178 



A. D. 73. 



of the prices of feveral Oriental commodities in Roman ^ew^zm and their 

 tenth parts, called ajfes, and alfo in modern pounds, {hillings, and pence, 

 fterling *, as they were fold about this time in Rome by the Roman 

 pound, equal to twelve ounces of our avoirdupois weight f . 



As the nautical fcience of the Greeks and Romans, or, to fpeak more 

 rbrredlly, of the Egyptian Greeks fubjedl to Rome, was probably now 

 brought to its higheft degree of improvement, I have thought this a 

 proper place to throw together a few detached hints of the naval affairs 

 of the Roman empire in thefe ages. 



The Romans were apparently the moft awkward feamen in their own 

 empire ; and they knew nothing of the tides, or of the management of 

 vefl'els in the Ocean, as is evident from the damage fuftered by Caefar's 



oJfFtrent eftimation of the Coan and Oriental fa- 

 brics at Rome: for wt are alTurcd Ly Theophaiies 

 and Zoiiaras, tliat, before filk-worms were brought 

 to Coiillantiiiople in the middle of the fi.\th cen- 

 tury, no perfon in that capital knew that filk was 

 produced by a worm ; a pretty (Irong evidence tliat 

 jhcrc were 110 filk worms of any kind in an ifland 

 lo near to Conltantinople as Co-; is. 



* The Roman ilcnarlus is rated at fevcn pence 

 three larlhingi Iterling, reckoning the ounce of 

 Uandard fi'ver at five rtiillings. Sec Arluthnut' s 

 Tallcs,p. ij. 



f ; V 11 the articles are cxtraf^cd from the great 

 thtfauius of Pliny ; and all, except the two fifft. 



from his twelfth book. Moft of them are alfo in- 

 ferted in Arbuthnot's ninth cliapter. But the 

 doftor's copy of Pliny mull have differed very 

 nuich from my two, which I find agree exatllv in 

 all the numbers. 



\ Tile price was fo high as 1,000 denarii In con- 

 fequence of the article being nionopoli/ed by the 

 king of the Gebanites (or Catabcni j : and the (Hl'» 

 higlier price was occafioned by the trees being wi!^ 

 fully burnt down. Pliny has nowhere given uj 

 the price of the bark of cinnamon, the n oft pretl. 

 0U8 part ; but we may judge of it from the i)r!( c 

 of the wood : or -Qu. did he call the bark wood i 



