land and sea, for 

 which the tribute from the provinces and the plunder accruing 

 from conquest afforded oxhaustless means of payment. While 

 the Roman citizens thus consumed the material wealth brought 

 to their city, foreign merchants made it a cosmopolitan mart 

 or clearing-house for a fresh dispersion of the products of the 

 Alexandrian trade, tho traffic with China and India, the Scythian 

 fur trade, and the trade with Africa, Spain, and Gaul. The 

 productions of every climo were thus brought to the imperial 

 centre, and the merchants enjoyed the advantages of universal 

 commerce, without the coat and time of extensive travel. 

 Amongst the middle classes, in the early age of simple wants, 

 a merchant's guild was instituted, which enlarged its operations 

 as time went on, but was not held in honour. The fruit and 

 corn dealers took a prominent place in the home trade. Tanners 

 and cordwainers were the most thriving handicraftsmen. Weav- 

 ing and dyeing were subsequently added to the limited list of 

 manufacturing industries. 



The facilities afforded at Rome for interchange were purely 

 political. The revenue that poured into its treasury was pro- 

 digious. The private fortunes of some of its citizens exceeded 

 the whole wealth of many modern kingdoms. The capital was 

 never anything else than a depot, importing everything, and 

 exporting no produce of its own. 



Thus corn arrived from Sicily, Sardinia, and Egypt ; amber 

 from the Baltic ; fine cloths from Malta and Mauritania ; silks, 

 apices, and gems by caravan from the Indies. The produce of 

 the soil, the mines and the industry of every province, as well 

 as costly works of taste or genius, were at the command of a 

 prodigal aristocracy and wealthy citizens, of victorious gene- 

 rals and of provincial governors, who returned to squander at 

 Rome the treasures they had amassed by official avarice and 

 extortion. This profusion was copied in other cities. The 

 disinterment of Pompeii and Herculaneum from their graves 

 of Yesuvian ashes and lava has disclosed the splendid decora- 



tion common in the apartment* of the wealthy. The exterior* of 

 the houHo were plain, but the interior* aatoniah us with their 

 adornment*. In one houM a mosaic ha* been found oonsutinjf 

 of nearly a million and a half of separate piece* in 198 *qaare*, 

 upon which are depicted, of the ize and colour* of life, twenty- 

 nix horsemen and warrior*, representing the battle between 

 Alexander and Dario*. Two edifice* are of special interest a* 

 having belonged to the illustrious Cain* Ballast and Marcus 

 Aria* Diomede*. The dwelling* corresponded in their fashion 

 and appointment* to those of Borne, but did not equal toe 

 latter in their sumptuous embellishment*, a* we may justly 

 infer from the difference which ia known to have existed between 

 the Pompeian baths, temples, and public buildings, and the 

 more magnificent structures of Rome. It was a saying of 

 Crassus that " no one was rich who could not support an army " 

 he himself was worth a million and a half sterling in landed 

 property alone. 



Scaurus, the step-son of Sylla, built an amphitheatre capable 

 of accommodating 80,000 spectators. It was supported by 360 

 costly marble, glass, and gilt pillars, and beautified with 3,000 

 statues ; even by such profuse expenditures as thin, he waa 

 unable to dissipate the enormous fortune bequeathed to him by 

 his father. Though tho Roman houses were comparatively 

 small, yet the sums lavished upon their construction and furni- 

 ture altogether transcend modern notions of costline**. A 

 single table, according to Pliny, was often valued at a price 

 exceeding that of the spoils of a city. Caesar states that the 

 house of Clodius the tribune cost 120,000. The suburban 

 and country villas likewise afford examples of Roman luxury. 

 Baths covered immense areas. Ponds for fish and eels of which 

 the Romans were very fond aviaries for birds, extensive parks 

 for game, and gardens for the choicest fruits, were regarded as 

 necessaries. Within doors were rooms for every division of 

 the day and every season of the year. 



Voluptuousness culminated during the time of the emperor*. 

 To the taste for profusion was added that for the rare delicacies 

 of the table. Pyramids of fowl and game, Trojan hone* (i.e., 

 wild boars filled with a variety cf small game), peacocks, 

 cranes, and nightingales, appeared at the dinners of the great. 

 " If a man will eat daintily," a writer of the period observes, 

 " he must indulge in Samian peacocks, Phrygian fowls, Melian 

 cranes, 2iolia.n kids, Chalcedonian porpoises, Tarentine oysters, 

 Chian mussels, Egyptian dates, Spanish acorns, murenae or sea- 

 eels from Tarshish, pikes from Pessinus, sea-fish from Rhodes." 

 Mark Antony served up eight whole boars to twelve guests. 

 Caligula wantonly dissolved priceless pearls in vinegar as part 

 of the fare at his feasts. Thousands of peacocks and night- 

 ingales were destroyed for their brains alone. Vitellius and 

 Heliogabalus are to this day held up as the types of gluttony. 

 Lucullus, a more refined epicure, dedicated his saloons to 

 certain gods, and affixed a scale of entertainment to each apart- 

 ment. When acting as the host of his friends, Pompey and 

 Caesar, he directed his servants to furnish an extemporaneous 

 supper in the room Apollo, and explained to his guests, when 

 they were astonished at its magnificence, that it was the rule 

 of his house to spend J-i 1,250 upon every banquet in that 

 apartment. The extravagance in dress corresponded with that 

 in eating. Lucullus lent a hundred purple robes, and offered 

 two hundred to one who wanted them for the actors in some 

 public games. 



It is related of the Roman Apicius, that when, by senseless 

 extravagance at table, he had reduced his patrimony to the last 

 hundred thousand pounds, he put an end to his life, as the only 

 means of escaping destitution. Csesar, when starting to ad- 

 minister the government of Spain, was arrested by his creditors 

 for a debt of a million and a half sterling ; nor would they allow 

 him to set out till Crassns became his surety. A short tenure 

 of office, however, enabled Caesar not only to pay his debts, but 

 to use a still larger sum in purchasing popularity at Rome. 

 Mark Antony out-distanced all these examples. In a few years 

 of his administration of tho states of Asia Minor it ia said that 

 he appropriated about forty millions sterling of taxes, and then 

 made the people pay the same amount as before twice a year 

 instead of once. 



Courage could co-exist with commerce, for Tyre withstood 

 Nebuchadnezzar for thirteen years, and New Tyre Alexander 

 for seven months, while Rome was a century in subduing Car- 

 thage. Roman domination was unfavourable to commerce: 



