Before Chrift 324. 79 



Arabians, whofe great proficiency in manufadures, fcience, and com- 

 merce, in the early ages has been ah-eady noticed, were the merchants 

 who managed the commercial intercourfe between the weflern parts of 

 the world and India. * Hitherto no one had ever failed from. India to Egypt, 

 ' neither had any perfon from Egypt ever ventured as far as India,'' the utmofl 

 extent of their navigation being the port called Arabia the Blefled, or 

 the Happy, in the country of the Sabeans, a little way beyond the Itrait 

 or mouth of the Red fea, wherein all the rich produdlions and manu- 

 fadures of India, and all thofe which were carried from Egypt, as well 

 as the fpices, aromatics, and other produce of the adjacent country, 

 were colleded and exchanged ; that port being then, what Alexandria 

 became in after ages, the commercial center of the eaftern and weftern 

 worlds*. [Periphis Maris Erythrai, p. 156, ed. Blancardi.'\ 



The Gerrhaeans, a Babylonian colony fettled in that part of Arabia 

 which lies on the fouth coafl of the Perfian gulf, were engaged in the 

 fame trade, and carried their merchandize in boats up the Euphrates to 

 Babylon, and alfo as far as Thapfacus, 240 miles higher up the river in 

 the Palmyrenian territory, where they were landed, and thence difpenf- 

 ed by land carriage through all the neighbouring countries, \^Ariftohnlus 

 ap. Strabo, L. xvi, p. mo — Agatharchides , L. v, c. 50, ap. Photiiwi] and 

 probably, by means of the Palmyrenian merchants, into Europe. 



The foundation of the commercial city of Maffilia by a colony of 

 Afiatic Greeks from Phocsea in the time of Cyrus has already been no- 

 ticed. There is little or no mention of the early commercial tranfac- 

 tions of the Maflilians in any hiftory now extant ; but it is probable that 

 they went on in a peaceful career of commercial profperity. It was 

 about this time, or perhaps before it, that, emulous of the fame, and 

 defirous of participating in the advantageous trade, of the Phoenicians 

 of Gadir, and perhaps of the Carthaginians, in the remote countries un- 

 known to the other Mediterranean nations, they determined, with a 

 fpirit worthy of a great commercial flate. to fend perfons properly qua- 

 lified to make difcoveries in the Ocean to the fouthward and northward 

 of the Stfaits. Of the fouthern voyage we know nothing but the name 

 of Euthymenes f the commander. The condu6l of the more arduous 

 northern expedition was committed to their illuftrious citizen, Pytheas, 

 a philofopher and difcoverer, whofe works, if extant, would throw great * 



* I have placed this important notice of the the boafted oriental trade of Egypt under ihe Pto- 



commercial pre-eminence of Arabia Felix only co- lemies extended no farther than Arabia about 170 



eval with the infancy of Alexandria. It unquef- years after the foundation of Alexandria, and that 



tionably includes the time preceding the eftablifh- there is even no good hilloric proof of any direS 



ment of that city ; and the modern fancies of great intercourfe between Egypt and India prior to the 



ccmmerclal intercourfe beliueen antient Egypt and In- fubjeftion of the former to the R.omans. 



dia nianiflj lefore it. The judicious reader will per- f This is probably the fame Euthymenes who 



haps think that it might with propriety have been is mentioned by Plutarch, Seneca, and Artemido- 



carried fome centuries higher, on the authority of rus of Ephefus, as a geographical writer. 



Ifaiah ; and we (liall foon fee rcafon to believe that 4 



