A. D. 73. ^75- 



large balance in money from the Roman empire. The fouthern Arab- 

 ians, notwithftanding the deftrudion of the city of Arabia Fehx, appar- 

 ently the principal leat of their commerce, ftill preferved a commercial 

 rank, wherein, if they were in any refped inferior to the merchants of 

 Alexandria*, it was entirely owing to the treafure of fo large a portion 

 of the world being in the hands of the Romans, and fo confiderable a 

 part of it being conveyed to that city to pay for the corn and other pro- 

 dudions of the fertile foil of Egypr, and the luxuries of theEafl:, for the 

 later of which a confiderable part of the Roman wealth found its way 

 into the hands of the Arabian merchants, the money annually paid to 

 them and the Seres f being together eftimated equal to that remitted to 

 India. Pliny feverely reprehends fo vafl an expenditure (the whole 

 amounting to/^807,291 : 13 : 4 of our money) for articles of mere luxury 

 and female vanity : [P/in. L. xii, c. 18, — and fee "Tac. Ann. L. iii, c. 53] 

 and it mud be acknowleged, that, as mofl of the merchandize import- 

 ed from the Eaft very juflly came under that defcription, as there were 

 no raw materials for manufaflures, except fome iron and fteel, and a fmall 

 quantity of the very extravagant article of raw filk, and as there could 

 fcarcely be any re-exportation to foreign territories, the trade was un- 

 doubtedly prejudicial not only in a moral view, but alfo upon the prin- 

 cijjle of gold and filver being the mofl valuable poffefTions. 



But gold and filver being valuable to their poireflbrs, merely as they 

 enable them to obtain whatever they need or defire, thole, who pofleff- 

 ed redundant maffes of the pretious metals, might think diamonds and 

 pearls more valuable, and therefore defire to have them in exchange for 

 their fuperfiuous money. Thofe trinkets, though of no real value, were 

 very durable, and nothing the worfe for being ufed, or exhibited. But 

 filk, though liable to be deftroyed by accident, and certain to be worn 

 out by ufing, being fupplied very fparingly from the Eaft, ftill kept up 

 fo extravagant a price, that it was cuiiomary to decompofe the moft ex- 

 penfive kind, called the Aflyrian bombycina %, untwift the threads, there- 

 by reducing the fiuff to a raw material, and then re-fpin it very fmall 

 and re-weave it of fo thin a fabric (probably like the modern flight filks 

 called perfians) that it was too tranfparent to conceal what was under it. 



* The judicious reader, who has attended to \ Ph'iiy fays, [L. xi, c. 22] that it was made of 



the anicles of import and expoit in the trade of filk produced by filk-worms (^omi'jcw) nativesofAf- 



the Egyptian Greeks with Arabia, Afiica, and fyria. But he mufl affurcdly have been misinformed ; . 



India, mull have obferved feveral inftances of the and his Adyrian ii5/«ijr/«a mud have been the ma- 



fuperior tomir.ercial knowlege of the Arabian nufatture of a more dillant eountry, procured by 



merchants. But the Greeks were probably fupe- the a'^ency of the Affyrians : for we fliall after- 



rior to them in the extent of their deahngs. wards fee, that two Perfian monks clandcllinely 



f Perliaps the money paid to the Seres, in Pli- brought the eggs of the filk-worm from the couu- 



iiy's eftimate, was diilincl from that paid for Seric try of the Seres to the Roman emperor at Con- 



mcrchandizc in the ports of India, and was the ftantinople, which would not have been neceflary, . 



coll of the goods carried through the heart of Afia if the genuine filk-worms had already been in Af- 



by caravans and inland navigation to the Euxine fyiia, a province on the confines gf the Romau and 



fea. See above, p. 141. Perfian empires. 



