INFLUENCE OP THE BOMAN EMPIKE. 553 



However much the languages of the barbarians, the dumb, 

 cfyAfixro-ot, as Pollux terms them, may have been generally 

 despised, there were some cases in which, according to the 

 examples of the Lagides, the translation of a literary work 

 from the Punic was undertaken in Rome by order of the 

 authorities; thus, for instance, we find that Mago's treatise on 

 agriculture was translated at the command of the Roman 

 Senate. 



Whilst the empire of the Romans extended in the Old Con- 

 tinent as far westward as the northern shores of the Medi- 

 terranean reaching to its extremest confines at the holy 

 promontory its eastern limit, even under Trajan who navi- 

 gated the Tigris, did not advance beyond the meridian of the 

 Persian Gulf. It was in this direction that the progress of 

 the international contact produced by inland trade, whose 

 results were so important with respect to geography, was 

 most strongly manifested during the period under considera- 

 tion. After the downfall of the Grseco-Bactrian empire, the 

 reviving power of the Arsacidsc favoured intercourse with the 

 Seres, although only by indirect channels, as the Romans 

 were impeded by the active commercial intervention of the 

 Parthians from entering into relations of direct intercourse 

 with the inhabitants of the interior of Asia. Movements, 

 which emanated from the remotest parts of China, produced 

 the most rapid, although not long persisting changes in the 

 political condition of the vast territories which lie between 

 the volcanic celestial mountains (Thian-schan), and the chain 

 of the Kuen-Lun in the north of Thibet. A Chinese expedi- 

 tion subdued the Hiungnu, levied tribute from the small terri- 

 tory of Khotan and Kaschgar, and carried its victorious arms 

 as far as the eastern shores of the Caspian. This great expe- 

 dition, which was made in the time of Vespasian and Domitian, 

 was headed by the general Pantschab, under the Emperor 

 Mingti, of the dynasty of Han, and Chinese writers ascribe a 

 grand plan to the bold and fortunate commander, maintaining 

 that he designed to attack the Roman empire (Tathsin), but 

 was deterred by the admonitory counsel of the Persians.* 



et tot populorum discordes ferasque linguas sermonis commereio contra- 

 heret, colloquia, et humanitatem homini daret, breviterque una cuncta- 

 mm gentium in toto orbe patria fieret." (Plin., Hist. Nat., iii. 5.) 

 * Klaproth, Tableaux Historiques de I'Asie, 1826, pp. 65-67. 



