A. D. 527.565. 233 



their filk, and propagated their race under the diredlion of the monks, 

 who alfo taught the Romans the whole myftery of the manufadure. 

 [Procop. Gothic. L. iv, c. 17. — Theophan. Byzant. ap. Pbotiuni. — Theophy- 

 laB. L. viii, et ap. Pbotium. — Zonaras, V. \n, p. 50, ed. 1557.] The im- 

 portant infeds, fo happily produced, were the progenitors of all the filk- 

 worms in Europe * and the weftern parts of Alia ; and a caneful of the 

 eggs of an Oriental infed became the means of eflablifliing a manufac- 

 ture, which luxury and fafliion rendered important, and of laving many 

 millions of money to Europe f . 



The infant manufadure was conduded under the aufpices of the em- 

 peror and the management of his treafurer. The filk-weavers, appar- 

 ently thofe of Tyre and Berytus as well as thofe inflruded by the monks, 

 were compelled to work for the imperial manufadure, which, for at leafl 

 fome years, mufl have depended on fupplies of raw filk from the Eall. 

 When Procopius wrote his Anecdotes, the imperial treafurer fold filks 

 at prices prodigioufly beyond thofe which had formerly been prohibited 

 as exorbitant, thofe of common colours being charged at fix pieces of 

 gold for the ounce., and thofe which were tinged with the royal colour, 

 at twenty-four and upwards. 



The imperial monopoly of the filk trade was feverely felt by the in- 

 habitants of the antient cities of Tyre and Berytus, who had long de- 

 pended almoft entirely upon their manufadures ; and many of them 

 emigrated to the Perfian dominions, where the acceilion bf fuch valu- 

 able fubjeds probably compenfated the diminution in the fales of filk 

 to the Roman empire. {Procop. Anecd. c. 25,] 



The weftern parts of Europe were nov/ very little known in the eaft- , 

 ern Roman empire, as appears from feveral paflages in the works of Pro- 

 copius, who was a man of bufinefs as well as literature, being fecretary 

 to Belifarius the commander in chief of the imperial army. He de- 



* De Witt fays, that the Italians got fome feed fion of knowlege by printing, (whether by fingle 



of filk-vvorms from China and Perfia, by means of moveable types, or by wiiole pages cut upon 



their trade to the Levant. \JntereJl of Holland, blocks, as praftifed in China) might have fooner 



part\,c.\\.'\ But as we can trace the migrations ioftened the ferocity of the invaders, and have 



of the filk-worm from Conftantinople to Greece, averted the daik cloud of barbarifm which vvaj 



Sicily, and Italy, I apprehend that great author now gathering over Europe, and which debafed 



has made a miftake in a matter which the nature the human faculties during many dark centuries 



of his work did not requires ftritt invcftigntion of. of papal dominion over the rcafon and property 



f Suppofing it true, as is alleged, that the Chin- of mankind. Antient hiftory would have come 



efe polTened in very remote ages the knowlege of down to us more full and correft than we now 



the compafs and the art of printing, the monks have it. We might have polTcfled the entire 



would have conferred a more important favour works of Polybius, Tacitus, and Ammianus Mar- 



upon the weftern world, if they had brought thofe echinus; and, to come nearer home, we mio-ht 



moft valuable improvements with them. The im- have had defcriptions of antient Biitain, with ac- 



provement and extenfion of navigation by the counts of Britifti commerce, by Pytheas and Hi- 



compafs might have opened new fields for com- niilco. I fay nothing «f the lofl decads of Livy, 



mercial enterprife, and have furnifhcd fafe re- though it is cuitomary to deplore the want of 



treats from the exterminating fwords of Scythian theni as the only valuable dipirclita of antiquity, 

 and Arabian invaders. And the univcrfal diffu- 



VoL. I. G g 



