■140 A, D. 14. 



3trabo gives us incidentally the important information, that the trade to 

 '•India and Ethiopia (or the country of the Troglodytes) was a new accef- 

 fion to the commerce of Egypt, which took place after the commence- 

 ment of the Roman dominion in that country. [Strabo, L. ii, />. 179; 

 L. XY, pp. 1006, 1 010; L.xwi,p. 1 1 14; L. xvii,/>. 1149 Pcriplus Ma- 

 ris Erythriti, p. 174, ed. Blanc ard.'\ 



The commodities imported from Arabia, India, and Ethiopia, were 

 landed at Myos Hormos, and thence carried by camels upon the road 

 made acrofs the defertby Ptolemy Philadelphus to Coptos, a town jointly 

 occupied by Egyptian and Arabian inhabitants, which was the general 

 emporium of the upper part of Egypt. From Coptos the goods were 

 conveyed by a canal of three miles to the Nile, the llream of which 

 floated them down to the canal leading into the Lake of Maraea, whence 

 they proceeded by another canal to the interior harbour of Alexandria ; 

 and from the exterior or fea harbour they were refliipped for every part 

 of the Mediterranean by the merchants of that city, who hadalmofl: the 

 whole of the trade in their own hands, and thereby acquired prodigious 

 great fortunes. [Straio, L. xv'i, p. 1128; L. xw'n, pp. 1169, 1170.] 

 ( The revenue of Egypt was now alfo raifed far beyond what it had 

 ever been in the days of the Macedonian fovereigns *, partly by a more 

 ilridl: and vigorous management, but chiefly by the vaft increafe of the 

 ■commerce of the country, the exports from Egypt being enlarged by 

 the great and increafing demand of almoft the whole Roman empire for 

 Orieiital luxuries, all which paid duties, both upon importation and ex- 

 portation, and the duties were particularly heavy upon the pretious ar- 

 ticles. [Stral>o, L. ii, p. 179; L. xvii, p. 1149.] 



The pretious articles of India were alfo bi'ought, partly by fea and 

 river navigation, and partly over land, to Palmyra, a flouriftiing com- 

 mercial repubhc, feated in a fertile fpot furrounded by a fandy defert, 

 which, being found beneficial to the world in general by its fpirited 

 adive commerce, had the Angular good fortune to remain independent 

 of the great empires of Rome and Parthia, though fituated on the con- 

 fines of both. The goods from Palmyra were forwarded to Rome and 

 other weflern countries by the ports of Syria or Phoenicia, [yippiarii 

 Bell. civ. L. V. — Pli/i. L. v, c. 25.] 



formed by the natives of India : and even in a later it den'ved from liis father's (liare of the phinder of 



H^c the Pcriphis of the Krythrxan fea gives us the Perfian empire, is beyond all boinids of credi- 



reafon to believe, that the voyages of the Greeks bility. According to a loft fpcech of Cicero, 



of Egypt had not extended to any part of the eaft (cjuoted by Strabo, L. xvii, />. 1 149) Ptolemy 



coall of India. Aiiletes, one of the moft diffolute of the degcne- 



* The accounts of the wealth and icvtnuc of rate Ptolemies, had an annual revenue of 12,300 



the Ptolemies fc< m to be much exaggerated. Wc talents (equal to y^2, 421,875 (Icrling). But what- 



are told by Appian, that Ptolemy Philadelphus at ever the revenue of Egyj't may have been, it i$ 



his death left in his treafury 740,000 talents, cq\ial not fair to derive it entirely from commerce, 



in weight of metal to ^191,166,666 : 13 : 4 of mo- There can lie no doubt, that a great part, per- 



dern fterliiig money, (as reckoned by Arbuthnot, liaps the moft of it, arofe from the very produftive 



f>. 192) which, though wc fliould fuppofe moft ot agriculture of the fertile foil. 



