174 A. D. 73- 



traders, not directly from India, but through the medium of the mer- 

 chants of Arabia or the eaft coafl of Africa. Could the Greek mer- 

 chants, who frequented the ports of India, pofTibly be ignoi-ant that 

 thofe articles were to be had in the greatefl perfedion in that country, 

 -when Alexander's officers knew that cinnamon, fpikenard, and other 

 aromatics, were produced in the fouth parts of it ? \_Strabo, L. xv, 

 p. 1018.] 



We may be well affured that the demand throughout the wide extent 

 of the Roman empire, and, what ^as in a great meafure a confequence 

 of that, the demand in the Oriental regions, made the manufactures of 

 Egypt more flouriflaing at this time than they ever were in any former 

 age, and that they continued to profper while the Oriental commerce 

 continued to flow in a full tide, which it probably did as long as the 

 empire retained its vigour *. 



Of all the merchandize imported into Egypt by the Red fea, the 

 greatefl: part was re-iliipped at the bufy port of Alexandria for the vari- 

 ous fhores of the Mediterranean ; and a great proportion of the whole, 

 as they confifled mofl;ly of articles of luxury, went to the imperial city, 

 where, for one infl^ance, cinnamon and calia were to be found in fuch 

 abundance, that Nero is faid to have confumed more than a whole 

 year's growth of them at the funeral of his wife Poppaea, or in embalm- 

 ing her f. [P//«. L. xii, c. 18 — T'ac. Ann. L. xvi, c. 6.] 



The natives of India, deriving all the neceflaries and enjoyments of 

 life from their fertile foil and their own indufl:ry, cared very little for 

 the productions of the Wefl:. The Grecian merchants were therefor 

 obliged to lay in their cargoes chiefly with money ; and we are told by 

 Pliny, [L. vi, c. 23] that, at the loweft computation, five hundred fef- 

 tertia (reckoned by Arbuthnot [p. 193] eqtial to ^403,645 : 16 : 8 of 

 modern fl;erling money) were every year fent out of the Roman empire 

 to India in payment for goods, which were fold in Rome at an advance 

 of an hundred for one J. But that muft; furely be a mifl;ake, as we 

 have no reafon to believe that there was any monopoly in Alexandria 

 or Rome, or that there could be a combination of the fellers in either 

 place iufficiently powerful to command Tale at fuch enormous prices. 



Nor were the natives of India the only foreigners, who received a 



1 



* Wc fliall have an opportunity of ffcing the And we even fiiul many kinds of Oriental fpices 



decHnin^ Hate of the Oriental trade in the lixth and perfumes mentioned in the comedies of Plau- 



ccntury, when tlic Roman world was reduced to tus, who died aliovc a century before Sylla. 

 the empire of Conllantinople. J ' Merces [Indicx] quit apud nos centupli- 



f Before the Romans liad obtained the fove- cato vencant.' — In the improved edition of ffar- 



rcignty of Egypt, and when t)ie commerce of that rii's Vcfai;t!, V. \, p. 431, tlie author has reduced 



country witli Arabia may be fuppofed to have this munftrous and incredible advance to cent per 



been in a declining Hate, prodigious quantities of cent, which I iuppofe would not be fufficient to 



friinkincenfe, _iiinamon, and other Ipiccs, were con- cover the heavy charges upon the complex convey- 



funied at the funeral of Sylla, [_Plii/. in Fila 6j7/.rj ance from India to Rome, 

 about a century and a half before that of Poppwu. 



