THE EARLY HISTORY OF SILK. 149 



centuries, continued in high demand by the luxurious 

 Romans. 



The Romans having commenced hostilities against 

 I the Persians, in the reign of the Emperor Justinian, 

 j that monarch tried to procure for his subjects Chinese 

 /luxuries, through the medium of Elasbaan, King 

 of Axuma, and of Homerites, governor of Arabia 

 Felix. But these princes wanted enterprize to enable 

 them properly to fulfil their commercial engagements, 

 iwhich caused the price of silk to rise so high in 

 Constantinople, that few could afford to purchase so 

 costly an article. In this state of things, the Phceni- 

 1 cians were anxious to continue their supplies of silken 

 .fabrics, but the impolitic rapacity of the Emperor 

 i Justinian nearly ruined the traffic, by imposing high 

 duties on the article, and by the still more arbi- 

 trary decree of regulating the price at which the 

 ^merchants were to sell the commodity. By these 

 (measures the price was fixed at a sum equal to 

 r4, 15s. 9d. English money, or estimated at its weight 

 in gold for the pound avoirdupois, which is much 

 beyond its value at the present time. The rigid 

 manner in which this duty was exacted completely 

 ruined the silk merchants at Constantinople, and what 

 the Emperor intended as an addition to his revenue 

 turned out very much the reverse. 



At this critical period for the silk trade of the 

 Romans, an unexpected circumstance brought about 

 a new era. Cosmus tells us that there were several 

 Christian churches established in various parts of India, 

 and that two monks, employed as missionaries from 



