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A. D. i4« 



and Tacitus, wz*, gleOum 01: glefum. Unlefs when the Romans fent mef^ 

 fengers on purpofe to procure the amber, it was carried acrofs the con- 

 tinent through Pannonia, where it was received by the Veneti (the an- 

 ceftors of the Venetians), who forwarded it to Rome ; and thence arofe 

 the fable of its being produced on the banks of the Padus or Eridanus 



{Po). 



ScYTHiA the vaft unknown country beyond Germany, fupplied fome 



vakiable furs. 



Media, Parthia, and Bactria, were too remote, or too far inland, 

 to furnifh Rome with any articles, but fuch as were of great value and 

 little bulk ; and we accordingly hear of Uttie elfe but pretious Hones, 

 brought from thole countries. 



The Seres, the moft remote people of Afia known even by report 

 to the Europeans, were, according to Florus, among the nations, who 

 fent ambafladors to Auguftus. But the Romans do not appear to have 

 learned any thing from the amballlidors concerning the lituation, the 

 produce, or the trade, of the nation. Strabo [L. xv, p. 1028] knew 

 only their name, and a report that the people hved to the age of 200 

 years; and he mentions, I think only once, [L. xv, p. 1016] tXiQ/eri- 

 £um, or filk, (and that from fo old an author as Nearchus the admiral 

 of Alexander's fleet) which he confounds with cotton. Dionyfius the 

 geographer, whom Auguftus had fent to compile an account of the 

 oriental regions, about this time informed the people of Europe, that 

 pretious garments were manufactured by tha Seres from threads, finer 

 than thofe of the fpider, which they combed from flowers. [^PeriegeT. 

 Z'. 752.] This pretious manufadure found its way to Rome : but com- 

 ing from a people who had the monopoly of it in their own hands, by 

 a long fucceffion of tedious and dangerous carriages by land and water, 

 through the territories of various nations, and perhaps through the 

 hands of fome monopohfts, and moreover in very fmall quantities *, 

 it was fold at a moft; enormous price, fo that the ufe of it was reftri(5ted 

 to a few women of the greateft fortunes f . [Seneea de beneficiis, L. vii.] 



Persia and Babylonia alfo furniflied pretious ftones and pearls. The 



» \Vc are told by Dion Cafiiiis [Z. xliil] that 

 Julius Cncfar, whoii he treated the Romans with 

 magnificent fptftacles, covered the amphitheatre 

 with awnings oi Jiricum to Ihclter them from the 

 fun. 13ut it may well be doubted, if a quantity 

 of filk, fufficicnt for fuch a purpcifc, could have 

 been collected In all the countiies to the wcftvvard 

 of India ii: the age of Jiiliu;'. : and Pliny, [Z. xix, 

 c. i] dcfcribing apparently the fame awninjr, fays, 

 it was of linen (ciirbafiis) ; and lie is furely an evi- 

 dence preferable to Dion, who lived fo many ages 

 '.atcr. Silk could not be plenty in Rome, when 

 the ladies wttc obliged to content thcmfelves with 

 .1 ftimfy ftuff made by undoing the fubilantial 

 Oriental filks, and tt-wcaving them again, as wc 



learn from Puhllns Syrus, an author contemporary 

 with C;efar, and many others after him. 



■f- What the price of fiik was on its firft appear- 

 ance in Rome, we are not informed. I5ut it mud 

 have been enormoufly high ; for, even in the later 

 part of the third century, the imperor Aurelian, 

 when his wife begged of him to let her have but 

 one fmgle gown of pm-ple filk, refufcd it, faying, 

 he would not buy it at the price of guld. f /'/- 

 plfius iiiAuirl. c. 45.] And wc find by the Rliodian 

 naval laws, piefeived in the eleventli book of the 

 Digejls, that unmixed filk. goods, when (lilpwreck- 

 td, if they were faved free irom wet, were to pay 

 a falvagc of ten per cent, as being equal to gold in 

 value. 



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