862 THE SEA. 



own a vessel of a greater capacity than just sufficient to carry the produce of their own 

 lands to market. Hear the enlightened Cicero on the subject of commerce. He observes 

 that, "Trade is mean if it has only a small profit for its object; but it is otherwise 

 if it has large dealings, bringing many sorts of merchandise from foreign parts, and 

 distributing them to the public without deceit; and if after a reasonable profit such 

 merchants are contented with the riches they have acquired, and purchasing land with 

 them retire into the country, and apply themselves to agriculture, I cannot perceive 

 wherein is the dishonour of that function." Mariners were not esteemed by the Romans 

 until after the great battle of Actium, which threw the monopoly of the lucrative Indian 

 trade into their hands. Claudius, A.D. 41, deepened the Tiber, and built the port 

 of Ostia; and about fifty years later Trajan constructed the ports of Civita Vecchia 

 and Ancona, where commerce flourished. The Roman fleets were often a source of 

 trouble to them. Carausius, who was really a Dutch soldier of fortune, about the year 

 280, seized upon the fleet he commanded, and crossed from Gessoriacum (Boulogne) 

 to Britain, where he proclaimed himself emperor. He held the reins of government 

 for seven years, and was at length murdered by his lieutenant. He was really the first 

 to create a British manned fleet. In the reign of Diocletian, the Veneti, on the coast of 

 Gaul, threw off the Roman yoke, and claimed tribute from all who appeared in their 

 seas. The same emperor founded Constantinople, erected later, under Constantino, into 

 the seat of government. This city seemed to be destined by nature as a great commercial 

 centre; caravans placed it in direct communication with the East, and it was really the 

 entrepot of the world till its capture by the Venetians, in 1204. That independent 

 republic had been then in a flourishing condition for over two hundred years, and for 

 more than as many after, its people were the greatest traders of the world. It was at 

 Venice in 1202 that some of the leading pilgrims assembled to negotiate for a fleet to 

 be used in the fourth crusade. The crusaders agreed to pay the Venetians before sailing 

 eighty-four thousand marks of silver, and to share with them all the booty taken by land 

 or sea. The republic undertook to supply flat-bottomed vessels enough to convey four 

 thousand five hundred knights, and twenty thousand soldiers, provisions for nine months, 

 and a fleet of galleys. 



" Surrounded by the silver streak," our hardy forefathers often crossed to Ireland and 

 France, prior to the first invasion of Britain by Julius Ca?sar, B.C. 55, when he sailed 

 from Boulogne with eighty vessels and 8,000 men, and with eighteen transports to carry 

 800 horses for the cavaliy. In the second invasion he employed a fleet of 600 boats and 

 twenty-five war-galleys, having with him five legions of infantry and 2,000 cavalry, a 

 formidable army for the poor islanders to contend against. But their intercourse with 

 the Romans speedily brought about commercial relations of importance. The pearl fisheries 

 were then most profitable, while the " native " oyster was greatly esteemed by the Roman 

 epicures, of whom Juvenal speaks in his fourth satire. He says they 



" Could at one bite the oyster's taste decide, 

 And say if at Circean rocks, or in 

 The Lucrine Lake, or on the coast of Richborough, 

 In Britain they were bred." 



