A. 0.527-565- 231 



of them traded to Siele-dlv or any other part of India, they failed in 

 veflels belonging to the port of Aduli ; and thus the commerce, which 

 for feveral centuries rendered Kgypt the repofitory of the wealth of 

 the weftern world, was lofl to that country and to the Roman empire. 

 \?hUQj}orgu H'ljl.eccl. L. iii, c. 4 — Cojm. Indicopl. — Procop. Perfic.L.i, 

 cc. 19, 20.] 



Silk, which had never been worn by any Roman man before the 

 reign of the worthlefs and effeminate Elagabalus, had now come into 

 general ufe among the rich; and, notwithftanding the very high price of 

 it, it was fought after with aftonifhin^ eagernefs by the opulent and 

 luxurious inhabitants of Conflantinople. Confequently it formed at all 

 times a very coxdiderable part, at leall in value, of the imports from the 

 Eaft. 



The manufadure of filk goods from raw filk imported from the Eaft 

 had long been carried on in the antient Phoenician cities of Tyre and 

 Berytus, whence the weftern world ufed to be fupplied. But the en- 

 hanced prices the manufadurers were obliged to pay to the Perfians 

 (the caufe of v/hich will prefently be explained) made it impoilible for 

 them to furnifli their goods at the former prices, efpecially in the Ro- 

 man territories, where they were fubjedl to a duty of ten per cent. 

 The emperor, however, ordered that filk fhould be fold at the rate of 

 eight pieces of gold * for the pound (twelve ounces of our avoirdupois 

 w'eight) on penalty of the forfeiture of the whole property of the of- 

 fender. The dealers immediately gave up their bufinefs, and clandef- 

 tinely difpofed of their flock on hand in the beft way they could ; where- 

 upon Theodora, whom, from a common proftitute, Juftinian had made 

 his concubine, his wife, and at lad his aifociated partner in the imperial 

 power, feized all the filks, and fined the proprietors a hundred pieces 

 of gold. By thefe tyrannical proceedings the fcarcity was immediately 

 converted to abiolute want. 



Juftinian, defpairing, or carelefs, of the re-eftablifliment of the com- 

 merce of Egypt, fent JuKan as his ambafTador to Elafbaan (or Hellif- 

 thgeus) king of Axuma, requefting that, for the fake of their commu- 

 nion in religion, he would allift him in his war againft Perfia, and di- 

 red his fubjeds to purchafe filks f in India, in order to fell them to the 

 Romans, whereby the Axumites would acquire great wealth, and the 

 Romans would have the iatisfadion of paying their gold into the hands 

 of their friends inftead of enriching their Perfian enemies. Julian alfo 

 proceeded on the fame errand to Efimiphgeus, who was king of the Ho- 



* Alemanus, in his notes on this paflage of called Median among the Greek? ; and the fame 



Procopius, makes a pound of gold contain a hun- remark is made by Suldas, (vo. SijjiK») who adds, 



dred anrei ; and at that rate eight aurci amounted tliat the emperor wiihtd the Axumites to impoit 



to about ^3 : 4 : o of our modern money. the filk in a raw (late, (^iza^x), whence it appears, - 



f Procopius, or the emperor, remarks, that the that he was fenfibte of the benefit of having the 



iluff now called Smc ^filk) had formerly been manufaflure in his own dotninions. 



